Maybe you had a bad experience with one at a birthday party, circus, or fair when you were younger. Or maybe the Stephen King movie “IT” scared the living crap out of you. Either way, the fear of clowns -or Coulrophobia- is pretty common among kids, teens, and adults alike.

evil clown

That portrayal of ‘Pennywise’ in IT, was terrifying, (Though, to be fair, Tim Curry is pretty unsettling in most of his roles) and it spurred an entire genre of movies that have haunted many individuals. Eerily enough, it isn’t just the fear brought from these movies that scares people, it’s the very really possibility of a ‘killer clown’. One man, named John Wayne Gacy often threw block parties for his neighbors and friends. During these parties he would dress as a clown to entertain the children. As it turns out, he was arrested in 1978 for the rape and murder of thirty-three boys and young men. Twenty seven of them were found in the crawl space under the floor in his house. Though he never killed while in his clown suit and makeup, this terrible happenstance made the idea of a ‘killer clown’ very real.

But most of this just re-affirms an already existing fear for people. Because it isn’t really the fact that “it’s a clown” that makes it scary. Most people have had their fear of clowns since they were children, and children are particularly sensitive to things being ‘not right’. They often cry at the sight of mascots, even if it is something very cute like a mouse or rabbit. It’s the simple fact that they know what size that creature should be, and to see it ten times larger is unnatural and scary. Clown costumes have unnatural hair colors, their faces and expressions are either concealed or exaggerated by thick make-up, their voices are changed to sound higher pitched or goofier. All of these things take away the normal human aspects of the person and leave you wondering what it is they are really like, or perhaps what they really are.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Walking alone down the street at night, with nothing but the dim lights of the closed shops to guide you. It is a street that you know well, and you’ve done this same thing many times before. You usually feel safe and unafraid, as familiar territory tends to grant peace of mind. Tonight however, you feel as if someone is watching you. You pick up the pace without trying to seem to obvious. Truth is, you’re kind of embarrassed by this uneasy feeling. It’s a fairly good neighborhood after all, and the odds of something happening are slim to none. Regardless, the hair on the back of your neck is standing up and you decide you would feel  a lot better if you got home quickly.

vampire

You hear a noise, like the fluttering of wigs and glance away from the street you’ve been following. It was only a moment, but when you look back there is a man leaning against a building up ahead. Strange, you think, there wasn’t anyone on this street before. You avert your eyes to the ground and prepare yourself to pass him when suddenly he is in front of you. The corner of his mouth turns up into a little smile and you notice that he’s very good looking close up. You mutter an ‘excuse me’ and attempt to step to the side, but without seeming to move he is directly in front of you once again. His eyes lock with yours and your breath quickens. Something is wrong about this person, very very wrong. You can feel in him qualities that you’d expect to find in a wild animal, and his skin is too pale; a tone you would only expect of someone in the hospital on their death bed. His eyes are downright terrifying. You realize all of a sudden that you should be running, the fear takes hold of you and every fiber of your being is screaming at you to get away from him as quickly as possible…. but you haven’t moved an inch.

He moves fluidly and takes you by the arm. Your body moves without your consent and you find yourself being led into an alley way. When you reach this more secluded area, his smirk turns slowly to a full grin, and reveals glistening sharp fangs. When they sink into your neck, you feel the most pain and the most pleasure you’ve ever felt in your life; sifted together like a sick chemical cocktail in your veins. You look up at the vampire one last time, then everything goes black.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow