The Frighteners: A Journey Through Our Cultural Fascination with the Macabre

Peter Laws examines humanity’s attraction to monsters, ghosts, death, gore and horror, combining personal memoir with psychology and religious theory. Writing as an ordained Baptist minister with a longstanding love of frightening fiction and folklore, he considers how a fascination with the macabre fits alongside Christian faith and everyday life.

His investigations take him to Transylvania, Rome and locations across the UK, where he encounters self-described vampires, ghost-hunting sites and zombie-themed experiences. Along the way, Laws considers whether horror films, stories and other forms of morbid culture can provide safe ways to confront mortality, while questioning assumptions about violence, fear and the appeal of the dark.