is horror dead?

Horror is eternal.

At least that's what I feel. Horror has some of the most loyal fans,ever. I can't believe that it's dying!

I think that the publishing industry has a very narrow view of horror at times. There are books being marketed as horror,when they aren't even close. When one of these books becomes popular and the resulting imitators follow it,the definition of horror changes. Or books have an element of horror,but they are crossed with another genre and still get labeled as horror.

I see all these names and sub-genres,but no real horror. To me,horror is scary as all hell fiction,the kind that keeps you up at night and makes you check all the locks in your house.

I think it is just a downturn right now. Horror always hangs around and goes through a period where we think the genre is dying. But it always comes back.

I agree with Kitty, though you could say that about most genres.

"Scary" is one of those things, like "funny," that's different for everyone.

I think it's a downtrend right now. For a long time, a lot of authors I knew of were marketing their horror as "supernatural thrillers" so as not to connote them with that "icky horror stuff."

I have not seen a good horror novel come out for several years. Never a fan of Stephen King's books, some would beg to differ.

In fact, the last horror novel I read was by Bentley Little and it wasn't very good. He was off his game with "His Father's Son." In fact, I was shocked to walk into B&N and see all of his books pulled from the shelf right after "Son" came out.

I haven't seen any new icky bug books in a long time. In fact, the last icky bug book I read was buy our own FotsGreg and it was a hoot, but it is not officially published yet. I have two icky bugs waiting in the wings, but don't know who to send them to. To tell the truth, I actually have been concentrating on my fantasy and adventure series lately, so that is part of the reason. In fact, I finally got a publishing contract for my fantasy novel, so I at least have something going on.

Slim pickings out there, right now.

As long as there is a mankind there will be horror. It's the nature of us beings. I think that Hollywood goes in spurts. (And always a little behind the times.) Next time you are around some little kids....be spooky with them and see their eyes light up and ....wait, that might not be such a wise idea. But you get what I mean. If you do it well and can make the skin crawl you will get published. I wish I could write good horror. Mine are only dark. There are some in this forum that go that extra mile and really come up with some scare the hell out of you stuff.

Naked Rush Limbaugh. If that doesn't keep you up at night...

ArcticFox said:

Naked Rush Limbaugh. If that doesn't keep you up at night...

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Rush Limbaugh alone would keep me up at night.

quagsire440 said:

Rush Limbaugh alone would keep me up at night.

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See? Horror is alive and well.

Horror isn't Dead

Horror as a genre, is not dead.

I think there's a pall cast over the industry because the current economic issues in the country. This doesn't make horror dead, but it does mean that someone who is living in a foreclosed home as a squatter might not want to read a book about a haunted house; they're living it. Hence, sparkly boy vampires enthralling an impressionable young girl is a lot more attractive than, say, a vampire in a suit. (Parallels to the banking industry, anyone?)

Which would/do you read when the bills are insurmountable and you might be laid off? Whatever is most escapist would be my answer. I can tell you for a fact that my co-workers, all fearing layoffs, are reading more horror fiction than ever.

Nah. Lots of sub-genres are getting attention, and "supernatural thrillers" or "supernatural romance" etc. Horror's not dead, just specialized and/or repackaged for the time being. Based on the number of them that get released and do respectable sales, zombie novels seem to have been fairly hot for the last few years.

Horror isn't dead. It's just going through a bit of a change. I blame all those sexy vampires.

Jcomp said:

Nah. Lots of sub-genres are getting attention, and "supernatural thrillers" or "supernatural romance" etc. Horror's not dead, just specialized and/or repackaged for the time being. Based on the number of them that get released and do respectable sales, zombie novels seem to have been fairly hot for the last few years.

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This. And that goes double for the zombie thing. I have to admit, it's a relief after all the vampire stuff. There is some really good vampire stuff being written, but it sort of gets lost in the shuffle.

Of course, I have to admit there are some zombie novels that I wouldn't exactly call horror, though, even though I enjoyed them. Pride & Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter come to mind...though of course the latter isn't a zombie novel, duh. *facepalm*

quagsire440 said:

Rush Limbaugh alone would keep me up at night.

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ew.

*calls security*

No, horror is not dead. I've seen horror listed on an agent's blog as one of the things he wishes he saw more of.

I do think, however, that you need to have an unusual story with strong characterization, and your manuscript has to be polished until it shines. Even with that, some of it is luck. Your query letter/manuscript has to get in front of the right agent at the right time. Since there are fewer agents who rep horror, our window of opportunity, so to speak, is a bit smaller than say, young adult.

Horror ain't dead.

It's been bastardized with Paranormal Romance and Twilight, but it's still kickin'.

I think horror ebbs and flows like a lot of genres, depending on the time period.

I read somewhere that a lot of people think that horror grows in interest in times when people are unsure such as during economic crises but Martin Rose seems to contradict that in a way that I might agree with so I'm not sure.

I wonder how popular horror was during the Great Depression...

That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet with stranger aeons, even Death may die.


H.P. Lovecraft

I firmly believe that this quote can be applied to horror in all its varied cloaks and disguises. True horror never really dies. It may lurk, recede from our collective consciousness from time to time, lying fallow, allowing fakes and charlatans to cloak themselves in its guise, and readying itself to come round again and blow our socks off.

It takes time for a horror author to craft a good horror story. It's not done in a day or a week or a month or even a year. True horror is a learned craft, like medicine or oil painting. It doesn't just happen and those who think they're writing "horror" all too often are writing something that touches upon horror, but is more realistically romance with trappings of things they think are horrible. Examples are Dark Shadows (the TV series, not the movies - the movie House of Dark Shadows is virtually a classic evil vampire movie full of vicious killer vampires and blood), Twilight, TruBlood, Kindred: The Embraced, and a few more. These programs and books attempt, rather openly, to disguise a classic romance soap opera by draping it with the trappings of a few hints of the horror genre. Note that all of the referenced works drape their offerings in vampirism as if vampires are the ultimate in horror.

They ain't.

In fact, Kindred: The Embraced and Twilight share so many features that I'd have a squad of lawyers chasing each other's tails if I was the designers of the original RPG or the author of the books (but we know which came first and who stole what from whom). But I digress...

Vampires are not horror anymore. They can be horrible, but the idea of vampires has so infested our cultural more's that we cannot even conceive of them as being all that horrible or "bad" anymore these days.

There are other things that affect our every day lives that are far more horrible.

The trick is to find and expand upon the genre and mythology in such a way so as to find a new way of presenting an ancient and undying idea and feeling to new readers.

We used to do it around a campfire. Then it was called a ghost story. Today we do it in books and in the theaters.

Usually badly.