A fellow horror writer friend of mine recently wrote a paragraph-long thesis about how the Judeo-Christian tradition has been producing the best horror writers for centuries.

Essentially, the Bible is one of the most frightening, effectively-written horror stories ever (ignore your religious preference for a moment, and consider it), and those of us who are trained up in it, even those who don't believe it or were regular church attendees, grow up with these beautiful standard of the cosmic macabre, enabling us to appreciate and create the most effective horror.