welcome to horror 101

8/6/2019 Welcome to Horror 101

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Welcome to Horror 101

Everything will be fine


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BOO!

People often wonder what makes scary

stories so attractive. Why do we find

thrillers thrilling? Why does horror horrify

us? What gives creepy tales theircompelling magnetism? How does horror

work? How do you write successful

horror? What elements do good scare-stories have in common?


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The answers lie in human psychology and biology, in the

software and hardware of our brains. ..

The old "fight or flight" reaction of our evolutionaryheritage once played a major role in the life of every

human. Our ancestors lived and died by it. Thensomeone invented the fascinating game of civilization,and things began to calm down. Development pushedwilderness back from settled lands. War, crime, andother forms of social violence came with civilization andhumans started preying on each other, but by and largedaily life calmed down. We began to feel restless, to feelsomething missing: the excitement of living on the edge,the tension between hunter and hunted.


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So we told each other stories through the long, darknights. Sometimes we told happy stories, or sacredstories ... but when the fires burned low, we did our best

to scare the daylights out of each other. The rush ofadrenaline feels good. Our hearts pound, our breathquickens, and we can imagine ourselves on the edge.Yet we also appreciate the insightful aspects of horror.Sometimes a story intends to shock and disgust, but thebest horror intends to rattle our cages and shake us out

of our complacency. It makes us think, forces us toconfront ideas we might rather ignore, and challengespreconceptions of all kinds. Horror reminds us that theworld is not always as safe as it seems, which exercisesour mental muscles and reminds us to keep a little

healthy caution close at hand.


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Over the years, we have developed a wide range ofscary stories and motifs. Horror may involve things thatcould never happen in this world (like attacks byindestructible supernatural monsters), that might happen

(like a comet smashing into the planet during ourlifetimes), or that definitely happen (like mass murder).Each type plays on different fears; the most effectiveplay on the oldest, most visceral fears left over fromancestral experience or childhood imagination. Yet all of

them have some elements in common, certain motifsthat appear throughout the genre, however widelyseparated in time and setting.


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Elements of Absence

These motifs horrify by taking away things

we depend on. They disturb our

preconceptions, our sense of safety and

comfort and how the world should work.They yank all our certitudes out from

under us; they take away the rules we use

to deal with reality. They twist and warpthe familiar into the unfamiliar. They bother

us with differences.


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The Unknown

The unknown:This is the first, most primal fearbecause it contains all the others. Anythingcould happen; anything could emerge from thedarkness. In the real world, certain guidelines

like natural laws help us predict events; in fiction,authors often suspend those rules. Ourimaginations readily run away with us, leavingus clinging to the edge of our seats. Yet theunknown is limitless in potential as well as in

threat. Everything known emerges from theunknown, and so it has endless power to holdour attention.


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The Unexpected

The unexpected:From the unknown comes the known,the way we expect reality to function. When somethingshatters our expectations, we feel shock and distress.Your stomach plummets when the monster smashesthrough the wall. Even without the sudden impact,

unnatural creatures and occurrences make usuncomfortable. On a deep, instinctive level we react tothem as wrong. Sane people do not like having to dealwith an insane world! The absurd confuses us. We lookfor a solution, a rational explanation ... any rational

explanation, just so long as it maintains our reality tunnelintact. However, we also need occasional shakeups toavoid getting ourselves into a mental rut; a one-trackmind can become a serious handicap.


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The Unbelievable

The unbelievable: Nobody ever listens. The scourge ofthe story can be flattening a city and the main characterscan't get any assistance because nobody believes them.We disregard that which does not fit into our pre-existingdefinition of reality ... a dangerous habit. We also fear

falling into a situation that places us beyond belief. Thenature of sanity comes into question. Despite this, weenjoy a jaunt outside the boundaries of everyday reality.We look to fiction as a means of stretching our minds;we willingly suspend our disbelief and thereby enhance

our abilities to distinguish between different types ofreality. A definition, attitude, or set of rules which workswell in one situation may prove worse than useless inanother.


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The Unseen

The unseen:Blood and guts grab our attentionprecisely because, in a normal world, we neversee them. They only become visible whensomething goes seriously wrong. This is why

slasher scenes work -- they show us somethingwe rarely see -- and why their effectivenessdecreases with repeat exposure. Otherinstances of the hidden revealed include ancientmanuscripts, artifacts, or creatures brought to

light. When something new and strange arriveson scene, we can't take our eyes off it. Our owncuriosity holds us hostage.


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The Unconscious

The unconscious:Inner worlds mystify usbecause we can neither control nor escape theireffects. We all fall prey to subconscious urgings,

many of them not very nice. Thus, we fearourselves; we also fear that others may give into their vile desires. At the same time, we feelcompelled to explore these strange regions

which remain a part of ourselves no matter howwe may try to hide them or expunge them.


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The Unstoppable

The unstoppable:We all believe in entropy; innature, things wind down. Humans and otheranimals wear out eventually. Therefore theinexorable advance and endless pursuit upset

our expectations. People retreat, fighting harderas they back into corners. Relentless forces toopowerful to fight call up uncomfortableassociations with death, which most people don'tlike to think about. Yet death comes for

everyone in time, so we cannot avoid it forever.Instead we go whistling down dark alleys toconfront the inevitable.


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Elements of Presence

These motifs intrude on our comfort. They

crowd out our confidence, our feelings of

self-reliance and dignity. Where nature

abhors a vacuum, these horrors rush in,smothering us with their weight. They

bother us just by existing.


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Helplessness

Helplessness: Nothing feels worse than theinability to affect your fate. In most fiction,characters must have agency -- the ability to act,react, and change -- in order to hold a reader's

attention. In horror, much of the attraction comesfrom a complete lack of agency, of power. Weall feel helpless sometimes, so this motif strikesa chord with everyone. We can relate deeply tothe anguish of helplessness. We also love the

rush of satisfaction when, in many stories, theprotagonist somehow manages to overcome theodds.


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Urgency

Urgency: When you can't do something, youmust. This is the central conflict of most horror.Helplessness contrasts with aching, desperateneed. The price of failure is always astronomical:

the death of a loved one, the destruction of theworld. The characters cannot simply walk away;they draw us into their urgency as well. Thisdriving force also contrasts with the apathycommon today, the feeling that one's decisions

and actions never make a difference. Thus, thevery stress of the protagonist's struggle appealsto us.


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Pressure

Pressure: Ah, suspense; a successful horrorwriter must master this technique. With the slowbuild of tension comes the increasing need to dosomething. Pressure combines with urgency to

spur characters to greater feats, whileheightening audience involvement. You leanforward, urging the protagonist on. It may seemstrange to enjoy fiction like this when we face somuch pressure in our own lives today, but unlike

real life, fiction promises a resolution -- thoughnot always a happy one. The pressure builds,peaks, and then dissipates.


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Intensity

Intensity: With danger comes a heightened awareness,enhancing all emotions both positive and negative,drawing attention to every detail. The senses pick up farmore than usual; the world becomes more immediate,

more real. Also, the threat of death often drives people tocelebrate life, so we see romance running hand in handwith horror. People fall in love as the world falls apartand gibbering monsters chase them down dark alleys.Making love can also get characters killed, a popular

motif in slasher movies. The intensity of emotion andsensation drowns out common sense. This surge ofinput from overloaded senses can appeal to people usedto living a calmer existence.


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Rhythm

Rhythm: The preceding elements combine tocreate a rise and fall of tension. Rhythm isessential to horror in that it allows the intensity tobuild to a higher peak than would a straight

assault. It sets up a pattern of action whichdraws the reader in, rather like the pantingadvancement of childbirth. Alternatively, somehorror stories succeed through a profound lackof pattern, again playing on our innate desire for

the world to make sense. The random attackseat away at our security and force us to take thestory on its own terms.


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Release

Release: The promise of resolution offers arefuge from the undelineated stress of everydaylife. Every story comes to a conclusion. In horror,we may see the world returned to "normal" or

bent beyond recognition, removed from all hopeof salvation. The uncertainty keeps us readingeagerly to find out what happens, because wehave no way of knowing how the story ends untilwe get there. Either redemption or disaster

offers us a sense of completion not often foundoutside of fiction; it allows us to heave a sighand let the story go.


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Whatever your reasons for reading or writing horror,remember that what you get out of it largely depends onwhat you take into it, like Luke Skywalker confrontinghimself inside the tree. Your own dark side will surprise

you; your own fears will sustain you even as theythreaten to drive you mad. In reading horror, we elect tochallenge directly a great many fears and impulseswhich most people prefer to ignore. Yet for those whofeel that "an unexamined life is not worth living" horror

offers a chance to look within and confront our ownreflections. For dramatic effect, we may choose to castthe images on someone or something else ... but in theend, we know where they come from.


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The End.

.at least for

you.

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welcome to horror 101

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