MRA: I agree with Lisa here on empathy and humans' shared experience of fears. For me, I came into this genre through ghost stories. I was fascinated by how they could communicate history or stories about the past through a fictional lens. Hauntings are good metaphors for things in the past we ignore or can't deal with. And throughout literary history, horror lit is often a reaction to the larger or previous literary movement, trying to remind us to pay attention to things going on in the real word. We discuss this a bit in Monster She Wrote.

I've always enjoyed horror and the occult, even as a child. As I've read/watched more horror, I realize how much it relies on empathy. We, as readers and viewers, feel the character's fear. It's a powerful thing! I think this is just one reason why it is important. That also was evident in our study of occult history. -LK