What do you like about horror?

quagsire440 · Aug 21, 2010

As the title says.

I think it was Joyce Carol Oates (and I'm paraphrasing here) who said that it's a great way of telling truths about people/life/etc, similar to literary fiction. It can use the supernatural or thrilling elements as a backdrop for intelligent examinations.

I also like that horror will go in absolutely any direction. It can vary in so many ways, it can turn your expectations upside-down and shatter them, it fuses nicely with just about any other genre, and since anything can scare if done right, any subject can work.

Finally, it's just fun to read and write.

What are your thoughts?

FOTSGreg · Aug 21, 2010

It's fun, both to read and to write.

It allows a writer to reveal different aspects of human nature ranging from stupidly courageous to stupidly inept to stupidly cowardly, from outright bravado to outright panic-stricken fear, from psychotic to calculating, etc., etc.

It allows the reader to experience a range of emotions the normal cubicle drone has no hope of ever actually feeling in real life.

It allows us to explore a depth and range of "what if" situations that our humdrum day-to-day existence denies us and that is perhaps not approached in any other genre than science fiction.

Death Wizard · Aug 21, 2010

I love horror plots. I find them very entertaining. It's really a great escape for me, both reading and writing it.

Rhoda Nightingale · Aug 22, 2010

For me, as with everything else I read, it's all about character. I have to love and care about the characters. The story is secondary, but with horror, you know that the characters are going to face something terrible and either figure out a way to conquer their fear and get through it, or die trying. That's the thing about horror--you really don't know until you get to the end whether the good guys will win or lose. It forces them, and you by proxy, to confront that possibility. It really digs at you psychologically.

CheG · Aug 23, 2010

I like the sense of 'otherness' in horror. Things/beings/creatures/ beyond control and sometimes beyond rationality.

I think horror takes a lot of imagination to read and to write because some of it is so out there.

And ghosts are scary.

Feidb · Aug 24, 2010

I like the pure fun of monsters and mayhem. To me it's an adventure with a monster or monsters. It is something ridiculously impossible scientifically, yet still almost believeable. It takes me back to the old black and white B movies on KTTV in Los Angeles in the late 50's and early 60's. It takes me back to the monster bubble gum cards that were 5 cents a pack. It takes me back to Them, Day The Earth Stood Still, Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. The Outer Limits.

Seeing icky bug as a character study would ruin it for me. Don't get me wrong, I'd have to care about at least one of the main characters, but it's the adventure and the monsters I really care about. Maybe that's why I don't like Stephen King.

FOTSGreg · Aug 24, 2010

Feidb, yeah, icky bug as a character study probably wouldn't work. I'm getting close to finishing the basic outline for Larval Stage, the sequel to Hatchings, and while it's not a character study, it's got a lot more action and adventure in it than the first book did, but it's also got your icky bug aspect as well.

I'm thinking I might get to start working on Larval Stage and a few other works that need to be completed come September when lots of other pressures should be off my back for at least a little while.

FOTSGreg · Aug 24, 2010

Feidb,just between you and me, and the rest of the forum, I've been watching a lot of the old The Man From UNCLE series lately for inspiration on evil organizations for Section Four.

Feidb · Aug 25, 2010

FotsGreg, Yeah! Man From Uncle! I still see Ilya on NCIC every week. A bit longer in the tooth though!

I got a contract for my fantasy story so I'm back to working on my icky bug, The Factory. I had a lot of fun writing it and am having almost as much fun editing it. It is the story that has those first few paragraphs everyone here hated so much when we did that anonymous first paragraph thing last year.

Anyway, Man From Uncle is a great place to get an adversary organization for my adventure/thrillers too.

DeleyanLee · Aug 25, 2010

Horror explores the dark side of life that few other genres will even give a nod to. It explores the fears, the dreads, the weirdnesses that we all are happier not thinking about. And it does it in a medium that is fully engaging and yet totally within our control as a reader, so we have that "comfort zone" of knowing we can put it down, walk away from it even though we know--and we want it to stay lurking in our thoughts and make us jump when we least expect it.

Satori1977 · Aug 26, 2010

I have always been fascinated by monsters, first of all. So it is a lot of fun.

I also like that you have no idea where the story is going. You get to see the true side of human nature. The tough guy who becomes a coward. The insignificant nerd who faces his (her) fears and conquers them, saving other people. You never know who will die, even the MC. If it will be a happy or a sad ending.

I also love how you can feel such fear from the comfort of your own home, knowing you really are safe, but at night, going to bed, when you see a weird shadow on the wall, or a bump against the window....your mind goes back to that story and you freak yourself out all over again.

Inarticulate Babbler · Aug 28, 2010

I've always been fascinated with the dark side of man, insanity and the psychology of fear. Anything that takes you deep into madness, makes you unsure of your footing or breaks comfort should be fully explored.

Monsters should not be revealed (or studied too deeply), when they are, they're no longer monsters. Only unknown and dangerous things can generate fear by going bump in the night. Creepy and disgusting are nice elements for setting, but once you realize the slime is from a giant silkworm's ass, the fear dissipates. And once you give him any sympathy, you can throw out horror; you've just created a new Godzilla vs. Mothra.

quicklime · Sep 2, 2010

i like a story to have some payoff. and maybe I'm ADD, maybe I'm jaded and boring, maybe whatever else, but romance novels don't do much for me. "mainstream" lit does even less, depending on the situation. I like folks to come close to dying. That's enough of a jolt to trip my trigger.

In good horror, there is also some mythology; "good" horror is highly subjective, but I really liked the vampire mythos as laid out in bits and pieces in "Agyar", the Tak mythology in "Desperation", and the witchcraft set up in "Hexes" and "A Lower Deep", as well as the just weird fantasy mythos in the John the Balladeer shorts by Manly Wade Wellman. But failing that, make is fast and scary.

Cranky · Sep 4, 2010

Long story short -- bad people getting their comeuppance. I love it. Doesn't happen enough in real life for me. :evil

Slightly longer answer -- as others mention above, I too am fascinated by the darker side of people. What compells them to do evil to others, etc.

And, of course, squicky monsters getting squished is ALWAYS fun.

Jenan Mac · Sep 26, 2010

I rarely read horror, aside from the rare Stephen King when I was bored, for most of my adult life. Just figured I didn't like it.
What I discovered when I joined AW though was that I liked horror writers. The ones I saw around most often were very witty, intelligent, and quirky-as-all-hell people with an other-than-usual way of looking at the mundane. At which point I started giving horror a chance again, starting with stuff in SYW. At its best, horror writing is a lot like horror writers.
It's still not what I read most, because I'm horribly nightmare prone, but we can consider my horizons expanded.

Dodge · Oct 22, 2010

The fact that horror and horrific thoughts just may occupy the mind/imagination more often than we may care to admit makes it that much more real. Out of all the unreal, imaginative subsets out there... horror just may be the most real.

The thin line between the real and the unreal... yet so real, so scary, so there... waiting. We believe it to be impossible yet we also know that we truly know little about life, our origins, and what may have been here before us (or what is headed our way)... that's where the second guessing comes in as you walk home alone at night after a cold rain storm. What is lurking from the depths of the past to take us down into the pain of the present?

It gives me the creeps, chief!

Camilla Delvalle · Oct 23, 2010

In the horror stories I have read I have mostly liked the fascinating ideas.

soapdish · Oct 25, 2010

Well, ditto to what's been said already about the exploring the icky stuff in a comfortable environment you can control.

And I'll add that I've always been intrigued by evil things masked as beautiful things. Which is why I don't mind a *slight* crossover with romance and vampires or other monsters. As long as the monster is eventually revealed for what it is.

I guess I like a good evil seduction (not necessarily a sexual one, it could be money, power etc.) where the characters are tempted and tested to do or not do the right thing. This happens in other genres too, it just holds my interest more when the evil is REALLY evil, I think.

skunkmelon · Nov 24, 2010

Horror is fun. It sheds light on midnight terrors, it brings out the best and worst of characters and give the reader a chance to feel the fear of teeth at her neck or hear the howl of a monster as it lurks in the shadows . . . all in the safety of a cozy chair.

It transports you to new worlds, new lands, introduces you to people you might never meet in real life--a psychotic killer, a gun toting assassin, a vampire . . . (although I'm still holding out that someday I will meet a vampire)

Nothing makes life so precious as a taste of death, right?

psykeout · Nov 24, 2010

I love the idea of horror, because it allows me a chance to do the things (in story) that I would never act out in real life. It's more of an escape and a chance to explore the innermost demons inside of me, without the retaliation of society coming back to me.

Evil is so disgustingly attractive sometimes, that a chance to experience it within a controlled environment makes it that much more exciting. How often do you get to see an extension of yourself fulfilling your darkest desires?

seun · Nov 25, 2010

The contrast between the darkness in horror and the light we can bring to it by our attempts to survive, overcome or make peace with it. We can be at our best when faced with horrific situations; we can be stronger than we have had need to before; we can try to fix terrible things. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we succeed. Either way, we can bring our best to our nightmares.

And sometimes, it's cool when people die horribly.

Fiona · Nov 25, 2010

I've been obsessed with horror since I was 5 years old and my brother tied me to a chair to make me watch Pet Semetary. Since then, I've had an addiction to it.. I can't put it down to one thing, but I do love to be scared....

dolores haze · Nov 25, 2010

I like that there's no proscibed ending. In Romance, there must be a happy ever after. In mystery, the sleuth must solve the crime. In fantasy, the hero must fulfill his destiny. A bit general, I know. But in horror - you just never know until the end HOW it is going to end. I like that. I like it a lot.

CounterGem · Dec 8, 2010

What I Like About Horror

It's the same thing about what I like about comedy, drama or thriller. A good horror book affects me emotionally. A good comedy makes me laugh; a good drama makes me cry; a good horror traumatizes me; a good thriller gives me a panic attack. To me, those are the most gripping stories.

What do you like about horror?

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