'Slowly' Becoming Horror

SaneAngel

Registered
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
PA
I went through a few pages to see if this topic was raised, however I didn't come across (in my 28 hour and ongoing awake state) anything that seemed relevant. I apologize if this question was posed before, on here.

My question is what opinions people have on the transfer of other genres, most notably of course 'Thriller' or 'Suspense' into a pure horror genre midway into a novel. I can't off the top of my head come up with a specific story that is exactly relevant to reference (which I think says more against me than it does anything else), so I'll just be blunt.

If you create a less than happy world where your MC was blind to the fact that they on the razor's edge, is it unreasonable to, say, have the entire tone and even genre change when they finally open their eyes and slip off and onto that blade? Does the existence of the original genre(s) have to be maintained in spite of the desired shift?

I'm sure this has been done before, just I cannot think of a specific example so I'm generating a template example in my own mind. This overzealous template example: Four friends find mansion. Mansion is pretty (it matters, to me). Random friend touches x or y or explodes the vase of a million souls. All four are suddenly victimized, tortured, whatever. Where is the limit drawn? Does the tone change have to exist before, say, the first third/hurdle of the novel? Can it be towards the end? I meant this example to start as suspense, but make that tone shift towards horror, which is always my desired end goal... (just to clarify)

I learned after writing this that I'm wretched at trying to word questions; if anyone could make sense of me here- huzzah.

If this was supposed to go into Thriller/Suspense/Mystery, my apologies.

Edit: Maybe think like the Mummy, that sort of concept. Except with more fleshed our suspense before the whole 'everything goes wrong' concept
 
Last edited:

catesquire

<3<3<3
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 2, 2017
Messages
99
Reaction score
32
Location
US of A
It is completely reasonable to have the MC be blind to the genre they're living in. A not-horror-but-famous example: The Giver. The MC thinks he's living in a utopia. Readers begin to suspect otherwise before the wool is fully pulled from the MC's eyes. The same trick gets pulled in pretty much every mystery or horror book that begins its narrative prior to the first murder: the characters are blissfully unaware of what awakes. It's up to you as the writer to slip in enough foreshadowing breadcrumbs so that when the shift occurs, it feels thrilling rather than jarring.
 

WormHeart

Dual class author / nightguard
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
254
Reaction score
23
Location
Frozen wasteland of Denmark
Website
www.fromthefrozennorth.com
Think of the movie From Dusk til Dawn.

A gangster movie with kidnappings that midway suddenly turn into a vampire gore-fest.
I loved it.
My friends hated it.

The danger, as I learned later on, in doing this, is that it will only appeal to fans of both genres. You'll lose the readers who liked the original genre and don't like this new turn of events, and you will not pick up fans of the second genre, who are not into the first, because they will not pick up the story in the first place.

I learned this the hard way with a horror novel that won a major award but sold almost nothing. I had combined horror that turned out to be an alien abduction setting, and my readers wouldn't have it. The overlap between fan groups were too small.
Lots of honor. No sales.

WormHeart