Despite what social media trolls, inflammatory news agencies, and suburban Karen’s want you to believe, you can’t just scream out the word “ABSURD” and expect everyone to agree with your opinion, then rally around you with torches and pitchforks. Shouting it louder into the faces of those who disagree with you doesn’t make your opinion anymore valuable or even correct. There needs to be explanation, definition, specific guidelines, and rules to prove something is explicitly absurd. So, when I tell you that the following authors and their content are completely absurd you can bet what’s left of your 401K against your renewed passport that I will have proof, evidence, and legit examples to support my assertion of what Absurdism in Modern Horror Literature is and why certain stories and films should be considered absurdist content.
Just like my Uncle Wilhelm, fresh from the jungles of France, always judging hippos for their dietary choices because Mercury is in a Platypus Retrograde. Giddy-Up!
— Brian DuBois
An Established Literary Genre
As would be expected from a legitimate and established literary genre, Absurdism has rules and expectations to maintain while exploring how meaningless the universe truly is amid our struggle to find purpose in this chaotic and illogical experience called “life.”
Therefore, these tales are steeped in dread, anxiety, and disorientation. Characters mired in existential angst, try to navigate bizarre, nonsensical situations within a grotesque universe intent on being antagonistic. All of it linked by a chaotic storyline with no coherent connections to generate a gorgeous throbbing pile of chilling and uncomfortable psychological horror, slogging its way through puddles of dark humor.
Proven examples that have set the standard for this genre can be found in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis (1915)“, Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” (1927), Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948), and just about anything written by Albert Camus like The Plague (1947). Modern-day examples of absurdism in horror can be found in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000), Jason Pargin or (his pen name) David Wong’s John Dies at the End (2007 book / 2012 movie), Tender is the Flesh by Augustine Bazterrica (2017), Grady Hendrix’s Horrorstör (2014), and Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep (2023).
Key Ingredients
What characterizes these stories as absurdist? As mentioned, there are specific elements that must be adhered to before authors like Thomas Ligotti can begin shouting out into the ethosphere (yep, I made up that word or, at least, I am claiming that I did) that their stories are appropriately disturbing, and frightening enough to be classified as absurdist. These stories prove the universe is meaningless and won’t provide any answers at the end of your grand journey or dangerous quest. Absurdism orders Bilbo and Frodo to stay at home and boil potatoes, it advises Roland Deschain to holster his pistols and drink a Yoo-Hoo, it urges Scott Pilgrim to quit sniffing around that Flowers girl and spend more time at band practice.
Because the only result of a character’s action within the plot of an absurdist horror tale is to suffer through irrational and illogical situations that provide no reasonable or satisfying resolution. In the end, they learn that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. If the slightest modicum of success is able to be achieved by an absurd protagonist, that success will be futile because life will figure out alternative ways later on to body slam and crotch kick that character into sadness, confusion, terror, or subservience.
The structure of an absurd narrative promises a chaotic storyline with no logical connections (think Everything. Everywhere. All at Once. – or when my paranoid schizophrenic Uncle Wilhelm goes off his meds and starts licking live electrical outlets while quoting Sartre.) The dialogue in these stories and films is nonsensical; although darkly humorous and entertaining, it demonstrates the difficulty of true and authentic communication between these bizarre characters. Many of whom have no other purpose than to represent certain components of humanity or society (greed, entitlement, ignorance, lust, etc.).
Modern absurdist horror also delivers meaningless rituals, unsettling transformations, and a sinking boatload of anxiety, frustration, and existential angst peppered throughout. Film examples to witness this awkwardly beautiful dynamic in action are: Skinamarink (2022), The Lighthouse (2019), Swiss Army Man (2016), It Follows (2014), Midsommar (2019), Talk to Me (2022), and Bring Her Back (2025).
The Town Manager
But, as much as I love movies, I am a lit guy. So, let’s explore some short examples of absurdism in horror literature, starting with the Grand Poobah of the genre, Thomas Ligotti. Often lost beneath that huge umbrella of the Lovecraftian genre, Ligotti has produced plenty of other content to provide excellent examples of what absurdism in horror should look like.
Starting off with “The Town Manager.” In this short story, a rather ordinary town is deteriorating and decaying under the poor administration of a succession of inept town managers. Oddly, these government officials disappear into thin air without any notice or fare-thee-wells. To be quickly replaced with an even worse example who causes even more damage and strife. The final rendition of the narrator’s home town is a demented theme park called Funny Town. After that, the narrator can’t take it anymore and flees for better places only to find out that there aren’t any better places. The towns populating the rest of the outside world are also being ruined by feckless town managers. In the end, the protagonist must choose between death or becoming a town manager himself. Because all other options are futile, and the universe isn’t providing any other solutions. The protagonist options for the new career path.
There are many bizarre events, people, and settings in this story. The position of the Town Manager is strange, undefined, and generates angst and animosity among the townspeople. The unsettling transformation of their home into a perverse theme park called Funny Town is also bizarre. It is allowed to occur with little push back or question. Nonsensical language is demonstrated in the nearly indecipherable notes the final town manager delivers to his public, misspelled with poor grammar and sloppy penmanship. Finally, the repeated meaningless ritual of searching for a missing town manager they already know they won’t find and is intended as a distraction while the next town manager gets instilled, acts as another characteristic of absurdism in this anxiety-riddled tale of existential dread. Other fun and absurd short stories written in this manner by Ligotti are: “The Red Tower” and “Teatro Grottesco.”
Milking
An even more bizarre and grotesque ritual gets presented by Michael Cisco in his short story, “Milking.” Young Lucas is required to slurp down a tall glass of milk under his parent’s supervision every morning. A ritual he is not allowed to alter or ignore. There is also a ritualistic dinner party that night, and (to save the best for last) the weird and grotesque ritual of retrieving Lucas’s milk (?) from a smelly, slimy creature they keep locked away in a hidden closet off the kitchen. In proper absurdist fashion, neither Lucas nor the readers ever discover what the hell that creature is, or why Lucas has to imbibe its fluids. Lucas’s only escape might be suicide. His final choice is hinted at, but purposely left obscure. Other bleak stories to check out by Michael Cisco are: “Intentionally Left Blank,” and “Saccade.”
Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka has already been credited as one of the original absurdists. So, if you’re a modern horror author writing in the absurdist genre why not pay homage to one of your elder gods by referencing his title in one of your own? Mariana Enriquez wrote a short story about a woman’s unsettling transformation and titled it, “Metamorphosis,” eliminating the “The” from Kafka’s title. Because 2025 is leaner, meaner and has little patience for definite articles anymore.
The bizarro factor of this story comes from the protagonist’s constant anxiety over maintaining her youthful beauty and good health. Unfortunately, all of her effort in the gym and money spent on cosmetics, surgeries, and diets do not bring her any satisfaction. They prove mostly futile. Then she discovers she has a benign fibrous tumor in her uterus that must be removed. Its huge, she obsesses over this fibroid, cherishes it, and wants to put it back inside her. This far from rational woman misses it being there and actually gets the fibroid reinserted in a disturbing manner. She has pieces of it injected into silicone balls which are then inserted under the skin along her spine. Drastically transforming her appearance into something reptilian with a dragon-like profile. The process of body modification is considered by some to be a meaningless ritual; because, although its procedure is regimented for sterility, safety, and comfort, the outcome is purely cosmetic with no physical health benefits. Other fun pieces of absurdist horror by Enriquez are: “Free of Disgrace,” “Julie,” and “Night Birds.”
An Abundance of Absurdism
Face it, if you love watching movies like Knock at the Cabin (2023) and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) or reading Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett (1990) and Burroughs’s Naked Lunch (book 1959, movie 1991), you are a fan of absurdism. Own it, because you appreciate and crave dark humor, meaningless rituals, unsettling transformations, nonsensical dialogue, grotesque body horror, and bizarre settings in a perverse universe filled only with existential dread. Zero resolution, chaos only.
Join me in this pudding-filled chasm where the dance party’s mosh pit is seething with the silicone injected lips and breasts of one-legged prostitutes operated by creatures snuggled into their brain matter. Dancing alongside an army of battle-ready, heroin-addicted ogres, all named Walter. The Walters praise us as the coolest human beings to ever trod the earth. The Walters told us so – maybe. We can’t be sure what the hell they are saying and who cares anyway, they’ve got lots of cash. And, the library here is stocked full with copies of SG Browne’s Lost Creatures, Paul Tremblay’s Horror Movie, and Brian Evenson’s Song for the Unraveling of the World. On the walls are transcribed versions of Matthew Bartlett’s “If He Summons his Herd,” and Eric LaRocca’s “Not Everything Living Will Rot Away.” A 360-degree blitzkrieg of modern horror absurdism to keep us content until the helicopter beast returns to pick us up.