dark fantasy assessment

Dark Fantasy is a genre that focuses on themes such as horror, fear, impending death, the unknown, etc…. “Duel”, by Richard Matheson, provides the themes through a modern day encounter between a regular person and a maniacal truck driver. “The Raft”, by Stephen King, uses the themes as an eerie lake monster devours a group of college students. “Nightcrawlers”, by Robert McCammon, incorporates the themes by giving a Vietnam vet the ability to make his nightmares come alive. All three stories include the main aspects of the dark fantasy genre, but in my opinion, Nightcrawlers incorporates them the best.
Dark fantasy doesn’t always have to include fantastical elements, like vampires and creepy creatures; sometimes it’s just a killer truck driver. In Duel Mann is trying to get to San Francisco, but on his way he encounters a truck. This truck though doesn’t like being passed though, and so when Mann does all hell breaks loose. The driver constantly follows, instills the fear of death in, and tries to kill Mann. The truck driver even went as far as waving him on when a car was in the other lane. “The car came under his control again. Mann was sucking breath in through his mouth. His heart was pounding almost painfully. My God! He thought. He wanted me to hit that car head on” (161 McCammon). The fear of dying is strong in this story, and Mann knows he may not live. Duel uses a modern example of a deadly car chase to show the fear of dying in Mann.
Scary and killer creatures are often used in dark fantasy to express fear, death, and the unknown. In The Raft the creature is some sort of compact liquid type of creature that sucks its victims up. The creature uses a trick that entrances the victims to looking into the spirals it creates before sucking them up to their doom. The four students don’t know what this creature is, thus the unknown part. The fear wasn’t that high until after Rachel was gruesomely murdered by the creature. The students knew they were going to die, it was inevitable. The story used most of the themes of dark fantasy to effectively show the fear, gruesome deaths, and unknowing.
Nightcrawlers is a great example of dark fantasy because not only does it involve fear of death, but also the magical ability to make nightmares come alive. Price had been through a lot while in Vietnam. Having to step on dying comrades for his use of escape has haunted him all of his life. Now whenever he sleeps, his dark memories come alive as the “Nightcrawlers” come to take him back. The ability to transform dreams is not normal and especially scary since they won’t go away until he dies or the Nightcrawlers get their revenge. When Price is on the floor unconscious, his comrades come out of the woods and open fire on the diner. Bob along with the others present fear for their life as bullets fly everywhere and destroy everything in the diner. The only way they can disappear is if Price wakes up or he dies. In the end, the Nightcrawlers get their revenge by killing Price (this also makes them disappear). His soul was then able to rest, as he joined his comrades. Nightcrawlers is the best example of dark fantasy because it combines both dark and fantasy elements.
All the stories bring something to the table, but it is Nightcrawlers that takes the cake in most effective showing dark fantasy. The other two provide either too few of the elements or only use themes from one of the two areas of dark fantasy. Nightcrawlers showed the dark side with the fear of death and the unknown. With the fantasy side the example is the ability to make dream come alive. The dark fantasy genre is all about death, fear, and the unknown, and out of the three stories Nightcrawlers is the most effective example the genre.