The "Punk" In Splatterpunk

Why You Absolutely Should Be Talking About What’s Going On Right Now.

In the 1980s, when I was an angry teenager reading Marvel comics, horror and Splatterpunk novels, watching horror movies, listening to punk rock, Industrial music, and Black Consciousness Rap, we had a lot to be pissed off about. We had high interest rates and high unemployment, the AIDS Crises, the imminent threat of nuclear war, a drug war that turned the nation’s ghettos into warzones and police states, Reaganomics exponentially widening the gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else, factories closing down and machines taking our jobs. From that chaos we got Punk Rock music and Black Consciousness Rap, post apocalyptic novels and films, a surge of horror films and novels dominating the box office and the New York Times Bestseller list, and we got Splatterpunk.

Today, we have perhaps the widest economic gap in the history of this country, the end of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, the Christian right pushing a Christo-nationalist extremist agenda that has eroded the separation of church and state to almost nothing, an ex-president who tried to steal an election and instigated an attack on Congress running for reelection while simultaneously being tried for numerous felonies, soaring housing prices and interest rates, stagnant wages, the murder of unarmed Black men by police. We have AI threatening the livelihoods of artists, writers, and other creators, Russia attacking Ukrain, Israel bombing Palastine, and did we forget about North Korea, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia? So, why aren't we writing about all of this?

Why aren't more authors, songwriters, artists, and poets addressing these issues in their work? In the 60s and 70s, protest songs were part of American culture. Songs opposing the Vietnam War and promoting Civil Rights and Women's Rights topped charts. There were paintings, novels, comic books, movies, and even TV shows shedding light upon everything from Women's Liberation to Black Liberation to the US War Machine. Where is all that passion and creativity now?

Has our desire for escapism gotten so all consuming that all we can stomach now are bubble gum pop songs and “Reality TV”? Are we, as horror authors, more concerned with selling books than true self expression? Has it become safer to write books about eating vomit and excrement, and raping and murdering babies than the horrors of society? Has the artist been silenced by fear? Apathy? Economic necessity? Has the punk been permanently excised from Splatterpunk?

I love escapism. I love Marvel movies, violent Netflix series, Extreme Horror novels, and songs about fucking and getting pussy. I love all that shit. I also love music that makes me think, books that make me think, art that stirs in me the desire to change the world. I love reading a book or watching a movie and knowing that I'm not the only one disgusted enough with the state of the world to want to say something about it. I like my own apathy and complacency being challenged. I like my beliefs and convictions being challenged and I like challenging yours. I want art that entertains me, but also makes me feel, makes me think, and makes me act.

There will always be a place for mental pablum that is forgotten hours after it has been consumed. There will always be a place for works of pure entertainment rather than works of art. There will always be a place for the happy and silly, but what about the meaningful and the profound? There will always be a place for mindless escapism, but what about art that challenges the consumer to confront the harsh realities and injustices of modern society?

I will never forget how Brian Keene got so much shit after Trump was elected when he suggested we turn our outrage into art like we did in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And I'll never forget how we, except for a very few, failed to heed that call. We need to get angry again. We need to get radical again. We need to take real risks again. We need to get punk again!