Ok, this is an Offtopic if I ever seen one - but I prefer asking real people than google when it comes to mood and themes of fiction. And google doesn't have all the answers. And is unthinking, unfeeling machine. As far as we know.
And TVtropes only get you so far...
Anyway.
Now, not being from US, I'm not tapped into american tattle and chatter nor legends. Someone who doesn't live in UK won't really understand why people are making fun of Wales for example. So here's a question to US people and/or anyone who's attached in some way...
What the hell is wrong with New England. I mean - in every work of fiction, if there's New England involved, there are mass graves, witch hunts, secrets buried underneath the pavement, small town communities hiding dark-and-terrible secrets or just plain old lovecraftian horror just waiting around the corner to show itself.
What is it with this part of the world? Did Stephen King just invaded our global imagination and just because he used New England in almost every novel he made we assumed there's something wrong with this region? Are people there more goth than the original Crow movie? (Nothing is more goth than Crow...) Do you need to pass an exam of drawing perfect pentagrams with virgin blood to become a citizen of those parts? Where there more witch-trials than anywhere else in the world, historically speaking? Or is New England simply mostly comprised of small towns and people are afraid of small tight-knit communities?
Please help me understand...