Bored Panda reached out to S. Elizabeth, writer and creator of the “Unquiet Things” blog, as well as the author of “The Art of the Occult: A Sourcebook For The Modern Mystic”. She has been interested in scary things that freak others out ever since she was 5 years old. “I saw a Dracula on an episode of Scooby Doo. I’d never even heard of vampires before, let alone seen one, and learning that there were blood-thirsty creatures who hover outside your home, just awaiting an invitation inside so they could poke their fangs through your neck and drink you up like a platelet-flavored Capri Sun scared me so badly that I’ve never been the same since.”

But at some point in her childhood, S. Elizabeth realized her panic and fright regarding the bloodsuckers and monsters from outer space had turned into fascination. “Whereas I would once hide my face behind a pillow when something scary was happening, I now began to feel the itchy urge to peek.” As she grew older, S. Elizabeth said that her fascination with fearsome things turned into a full-blown obsession. “From literature and film, to music and art, from that time forward, I was hungry for all things unearthly and strange, ghastly and ghostly, gruesome and grotesque,” she said.

S. Elizabeth argues that there are things people are deeply fearful of now that they were many hundreds of years ago. “No doubt they will strike fear into the hearts of future generations. Death and loss and aging, war and sickness and disease. Fear of the unknown!”

Having said that, she believes that the details change with the times. “Maybe those fears take different shapes, but until we figure out how to stop the aging process and become immortal (like those vampires!), unless we get a handle on our violent human tendencies, unless as a people we learn to become more compassionate and empathetic—none of those things are going to change, and those fears will continue to plague us in some form or another.”

S. Elizabeth also explained: “maybe it seems like we’re more scared now than we ever were, what with our smart phones and a million apps with a million social media accounts bombarding us with all of the horrors of the modern world, 24 hours a day. As a lifelong horror enthusiast (and someone who is afraid of a lot of things, like A LOT), I feel that I’m not too far off.”