Laurel Hightower is a bourbon-loving native of Lexington, Kentucky. She is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of Whispers In The Dark, Crossroads, Below, Every Woman Knows This, Silent Key, Spirit Coven, The Day Of The Door, and The Long Low Whistle, and has more than a dozen short fiction stories in print.
Hightower sat down with Cemetery Dance to talk about cryptid horror, powerful and flawed female characters, horror films, The Long Low Whistle, and Shortwave Publishing’s Killer VHS Series.
Connect with her on Instagram: @laurelhightower
Interview conducted by Haley Newlin
CEMETERY DANCE: There’s a pretty wicked nod to your book Below in The Long Low Whistle. Why do you think you’re drawn to cryptid horror in your writing, as well as a cave or mine setting?
LAUREL HIGHTOWER: I actually wasn’t initially. I always liked Mothman and was interested in writing about him, but I didn’t know much about any other cryptids. I kept ending up on panels discussing cryptids and I felt like I was back in 5th grade faking the cello in a five piece orchestra. I think that’s part of what got me interested in writing about another one though — that they are, by nature, outsiders, so how could I be an outsider to their fandom? As far as caves and mines, I’m from Kentucky, so coal mines made up a backdrop to my life, as do caves. Almost every school kid where I’m from made a journey to Mammoth Cave, and I’ll never forget the tour guide turning off all the lights in one of the deepest parts of the cave to demonstrate how utterly dark it was down there. I knew I’d have no chance in hell of making it out, which naturally served as nightmare fuel.
Do you have a favorite cryptid horror book or film?
My favorite cryptid film would have to be The Descent. The isolation, the alien nature of the creatures, the way they’re so fully adapted to the underground giving them the upper hand at every turn. It wove so well with the human drama unfolding — that movie still terrifies me even though I watch it so often.
In addition to cryptids, readers will find themes consistent with your previous titles in The Long Low Whistle. One being grief. Why do you think horror is such an effective genre for creatives to explore grief? With popular titles, including your own work, and books such as Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman and Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo, why do you think readers are so enthralled with grief horror?
Grief is a universal and imminently human experience. To love is to experience grief, be it prospective — in the breathlessness when you realize the intensity of your love for a parent, sibling, romantic partner, friend, child, or pet will mean a crippling grief when they go — or in the moment of that loss. We grieve relationships, changed circumstances, the loss of the life we thought we’d have. So in that way, it’s an inescapable bond that ties us together, and in horror, we’re given the opportunity to face that grief. Sometimes it forms the scaffolding for horror, in the threat of that loss. Sometimes it’s the backstory that informs a character’s choices. In a way it boils that protracted process of grieving into a series of high octane risks, allowing us to gasp in the promise of an end to that pain if we grit our teeth and meet the demon head on.
After reading Eleanor Johnson’s Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980), I’ve been paying close attention to how female characters and even creatures are formed. This immediately makes me think of Alien (1979) and Ellen Ripley. I know you’re an ’80s kid, so I was wondering if that film influenced your writing and possibly even the sex you chose for the creature in The Long Low Whistle.
Absolutely it does. The theme of Ripley not just in the original film but in the sequels is present in much of my life, especially since becoming a mother. There are so many times I feel like Ellen Ripley holding the flamethrower over the alien eggs, protecting my son at the expense of anyone or anything who might cause him harm. While that’s a delightfully badass image, it’s also exhausting. It’s the violence that we as women must conjure on a daily basis to meet the violence that comes looking for us, unbidden. The older I get, the angrier I am, and the less concerned with being palatable in any form. I want to keep my tenderness, and in some ways I understand the Alien Queen, as she has her own motives, which makes her a more interesting Big Bad. I’m exhausted with the trope of sneering, sinister men with flashing blades and guns threatening violence because no one will screw them. Give me powerful, flawed women as both heroes and villains.
I listened to your conversation with beloved horror aficionados and hosts of the Horrifically Well-Read, Bled, and Said podcast, Adam and Rebecca Allen, and you talked about receiving a witch bottle. Would you be interested in writing a witchy horror story?
I have! Spirit Coven forms part of a three author novella collection called The Devil’s Backbone and deals with a coven of bourbon witches. I love the theme, and enjoy seeing how it’s tackled by various authors — my favorite remains Conjuring The Witch by Jessica Leonard as it so beautifully weaves in themes of sisterhood, motherhood, feminine expectations, and the fear weak men have of powerful women.
If you had to recommend one of the other titles in the Killer VHS Series, which would it be?
I have to go with the original, Melonhead Mayhem by Alex Ebenstein. It’s unhinged and tons of fun, and perfectly launched the tone of the series — those amazing puffy-covered films at Blockbuster with outrageous creatures and wicked fun kills. I recommend it all the time!
