The Frighteners follows the quest of Peter Laws, a Baptist minister with a penchant for the macabre, to understand why so many people love things that are spooky, morbid and downright repellent. He meets vampires, hunts werewolves in Hull, talks to a man who has slept on a mortuary slab to help him deal with a diagnosis, and is chased by a chainsaw-wielding maniac through a farmhouse full of hanging bodies.

Staring into the darkness of a Transylvanian night, he asks: What is it that makes millions of people seek to be disgusted and freaked out? And, in a world that worships rationality and points an accusing finger at violent video games and gruesome films, can an interest in horror culture actually give us safe ways to confront our mortality? Might it even have power to re-enchant our jaded world?

Grab your crucifixes, pack the silver bullets, and join the Sinister Minister on his romp into our morbid curiosities.

Praise

‘Funny, thoughtful…Reading the book took me to unexpected places of my own…Recommended to anyone who enjoys a smattering of horror. And the pretty hardback would make a lovely gift to the gore hound in your life.’
Jane Roberts-Morpeth, Den of Geek!, ‘Top Books of 2018’

‘Laws swiftly and assuredly digs down to what it is to enjoy violence while abhorring the real world version. What it is to enjoy cruelty, while never being cruel ourselves… The attention to detail is stunning… Phrases like page-turner and tour-de-force are slapped on any old tome these days, but in this case, it is fully deserved. Truly the Bill Bryson of the horror think-piece… Mr Laws, Sinister Minister, we await your next.’
Luke Spafford, Starburst