Spooky Season

Monday, October 19, 2026

Happy Monday, my friends! I’ve noticed this year how many of my friends refer to the two or three weeks on either side of Halloween as “spooky season.” Admittedly, these are friends who enjoy the autumnal decorating and baking and costume parts of Halloween more than the prime horror-movie watching, season-changing, thin-place producing, sweater-wearing aspects of the season. I, however, am in the latter camp. Fall is the season of the starkest and often quickest changes from the long, warm days of summer to the short, cold days of winter. Yet, before the trees are bare and snow begins to fall, we have this wonderful moment of Fall.

Since at least graduate school in Vermont, Fall has been a deeply spiritual season for me, but it’s also become the season of some of my favorite movies and shows. I’m a total horror movie/show/book fan. I love dark stories, particularly tales that weave history and religion into the narrative. Think Midnight Mass, American Horror Story, The Haunting of Hill House, and many others. That said, I’m not into thrills and frights just for frights or gratuitous amounts of blood and gore for no other reason than being “avant-garde” or “edgy.” But a good story with a deep narrative and some twists and turns is the kind of horror I appreciate.

As a genre, horror has a way of reflecting back our world in a way that not only reveals the perversions we have chosen to live with; horror tells the truth about ourselves. Similar to comedy, when the world can’t or is unwilling to portray itself authentically, horror gives us a way to demonstrate what’s happening. One of the classics of Gothic literature, The Picture of Dorian Gray, places Gray’s picture as the true representation of who he’s become after selling his soul to pursue a life of hedonism. Similarly, the “NYC” season of American Horror Story, set at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis, weaves the narratives of AIDS with a serial killer targeting gay men. Throughout the season, a masked man dressed in leather appears and we’re led to believe that he’s the killer. Yet, we learn that he’s a personification of HIV/AIDS.

Are you a fan of horror as a genre? How can different genres and narratives help you see the world in different ways?

Let us pray: Architect of both the starlight and the shadow,Keep watch over me as I step into the dark.When I map out the corners of fear,and give shape to the things that go bump in the night,remind me that I am the author of the terror—not its prisoner.

Grant me the courage to look into the abysswithout letting the abyss stare too long back into me.Bless the monsters I make:may they be terrifying on the page,yet stay tightly bound between the covers when the writing is done.

Guard my mind from the weight of despair,and protect my sleep from the ghosts I conjure.When the ink runs dark and the dread feels too real,let me remember the grace of the morning,the warmth of the lamp,and the quiet safety of the world outside the story.

And when the final chapter is closed,lead me safely back out of the shadows,with a steady pulse, a clear mind,and a deep gratitude for the light.

Amen.

“A Prayer for Horror Authors” – Anonymous 

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +

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