Horror Constructs

[Starlightmntn]

I haven't written a pure horror piece for a while, so when I sat down to brainstorm for horror short story for my blog, the perennial difficulty of this genre really rattled me--how to cook up new motifs and flavors of fear. So, partly to help us find fresh constructs by exposing the old, and partly for fun, I thought we could build a list of common horror constructs and examples. I'll start.

--The terrible secret in the past which bleeds over into the present. Traditional ghost stories are often based on this construct. The key is the gradual exploration of the mystery. Examples: The Changeling, Night Stalks the Mansion, The Tommyknockers, The Others.

--The pursuer/predator who has an unnatural, inescaple method of finding you. The key is the chase. Examples: The Ring, Halloween, Seven.

Care to add some of your own?

[preyer]

you could probably find a lot in the cliche thread, lol. here, i think you're using the word 'constructs' to mean plots, no? your word sounds better in a title, but here in the meat of the thing i'll call it what it is, ok?

this is kind of an aside b/c i'm tired and can't think of many horror plots at the moment, but there's a book out there i'm really wanting to get as if i had two minutes in a day to spend reading. anyway, it's about the main 40 character types found in, like, all stories, or at least so many as you'd not turn your hand over for the difference.

take any of the inevitable plots about to be listed henceforth and stick a different kind of character in there and the result *should* bend the plot points around to suit whatever character arc you decide to use. of course, this is just using 'craft' and not so much talent, but it might breath enough life into a tired tale to make it seem somewhat original, eh?

some say the monster is the real hero: the better the villian, the better the story. lots of stories revolve around just the protagonist, for lack of a better term here, as he's hounded by cops, personal daemons, whatever, and those tend to come off as character studies, which can be interesting if your setting is cool, that is certain psychological effects may be different if your nut job is killing off cavemen as opposed to on a space station. never really explored the possibilities there. playing around with your character base invites a whole other spectrum of psychological tangents, eh? following one path should, like i said, change what happens during the story... not the ending, necessarily, but at least how they get there.

i reckon you've only got a certain amount of typical endings you find. the hero kills the villain. the villain kills the hero. the hero wins, but the villain escapes or is imprisoned. the hero dies defeating the villain. the villain becomes good as a result of him being misunderstood is resolved. oh, there are more i guess, but i figger those are your typical endings.

personally, i enjoy a rise-and-fall type story where you see how the villain got to be so bad.

ah, work beckons. more later, hopefully.

[Starlightmntn]

Preyer,

Yes, the cliche thread is similar, but more narrow than what I'm getting at here. Plot is a better description. The central conflict. You know, the soul of the story.

[MacAllister]

Starlight, there are a couple I can think of, offhand:

The Jeckyl/Hyde quandary, protag confronted by his own Jungian shadow, personified.

The monster personifying societal fear of the moment--Frankenstein's monster=emerging technology, Dracula=Victorian-era repressed sexuality