The essence of horror fiction is fear of the unknown. What made Peter Straub, who has died aged 79, so successful as a horror writer was his understanding that this unknown is at heart a reflection of the deeper unknowns all people face.
The essence of horror fiction is fear of the unknown. What made Peter Straub, who has died aged 79, so successful as a horror writer was his understanding that this unknown is at heart a reflection of the deeper unknowns all people face.

His bestseller Ghost Story (1979), which was made into a 1981 film starring Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Melvyn Douglas, is informed by the reflection of the living that is provided by the dead. This can sometimes be funny, not in a macabre way; one thinks of Thorne Smith’s Topper stories, where the ghosts who haunt Cosmo Topper’s house try to liberate him from his own personality, and a handful of famous films from the golden age of Hollywood. Straub wrote of his own turn “toward the dark and garish” and discovering his own “first effect” when he found he “could make this kind of thing funny”.

Today the death of Julian Sands was confirmed:

Authorities have confirmed actor Julian Sands as dead after his remains were discovered in a Southern California forest area, according to an update from the San Bernardino County Sheriff on Tuesday.

The cause of death for Sands, who had been missing since January, is still under investigation. His remains were discovered by hikers on Saturday morning in the Mount Baldy Area. The hikers then contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station.