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Starbrazer

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What is Urban Horror? Can anyone give me an in-depth definition on this particular genre, and maybe even list some books that have been published in the genre so I can get a better grasp on what it is?
 

sthrnwriter

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I have no idea what urban horror is. However, I did find a book called Night Biters: A Tale of Urban Horror by: Adrian Harper. I've never read it but the book got several good reviews at Amazon. I'm not sure if that is what you are looking for but I thought I would pass it a long anyways.
 

Jamesaritchie

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argenianpoet said:
What is Urban Horror? Can anyone give me an in-depth definition on this particular genre, and maybe even list some books that have been published in the genre so I can get a better grasp on what it is?

From the urban horror I've read, it's no more than horror in an urban setting, and often involves such things as urban legends.
 

Jcomp

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bsolah said:
I'm not sure about books, but movies that come to mind are Jeepers Creepers and The Hills Have Eyes.

Um... wouldn't that be more along the lines of "rural" horror? I'm thinking of something more along the lines of what JAR defined...
 

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Is the Twilight Zone considered Urban Horror? For some reason I thought it was...?
 

SpookyWriter

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argenianpoet said:
Is the Twilight Zone considered Urban Horror? For some reason I thought it was...?
I don't think so. I agree with James that urban horror is local legends. The Swamp Thing might well be considered urban horror.

I am not sure, but how about Bloody Mary? There was this show on t.v. that dealt more with urban horror, but I can't remember the name of the show. It had these two young guys who were searching for their father and in the meantime investigated local legends and other horror stories.
 

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Spooky Writer, I have to agree with you. I think the show you may be talking about is 'Supernatural.' It's actually my favourite TV show this past year. I think urban horror mainly deals with urban legends.
Although to me, it is almost synonymous with some teeny bopper movies like The Faculty etc. Not sure though.

And yes, I have been known to watch teeny bopper movies, if only to go after a horror fix. LOL
 

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argenianpoet said:
What is Urban Horror? Can anyone give me an in-depth definition on this particular genre, and maybe even list some books that have been published in the genre so I can get a better grasp on what it is?

Christopher Fowler wrote a series of short stories all set in Urban environment. They were good. I remember one being set in a large multi story car park. I believe he did a follow up. He's a good author, actually, well worth checking out.
 

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SpookyWriter said:
I don't think so. I agree with James that urban horror is local legends. The Swamp Thing might well be considered urban horror.

I am not sure, but how about Bloody Mary? There was this show on t.v. that dealt more with urban horror, but I can't remember the name of the show. It had these two young guys who were searching for their father and in the meantime investigated local legends and other horror stories.

Urban horror is just horror set in an Urban environment - inner cities, derelict buildings, etc. Swamp thing is not Urban Horror.

A lot of British authors wrote stuff like this in 1990s, especially Christopher Fowler (City Jitters, I remember the name now! His novel Rune is subtitled "An Urban Horror story") and folk in the small/alternative presses like Joel Lane - mainly in and around Birmingham, which is/was a very depressing, derelict city - and Nicholas Royle [Who wrote an excellent short story called "London Wall" set in London].

I used to read a lot of this back in the 1990s, and it never really featured Urban Legends - apart from maybe Clive Barker's Candyman. There was a magazine called The Third Alternative that featured a lot of this sort of stuff (I think it's still around.)
 
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