By KEVIN HOOVER
There was a point in time when horror’s ability to shed light on the tribulations synonymous with the human condition seemed novel. Yet, in the decades since a strong black lead helmed a group of white folks trapped inside a farmhouse fighting an unyielding onslaught against the undead and racial prejudices, horror entertainment has continuously positioned itself as a powerful voice against real-world injustices. Unfortunately, sometimes the monsters look nothing like we expected them to.
Oftentimes, our individual undoings are a case of death by a thousand cuts through intrinsic, undesirable thoughts and patterns that inflict more damage than any brain-munching zombie ever could. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and authors Chris Grosso (Dead Set on Living) and Preston Fassel’s (Beasts of 42nd Street) new book NECESSARY DEATH (HCI Books) offers workable solutions to life’s challenges, filtered through the lens of horror cinema.
Celebrated for their individual literary contributions, Grosso and Fassel spent more than a half-decade co-writing their latest. The pair formulated a three-pronged structure that offers something for everyone, beginning with a film analysis titled “Oh, the Horror!”, followed by “Oh, the Humanity!”, a psychological examination of each chapter’s topic-at-large. Finally, strategies are offered to assist readers in navigating their internal strife. NECESSARY DEATH was released on Halloween 2023, and both authors recently took some time to discuss their collaboration.
How did you guys put your heads together and land on what may be horror’s first self-improvement book?
Preston Fassel: The idea was all Chris. We met because we were both contributing to Fangoria several years ago; he was doing regular work for the website and I was a columnist and a staff writer for the magazine. Chris read my book Our Lady of the Inferno and he found we were essentially coworkers. He had me on his podcast The Indie Spiritualist. Afterward, he said it was to meet and feel me out because he had something he’d been thinking about for a while that he didn’t think he could do alone. He pitched me NECESSARY DEATH, a self-improvement book that looks at aspects of mental health and well-being through the lens of horror movies. I have a background in psychology, and I thought this was a fascinating idea. Chris loves horror and has found safe harbor in horror movies at several points during his life. With him telling me that, I thought that the same holds true for me. He had this idea that not only would it be using horror movies to look at aspects of mental health, but this could be an outreach tool to the horror community and those who see themselves as outsiders. Maybe they’re a little bit skittish about mainstream psychiatric help or psychology, or they’re a little skittish about asking for help because they don’t want to reveal this vulnerability. We had the idea that this could serve as a sort of stepping stone on a journey to wellness for people who might not otherwise feel like there’s a way for them to move towards it.
Co-author Chris Grosso
Chris Grosso: Preston pretty much nailed it, though, I have to say that I had him on my podcast because I loved the work he was doing with Fangoria, and Our Lady of the Inferno was such an awesome book! I know my limitations as both a writer and horror aficionado. If I was going to do any semblance of justice to the vision I had for this offering, I knew Preston would be the man to help bring it to fruition, which he above and beyond did!
Horror can be rich in context for those who bother to brush aside the bloody bits. We’re all afraid of something, and the subtextual real-world monsters in our favorite films can be far more terrifying than their fictional counterparts. How did you guys decide what issues and movies to highlight?
PF: It was Chris and I bouncing back and forth about what movies we should include and what elements in those movies to talk about. A lot of the credit for which movies went in goes to Chris because a mandate from the publisher was that these needed to be movies that horror fans would embrace and be excited to see in the table of contents, but that also the casual filmgoer would be able to recognize and engage with. This is a book narrowly meant for horror fans but widely meant for anybody and everybody. We didn’t want to exclude anyone from potentially finding something helpful for themselves. God knows if it had been left to me, I would be talking about some 1970s grindhouse film that I and like ten other people have seen. Chris and the publisher wisely said, “If we want this to have the right appeal, we’ve got to walk this tightrope.” In it, we’ve got the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy, Jason … the heavy hitters are all there. Once we hit on the movies, Chris and I would bounce back and forth on what themes and elements in these movies are recognizable from a psychological perspective.
CG: This was tough because the horror nerd in me wanted to dive into films like Suspiria and The Wicker Man, or more recent films like Cabin in the Woods or Hereditary. For the sake of making this accessible and to potentially help as many people as possible, we decided to go with films that would be more recognizable to a wider audience. Still tried and true classics of the horror genre, but we had to reign ourselves in at certain points. That said, like any good horror movie worth its weight in blood, who knows if there will be a sequel and what that will entail?
What does the pitch for something like this look like?
PF: We worked with Chris’s agent, Michelle Martin, who’s excellent and is a publishing veteran. She put us through multiple iterations of the pitch document because she knew that this was a big swing that could be a home run but could also potentially be a big miss. We worked with her to put together a 25-page document that broke it down in excruciating detail. We each wrote our introductions to ourselves and why we were the right people to tackle this project, and then we wrote the Nightmare on Elm Street chapter and the Friday the 13th chapter and included those as samples of what the book was going to look and feel like. I want to say that we worked more on the pitch deck than we did on the book itself!
Co-author Preston Fassel
CG: The pitch and proposal for this, at times, felt like the bane of my existence. I get how this is an out-of-left-field concept and approach, but in my heart, I knew there was something here that could potentially help lessen the suffering of a lot of people’s lives. At the end of the day, that’s the only reason why I do anything I show up for in life: meeting another person where they are in that moment and seeing how/if there’s any way that I can be of service to them, even if it’s something as simple as being present and holding space so they know they’re not alone. Shortly before the publication of this book, I started working a formal job with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, and the heartbreak that can be the human condition for some individuals as they age is, at times, almost unbearable. There’s also beauty in that – not only when the residents have sweet moments of being lucid, but also as a reminder that life is such an incredible and impermanent gift (though I know it so very often feels anything but, which was another part of the inspiration for this book – finding moments of grace, joy and gratitude when and where we can, which includes while nerding out to our favorite kills in horror movies!).
In piecing together each chapter, you had several different components that had to line up with one another to make the larger discussions work. Factor in an immeasurable number of schools of thought on how to address life’s challenges, and NECESSARY DEATH feels like a massive undertaking. How did two authors living in two different places coalesce their individual contributions respective to the films and issues within?
PF: We had this assembly line process. Once we decided what the underlying theme of every chapter was and what the psychological idea or issue was going to be, I would write the “Oh, the Horror!” portion, which is a combination of film study and analysis. Once I was done with that, I would turn it around back to Chris. He would read it over, compare that with the original ideas we had for what the chapter was going to address, and then synthesize that into his “Oh, the Humanity!” portion. It worked out well because we weren’t sure at first how we were going to co-write a book together when he, at the time, was living in New England and I’m in Texas. We hit upon this idea where I’d go after the first part, and then he’d see how I addressed it. Then he’d turn it around and put that into application.
CG: The way Preston described our process made this so much fun and – transparently – intimidating as well. He’s such an incredible writer who I’d have to go in and follow up on, but it pushed me to go deeper into what I thought the chapters initially were going to explore. And I’m so glad that they did. It also gifted me a dear new friend in Preston on a personal level, as we both had our own struggles pop up from time to time during the writing process. This book actually started about five years ago, so it’s been a long time coming and we’ve both respectively been through a lot during those years.
Hope, when misconstrued, can be a dangerous thing. Why do you feel like you were the best advocates to confront mental health issues through the use of horror cinema?
PF: The book demonstrates that there is no permanent fix or permanent cure; there’s always the potentiality for a relapse or that something doesn’t work. I was very open myself that I’ve reached this point after a lot of struggles and that there’s still a lot of that I have left ahead of me. We never intended to sell this as a one-stop shop, in that, “Now that you’ve read this, you’re fixed.”
CG: Great question, and I love Preston’s answer. I’m an individual in recovery from alcoholism who, after writing three books on that topic (and mental health/spirituality) still struggled with a relapse after the fact, while working on this book. I find that taking the “one day at a time” approach isn’t applicable for only those in recovery from drugs and alcohol, but human beings period. In the Jaws chapter, we talk about breaking big life tasks (or simply life in general) into “bite-sized pieces” and how when we begin to do that, things become significantly more manageable. It’s easier said than done, but when we take some time and put in a little effort toward focusing on what we can do today, and just today, it alleviates so much stress and anxiety. That’s not to say that we don’t still think about and plan for the future, but we learn to focus on the day at hand and, most importantly, take time to celebrate any accomplishment or “win” no matter how seemingly small. Adulting is fucking brutal, so I encourage everyone to own their “awesome” as much as they can, no matter how weird or silly it may feel at first.
NECESSARY DEATH is available for purchase now from Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Amazon.
