What makes good horror?

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I’ve become a junkie of the horror genre. I’m big into H.P. Lovecraft (and have slight interest in Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King), and love reading stories on the amateur fiction website Creepypasta.

However, horror also seems really hard to pull off as a genre. Go to the movies or on Netflix and what passes as “horror” is usually miasma of mediocre to downright awful slasher films and cheap CGI-laced eye-rollers. And then there is the jump scare, which is to horror what fart jokes are to comedy.

In my opinion, horror is 90% psychological. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of Escapist Magazine says that horror lives and dies on subtlety. Just enough about whatever the malevolent entity is should be left to the imagination, without lazy writing that avoids exposition.

I ask this because I’m a wannabe horror writer and I’must looking for inspiration. What makes a horror story good to you?
 
JackVk said:
I’ve become a junkie of the horror genre. I’m big into H.P. Lovecraft (and have slight interest in Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King), and love reading stories on the amateur fiction website Creepypasta.

However, horror also seems really hard to pull off as a genre. Go to the movies or on Netflix and what passes as “horror” is usually miasma of mediocre to downright awful slasher films and cheap CGI-laced eye-rollers. And then there is the jump scare, which is to horror what fart jokes are to comedy.

In my opinion, horror is 90% psychological. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of Escapist Magazine says that horror lives and dies on subtlety. Just enough about whatever the malevolent entity is should be left to the imagination, without lazy writing that avoids exposition.

I ask this because I’m a wannabe horror writer and I’must looking for inspiration. What makes a horror story good to you?
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To me, true horror resides in the reader’s mind, and by default in the simulated minds/perceptions of the characters.

It doesn’t matter what or who the “malevolent entity” is, as long as all other characters are helpless against it, and know they are.

For me the best horror was written by E.A. Poe more than eight generations ago. He was economical of blood, fearsome creatures, etc, but the depths he plumbed of the characters’ mind process was inimitable in modern lore.

To me, the current vogue for “found footage” type horror just doesn’t cut it; the jerkiness of the camera and uneven sound is too distracting for a good scare. So the footage was found after everyone involved was supposed to have died. Big deal, the situation doesn’t even scare **them ** in time.

ICXC NIKA
 
To me, horror is all about creating atmosphere. It’s an art, it’s difficult to pull off.
 
In terms of King-like horror, I think the key is the ordinariness of the setting in which the horror / spookiness occurs - average small towns or cities with familiar types of people. Since you mentioned Lovecraft, no one of us is going to be exploring the “Mountains of Madness,” and few of us live near spooky near-abandoned coastal towns like Dunwich. But all of us have experienced shy, awkward girls (“Carrie”), clowns and spiders (“It”), lost a pet (“Pet Semetary”), pushy politicians on a town board (“The Dome”) – and on and on. Good writing really helps.
 
Horror is difficult to write because it involves subtlety, which is too often missing from a lot of fiction in general.
  1. Build suspense. Whatever is going on has to be revealed bit by bit as opposed to all at once.
  2. Create tension. Strange sounds that turn out to be nothing or something, some clue.
  3. Offer the occasional “surprise” moment, which can range from finding “it” to getting a good glimpse of it. By accident. Its appearance is unexpected.
  4. If “it” is intelligent, it is usually evil and offers interesting dialogue on how it views the world and why it does what it does, or if not so smart, it behaves more like an animal and seems to rely on instinct. It may or may not even speak.
  5. “It” frightens people, it is harmful or deadly and seems to get away at the last moment, in the beginning.
  6. By the middle of the story, we find out what "It’ wants and/or who it may target next: to injure or threaten to kill. It either wants someone/something or just does evil things because that’s just part of its nature or mental instability or even a power of some kind.
  7. Toward the end, a decision is made to confront, drive away or kill it. It doesn’t go well for the good guys who manage to survive by some clever on-the-spot plan. Be inventive.
  8. The final confrontation. It has caused anger, grief, fear and may have killed one or more people. Perhaps it lives in the house somewhere or an abandoned building or other lair.
Usually, someone or some thing appears to attack regular people who usually have no idea what’s happening at first. It usually toys with them and does other bad things. These average folks have to come to grips with their loss(es) and learn about it. Then take it out or force it out by other means. Misdirection is common. An average person is expecting someone to visit, hears a sound, goes downstairs and instead of their friend - there’s It, who chases him. And who runs to get away and hopefully finds something to defend himself with or keep it away or make it leave by injuring it (with a gun?). But it comes back or targets someone else.

Ed
 
Horror is:

-Nailing the door shut, only to realize it is in the house with you…
-Realizing that you really didn’t kill it because the body is gone…
-Seeing the closet door open and the bedside lamp wont turn on…
-Barley making it to the car, only to find the battery is dead…
-Waking up with someone sleeping next to you and you are single…
-Getting a phone call from someone in the middle of the night, who died six years ago.
-Watching the elevator doors open to a concrete wall.
-Finding the basement door open again after engaging the deadbolt hours earlier.

And worst of all…
-Finding a library book you were sure you returned, five years ago!:eek:
 
Good horror is not in-your-face. It entices the imagination. It builds up the suspense subtly, and psychologically prepares you for something–but you don’t know what. Then when it is revealed, it shocks you and leaves an impression.

Vampires, zombies, monsters, etc. in my mind are not good horror–they are gruesome and sensational and entertaining, but not really good horror.

But something like an Alfred Hitchcock movie or The Silence of the Lambs or a good Stephen King novel–that is good horror, esp. because it may be quite plausible.
 
esieffe said:
Horror is:

-Nailing the door shut, only to realize it is in the house with you…
-Realizing that you really didn’t kill it because the body is gone…
-Seeing the closet door open and the bedside lamp wont turn on…
-Barley making it to the car, only to find the battery is dead…
-Waking up with someone sleeping next to you and you are single…
-Getting a phone call from someone in the middle of the night, who died six years ago.
-Watching the elevator doors open to a concrete wall.
-Finding the basement door open again after engaging the deadbolt hours earlier.

And worst of all…
-Finding a library book you were sure you returned, five years ago!:eek:
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  • Finding out the leaders of the New Age Religion in your part of the country are setting up their main Coven headquarters in your local parish building.
  • Finding out that new DRE you recommended gets tensed up, fists clenched, sweating badly, when in the presence of a crucifix, even if hidden;
  • You learned that all the other parish council members quit, so you have sole responsibility for the new goal of Reinforcing Catholic Identity.
 
commenter said:
  • Finding out the leaders of the New Age Religion in your part of the country are setting up their main Coven headquarters in your local parish building.
  • Finding out that new DRE you recommended gets tensed up, fists clenched, sweating badly, when in the presence of a crucifix, even if hidden;
  • You learned that all the other parish council members quit, so you have sole responsibility for the new goal of Reinforcing Catholic Identity.
Click to expand...
  • You are assigned to your first pastorate; and you learned the new RCIA director, who was hired by the previous pastor last week, was fired from his last job for “excessive fundamentalist tendencies”… and his last job was working for Jack Chick Ministries.
 
I agree–the best horror does not put a lot of gore on display, in fact the best horror can complete the story without any bloodshed “on screen”.

Suspense, and letting the audience’s mind work out the horror, and I generally agree with the posts of GEddie and edwest2.
 
CB_Catholic said:
Vampires, zombies, monsters, etc. in my mind are not good horror–they are gruesome and sensational and entertaining, but not really good horror.
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IMHO, ghosts can be done good horror if they’re disturbing enough. A good recent example of this is Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film Mama. I think it’s because ghosts are the stock character which the protagonists cannot get rid of with a wooden stake or a shotgun; the spiritual nature of a ghost also brings psychological horror into the mix, like in The Shining.

A lot of horror writers appear to want to use cruise control, so they resort to cliches like blood-n-guts (or, in Lovecraftian horror, tentacles in outer space).

As an end result, good horror is the kind that keeps me looking over my shoulder at night- just in case “it” is lurking in the shadows.
 
Just to add to the conversation further, I used to read Stephen King’s stuff. But one night I was reading The Shining in bed, and got so petrified scared that I could not turn out the lights and sleep. I could not move. I was up most of the night. After that, I refused to read any more Stephen King novels.

That is what a good horror story can do to you. 😃
 
CB_Catholic said:
Just to add to the conversation further, I used to read Stephen King’s stuff. But one night I was reading The Shining in bed, and got so petrified scared that I could not turn out the lights and sleep. I could not move. I was up most of the night. After that, I refused to read any more Stephen King novels.

That is what a good horror story can do to you. 😃
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I want to read the book. King apparently has mixed feelings about the movie. He felt that Stanley Kubrick had watered down the supernatural aspects of the story.

Plus, there was that unnecessarily long erotic scene in the film which, IMO, turned into one of the most twisted scenes of all (any lustful thoughts you may have had of the woman in room 237 were quickly extinguished!)
 
esieffe said:
Horror is:

-Nailing the door shut, only to realize it is in the house with you…
-Realizing that you really didn’t kill it because the body is gone…
-Seeing the closet door open and the bedside lamp wont turn on…
-Barley making it to the car, only to find the battery is dead…
-Waking up with someone sleeping next to you and you are single…
-Getting a phone call from someone in the middle of the night, who died six years ago.
-Watching the elevator doors open to a concrete wall.
-Finding the basement door open again after engaging the deadbolt hours earlier.

And worst of all…
-Finding a library book you were sure you returned, five years ago!:eek:
Click to expand...
I experience all of the above on a daily basis. And the last one is a recurrent nightmare.
 
Again, to keep the conversation going:

Video games are also a medium where the genre has a unique flavor. The ones I recommend are Silent Hill, Amnesia, Bioshock, and Fallout.
 
You know, a friend gave me a Stephen King book to read and I just found it boring. Then I flipped through another to find profanity in it.

Ed
 
The scariest horror uses ideas over imagery. Its not what you see its what you cannot see.

I don’t necessarily like such horror as it creeps me out too much.

I like cheesy horror films a lot like the Evil Dead.
 
edwest2 said:
Horror is difficult to write because it involves subtlety, which is too often missing from a lot of fiction in general.
  1. Build suspense. Whatever is going on has to be revealed bit by bit as opposed to all at once.
  2. Create tension. Strange sounds that turn out to be nothing or something, some clue.
  3. Offer the occasional “surprise” moment, which can range from finding “it” to getting a good glimpse of it. By accident. Its appearance is unexpected.
  4. If “it” is intelligent, it is usually evil and offers interesting dialogue on how it views the world and why it does what it does, or if not so smart, it behaves more like an animal and seems to rely on instinct. It may or may not even speak.
  5. “It” frightens people, it is harmful or deadly and seems to get away at the last moment, in the beginning.
  6. By the middle of the story, we find out what "It’ wants and/or who it may target next: to injure or threaten to kill. It either wants someone/something or just does evil things because that’s just part of its nature or mental instability or even a power of some kind.
  7. Toward the end, a decision is made to confront, drive away or kill it. It doesn’t go well for the good guys who manage to survive by some clever on-the-spot plan. Be inventive.
  8. The final confrontation. It has caused anger, grief, fear and may have killed one or more people. Perhaps it lives in the house somewhere or an abandoned building or other lair.
Usually, someone or some thing appears to attack regular people who usually have no idea what’s happening at first. It usually toys with them and does other bad things. These average folks have to come to grips with their loss(es) and learn about it. Then take it out or force it out by other means. Misdirection is common. An average person is expecting someone to visit, hears a sound, goes downstairs and instead of their friend - there’s It, who chases him. And who runs to get away and hopefully finds something to defend himself with or keep it away or make it leave by injuring it (with a gun?). But it comes back or targets someone else.

Ed
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Yes, yes, yes!

Ed, you sure know what you are talking about. Horror is very difficult to get right. It seems the genre seems to be caught in an adolescent phase with plenty of blood and gore.
 
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