Aaron Padley – The Horror of My Life
Today, we welcome Aaron Padley to Ginger Nuts of Horror with his entry in the Horror of My Life series of articles. He has recently published a novella “The Resurrection of Jamie Jackson”, and before that was included in the Once Upon A Scream anthology.
The first horror book I remember reading.
The Night Bus by Anthony Horowitz was an early love of mine that kickstarted my unflinching adoration for literature. By the time I began reading Horowitz’s work, I’d already seen films depict far worse gore and scares, but the short The Man with the Yellow Face left an indelible impression that has been branded in my mind for the last decade-and-a-half. The shorts in this book, and others by Horowitz I’d subsequently devour, were Twilight Zone segments on the page, and I’m not sure I could give any higher praise than that.
The First Horror Film I remember watching.
The US version of The Grudge starring Buffy/Daphne Blake herself. It isn’t the most acclaimed movie ever, and it’s certainly overshadowed by Ju-On: The Grudge, which to this day unsettles me like nothing else, but that death rattle was probably the first time I felt undeniable terror and dread. I slept in my mother’s room the night I watched that film, and it wasn’t the last time either: the genre instantly hooked me even at the young age of around six-years-old, and it was worth the many sleepless nights by my mother’s side.
The Greatest Horror Book of All Time.
Pet Sematary. The horror nerd in me almost wanted to avoid a King story just to prove that I could go for something more niche, but anything else would have been a lie. Pet Sematary was the first Stephen King story I ever read, and with its themes of death and family, it spoke to me unlike anything else I’ve ever read and has influenced my own writing for better or worse.
This bleak tale does what so many others are afraid to do – kill the kid – and I love it for that. If you want something dark, you come here, if you want something upsetting, you come here. If you want King at his most provocative and challenging, well I don’t need to say it. It also has a Wendigo, which are criminally underused in modern mainstream storytelling.
The Greatest Horror Film of all time
The Silence of the Lambs is one of those films that eclipse the source material. Dialogue written on the page simply can’t compare to the powerhouse deliveries of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, as well as the rest of this sublime cast. There’s some discussion as to whether it’s even a horror film, but to me the beautiful obscenity lends itself toward an easy horror classification. While not necessarily a scary viewing, it is exhilarating and a must-watch, though I can’t imagine many people reading this haven’t yet seen Silence. Incredible writing, fist-clenching suspense, a gorgeous score – it has it all and more. No sequel, prequel, TV show, or indeed book can come close to what this film achieved. The third and, to date, last film to have won the Big Five Academy awards, and deservedly so.
The Greatest Writer of All Time
One of the more difficult questions I’ve ever had to answer. How could I ever satisfyingly choose between some of the all-time greats? Poe, Christie, Jackson, the list goes on, but if I had to pick a writer who encapsulates biting wit and brilliant flourishes of prose, it would have to be Oscar Wilde. My favourite story of his is The Canterville Ghost, which employs an irreverent subversion of the genre at the expense of the titular character while demonstrating the playful and earnest sensibilities that stayed with Wilde literally until his dying words. Saddeningly, I don’t see as much conversation around Wilde as he deserves these days, and I think he would resent that. After all, there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that’s not being talked about.
The Best Book Cover of All Time.
Jurassic Park. There are 65 million options I could pick for best book cover, but there are few covers that are so immediately identifiable as Jurassic Park. You show someone that dinosaur logo, and they will know what it is regardless of who they are or where they come from. Maybe it’s the simplicity of a black dinosaur fossil on a white background, or the striking contrast of colours, but it scratches a very particular itch. The cover’s job is to represent a book’s contents while catching the reader’s attention, and Jurassic Park makes it look easy.
The Best Movie Poster of All Time
The correct choice here for me is whatever I would most want pinned on my bedroom wall, which automatically establishes a shameless bias towards horror movie posters, and among those what can compare to John Carpenter’s The Thing? Drew Struzan struck gold with this creepy and mysterious design, which gives nothing away while captivating anyone who looks upon it, more than living up to its promise of being “The ultimate in alien terror”. Without a hint of the film’s trademark blood and viscera, its poster effortlessly conveys a quiet unease and even the most uninitiated could immediately tell what genre it belongs to.
The Best book I have Written
Perhaps it is recency bias, but my latest published novella, The Resurrection of Jamie Jackson, is my best work. At a breezy 112 pages, it balances horror and emotion while examining family trauma, grief, and faith (some shades of Pet Sematary, anyone?). I have always been of the belief that the most important part of storytelling isn’t technical skill or originality – though I hope people see both of those qualities here – but it is the power to evoke feelings both positive and negative. Without that, you might as well read an instruction manual or recipe book, and this story is one that hits some strong emotional beats. Even if it helps one single reader process or reflect on their own grief, then I can rest easy knowing that it has succeeded.
The Worst Book I Have Written
I began writing when I was 16, and if memory serves – which it usually doesn’t – my first published short story was accepted about a year later. The Things we Don’t See tried to capture the otherworldly mystique of The Twilight Zone, with a twist dumped in for good measure. I wrote it in less than 45 minutes and didn’t even edit or revise anything before sending it off (I was young and naïve), and somehow it was miraculously accepted on its first submission. I dread to think how low-quality it must be, but I’ve always been too scared to re-read it, and I know for a fact that I never will – I could do without the embarrassment.
If you want to know the twist, read the story for yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
The Most Underratted Film of All Time
Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman is the pinnacle of guilty pleasures. There are plenty of brilliant unknown films that I could talk about, but this is two hours of pure silly entertainment, and what else is fiction for if not to entertain? It isn’t as bad as all the reviews say and if you’ve always wished that 1999’s The Mummy included more famous movie monsters, or just love the idea of naked Hugh Jackman, it might be time to look back on this B-movie through a less critical, turn-off-your-brain lens and accept Van Helsing in all its cheesy goodness.
The Most Underrated Book of All Time
It may not be underrated by those who read it, but the name has been somewhat tainted by its film counterpart. World War Z would make for a fantastic limited anthology series with each episode following different scenarios from the book. The vignettes cleverly play with established tropes of the genre (yes, we know, humans are sometimes the real monster) and teems with originality. I would mention some standout sections, but I’d rather not spoil anything whatsoever for those who are fortunate enough to be able to experience it for the first time. There are less than ten books I’ve ever re-read, and World War Z is one of them. Check it out.
The Most Underrated Author of All Time
I was hoping to avoid giving the same answer to multiple questions, but my hand has been forced and I have to say Anthony Horowitz. Horowitz ignited my love of literary horror as a child (sorry, R.L. Stine), but the Power of Five series enthralled me in ways I had never expected. The final book in that series, Oblivion, was the first novel that I ever hyped myself up for and bought upon release. If you’ve exhausted your Goosebumps series and Roald Dahl books trying to get your kids into this wonderful medium of storytelling, give Horowitz a try. You might just inspire another future writer.
The Book or film that scared me the most.
As an author, it would best serve the conversation to discuss a book, but no book has ever given me reoccurring nightmares quite like some films have over the years. The worst offender in this regard is Jaws. I never learned how to properly swim because of this wonderfully traumatising film. As a child, I panicked when having to use the toilet in case the shark waited for me in the bowl, ready to leap out and get me.
I couldn’t even close my eyes in the bathtub so I had to let the shampoo sting my eyes! Even now, as an adult, I sometimes feel a slight sense of anxiety when I get in the shower, and believe me that’s not because of Psycho. Still, Jaws is a masterpiece that I force myself to rewatch from time to time, and while it may no longer scare me like it used to, the scars it left will never truly heal. Don’t go in the water.
The Book I am Working on Next
It’s impossible to break this down to one single book because I currently have about three on the go, and before this interview is published there’ll be another couple brimming. I have one novel, one novella, and one short story collection in the works, the latter two of which will indeed be firmly planted within the horror genreand promise to explore deeper themes of family through a variety of subgenres from body horror to paranormal to gothic.
Speaking of gothic horror, my next story to be published will be out this Autumn with a yet-untitled anthology with Egeus Press. My contribution will be titled The Haunting of the Red Death and will pay homage to one of the most important writers the genre has ever seen, while retaining its own identity and story. Keep your eyes peeled for that one – hopefully it gives you a good scare, or at least makes your skin crawl just a little.
The Resurrection of Jamie Jackson can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble on paperback through these links
The Resurrection of Jamie Jackson by Aaron Padley
Mourning the loss of his twenty-three year old daughter Jamie, Oliver Jackson visits her grave the evening after her funeral, only to hear her crying out to him for help! Has he lost his mind? Surely that is the case–her life of addiction and now her untimely death has finally driven him mad, yes? Refusing to disbelieve that he is actually hearing Jamie’s cries from her grave to be rescued, he gets a shovel and digs her out! Thus begins a wild yet verisimilar telling of love, betrayal, suffering, loss, faithlessness, and finally redemption. Along with Oliver and Jamie, memorable characters also include old friends Arthur and Victoria Blythe, Jamie’s elder sister Layla, and Catholic priest Father Thomas.
Aaron Padley
Aaron Padley was born in Cumbria, England and is currently living in Leeds. Since university, he has worked and volunteered in the mental health sector, supporting people through issues such as addiction and suicidal thoughts and behaviour. This has shaped Aaron’s writing to give voices to the disempowered and to explore these issues with the nuance and fairness they deserve. He has recently published a novella “The Resurrection of Jamie Jackson”, and before that was included in the Once Upon A Scream anthology.