One theme has always been consistent in horror: humans are not the ultimate predator. Something out there is bigger and badder and wants to hurt you-something that may look like a human or maybe something else entirely. Maybe it wants to do more than hurt you. Maybe it wants to devour you.

Cannibalism has been in horror for decades, from the sultry and alluring vampire who wants to suck your blood to the crazed hillbilly family who just wants a little nibble. 

There are even examples of everyday Joes being fearsome murderers, human people who delight in tearing flesh and gnawing on bones. Men like Hannibal Lector, who, in all honesty, could’ve been scarier. 

Don’t get me wrong, I adore the whole “I don’t have emotions” killer trope. However, I feel as though cannibalism is infinitely more ghastly and effective at scaring audiences when it comes from a place of emotion. 

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In general, emotions make everything better, especially in horror. It’s hard to be scared or feel anything when there’s no emotional stakes in a story. Cannibalism is no exception.

The consumption of human flesh by a human is scary. The sight and sound alone of someone being eaten, imagining that pain is scary, so writers or directors use cannibalism to be analogous for things that are scary in real life because of the emotional turmoil it brings. 

A way of exploring this relation between cannibalism and emotion is to make it something a cannibal couldn’t possibly control, an all-consuming urge to eat. 

This addiction to something so foul creates a complex cannibal, someone more compelling than dear ole’ pookie Lector.

The critical success of “Bones and All,” both the book by Camille DeAngelis and the movie by Luca Guadagnino, support this notion. For a shorthand summary, certain individuals in this story have an uncontrollable addiction to eating other humans. A tragic, beautiful and disgusting analogy for addiction that, when paired with the imagery, made readers and watchers everywhere gag.

In the iconic album “Preacher’s Daughter” by Ethel Cain, a young woman is betrayed by her lover Isaiah. Isaiah exploits her body for profit and feeds her dangerous cocktails of drugs, eventually leading to her demise. After Cain is dead, Isaiah cannibalizes her. Isaiah didn’t eat Cain because he was hungry or just because he wanted to; Isaiah ate her in a twisted and horrific attempt to keep her close to him forever, to control her even after her death.

Cannibalism can be so much more than eating another person. It’s the action of devouring another complex individual, chomping on flesh, cramming down the soul of another, sucking on teeth like sugar cubes. 

It doesn’t have to be all close-up shots of gore and horrible eating sounds; it can be  a powerful tool for analogy. It’s so anti-human that to look into it is to look into the eyes of God and see nothing staring back. 

Something that can be so scary deserves to be used properly in media. Don’t use cannibalism to just gross out an audience with the sight of lick-wet carrion. Use cannibalism to show hidden depths in your horror whilst simultaneously making people gag.

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Also, this article does not condone cannibalism.

Garrett McEntee is an 18-year-old English freshman from Benton.