I love a great psychological thriller and what makes it truly great for me is incorporating drama and romance. Apparently, according t
o a criminally insane asylum inmate in Martin Scorsese’s 2010 psychological thriller, Shutter Island, “fear corrodes the mind and rusts it.” So, why do we love books and films that are written deliberately to scare us?
I don’t know about you, but thrillers let us feel fear in a controlled way. They reel us in slowly building suspense and we venture into the minds of morally ambiguous characters thus creating anxiety and confusion. We struggle to discover what’s really going on and finally, as we delve deeper, we are shaken with a shocking twist. The built up tension now becomes a feeling of exhilaration.
Beyond the Pale for me does just this – I’m not going to give away too much, but there is a subversive twist. As the world stands today, it is already a pretty scary place and reading thrillers allows us to confront those fears without acting on them. In real life, sensation seeking can involve recklessness and risk-taking but reading about it is far more exciting allowing our fictional characters to act out fantasies that are far more outrageous than anything we would try.
Sex, is also very thrilling – for a few of us anyway! So a great novel to get your heart pounding is definitely right up my street. In a world where overt sexual references are censored, I like a great book that pays homage to voyeurism and revitalises eroticism.
So ask yourself, what would you do for love? How far would you go?
“My dear, find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover. ~ Falsely yours” Bukowski
Watch the trailer here and make sure to subscribe. All the best, EJ