What Words Scream Horror!

Pike · Apr 28, 2007

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 · May 1, 2007

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 · May 1, 2007

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 · May 1, 2007

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

Pike · May 3, 2007

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 · May 4, 2007

Words

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 · May 4, 2007

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 · May 4, 2007

Dank and putrid....gotta love putrid...

davids · May 4, 2007

In the line of Mr. Ritchie

Hillary Clinton Sex

Jamesaritchie · May 4, 2007

Summonere said:
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 · May 4, 2007

davids said:
In the line of Mr. Ritchie

Hillary Clinton Sex

Stomach turning horror.

Or how about Janet Reno???

Summonere · May 4, 2007

squamous gibbering amid a gibbous grotesquery (when not yammering, I)

Jamesaritchie said:
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 · May 5, 2007

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 · May 5, 2007

"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 · May 7, 2007

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 · May 7, 2007

Forgot my all time favorite word.

Board

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

blacbird · May 7, 2007

Not

For

Us.

caw

Mom'sWrite · May 7, 2007

dentist

and

audit

davids · May 7, 2007

Andre_Laurent said:
Stomach turning horror. Or how about Janet Reno???

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

SouthernFriedJulie · May 7, 2007

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 · May 7, 2007

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 · May 13, 2007

"Finish your sprouts."

Pike · May 13, 2007

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 · Mar 6, 2008

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 · Mar 6, 2008

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."

What Words Scream Horror!

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

DivineMythos

davids

DivineMythos

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

Jamesaritchie

Summonere

Andre_Laurent

davids

Jamesaritchie

Andre_Laurent

Summonere

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

engmajor2005

Jack Nog

Brain-farts are useful too.

Jack Nog

Brain-farts are useful too.

blacbird

Mom'sWrite

Service with a smile

davids

SouthernFriedJulie

Hidin' the bodies

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

newmod

Pike

Chivalry ain't dead

Captain Howdy

closer + prettier than ever

Expanding Ink

and then Steve stabbed a guy