Death Note Is A Thriller First And Foremost But In Some Ways I Do View It As A Horror Story.

death note is a thriller first and foremost but in some ways i do view it as a horror story.

the horror of death note is the idea of never having someone truly understand you. the people in your life, your friends and family, they can look you over from head to toe, but they can not see you. they will listen to everything you say when you speak, but you are still not heard. it's about being so dirtied by the inescapable loneliness not being understood brings you, that you try to clean yourself with the blood and viscera shed by your ballpoint pen. you find solace in death and decay. "home" has become your local cemetery.

but in the same vein: the horror of death note is having someone understand you so carnally that for the first time in your life you are frozen in fear. there is no greater terror than laying open on the operating table and having the muscles of your chest peeled apart, skin pulled back, hard hands exposing the soft flutter of your exposed lungs. there is no greater fear than when the man above you snaps each rung of your ribs with delight, because he is searching for something, something deep inside you that is also inside him. you have waited all of your life to be seen and to be heard, and now you have been, and it's terrifying. what do you do about this? what can you do about this?

in a way the horror of death note is -- only one of you will survive this. the horror of death note is -- you can never be truly alive once you have killed your humanity. the horror of death note is -- the one man who finally understood you was the only thing keeping you human in the first place. what do you do after you've killed him?