The Antlion at the Bottom of the Pit
Horror, at its best, is a literature of destruction, of ultimate loss. The long, irreversible slide towards the giant ant-lion at the bottom of the pit…Specifically, horror is a challenge to our humanity and whether it can be preserved in the face of overwhelming, unavoidable pain.
It often de-normalizes the normal.
You begin in an “Everyman” setting, one that the reader can appreciate themselves occupying at some point, even if the setting is exotic. Progressively the narrative moves away from the normal and into the horrifying.
It’s a literature of the suburbs and the desperate need to inject some form of feeling into a suffocating, emotionally barren landscape.