I'm working on a very Silent Hill-inspired psychological horror story that's supposed to be a social commentary on our politically-polarized culture, set in a mysterious town. My story follows a troubled teenager and his single mother who move into this town called "Herdville" which is supposed to be allegorical for Trump-era America. As we enter this town, it is very much enshrouded in thick fog while all the people walking around are glued to their phones, even while crossing the street. The town itself is in the throes of a mayoral election between Wallace Wolfe, a right-wing business tycoon with a large social media following and established draconian policies that discriminate against women, non-whites and other perceived undesirables (Who does that remind anyone of?); and Angela Shepherd, a liberal woman who is adored by the vast majority of the town and claims to want to restore the town to its former glory and uplift the disenfranchised whose been put down by Wolfe's administration. Both candiates are strongly supported by their own activist movements. Wolfe is supported by the so-called Herdville Liberation Front, led by Leo Yager, a militant controversial conspiracy theorist who has been known to rouse up mobs to harass Wolfe's opponents; and the One-For-All movement, a pastiche of current-day activist movements, led by Lucy Lamb, a student at Herdville's local high school that claims to be fighting for the betterment of Herdville's homeless or other groups persecuted by Wolfe's supporters. As our protagonist explores Herdville, he finds the town split up by a massive wall. On his side, Newtown is where Shepherd's supporters live and on the other side is Oldtown, where the oldest parts of Herdville is where Wolfe's supporters and other conservatives live. However, on the other side of the wall is also Downtown, where the homeless, racial minorities and other downtrodden peoples live in fear of being attacked by Wolfe-supporting thugs - cut off from Newtown in spite of Shepherd and the One-For-All movemet's claims of caring for them - illustrating that it's all just empty talk to score brownie points for the election (Just like how, in Joker, Thomas Wayne claims to want to uplift Gotham City's poor as a selling point as mayor only to belittle them as a whole for Arthur Fleck's murder of the three Wayne Enterprise yuppies in the subway). Newtown is composed of relatively modern buildings and apartments that look clean and sleak on the outside, but if you went inside, you find the interiors all dilapidated and run down as if the town couldn't hide its ugly heart beneath the gloss yet nobody ever notices anyway. Oldtown is composed of more vintage historical buildings from eras past, likewise clean and spotless outside but decayed and rotting inside. Only Downtown itself is decaying both inside and outside. I basically aim to showcase both sides in the struggle as being as shallow and deplorable as each other with the entire townsfolk, save for the protagonist, none the wiser. Even the supposedly noble Shepherd-supporters, as revealed later on, have their own set of vigilante thugs who bully and harass perceived enemies too so the protagonist finds himself targetted by both sides in a desperate bid to escape the town. I'm even exploring ideas to flesh out Herdville's history dating back to the Civil War where it has gone through several similar polarized struggles that have brought out the worst of humanity in both sides - with even the Confederate and Union armies struggling over the land going so far as to capture their enemies to sacrifice in occult rituals as if under the influence of a dark presence there.
Can i be honest? I see what you're trying to do, but frankly, fans of the horror genre want gore, violence, supernatural encounters, monsters, maniacs, etc. Are they looking for a story about political dystopia? Some maybe, but the problem is if you put together a ven diagram and the area where fans of horror intersect with fans of politics, it's got to be a small cohort. Then, cut it in half because we know 50.4% of adults aged 18+ will see this as a thinly-veiled hit piece on the president-elect and will reject it immediately. Now, you claim you're representing two opposing systems that are equally bad, suggesting you'll go at it from a largely independent POV, but the impression i get from your tone and what you wrote above is that you hate Trump, which is fine, it's you're right to feel that way. Michael Moore had a large following in creating documentary films doing the same. If it were me as the reader, however, I'd view the setting thing as something potentially woke, and rn people are rejecting that narrative hand over fist. Tbh, you'd probably get much better traction differentiating the two societies on the basis of economic differences, historical backstories, ruthless gang wars, a power struggle between ruthless business tycoons, or mob boss leaders, etc. Otherwise, I worry you'd struggle to gain traction with people and it'd become a distraction that would only serve to limit your market. But again, this is just my honest opinion. It's meant to be food for thought - take it only if you think it'd help you, otherwise reject it. No offense intended, friends in the end, use only as directed, etc. Peace, out. Trevor D P.S. Welcome to the site! I really hope you enjoy it here and learn tons about the writing craft! Hit anyone up here, bc people are generally very nice.
If you want to have your horror town be a political metaphor, don't be afraid to get messy with it! Add monsters that reflect the personalities of certain people (ex. Wolfe wears a wig and below it is a pulsating mass of some disgusting parasite whispering things into his ear or something) or add locations that show how bad things have gotten in Herdville (ex. A building with a broken speaker that constantly plays audio that reinforces an individual's ideals/opinions called the 'echo chamber'). Of course, it all depends on how far into fantasy you go into this world. I know there's a "dark force" but that's super vague and I'm not sure what that really means. Also, Trevor makes a good point. I don't think you should stop making political statements or anything, but if you're too on the nose it might feel belittling to the reader (that probably isn't the right word but I can't think of the right word right now. I mean don't hold your reader's hand and point "hey look there's a thing that's bad and is like That Guy in Real Life"). This is your expression of your beliefs and I don't think you should have to circumvent that in order to write a good story, but you might have to be a bit more clever with it. If you want people to understand your point, you need to put it in a way they'll understand. People aren't misogynistic because they hate women and that's it, they're like that because that's how they've been taught their entire lives and that's how they genuinely believe the world works. To challenge hurtful ideals, you need to understand why someone would think that way in the first place. That's my opinion, at least. There are fun ways to do this though. Silent Hill doesn't say "golly gee look at all of those manifestations of grief/anger/depression/etc". It makes you think they're just monsters and then (indirectly) tells the player that they were never fighting zombies. (That could be completely wrong I don't actually know that much about Silent Hill. I hope that explanation made sense lol). You can make a monster that is literally a phone glued onto someone's face or a group of people with huge, bulging eyes because of one reason or another. And this doesn't mean you have to make EVERYTHING a metaphor or some convoluted peice of a billion piece puzzle-- if you want an on the nose character, make one! It's okay to be direct sometimes, it only becomes a problem when it's only direct. Hope this wasn't too much, this is my first reply -Usernamerh
Also bear in mind that stories are about escapism to a large extent and there's a excellent chance that many people want to read anything about politics. Living smack in the middle of it, I can't think of anything I'd like to read about less. Covid was similar. Nobody wanted to read about stories about that either. Just food for thought. As you've described it, it seems very on-the-nose, but the actual story might be more subtle/clever. I'm curious too as to whether you live in the US or not. A lot of what you described has an outsider-looking-in perspective to it, which is fine if treated ironically.
It sounds good, but it's too obviously political for my liking. And if I'm honest, the fog smacks too much of Silent Hill. In something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the political allegory is well disguised, and only afterwards do you look back on it and realise what it was. Sometimes, such as in Stephen King's The Mist, it's more obvious but it's always overshadowed by the horrific events going on.
I agree with the posters here about the politics. (I am going to carefully skirt here as to not begin a debate. Please know that it is not my intention.) I think it's 100% fine to write politics into a story- I do it all the time. However, perhaps going more general will be of more interest to a reader. The next 4 years in the US are a contentious subject and if you wish to write about it, I suggest looking into what exactly each political party believes and why. Then, you can weave it into a story that reflects both the positive and negative of both sides. On another note, as a reader, the politics are most fun when it is left up to the reader to decide what it means like mentioned above. Also as @Homer Potvin pointed out that it might not be time for a 'wasn't 2025 bad?' stories like COVID. Doesn't mean you can't write it. No, write whatever the hell you want! (I'll cheer you on.) Just know that the general population of the US is kind of tired of politics right now, or I assume. I haven't been reading the news. On a story note, I see you set it in a small town. I personally think a beautiful city like NYC or something could be more... poignant. Given Trump's history of living in NYC and Florida. Just a thought.
Political commentary is in a whole lot of good books. From the premise, though, it doesn't seem like you have a lot to say beyond "both established parties are kind of shit and our shitty tribal nature keeps them fed and unscrutinized." Not a bad take, but it's thin, underwhelming. However if you follow through with this, you might find that you actually have a more unique perspective than you or I or anyone realised. It's a premise, a starting point. Write it. See where it goes, and for crying out loud change the name of the town in the later drafts.
Horror doesn’t have to be all big scary monsters. If you look at a lot of Kings early work the monsters are more implied than described , the unknown is a lot scarier than meh another monster. that aside I agree with the others that the allegory is too on the nose/ obvious and to work needs to be a lot more subtle also the town needs to appear normal initially and then be slowly disclosed not to be. As described anyone moving to herdsville would take one look around and nope right out of there without unpacking the car
Not necessarily. Horror can be what you make it. Doesnt always have to have gore or monsters. Horror can be unsettling. Dread by Clive Barker doesnt have a murder or a "monster". Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clarke is a political horror that takes place in a dystopian antebellum south, and the monsters are the KKK. There is another book that i wont name because im spoiling the plot right now: the "creature" that kills people after 3 days.... is revealed to be a person who is hired to keep people away from the community and the community's secrets. Regardi g current political figures.... there is a humor fiction writer who writes comedic mysteries. His first series had Obama and Biden as main characters. During Trumps first term, he wrote one about him. He did one called "Feel the Bern" about Bernie Sanders. People read it and like it (they must, because he still writes them and traditionally publishes them). What im tryi g to say is... If OP's horror is done right, it will have an audience on the horror scene and within those who like political peices.
