All Hallows’ Eve Doesn’t Have to Be Over
As I sit here on November 1, 2021, and the local Starbucks literally has a Christmas tree up and is serving peppermint mochas and red velvet cake topped with a tiny depiction of Santa Claus, I can’t help feeling a wee bit cheated out of the horror season. Despite what Andy Williams said in his perennial ditty, us horror fans and aficionados believe Halloween is the most wonderful time of year and wait all year to celebrate. I know spooky celebrations have gone on for a month, and turnabout is fair play—and believe me I love Christmas as much as Yukon Cornelius, himself—but damn it, can’t we ease into Mariah Carey softly from “This is Halloween” rather than being smacked in the head with the metaphorical ten pound candy cane?
Well, I’m here to tell you that All Hallows’ Eve doesn’t have to be over just yet.
I am a veteran producer and actor, with nearly three decades of service in one form or another in the film industry. I have been on both sides of the camera, and in 2018 finally directed my first feature film The Incantation, starring former Superman Dean Cain. Love him or hate him for his political views, having him grace the cover of my indie horror film gave it visibility, and as I tell everyone who asks, “If you knew the personal beliefs of a lot of your favorite actors, you’d probably ban them from your viewing lists.” This goes for both sides of the aisle.
Cut to the Pandemic. In addition to all that comes with surviving an international lockdown, I lost my father in 2020 to old age. Yet another reminder that we are indeed mere mortals. As such, I decided to finally give my debut novel a go and commit thought to “paper.” I had already written a script version that was in and out of production, yet ultimately was never made. I had so much more to tell, and creating backstories and fleshing out character development came second-nature to me after a lifetime in the entertainment industry. So, I dove in using the script as my guide, and after many months and close to a hundred writing sessions, the first draft of the novel emerged.
The novel is a reimagining based on characters created by Washington Irving in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” which was first published in 1820. But my story is contemporary, and let me be the first to tell you, a lot of my characters are unsavory. Some are even downright fucking contemptuous. Allow me to elaborate.
The content warning in my novel reads as follows: adult and derogatory language, gore, substance abuse (drugs and alcohol), uncomfortable sexual situations (one is non-consensual assault), death, child abuse, mention of pedophilic tendencies, mention of suicide.
The American Association of University Professors have publicly stated they are against content warnings (sometimes known as trigger warnings), in favor of not prioritizing comfort over intellectual engagement. Stephen King doesn’t seem to use them at all. As a new author, I felt compelled to use one, although I have mixed feelings about them. But aye, here’s the rub. I needed my characters to be realistic. In fact, some of them are sexist, misogynistic, racist and homophobic. Still others are sexual predators. So as an author, I needed to portray those characters realistically, both in their language and actions, politically correctness be damned. As a creator, I felt obligated to have the characters speak as they would in their worlds, though at times the words coming out of their mouths even made me uncomfortable.
In the end though, it’s a horror story. The genre itself has raised us on blood and gore, bare-breasted damsels in distress and, in recent years, every form of fornication and human folly. The book is clearly marketed at the 18+ crowd, and I make sure to add that in my metadata. But let’s get into why as an author I felt the need to include the darker side of humanity in my storytelling.
When it comes right down to it, The Almighty Story trumps all. My particular version of the classic and iconic Headless Horseman tale takes place on the Triduum of the Hallows. In The Unhallowed Horseman universe of Sleepy Hollow, that’s the three days a year when the dead can walk amongst the living. Call it All Hallows’ Eve, Samhain, Día de los Muertos, All Saints’ Day or what have you, it is almost universally accepted across cultures ranging from Celtic to Pagan to modern day. In my story, the Horseman’s reemergence coincides with the main character, Vincent, battling his own inner demons. Everything that comes with typical teenage angst is coupled with his severe dependence on pharmaceuticals to treat his advanced ADHD. Add in overbearing authority figures, extremely poor judgement by his errant mother, and a series of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it becomes a recipe for disaster for our unlikely hero. On top of all this, the great Entities of the universe have decided that this particular Halloween will culminate in the culling of those with a litany of transgressions. In true horror fashion, the sins of their fathers are used against them with the great equalizer of death. Who better than a Headless Horseman to enact such punishment as the ultimate executioner?
Like all horror, even in the slasher genre, the novel is ultimately a morality play. Despite the characters’ occasional crude use of language or their less than stellar morals, in the end there is a price to pay, sometimes dearly. I feel that most stories have a lesson to be learned, whether the good guys actually “win,” or like in true Shakespearean tragedy style, there is simply a hard and fast new reality to accept. And let’s face it, who among us hasn’t rooted for the Headless Horseman, sometimes perhaps even more so than Ichabod Crane himself?
So if somewhere in the back of your mind as Bing Crosby taunts you into the delicacies of sugar plums and roasting chestnuts, I do hope you’ll take time out to indulge your darker side. The novel will make a perfect Christmas gift for horror fiction fans in your life, and very much resides in the fantastical world of modern-day Sleepy Hollow. If you dare read it, and want an exciting thrill ride with unsavory characters and an iconic Headless Hessian anti-hero, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
The Unhallowed Horseman is available now on Amazon and other literary outlets.
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