It really says something these days when you have an author that you will keep returning to and will always think of fondly. Everything is so transient these days and it is hard to for writers to make the kind of impression such as likes of Richard Matheson did in their time. He stood out among his peers when he started writing in the 50s. In his time, he wrote horror novels, science fiction, thrillers, westerns, and works on metaphysics. I won’t read everything by him, but I find myself returning to him for the books I have read and will always stay with me.
I was introduced to Richard Matheson’s work when I am Legend (that awful Will Smith movie) came to theaters. By this time, the book was re-released and I actually read it before seeing the movie. One thing that struck me was the fact that the book closely resembled a movie I saw several years before, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price. Neither movie could equal the book, but it was my first Matheson novel and it’s still potent to this day.
I’ve read a great deal of his work since then, including most if not all of his short stories, several of his novels, and seen several movies and tv episodes that he wrote.
If there is one theme in Matheson’s work that is consistent, it’s paranoia. In his interview with Douglas Winter in Faces of Fear, he mentioned that he was referred to as “Mr. Paranoid.” While you could say that many horror writers center their work on fear of the unknown, in Matheson’s case, you could call it the “fear of the known” or even the “fear of the mundane.” Along with Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and Charles Beaumont, he successfully brought the modern day into horror, completing a bridge that was started in pulp magazines. With that modernization, he made horror familiar again.
Take “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” for example. A man with a fear of flying gets on a plane. During the flight, he sees a creature on the wing of the plane damaging one of its engines. Nobody believes him and he tries to top the creature himself. He gets restrained and after the plane lands, the crew and passengers realize that one of the engines really was significantly damaged. Not only did Matheson touch on the overall fear of flying, but he tapped into the more mundane fear of technology failing us; if you allow yourself, you could go crazy thinking about everything that could go wrong by sailing in a boat, driving a car, or flying in a plane.
“The Distributor” may be one of the most insidious depictions of evil I’ve ever seen and it takes place in a seemingly harmless suburb. The 1950s gives modern day readers the impression of a squeaky-clean era when the only thing adults worried about was rock n’ roll, juvenile delinquency, and communism. It is seen as a time when everyone seemed cheerful, prosperous, and patriotic. Matheson tears away at that veneer with his story of a stranger who infiltrates a suburb and flies below everyone’s radar while intimidating, exploiting, and corrupting the neighborhood, sowing seeds of evil. This story is a chilling reminder that behind every door in even the cleanest suburb are people with flaws, addictions, and secret lives.
“Duel” is an all-too believable heart-stopper about road rage and a man pissing off the wrong trucker. “Button, Button” poses a moral question in a literal “would you do this for money” scenario and ends in death. “Mother By Protest” is a science fiction story of a woman impregnated by aliens, and so Matheson tackles the theme of unwanted pregnancy.
Matheson approached this outlook of horror at greater length in his novels. A Stir of Echoes is a deeper visit into what happens “behind closed doors” theme of a suburban neighbor, albeit with a paranormal twist. The Shrinking Man shows how we can take a basement for granted as a harmless place while to the protagonist who keeps shrinking, a climb to the top of a table to find food is one of the most dangerous things he had ever done, facing the dangers of a spider several times his size (this is after he gets trapped in the basement after being chased by the family’s cat.) and the threat of falling and breaking every bone in his miniscule body. Of course, The Shrinking Man also has the existential threat of a man who believes he will shrink into nothingness and be forgotten.
Thanks to COVID, I am Legend’s story of a worldwide pandemic takes on fresh relevance; thankfully, COVID didn’t produce any vampires, but it brought its own share of pain in the form of death and isolation, making Robert Neville, the “legend” of the story, more relatable than ever.
It takes a writer like Lovecraft to give us visions of eldritch monsters from the stars, but then we have writers like Richard Matheson, who brings us down to earth and reminds us horror shares the same sphere as the everyday and may come in a form that we take for granted. In Matheson's view, even the most harmless thing can't be seen with complacency.
Written by Nick Montelongo
I was introduced to Richard Matheson’s work when I am Legend (that awful Will Smith movie) came to theaters. By this time, the book was re-released and I actually read it before seeing the movie. One thing that struck me was the fact that the book closely resembled a movie I saw several years before, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price. Neither movie could equal the book, but it was my first Matheson novel and it’s still potent to this day.
I’ve read a great deal of his work since then, including most if not all of his short stories, several of his novels, and seen several movies and tv episodes that he wrote.
If there is one theme in Matheson’s work that is consistent, it’s paranoia. In his interview with Douglas Winter in Faces of Fear, he mentioned that he was referred to as “Mr. Paranoid.” While you could say that many horror writers center their work on fear of the unknown, in Matheson’s case, you could call it the “fear of the known” or even the “fear of the mundane.” Along with Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, and Charles Beaumont, he successfully brought the modern day into horror, completing a bridge that was started in pulp magazines. With that modernization, he made horror familiar again.
Take “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” for example. A man with a fear of flying gets on a plane. During the flight, he sees a creature on the wing of the plane damaging one of its engines. Nobody believes him and he tries to top the creature himself. He gets restrained and after the plane lands, the crew and passengers realize that one of the engines really was significantly damaged. Not only did Matheson touch on the overall fear of flying, but he tapped into the more mundane fear of technology failing us; if you allow yourself, you could go crazy thinking about everything that could go wrong by sailing in a boat, driving a car, or flying in a plane.
“The Distributor” may be one of the most insidious depictions of evil I’ve ever seen and it takes place in a seemingly harmless suburb. The 1950s gives modern day readers the impression of a squeaky-clean era when the only thing adults worried about was rock n’ roll, juvenile delinquency, and communism. It is seen as a time when everyone seemed cheerful, prosperous, and patriotic. Matheson tears away at that veneer with his story of a stranger who infiltrates a suburb and flies below everyone’s radar while intimidating, exploiting, and corrupting the neighborhood, sowing seeds of evil. This story is a chilling reminder that behind every door in even the cleanest suburb are people with flaws, addictions, and secret lives.
“Duel” is an all-too believable heart-stopper about road rage and a man pissing off the wrong trucker. “Button, Button” poses a moral question in a literal “would you do this for money” scenario and ends in death. “Mother By Protest” is a science fiction story of a woman impregnated by aliens, and so Matheson tackles the theme of unwanted pregnancy.
Matheson approached this outlook of horror at greater length in his novels. A Stir of Echoes is a deeper visit into what happens “behind closed doors” theme of a suburban neighbor, albeit with a paranormal twist. The Shrinking Man shows how we can take a basement for granted as a harmless place while to the protagonist who keeps shrinking, a climb to the top of a table to find food is one of the most dangerous things he had ever done, facing the dangers of a spider several times his size (this is after he gets trapped in the basement after being chased by the family’s cat.) and the threat of falling and breaking every bone in his miniscule body. Of course, The Shrinking Man also has the existential threat of a man who believes he will shrink into nothingness and be forgotten.
Thanks to COVID, I am Legend’s story of a worldwide pandemic takes on fresh relevance; thankfully, COVID didn’t produce any vampires, but it brought its own share of pain in the form of death and isolation, making Robert Neville, the “legend” of the story, more relatable than ever.
It takes a writer like Lovecraft to give us visions of eldritch monsters from the stars, but then we have writers like Richard Matheson, who brings us down to earth and reminds us horror shares the same sphere as the everyday and may come in a form that we take for granted. In Matheson's view, even the most harmless thing can't be seen with complacency.
Written by Nick Montelongo
The author does not allow comments to this entry
No comments