What Words Scream Horror!

[Pike]

I thought I'd try something fun, something I haven't seen posted here, or not recently.

When you're writing your wicked nasties, what words do you tend to gravitate towards when crafting a Horror story. I think we all have some favorites that make us squirm just hearing them. Words that describe, that set the mood, that blacken the landscape. Tell us one or several that you feel are words worthy of an official Horror Dictionary.

Pike

[DivineMythos]

A few favourites of mine - writhe, bleak, grim, dismal, disquieted, eerie, peculiar, baleful, ominous, wraithlike, fetid. (Though it's possible that I've read too much Poe and Lovecraft for my own good.)

[davids]

Get this thing off of me. Oh God get it off, this slimey, bulbous, tumour of a thing, oh God help me! Just a sec bubba, we got the Rosie O'Donnel antidote here, just hold on, we are gonna inject it now. There feel better?

[DivineMythos]

Bulbous...now there's one worth thinking over.

[Pike]

I'm in with bulbous. I've got some simple ones I like, for instance: gurgle, dread, humongous, fester, and fetid. Of course, viscose always makes my skin crawl.

Pike

[Jamesaritchie]

Words that instill horror? Hillary for President does the job nicely, and I'm not really being facetious.

Cliche words do not instill horror in me. I hate reading any of the overused buzz words. Statements of real possibility instill horror.

[Summonere]

It's not single words, but inventive combinations of curious ones that do the trick for me.

That said, I get a kick out of the kinds of words that only HP Lovecraft could get away with using in strange combination. Alone, the words don't do much, but in appropriate combinations, neat-o:

abysmal
abhorrent
abomination
accursed
charnel
cyclopean
demoniac
dismal
dreaded
ghastly
ghoulish
gibber
gibbous
grotesque
fearsome
hideous
hoary (I just like the sound of that, which isn't what it sounds like -- but you know that)
loathsome
maddening
maniacal
noxious
phantasmagorical
repellent
shunned
sick
stupefying
slimy
spectral
squamous
travesty
ululation
wormy
yammer

See? Not that remarkable by themselves, but stitch them together in just the right way...

[Andre_Laurent]

Dank and putrid....gotta love putrid...:D

[davids]

In the line of Mr. Ritchie

Hillary Clinton Sex

[Jamesaritchie]

It's not single words, but inventive combinations of curious ones that do the trick for me.

That said, I get a kick out of the kinds of words that only HP Lovecraft could get away with using in strange combination. Alone, the words don't do much, but in appropriate combinations, neat-o:

abysmal
abhorrent
abomination
accursed
charnel
cyclopean
demoniac
dismal
dreaded
ghastly
ghoulish
gibber
gibbous
grotesque
fearsome
hideous
hoary (I just like the sound of that, which isn't what it sounds like -- but you know that)
loathsome
maddening
maniacal
noxious
phantasmagorical
repellent
shunned
sick
stupefying
slimy
spectral
squamous
travesty
ululation
wormy
yammer

See? Not that remarkable by themselves, but stitch them together in just the right way...


Are these words tell me something, no matter what order they're in. I don't want words that tell, I want images that stick in my mind. If you have to tell me something is one of these things, it probably isn't any of them.

Horror is an event, an action, an image or possibility you can't get out of your head, like, as davids said, Hillary Clinton sex, not a word.

[Andre_Laurent]

In the line of Mr. Ritchie

Hillary Clinton Sex
Stomach turning horror. :D Or how about Janet Reno???

[Summonere]

Are these words tell me something, no matter what order they're in. I don't want words that tell, I want images that stick in my mind. If you have to tell me something is one of these things, it probably isn't any of them.

Horror is an event, an action, an image or possibility you can't get out of your head, like, as davids said, Hillary Clinton sex, not a word.

Actually, I quite agree. HP is a teller. And all too often when an author tells you that something is "X", whether that happens to be "horrifying" or "lovely" or "evil," it's because whatever he's just written, or tried to, isn't working. Far more clever to describe what the thing is so that the reader quite clearly understands that, yes, the thing really is horrifying, or lovely, or evil. No need to tell. Telling is the easy way out.

But then HP Lovecraft liked to write about unnameable horrors and indescribable ones, too (which he then often went on to describe, which was frequently a dissapointment. Not that you don't know this. I expect that most people here have read at least some of his work.).

Those things said, I do like his stories because, in addition to being a teller, he's just as often a describer. And I like his words. Words like phantasmagorical. And squamous. And gibbous. And hoary...

That said, I don't think I have a preferred horror vocabulary of my own. Horrifying moments, maybe. Even a horrifying story or two, perhaps, but not words all by themselves. (Maybe I should look through some of my stories, though, just to see...)

[Pike]

I'm all for showing. My intent here was just a fun series of posts about certain words authors gravitate towards as they write horror stories. I've noticed certain authors do overuse particular words in their work so I wanted to see if that was a conscious effort or by chance.

BTW- Thanks James for reinstalling a nightmare in my brain that I managed to erase with cheese grater earlier this year. Hillary for Prez would send Lovecraft running head long into the Cthulhu horrors he created.

Pike

[engmajor2005]

"Cough," and if you've read the Ray Bradbury story "The Whole Town's Sleeping" then you know why.

After reading The Shining, I can never hear the words "red" or "rum" without putting the two together and feeling that litte tingy up the spine.

Words that tend to scare others--grave, blood, dark, shadow, ghost, etc.--I actually find some kind of comfort in. The most comforting word in the world to me? Dark. I love the way that word sounds.

Anyway, I digress...

The word that screams horror above all else to me has to be "end." That's right; end. I saw a painting once where the artist took this old film reel and took the words "The End" in gothic lettering and blew them up, scratches and all. It was spooky.

I'll look it up and share.

[Jack Nog]

The thing I love about horror, is that using the genre, a lot of words that can be considered 'everyday' or non-horror, take on a whole new meaning.

Pluck
Grip
Hung
Pranced (I have no idea, just popped into my head...but consider the example below)

Now take these words into a horror context...

The creature plucked the eyeball out, sliding a thin nail behind the lid.
Eddie gripped the edge, hands scrapped raw from the digging rock.
His hand hung from his wrist by sinew and tendon.
Janet Reno pranced around in her underwear (*shivers*)

I'm a firm believer that almost any word can be used to bring out horror. Sometimes it's the unexpected common words that can invoke the most horror.

[Jack Nog]

Forgot my all time favorite word.

Board

Oh My God! He's got a board...with a nail in it! -- The Simpson's

[blacbird]

Not

For

Us.

caw

[Mom'sWrite]

dentist

and

audit

[davids]

Stomach turning horror. :D Or how about Janet Reno???


Or even worse-how is this for horror-manage a trois?!?!?!?!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

oozing, putrid, corpulent, bloated, cancerous.

Though, these next two bits give me chills worse than any other phrase, ever.

"Mommy, I have poopy-snake"

"Me, too!"

[Pike]

Jeez I'm loving this! Using them in the right context, even the common ones, can generate a chill. And Jack's little story sent me running for cover. Yuck.

Pike

[newmod]

"Finish your sprouts."

[Pike]

Mmmm... veggies. Fruit, for me, hasn't been the same since the Witches of Eastwick. "Have another cherry" sends some colorful images through my mind.

Pike

[Captain Howdy]

Thing.
I haven't seen the word "thing" on this thread (though I might have overlooked it). I use "thing" a lot, for all kinds of, well, things, everything from "the putrid thing slithered up my neck and sank its venemous fangs into my throat" to "the damned thing wouldn't stop crying so I just pushed its little head under and held it for a count to ten."

[Expanding Ink]

Hmmm, maybe this ties in a bit to what was said above about action, but all my favorite horror words are verbs. Seize, glint, shiver, slink.

And, apparently, many of them begin with the letter "s."

[DL Hegel]

Bunnies
car pool
bad 70's music
PMS
Donald Trump
conform
mother-in-law
Barney
Food Network
housework

[davids]

was not it Hannibal dear Hannibal-a nice glass of chianti!! all in the spoked word-

[williemeikle]

Can I be first to mention eldritch :)

I'm particularly proud of this line from one of my books....

"The talons emerged slowly from beneath his fingernails; hot and viscid, slithering like a wet fart."

:)

Willie

[Susie]

blackboard
no chocolate
dentist
mortician
sharks
rejections
scale

[Sonneillon]

"Bloated" never fails to get me. Also, I like (or, rather, am sickened by):

Putrescent
Blubber
Distended
sloughed
festering
noxious
writhing
slime

[DWSTXS]

prostitute

[Ghost Writer]

sordid, scuttle, rot, acrid, stench...

Hmmm. Lots of great words here.

[DL Hegel]

isolated
blackness
unknown
unnamable
lingering
yowl
howl
desperate
calling

[Gillhoughly]

Words that describe, that set the mood, that blacken the landscape.

"Another Clinton is in the White House."

Those words always jolt me awake in a cold sweat, screaming in abject horror.