I never read horror stories, nor watch horror films... but recently it has come to my attention that many such stories are in rural settings.
Why could this be?
Is this some sort of conspiracy to make city dwellers afraid of rural places?
Are the authors just playing on the fear of the unknown by the masses of people who live in cities?
Or is it the fact that rural America tends to be conservative, and thus high density liberal metropolitan areas are trying to implant a subconscious distrust of any idea or person who comes from a rural area?
Or is it more basic than that? Has the herd instinct been carried on throughout the ages? The person who lives outside of town is strange and untrustworthy and scary and probably a witch to boot? The animal on the edge of the herd is more likely to get picked off by predators, thus any herd animal that hangs around the fringe is likely insane and might do anything?
Does anyone have any ideas on this? Googling is less than helpful and I can't find any stories or essays on that topic. This is a pervasive attitude that I find perplexing. My own mother in law found it intolerable to stay at her daughter's farm, it was too far from civilization. She almost never visits us at ours, we are also too isolated for her. It literally freaks out the woman to be out in rural America.
Why could this be? Why don't I feel this way? I've lived in both cities and the backwoods when I was growing up, and I far and away preferred the woods. It's quiet and safe, once you learn the habits of the living things you are likely to encounter and the hazards of the geography.
Why would anyone want to live anywhere else? The only reason I live as close to a city as I do is for employment purposes: my nearest neighbors are 1/2 to 1/4 mile away... and I like it like that! However, I can completely envision moving somewhere more remote once we retire. The fewer people around the better I like it.
So why does Hollywood demonize the rural places? What is their purpose? Anybody know?