Dear Trick or Treat '21 Writer...

 

Good to see you here- let’s have fun! I’m hoping this exchange will be a good chance to ask for a bunch of small fandoms, and if you matched with me, it worked!

General likes: Fairy tales, gothic literature, film noir, revenge tragedies, bodice rippers, melodrama, dark comedy, heroine/villain/hero love triangles, heroine/villain dynamics, rescue romance, mythology, maledom (non and dubcon are fine), bdsm, bondage, character studies, what-if AUs, genre swapping AUs, vampires, folklore, knight and lady dynamics, epistolary fic,  interactive fiction.

Horror likes: gothic horror, folk horror, ghosts, vampires, cosmic horror, revenge tragedies, gothic romance, erotic horror, historical horror, apocalyptic logs, found documents, horror comedy, psychological horror, villain/heroine ships (non and dubcon are fine), personalized philosophical horrors, fairy tale motifs.

General DNWs: Gruesome mutilations described in detail, comeplay, ABO, scat or watersports, pushing away female characters, fetish universes, character bashing, fully mundane AUs for fantastical settings, unrequested identity headcanons, harm to cute animals

Open to art or fic for all of these, and Halloween theming is always welcome!

Dragonwyck (1946)

Nicholas van Ryn/Miranda Wells

Trick or Treat

I love Vincent Price and I love Gene Tierney, and I really love them together.  Movie Nicholas seems a lot less cold-hearted than his book counterpart, and I think he probably was in love with Miranda before grief over his son’s death and opium addiction drove him mad.  (Which is not to excuse murdering his first wife- he’s still a very bad man!).  For this canon, I’d really like to explore more of Nicholas and Miranda’s relationship, doomed though it may be. Some ideas: a scene of seduction (involving sex or simply pleasures like kisses, fine wine and scandalous poetry), a darker look at their relationship with obsession and possession and madness would rather this didn’t involve physical abuse but sexual or psychological is okay), or trying to find some way they could have had a happy ending (is that possible?)

Trick ‘r’ Treat (2008)

Rhonda, Sam, Rhonda & Sam

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I want Rhonda to have a fun Halloween! (Whether it’s fun for everyone else is another question…) She could cross paths with any of the other plotlines in the film, or have a supernatural adventure or battle of her own. I see Rhonda as a usually good person traumatized into a moment of revenge, so she can be the good guy in any monster conflicts or side with the monsters if she finds them sympathetic (maybe she’s still friends with the school bus kids?) Or she could just have fun actually trick or treating or studying the holiday! I like how Sam seems to honor her as a good worshiper, maybe even a priestess, so they would be naturals to hang out together. I’m okay with some chaste kid-level romance between them, but it’s not necessary.

Dracula (Movies - Hammer)

Dracula, Marianne Danielle, Lorrimer Van Helsing, Baron Meinster

Trick or Treat

There’s so much backstory to fit into these characters, and so many future adventures the survivors could have! I ship Marianne and Lorrimer so if you want to do something with them together that’s wonderful, but you could also show Marianne dealing with trauma and/or further vampires, or Lorrimer going through one of the horrific supernatural encounters that make up his everyday life. Christopher Lee famously felt Hammer didn’t give him enough lines or characterization, so that’s a perfect chance for you to fill in with some, before or during the events of any of his movies. Or you could show the past where Baron Meinster was one of Dracula’s acolytes (and lovers?) and became a harem-keeping vampire lord himself. Don’t kill off Marianne or Van Helsing, but otherwise you can have all the bloodshed you want!

Waxwork (1988)

China/Dracula, China/Dracula/Marquis de Sade/Sarah. Marquis de Sade/Sarah

Trick or Treat

Such a fun, silly movie!  And absolutely perfect for anyone who likes to read or write Problematic Fanfiction. The movie (and its sequel) have lots of references and homages to classic horror movies, so that would be fun to see here; pastiche away, or even have everyone hopping in and out of various horror movies as in Waxwork II!  In any case, this is a great place to pile on all the gothic tropes for some super-goth villain/heroine ships. You can just plain indulge in the villainous seduction scenes or have China and Sarah break out a bit from their Virgin and Whore archetypes and take their monstrous lovers down. One thing: I know the Marquis de Sade is here, but please no bodily-byproduct or snuff-based porn.

A Shoggoth on the Roof

Prudence Armitage/Herbert West

Trick or Treat

I may be blaspheming here, but this is my favorite Herbert West depiction- he’s a sweet boyfriend who saves the day AND he’s still an amoral mad scientists who commits murder for zombie experiments! He and Prudence are absurdly cute, so they’d fit well in either something nice about surviving together or something horrific about...well, surviving together. (Don’t kill them!) The play is a mishmash of Lovecraft stories, so include whatever you like! Also: the fact that the play is set to the music of Fiddler on the Roof has led tvtropes to say all the characters are ambiguously Jewish, which is wonderful, so if you portray some or all of them this way that would be an amazing bonus.

Fear Street Trilogy

Christine "Ziggy" Berman/Nick Goode

Trick or Treat

Oh no, I thought while watching this, I have a new villain/heroine ship! I love these guys, in both their teenage and adult incarnations. I’m up for a whole bunch of stuff here- I could go for an AU where teenage Nick decided to rebel against his family, or an exploration of how he still tries to get Ziggy despite having given himself over to evil, and how Ziggy feels and what she does either way. Teenage or adult versions of these two are both fine. Feel free to invent any new Fear Street slashers you want, and to pull in anything from the books! They could even have visions of themselves in past centuries (how about the 1800s?) as Deena did. Anything spooky!

Tarot of the Haunted House

Raven Wandsworth

Raven Wandsworth/Knight of Cups

Trick or Treat

I’ll be honest, I’m not super expecting someone to offer this one...but if you did, thank you so much!  And if you didn’t offer it but do like tarot decks, I encourage you to get it- it’s an affordable mass market deck with gorgeous art!  The plot, such as it is, involves the gothic heroine Raven Wandsworth surviving the monsters, cults, and deadly secrets of a forbidding manor before eventually claiming her rightful ownership of the house.  Her canon love interest, appearing with her on several cards, is the Knight of Cups, an angel of water.  He doesn’t solve all her problems for her- she rescues herself on many occasions- but I bet he helps! I’d love to read some gothic romance stuff between them.  Or gothic heroine adventures on her own, if you prefer! Raven discovers the horrible secrets of the house!  She looks into his history wondering if this mysterious man is a danger to those around him, only to find the startling truth!  She has to run away from or fight off a villain!  They have a dramatic first kiss in dark circumstances!  Feel free to give the Knight a name, by the way, and fill in whatever worldbuilding you want.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

Elizabeth/Victor

Trick or Treat

I saw a bad review that said this book was just a Wattpad reader-insert evil boyfriend story...fair enough, but maybe that’s why I love it! (Or maybe it’s because I can imagine this Victor Frankenstein as a young version of the one from the Hammer films!) This can be a darkfic about his obsession with possessing Elizabeth, or something nicer from their younger and better years. I love Elizabeth’s pragmatic determination to survive at all costs, thus making the even more ruthless Victor a sinister foil. Consensual, dub or noncon, sexual or chaste, peaceful or tragic, just give me some more of this beautiful dynamic!

Mary - American Murder Song (Song)

Mary

Trick or Treat

Poor Mary!  I always felt her inclusion in a series of albums about murder was a little unfair (she didn’t intentionally kill her father!) but that also means her song is especially haunting, in spite (or because) of its chipper tune.  It says that she faded into fog, but that doesn’t mean she died, just that no one from her hometown ever saw her again.  The music videos show that she made it to the 6 Mile Inn with Lavinia Fisher and the other murderers from the albums, along with a supernatural personification of America- you don’t have to use any of that, but it’s fun if you do.  If so, how does she interact with the rest of them, and does she escape the inn when it crumbles?  And if you don’t want to use any of that, where does she end up?  Even with a dark tone, cuteness involving the bulldog is a plus!

Pumped Up Kicks - Hildegard von Blingen’ (Song)

Robert

Trick

This is my weirdest request, but hear me out. This cover seems to depict less of a spree-killer story and more of a very violent Robin Hood story (maybe even literally- his name is Robert!) That’s what I’d like to see here. What is that plan he’s making? Who and what is he tearing down? Is he a lone bowman or part of a revolutionary cell? I love the illustration in the lyric video of the rabbit hunting the hound, so go ahead and use that if you like. I’m not looking for just an uninterrupted murder story here, but get as grimdark medieval as the story demands!