Nightmare Muses
The Books and Movies that Inspired Nightmares in Ecstasy
BY
BRENDAN VIDITO
Body horror. Nightmare imagery. Weird sex. Urban decay. Dream Logic. These are some of the story elements that trigger the pleasure centers in my brain. For most of my late teens and adult life, I’ve been seeking out books, movies, television shows, and video games that contain one or more of these ingredients. Sometimes they live up to expectations and sometimes they don’t, but the most exciting outcome is when they end up inspiring my own writing.
In 2018, I published a short story collection with CLASH Books called Nightmares in Ecstasy. It features thirteen tales of surreal body horror in the vein of David Cronenberg and Clive Barker’s Books of Blood. It’s both a love letter to the story elements I listed above and, to some degree, a metaphorical retelling of a specific period in my young adult life. It had the honour of being nominated for two Splatterpunk Awards and, more recently, a Wonderland Award. It also earned praise from the likes of John Skipp, Brian Keene, Jack Bantry, and Wrath James White.
Today, I want to guide you through some of the pieces of media that ended up inspiring the stories in my collection. It’s both a way to talk about the cool shit I love, and perhaps entice you to pick up a copy of the collection. So, without further delay, let’s dive in!
BOOKS
Books of Blood by Clive Barker
What is there to say about this seminal collection that hasn’t already been said? Barker emerged on the 80s horror scene in an explosion of style and bodily fluids. Every story in this six-volume collection packs the density and scale of a novel. Barker’s prose is ornate and beautiful, often contrasting the grotesque imagery woven throughout his narratives. In other words, these books are a classic for a goddamn reason! Some of my favourite stories include: “In the Hills, the Cities”, “The Midnight Meat Train”, “Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud”, “The Madonna”, and “Son of Celluloid”.
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
A young couple discovers a mysterious hole in the maintenance closet of their apartment building. They quickly become obsessed, conducting bizarre experiments, and their lives spiral out of control as a result. If that premise is not enough to get you excited about this Bram Stoker and Locus Award winning novel, then I don’t know what to tell you. Koja is a brilliant writer and The Cipher is unlike anything you have ever read or will ever read again. Claustrophobic, creepy, nihilistic, and grimy, this book has wormed its way into my subconscious, nested there like a benign tumour, and continues to inspire my fiction to this day. Come to think of it, I’m due for a reread.
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
Most of my stories tend to inhabit the more extreme end of the horror spectrum. However, some of my favorite pieces of horror fiction tend to favor atmosphere and ambiguity, over violence and depravity. Aickman is a master of what some refer to as “quiet horror”, and his stories have the power to linger in your mind long after you’ve closed one of his books. Personally, I believe The Wine-Dark Sea is the pinnacle of his career. The stories are psychologically rich and soaked with dread. I literally got chills when I reached the end of “The Trains”, which tells the tale of two women on a hike who take shelter in an isolated house during a rainstorm. I owe much gratitude to Aickman’s subtle approach to horror, as several of the more subdued stories in my collection would not exist without his influence.
We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Nightmares in Ecstasy features a Splatterpunk-award-nominated story called “Rebound” about a young man, who after a breakup develops a romantic relationship with his intestinal worm. My interest in parasites didn’t stem from Jeremy Robert Johnson’s second collection and it’s grotesque story “When Susurrus Stirs”, but that gnarly piece of fiction certainty reminded me why I find parasites so horrifying and fascinating to begin with. Johnson is one of those rare writers who manage to elude genre labels altogether. He’s often categorized as Bizarro, but I believe his work is much more flexible than that. The stories in We Live Inside You are at turns hilarious, disturbing, cerebral, and surreal. I’m always excited for his next release, and I can’t recommend him enough.
The Story of the Eye by George Bataille
At its core, my collection deals with the intersection of repulsion and desire, sex and death, and no author has handled this theme better than the French philosopher George Bataille. His novella, The Story of the Eye, is rightfully considered a classic of weird erotic fiction. It contains some of the most bizarre depictions of human sexually ever committed to paper, and still manages to provoke and disturb to this day. Basically, it’s about two young individuals who embark on a series of depraved sexual adventures. The result is surreal, crassly intellectual pornography with razor sharp teeth.
Crash by J. G. Ballard
Would you look at that, more sex and death! Ballard is, without any doubt, a genius. His work probes psychological depths other writers can only dream of conveying with any degree of success. Crash is probably his most controversial work as it deals with a group of individuals who seek sexual gratification from automobile accidents. But it’s far from being edgy, fringe pornography. All at once, it manages to be a criticism of consumer culture, a satire about our obsession with celebrity, as well as a caustic reflection on our relationship with tragedy and desire. Its theme of flesh colliding (pun intended) with metal helped shape several of the stories in my collection.
MOVIES
Videodrome (1983)
I would be remiss without mentioning the biggest inspiration behind my collection, the high priest of body horror himself, David Cronenberg. Videodrome is tied with Dead Ringers as my favourite movie in his filmography. It tells the story of Max Renn (James Woods) who oversees a sleazy cable network that specializes in violence and pornography. When he discovers a mysterious pirated satellite transmission known only as “Videodrome” he descends into a world of hallucination and deadly conspiracy. Few horror films pack so much original, iconic imagery. It’s unbridled body horror insanity, and a must-see for any fan of horror cinema.
Possession (1981)
The bulk of Nightmares in Ecstasy centers on stories about failing or dysfunctional relationships. The horror film that illustrates this type of scenario in the most interesting and, frankly, batshit crazy way is Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. The less you know about it going in the better, but here’s a taste: Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani play a married couple on the brink of divorce. After the husband discovers his wife has been having an affair during his absence, he sets out to find the culprit, only to discover the truth is far more sinister. This is a challenging, disturbing, emotionally exhausting film. It’s also expertly directed and features a career-defining performance by Isabelle Adjani. Check it out for yourself, but be warned, it will haunt you long after the credits have rolled.
Brain Damage (1988)
A vein of perverse humour runs through many of my stories. This is probably due to the high-strangeness of the subject matter. A major influence on how I came to understand and appreciate humour in horror is the director Frank Henenlotter. I could have chosen any of his movies for this list, but Brain Damage is probably my favourite. It’s about a brain-eating parasite that latches onto the body of its host and stimulates them with feelings of euphoria. Underneath all the carnage, mayhem, and gross-out eighties special effects, Brain Damage is essentially about the dangers of addiction. It’s grimy, absurd, and not afraid to “go there”. Henenlotter certainly infected me with his brand of madness.
Night Dreams (1981)
It only took ten entries to get to hard-core pornography! I’m not afraid to say that Stephen Sayadian, aka Rinse Dream, is one of my favourite directors, and though maybe not his best film, Nightdreams is porn unlike no other. It tells the story—yes, I paid attention to the story, don’t roll your eyes—of two scientists who subject a young woman to a series of erotic dreams in the hopes of curing her nymphomania. One of these dreams involves sex with a jack-in-the-box, while another (brace yourself for this one) has Dorothy LeMay giving oral sex to a man wearing a Cream of Wheat box while another guy, dressed as a toast in sunglasses, dances around the room playing a saxophone. I’ve always had a particular affection for that no-man’s land between high and lowbrow art, and Sayadian has been a champion of this aesthetic throughout his career. It’s a balance you’ll always find throughout Nightmares in Ecstasy.
Eraserhead (1977)
I never understood why some literary critics claim that authors should avoid writing about dreams. For me, dreams or nightmares have the potential to be one of the most interesting aspects of a given work, and I weave them throughout my own writing at a rate those aforementioned critics would find alarming. The film that affected me the most in its portrayal of dream logic is David Lynch’s Eraserhead. It’s about a young man named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) who must care for his mutant child in a surreal, industrial cityscape. The experience of watching this film is like having one of your nightmares projected on a television screen. It tackles the fear of parenthood and urban decay unlike anything else on this list, and was a major influence in shaping the nightmare sequences in my collection.
AND VIDEO GAME…
Silent Hill 2
This is my favourite video game, and a horror masterpiece in its own right. You play as James Sunderland, who returns to the mysterious town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife. When he arrives, he finds the town abandoned, enshrouded in fog, and overrun with monsters. This game was far ahead of its time. Its psychological depth rivals and sometimes surpasses some of the films and books on this list. Its imagery and nebulous, almost-Dostoyevskian, approach to storytelling challenged me to find new ways to get under people’s skin. I also want to give a shout out to PT (the playable teaser for the cancelled Silent Hills), which stands as one of the best experiences of interactive horror ever created. It also helped shape one of my personal favourite stories in Nightmares in Ecstasy, a ghost story called “Stag Loop”.
Here’s a few extra things that inspired me (and that you should definitely check out)
964 Pinocchio (1991)
A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson
Anything and everything by Junji Ito
Black Hole by Charles Burns
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Catherine, Atlus (2011)
Coin Locker Babies and In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Gozu (2003)
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)
Keyhole (2011)
Mermaid in a Manhole (1988)
Palimpsest by Cathrynne M. Valente
Singapore Sling (1990)
Stories Untold, Devolver Digital (2017)
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
Tetsuo the Iron Man (1989)
The Caterpillar by Edogawa Rampo
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Voyeur by Alain Robbe-Grillet
The work of Richard Matheson
Ultra-Gash Inferno by Suehiro Maruo
Brendan Vidito
Author of the Splatterpunk and Wonderland Award-nominated collection of body horror stories, Nightmares in Ecstasy (CLASH Books, 2018). His work has appeared in several anthologies and magazines including Dark Moon Digest, Dead Bait 4, Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath, and Pluto in Furs. He also co-edited the upcoming anthology The New Flesh: A Literary Tribute to David Cronenberg (Weirdpunk Books, 2019) with Sam Richard. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario, and is hard at work on his first novel. You can visit him at brendanvidito.com, or follow him on social media @brendanvidito