The Attraction of Horror! What I Love About the Genre and A Few Examples

Why do we like horror? 

One of my earliest memories I had was watching King Kong on the big screen at a local theater. I remember being scared. This is probably the first time I remember being scared while watching something fictional.

I was very young, but later on it would lead me to wonder why it was that something that didn’t really exist could scare me. Consider fear. It’s a natural reaction which hinges on self-preservation. But when you’re watching a movie, it should be clear to your brain that what is happening on the screen couldn’t actually hurt you. And still, you react to it.

For example, every year there’s a new crop of movies which involves a ghost in one way or another. As children we love to watch Scooby Doo which inevitably includes some old guy wearing a ghost costume. We love to go to haunted houses where we are literally paying for someone else to scare us. And yet we know those ghosts are not real.

I’m fond of saying that horror is really an umbrella. A lot of people get the wrong impression that horror is what they see on the big screen. They equate the term to Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. I do think that Hollywood has been disingenuous to the greater world of horror in that it focuses so much on the intense visual aspects of gore. To me that’s kind of lazy. It also cuts off an entire part of horror that is wonderful. My favorite kind of horror is the horror that just unsettles the reader.

It doesn’t have to be awash in blood and that’s the best kind of horror to me. In my book Crimson Tassels, there is a good amount of blood. However, it’s not so much blood that you’re going to focus on that. It’s the story line that really matters. I want you to feel one of the main characters descending into a sort of insanity brought on by the malevolent actions of another. Honestly, I don’t think I could necessarily do that all that well if I’ve covered everything in blood. The reader would focus on that exclusively and I would lose them.

There is definitely an audience for blood-soaked fiction. I know this because I’m a member of that audience. As a writer, I don’t write that way.

Subtlety is a wonderful device in horror and has been used to great effect over the years. Sometimes, it isn't about getting in front of people's faces as much as it is getting them to squirm in their seats.

Want to read some amazing horror? I can highly suggest this one! I fell in love with it a few years ago and you will too. Read Gutted here!

Thanks for listening! Have a great week.
-Bryan the Writer

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