Horror tropes meet modern nightmares as the South Korean author takes us deep inside a research facility called The Institute
O
ur fears turn feral when they have nowhere to go. South Korean author Bora Chung’s new short story collection plays with old horror tropes: endless corridors and looped staircases, exits that only lead you deeper, a phone that rings and rings (don’t pick up). The kind of stories dare-drunk children trade in the dark.
Set in a research facility known only as “the Institute”, a repository of cursed and haunted objects, Chung’s tales come from the building’s skeleton staff – warnings and gossip from the night shift. It’s a nod, perhaps, to Stephen King’s debut collection, 1978’s still brilliant Night Shift.
The objects in Chung’s Institute seem ordinary – a single shoe, an embroidered handkerchief – but they carry spectral and murderous weight. Some wait quietly, most don’t (be sure to lock your phone away: “ghosts like communication devices”). Every room has its own object, and every object its own story. The building is the book; the book is the building.
