Warm-up

● Horror stories

What are features of a horror story?

An ancient prophecy

an evil character & a good character

a monster, a ghost or a feral animal

fight against the dark forces

An atmosphere of mystery and suspense, gloomy weather, shadowy locations, strange noises, eerily haunted castle, scary music

A feeling of fear and terror. Nightmares.

A pounding heartbeat. Faster breathing. Nervous perspiration. Butterflies in the stomach.

Why do people like horror fictions or movies?

Do you like thrilling stories?

Gothic: Strange Beauty

People like scary stories because fear is involved, which triggers your stimulus and boosts your adrenaline. The adrenaline gives you usually a good feeling when the "scary part" has passed. Besides, people like to have a challenge to see if they can handle it. Youngsters are lured and addicted to things unusual and supernatural.

●The Vocabulary of the horror stories

●Do You Know?

Writing Your Own Gothic Fiction.

Background Information

● Author

Richard Matheson was The New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend, Hell House, Somewhere in Time, The Incredible Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, The Beardless Warriors, The Path, Seven Steps to Midnight, Now You See It…, and What Dreams May Come, among others. He was named a Grand Master of Horror by the World Horror Convention, and received the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. In addition, Matheson wrote several screenplays for movies and TV, including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” based on his short story, along with several other Twilight Zone episodes. He was born in New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, and fought in the infantry in World War II. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. He died in June, 2013, at the age of eighty-seven.

●Button, Button & The Box

"Button, Button" is the second segment of the twentieth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. The episode is based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson; the same short story forms the basis of the 2009 film The Box. The original idea is taken from passage 1.6.2 of Genius of Christianity (1802) by François-René de Chateaubriand, in which the authors asks the reader what he would do if he could get rich by killing a mandarin in China solely by force of will.

●Science fiction

Science Fiction is literature about the future, telling stories of the marvels we hope to see — or for our descendants to see — tomorrow, in the next century, or in the limitless duration of time. --Terry Carr

Science fiction (Sci-Fi or SF) tends to be the most socially-reflective version of genre fiction, with imaginative, logically-consistent speculation on future technology and society. It has its origins in the idea of extrapolating society in the future — usually in a negative.

The best science fiction is not the technologies or inventions. It explores the human condition. It can look at it from unexpected angles. Science fiction imagines strange challenges and opportunities for us in order to delve deep into human nature.

●Lenox Hill Hospital

Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City, is a 652-bed, tertiary-care hospital and a teaching hospital of New York Medical College, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Long Island University and Pace University. It was founded in 1857 as the German Dispensary.

●Life insurance policy

Life insurance policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; common examples are claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot, and civil commotion.

Life insurance (or commonly life assurance, esp. in the Commonwealth) is a contract between an insured (insurance policy holder) and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money (called indemnity) in exchange for a premium, upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger payment. The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as a lump sum. Other expenses (such as funeral expenses) are also sometimes included in the benefits.

●Chart of a life insurance