Today on Masters of Horror we are chatting with Phil “The Beast of the East” Baker. He’s a relative newcomer to the horror genre, but he came out of the gates swinging for the fences with his first book: THE HOUSE ON HANGING HILL LANE. Creepy and atmospheric it details one young woman’s struggle against supernatural forces after a death in her family. It’s an impressive debut and one that every true horror lover has to have on their TBR pile right now!
Tell me a little about yourself.
I grew up in Essex, U.K. before moving to Devon for twenty years. Now I’m all over the place. I travelled for a year in South America and wrote The House on Hanging Hill Lane manuscript while I was in Bolivia. Now I’m back in England but to and from the Philippines when I can, where my wife is from. I don’t have a 9-5 but I’m self employed as an actor and filmmaker, so sometimes go off and do that. I teach screen acting at university sometimes, too.
Why write horror? What is it about writing terrifying scenes that excites you?
I got into horror writing when a friend wanted a horror screenplay. It was finished when Covid came along and knocked all the inertia out of the project and everything else. That’s the story I wrote into the novella. Then I just loved it. I still like writing comedy, which is how I learned to write. It still finds its way onto my horror pages sometimes. Sometimes I leave it in because it’s fun. Sometimes I take it out because it distracts from the real point of the scene. I’m really toying with a comedy horror book idea though. I think that would be a lot of fun to write. The problem is when I try to write funny I forget how. But I love writing horror and I love the community. The community was one of the best surprises of my life. It’s almost ironic that it’s the least scary community on the internet.
What’s the scariest book you’ve read? And why?
I think it’s hard to be scared by a book unless you’re wired that way. I keep trying though. Follow the Leader by EE Maguire had me wincing and looking away for the first time. The Butterfly Garden is horrifying. Not scary, just sickening. Duma Key gives some of the best scary visuals.
What are you working on now? Is it a standalone? Part of a series? Also if you had to describe your book to a Hollywood producer in their lingo “it’s X Meets Y” where X and Y are movies, what would that be?
All sorts. Part 2 of the Hanging Hill Lane story is priority. That one is kind of worked out. Also a collection of short stories and a paradise island folk horror novel, working its way up the list. And a short story for the Books of Horror collection. That one’s pretty much ready. That’s a comedy horror, but it’s somehow also gentle and pretty, and good for the heart, I think. It’s called The Cunt.
Where can we find you?
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