Horror

Horror is a genre of literature and film, named after the emotion it is intended to evoke in the audience.

Definition

As a genre, horror refers more to the mode of writing than to the setting or world-building. Consequently, works of horror can be science fictional, fantastic, or realistic. The commonest mode is probably fantastic, with inclusion of supernatural or fantastic elements.

Strictly realistic or naturalistic horror is probably somewhat less common, although psychological horror is a well-recognized subgenre and crime/mystery/serial killer stories often include significant horror elements. "Millennium" often included serial killer stories with little or no supernatural elements, and numerous other works that focus on the horror that humanity can bring to bear raise no supernatural or fantastic elements. However, such psychological and human horror stories often include an element of ambiguity, or suggest the supernatural. For instance, Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" is a classic example of the ambiguously supernatural horror, and The X-Files episode "Grotesque" is an example of the supernatural lead that turns out to be, after all, human or psychological horror.

Science fictional horror is probably the least common setting/mode for horror works, although it is certainly well-recognized; "Alien" and sequels are an example of science fiction horror. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a work of horror as much as it is of science fiction.

As a mode, as well, horror has often been tied with other modes, including humor (black comedy), camp, thriller, mystery, ...

Horror themes, and creating a sense of horror

Creators often create a sense of horror through contrast of character expectations, with the exterior appearance (usually of beauty, grace, innocence) and interior reality (ugliness, meanness, evil, knowledge); the use of a small child, particularly a small blonde girl, that is evil or uncanny is a common ploy to inject horror. See, e.g., the small blonde girl who was the Partners' representative on Angel; Henry Miller's The Turn of the Screw; etc. "Small" "blonde" "girl" -- each element heightens the contrast with evil, where the social expectations are that small children are innocent and good; "blondeness" = whiteness = morality and purity, a deep and old vein of racism that runs throughout Western literature; and "girl", which taps into the sexist ideals of femininity as innocent and pure, and simultaneously reinforces a religious-founded distrust and hatred of women (perhaps undercutting the horror, but reinforcing sexism). Not all these elements need be present in any one setting, of course; "The Omen" featured a young boy who was Satan incarnate; later sequels showed an attractive young man.

The actual corruption of innocence is related to the contrast in character expectations, and one horror motif shows an innocent being gradually corrupted. See, e.g., Millennium episode "Antipas" in which evil incarnate (Lucy Butler) becomes a nanny to a young blonde child, attempting to corrupt her; see The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) in which a young teenage woman is possessed by a demon; see Xena: Warrior Princess episode "The Deliverer" in which the corruption of Gabrielle's innocence is a key turning point, and a rare moment of horror in the Xena series; see Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968 film) in which an innocent family, woman, and pregnancy are corrupted.

Note that the opposite reveal -- an ugly exterior showing a beautiful person inside -- does not create a sense of horror, but instead opens up possibilities for tragedy, or even comedy or romance. See, e.g., Rigoletto, Beauty and the Beast, Joshua in Dark Angel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.

Character revelations need not be about physical appearance, although they often are; they could be about human expectations of roles. As always, the more extreme the expectation, the greater the contrast, and the greater the sense of horror. For instance, a mother who is revealed to consume or devour her own children would be an extreme horror twist. The mother as horror-figure is more horrible than the father; social expectations are not as surprised by a murderous or abusive father.

The ordinary turned horrible is a central feature of horror, and need not just be about individual characters; for instance, Hitchcock's "The Birds" is about the very ordinary suddenly and inexplicably turned nightmarish.

This also opens up the possibility of discussions of madness or insanity; "The Yellow Wallpaper" is partly a work of horror, because of the sense that the protagonist is either mad or trapped in a supernatural -- and presumably evil -- world; "The Shining" by Stephen King (and the movie by Stanley Kubrick) featured insanity as horror.

Contrasts of plot: Plot twists can create a sense of horror at the end. This reversal of expectations frequently showed up in, for instance "The Twilight Zone" and similar works which rely on a sudden reversal of perspective to shift the viewer's understanding.

Horror in the world or setting -- if the setting itself is truly dystopic or nightmarish that itself can create an aura of horror; see, e.g., Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's False Dawn and other post-apocalyptic horror stories; zombie fiction; and other fiction in which the world has simply gone to hell. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's third-season episode "The Wish" depicts a nightmarish demonic world. The Wish, False Dawn, and various ecological horror stories show a world in which humans have effectively created a nightmarish reality; the sense of horror comes in part from the terrible things that happen in the world, and the ways in which humanity created it.

Horror of the foreign, the outsider, the non-native - Horror of the unknown, the foreign, the alien is also a common thread; this is particularly in contrast with domesticity, nativity, the known, the familiar. A threat of something alien disturbing domestic bliss shows up in numerous monster films, "Alien", and so on. This can be tied with the character revelation and the plot twist -- that what we, the reader and/or the protagonists of the work, thought was a fellow member of the community turns out instead to be alien, evil, a carrier for horror. "Rosemary's Baby" and "That Only a Mother" tap into the fear of the unknown and tie it explicitly to pregnancy and childbirth: that it is impossible to know what one is bringing into the world.

Horror of action - Horror can also be created simply through truly shocking, gory, or graphic violence; a sense of revulsion or disgust, particularly when accompanied by sudden surprise or shock, creates a sense of horror. Slasher films, such as Halloween, often included this feature; realistic (relatively) films featuring animal attacks, such as "The Birds", "Jaws", killer bees, and so on, create a possibility for horror of action and violence as well as the surprise of the commonplace or a presumed safe setting suddenly turned unsafe.

Human activities that are relatively rare but not unreal, and especially those that violate taboos, such as cannibalism, necrophilia, and incest, also create a sense of horror. For instance, "The X-Files" used a death fetishist in "Irresistible", cannibalism in "Our Town", and incest in "Home" to deliver a sense of horror. "Flowers in the Attic" by V.C. Andrews famously sets up a horror story based on child abuse and incest.

Certain human motivations crop up particularly often in horror works and may turn a work from a simple murder mystery, for instance, into a work of horror. Vengeance and revenge in particular excite the sensation of horror; the theme of "vengeance from beyond the grave", for instance, ties into possession and haunting stories; revenge for some older act of horror is common in slasher films.

Relatedly, reenactments of horrors and traumas -- the cycle of violence -- is a common theme.

History of horror genre

Horror as a mode has certainly existed as long as storytelling, literature, narrative, and other arts have. The Greek dramas Oedipus, Antigone, Medea, and so on, and their famed catharsis, certainly draw the cathartic response from the horror of the situations that the protagonists are in, whether from their own actions or the choices forced upon them by external forces (fate, the gods, curses, etc.).

Religious and mythological imagery, which uses rhetorical and literary arts for religious purposes, similarly evokes the horrible to strike fear in the hearts of adherents and potential converts: Dante's Hell, John's Revelations, medieval passion play fascinations with the suffering of Christ (seen recently again in Mel Gibson's "Passion"), Jonathan Edwards' famous fire-and-brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", and the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, are examples of the horror mode in Christian works.

Modern art forms -- the novel, the film, TV series, comic books, video games, etc. -- have all introduced horror in their earliest works. For instance -- Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"; the 1922 film "Nosferatu"; "The Twilight Zone" on TV; the horror comics in the US that prompted Frederic Wertham's recommendations for censoring comics in Seduction of the Innocent (1954); and survival horror video games such as "Resident Evil".

Critical analysis

As a film genre, horror films have included many classic "monster movies" as well as the "slasher film" genre. The latter has been the subject of significant feminist analysis, as it classically portrayed young people, especially young women, in peril, and tied their survival to their sexual virtue. The slasher film thus extended the classic trope of the beautiful (blonde) girl in peril to an extreme, a trope that was central to Joss Whedon's creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- which attempted to turn the horror and slasher film genres on their head.

References

Where to begin? so many

• Carol J. Clover (1992) Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. ISBN 0-691-04802-9.