Irrational fears, which are just prejudices put another way, are horror’s bread and butter. Look at the novels – fear of wolves, dogs, sharks, spiders, Southerners, the elderly, children, the insane, disease, strangers, neighbors, landlords, babysitters, temps – even fear of horror writers. Horror authors are like the mischievous kids in class that keep flaunting all the rules of social correctness. We shake our heads at them, but secretly they entertain us with that stuff. Horror only works if we’re phobes of some kind.