Known as Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, or All Saint's Eve, the 31st October is a night with Celtic origins from around the 5th Century BC. Sweets, food, and drink were offerings, and dressing up as spirits was used as a way to distract and avoid the spirits who came through the thinning of the veil between our world and the next.
However, I'm not a historian, and I do not pretend to be, so instead let me tell you about a terrific sub-genre of fantasy: dark fantasy.
Dark fantasy crosses over a lot with the horror genre, and they can sometimes pretty difficult to tell apart. They both deal with disturbing or dreadful subjects and are usually full of inevitable loss. Think your old school vampires like Dracula by Bram Stoker, or gothic fiction such as The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft. Demons and dark rituals are also found commonly throughout this sub-genre.
Dark fantasy is prolific for it's use of unsettling, macabre atmospheres that are common throughout horror fiction, but usually with a twist of magic or supernatural elements. It can be argued that "horror" is too lurid or vivid of a term, and some authors prefer to use "gothic fantasy" or "dark fantasy" as an alternative description. The overlap is there, and ultimately it is a term the author uses to self-describe their work.
I would also like to touch on grimdark, another sub-genre of fantasy and sci-fi that goes to the cynical extremes. It's nihilistic nature means that instead of uplifting a hero such as those from the more upright fantasies, it drags everyone and everything down into the mud. Warhammer 40k (they have books, as well as games) are a good example of this, as well as R. Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse.
Grimdark fantasy is grittier, bleaker, more pessimistic, and there's rarely a good guy. Completely opposite to the Tolkien approach to fantasy writing. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin is another popular example of this sub-genre.
As with all other genres within fantasy, dark fantasy can and will cross over with almost anything: paranormal fiction, occult detective, splatterpunk, supernatural, urban, and weird fiction just to name a few.
I find that studying horror and dark fantasy is an incredible practice. It's given me many ideas for creatures and monsters within my own works, even though I do not write horror myself. I find a study of each genre I come across to be fruitful as there are many writing devices and techniques that can be shared with my genres of choice, such as suspense build-up, plot devices and writing tricks.
I personally love to settle down with my Edgar Allan Poe collection and read a few short stories from it at this time of year.
Happy Halloween, everyone. May the spooks be kooky.
