Let's talk about horror!

[novella]

What is horror to you? Do you think that horror stories have certain characteristics?

When I read smirky's short story invitation, I was pleasantly surprised to see he was restricting it to a genre (horror), though I've never written anything like that intentionally.

So I'm wondering what other people think of as 'horror' stories?

 

[jenn]

i've read mostly stephen king, some poe and then short stories by various authors. like i said over on your scab vignette, i like a story that creeps me out. i guess i fall into the catagory of a ghost and monster fan. if a story is great then i am able to set aside the fact that obviously werewolves or vampires don't exist to be scared(entertained)
stephen king's it, did that. he had me so wrapped up in the story that the drain in the bathroom sink freaked me out. and balloons...*shivers*

 

[Renee]

I think I tend to lump thriller and horror together and as such my expectations of what is horror is lower than others. I don't think horror should necessarily frighten me. A book about rats growing bigger than normal and swarming up and out of the sewers to dine on people isn't exactly frightening, to me, but I still consider it horror and entertaining. I would scream my head off were it to really happen but in books and movies it might give me the willies but it's otherwise entertaining.

I haven't really thought about it much but I think the one quality that all horror shares, in my view, is that it is in some way disturbing and if it were to really happen it would be horrifying. Monsters are not at all necessary for horror - as King has adeptly demonstrated.

 

[sirmyk]

When I read smirky's short story invitation, I was pleasantly surprised to see he was restricting it to a genre (horror), though I've never written anything like that intentionally.

I was hoping that starting such a contest (with horror as the themed genre, instead of leaving it open to all genres as initally intended) would spark such surprise and pleasantries. I read last week in Cemetery Dance that horror is slowly dying. I somewhat agree with this. While I don't restrict myself to horror, I do try to incorporate some form of sub- / mixed- horror into whatever I'm working on. Must be all that Poe I read growing up, and all those hours spent in front of the tube watching The Twilight Zone, X-files, and The Outer Limits.

I don't think of horror simply as a gimick-genre used to make one retch, or to make one say, "ewww...", but think it is something more spectacular. Horror is something that makes the reader's mind do a "double-take", or makes the reader procrastinate sleep. It is difficult to write horror.