BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Art of Horrible People’ by John Skipp

From John Skipp – the guy responsible for the novelization of Fright Night and the original script of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child – comes a collection of short stories, written along the years, full of different but terrifying worlds.

There is much to love about this book. The diversity in horror surprised me; I think there’s a tale for every type of horror fan out there. Of course, some stories have their gory moments filled with shock value, but a quiet fear also exists in others. And some even add to their gruesome imagery the disturbing implications of each story’s end, something that scared the living shit out of me if I can express myself so eloquently.

The Art of Horrible People also contains a well-mixed combination of horror and comedy, which goes well with the obvious criticism of Hollywood Skipp is trying to deliver. This is most apparent in Skipp’s Hollywood Alphabet Soup of Horror, each section of the alphabet containing something we all have grown to hate about the so fabulous but cruel world of movie stars and shiny Oscars.

But my favourite thing about this book is the message John Skipp shines through his first story and then thoroughly explains in Appendix A, which is that art is beyond horrible people.

We’ve all got those guilty pleasures. Be it with movies, songs, novels – what have you – that have inspired us in some form or another, that we hold close and dear to our hearts, but which turned out they were made by less than pleasant people.

What Skipp explains is that it’s okay to love the art. Because it can be so many different things for so many people, it changes, transforms, all depending which eyes lay on it. Meaning, if art can be this interchangeable, should we really despise it because we do not like the hands that carved it?

You can acknowledge what fucked up things the artist has done, you don’t need to shy away from their atrocities, but you need to realize the art is not the problem you need to fix. The art is fine, it’s the person you don’t like. And that’s okay as long you don’t make up excuses for them, as long you recognize you can separate the art from the artist.

Not going to spoil much else because the author makes a much better speech than I could ever match, his words are something you should definitely read.

Anyhow, if you haven’t figured out by now, The Art of Horrible People is a must have for every horror fan out there. It is a pleasant surprise that leaves you with more than you bargained for!