Splatterpunk

Splatterpunk is a neologism coined to describe a subgenre of horror fiction distiguished by its graphic depiction of violence. Clive Barker is often cited as the best known writer of the style (particularly his six-volume short story collection, Books of Blood), although the actual genre was named by author and pop-culture critic David J. Schow in the mid-1980s (referencing the concurrent science fiction sub-genre cyberpunk), who is considered an innovator and exemplary within the Splatterpunk school of horror writing, as well as the bestselling team of John Skipp & Craig Spector, whose modern vampire classic The Light At The End (1986) is considered a seminal work. Even earlier was John Shirley's Dracula in Love, In Darkness Waiting and Cellars, all proto-splatterpunk works. An actual punk rock singer, Shirley is also known for his cyberpunk science fiction writing.

Related Topics:
Neologism - Horror fiction - Clive Barker - Writer - Books of Blood - David J. Schow - Science fiction - Cyberpunk - Craig Spector - John Shirley

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Splatterpunk short stories and novels are almost always intense and intentionally disturbing, grotesque, and even disgusting, marked by a lack of adherence to what the writers saw as clichéd conventions of best-selling works by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Saul. Rather than the usual suburban setting of bestselling horror, splatterpunk is usually located in the grim, gaudy environs of New York City, LA or Chicago, or even rundown trailerparks. Antiheroes are more prevalent than crucifix-bearing Abraham Van Helsing or the "everyday folks" of King's works, as characters are often marginalized, alienated, drug-prone and generally anti-social. The supernatural, so prevalent in horror, is sometimes jettisoned altogether in favor of a more realistic, ambiguous, and prosaic evil (yet always vividly portrayed), often in the form of serial killers or other sociopathic characters. And when traditional monsters do make an appearance, they are usually subverted or exaggerated for an extremely upsetting effect on the reader. Rock'n'roll culture also plays a large part in splatterpunk, usually from an insider's viewpoint.

Related Topics:
Stephen King - Dean Koontz - John Saul - Abraham Van Helsing - Serial killers - Sociopathic - Rock'n'roll

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The tone of splatterpunk is downbeat, nihilistic, and vicious, as well as gleefully shocking, a cry of "Épater le bourgeois" ("to shock the bourgeois") at the complacency and safety of bestselling horror fiction. They were influenced more by anti-establishment writers such as William S. Burroughs and Harlan Ellison, shock-rocker meister Alice Cooper, punk rock group the Sex Pistols, and movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead than by Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, or Ann Radcliffe.

Related Topics:
William S. Burroughs - Harlan Ellison - Alice Cooper - Sex Pistols - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Dawn of the Dead - Bram Stoker - Mary Shelley - Ann Radcliffe

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Important splatterpunk works include the novels The Kill Riff by David Schow, The Nightrunners by Joe R. Lansdale, Slob by Rex Miller, The Cipher by Kathe Koja and The Scream by Skipp and Spector, and the short story collection Splatterpunk: Extreme Horror edited by Paul Sammon, published in 1990 and Cellars by John Shirley; other splatterpunk authors include Richard Christian Matheson, Robert Devereaux, Roberta Lannes, and Richard Laymon.

Related Topics:
Paul Sammon - John Shirley

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As a commercial force in horror fiction, splatterpunk never achieved more than a cult notoriety, although its style has somewhat infiltrated contemporary literature, particularly in the work of Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho), Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club and Haunted) and Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting).

Related Topics:
Bret Easton Ellis - Chuck Palahniuk - Irvine Welsh

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