Wes Craven And Fright-Meisters On Why We Love Horror

For Halloween, we look at the horror genre today — in the movies and in print — with some of the best fright-meisters in the business.

It’s Halloween, and look around.  At all the creepy, scary, fanged and ghoulish décor in your town.  Not cute little ghosts, but gory horror, straight-up.  The fact is, an awful lot of people love horror.  Love to get the shivers on Halloween.  Love our horror films, horror novels.  We’re going there today, with some greats.  Director Wes Craven, horror icon and creator of "A Nightmare on Elm Street."  Elizabeth Massie and Michelle Hodkin, horror novel writers who will chill your blood.  Up next On Point:  for Halloween, the heart of horror, and why we go there.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Wes Craven, horror film director, writer, producer and actor. (@WesCraven)

Elizabeth Massie, two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of horror novels and short fiction, including "Hell Gate," "Desper Hollow," "Playback" and "Sineater."

Michelle Hodkin, young-adult novelist, author of "The Mara Dyer Trilogy." (@MichelleHodkin)

The Guardian: Halloween Reading — "I'm convinced that people who write and read horror are saner and better-adjusted than those who casually dismiss the genre. By engaging with horror, we take a journey into every possible fear. We open the closet door, rip the mask from the psycho's face, embrace ghosts and demons, cast ourselves into the hellish chasm of the imagination. We return, not polluted but cleansed and set free."

New York: The 25 Best Horror Movies Since the Shining -- "One third of a century ago, Stanley Kubrick released 'The Shining' and changed the face of modern horror. Except that he didn’t, at least not initially. The Shining was a critical dud and, at first, a financial disappointment. (Kubrick even got nominated for a Razzie for Worst Director.) But over the years, the movie has, to understate mightily, gained in stature. And its release seemed to us like a good cutoff point for our journey through the ensuing 33 years of horror cinema."

The Morning News: Our Hallows Eve — "This will be my son’s first Halloween, and I’m taking him to Indiana to give him a taste of Halloween as I remember it. My mom and I have been making plans to take him to a pumpkin patch and maybe a costume party at the zoo. We chat on the phone while I follow Fabian around the playground, discussing the tiny Purple Rain Prince costume she is making for him. She tells me to measure his arms, as she wants to make sure she gets the ruffles at the ends of the sleeves just right."