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Horror is agenre ofspeculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres ofpsychological horror andsupernatural horror. Literary historianJ. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length ... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing".[1] Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as ametaphor for larger fears of a society.
The horror genre has ancient origins, with roots in folklore and religious traditions focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic, and the principle of the thing embodied in the person.[2] These manifested in stories of beings such as demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. Some early European horror-fiction were theAncient Greeks andAncient Romans.[3]Mary Shelley's well-known 1818 novel aboutFrankenstein was greatly influenced by the story ofHippolytus, whomAsclepius revives from death.[4]Euripides wrote plays based on the story,Hippolytos Kalyptomenos andHippolytus.[5] InPlutarch'sParallel Lives in the account ofCimon, the author describes the spirit of amurderer, Damon, who himself was murdered in abathhouse inChaeronea.[6]
Pliny the Younger (61 toc. 113) tells the tale ofAthenodorus Cananites, who bought a haunted house inAthens. Athenodorus was cautious since the house seemed inexpensive. While writing a book on philosophy, he was visited by a ghostly figure bound in chains. The figure disappeared in the courtyard; the following day, the magistrates dug in the courtyard and found an unmarked grave.[7]
Elements of the horror genre also occur inBiblical texts, notably in theBook of Revelation.[8][9]
TheWitch of Berkeley byWilliam of Malmesbury has been viewed as an early horror story.[10]Werewolf stories were popular in medievalFrench literature. One ofMarie de France's twelvelais is a werewolf story titled "Bisclavret".
The Countess Yolande commissioned a werewolf story titled "Guillaume de Palerme". Anonymous writers penned two werewolf stories, "Biclarel" and "Melion".
Much horror fiction derives from the cruellest personages of the 15th century.Dracula can be traced to the Prince ofWallachiaVlad III, whose allegedwar crimes were published inGerman pamphlets. A 1499 pamphlet was published by Markus Ayrer, which is most notable for itswoodcut imagery.[11] The alleged serial-killer sprees ofGilles de Raishave been seen as the presumed inspiration for "Bluebeard".[12] The motif of the vampiress is most notably derived from the real-life noblewoman and murderer,Elizabeth Bathory, and helped usher in the emergence of horror fiction in the 18th century, such as through László Turóczi's 1729 bookTragica Historia.[13]
The 18th century saw the gradual development ofRomanticism and theGothic horror genre. It drew on the written and material heritage of theLate Middle Ages, finding its form withHorace Walpole's seminal and controversial 1764 novel,The Castle of Otranto. In fact, the first edition was published disguised as an actual medieval romance from Italy, discovered and republished by a fictitious translator.[14] Once revealed as modern, many found itanachronistic,reactionary, or simply in poor taste, but it proved immediately popular.[14]
Otranto inspiredVathek (1786) byWilliam Beckford,A Sicilian Romance (1790),The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794),The Italian (1796) byAnn Radcliffe, andThe Monk (1797) byMatthew Lewis.[14] A significant amount of horror fiction of this era was written by women and marketed towards a female audience, a typical scenario of the novels being a resourceful female menaced in a gloomy castle.[15]
TheGothic tradition blossomed into the genre that modern readers today call horror literature in the 19th century. Influential works and characters that continue resonating in fiction and film today saw their genesis in theBrothers Grimm's "Hänsel und Gretel" (1812),Mary Shelley'sFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818),John Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819),Charles Maturin'sMelmoth the Wanderer (1820),Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820),Jane C. Loudon'sThe Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827),Victor Hugo'sThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831),Thomas Peckett Prest'sVarney the Vampire (1847), the works ofEdgar Allan Poe, the works ofSheridan Le Fanu,Robert Louis Stevenson'sStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886),Oscar Wilde'sThe Picture of Dorian Gray (1890),Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lot No. 249" (1892),H. G. Wells'The Invisible Man (1897), andBram Stoker'sDracula (1897). Each of these works created an enduring icon of horror seen in later re-imaginings on the page, stage, and screen.[16]
A proliferation of cheap periodicals around the turn of the century led to a boom in horror writing. For example,Gaston Leroux serialized hisLe Fantôme de l'Opéra before it became a novel in 1910. One writer who specialized in horror fiction for mainstream pulps, such asAll-Story Magazine, wasTod Robbins, whose fiction deals with themes of madness and cruelty.[17][18] In Russia, the writerAlexander Belyaev popularized these themes in his storyProfessor Dowell's Head (1925), in which a mad doctor performs experimental head transplants and reanimations on bodies stolen from the morgue and which was first published as a magazine serial before being turned into a novel. Later, specialist publications emerged to give horror writers an outlet, prominent among them wasWeird Tales[19] andUnknown Worlds.[20]
Influential horror writers of the early 20th century made inroads in these mediums. Particularly, the venerated horror authorH. P. Lovecraft, and his enduringCthulhu Mythos transformed and popularized the genre ofcosmic horror, andM. R. James is credited with redefining theghost story in that era.[21]
Theserial murderer became a recurring theme.Yellow journalism andsensationalism of various murderers, such asJack the Ripper, and lesser so,Carl Panzram,Fritz Haarman, andAlbert Fish, all perpetuated this phenomenon. The trend continued in the postwar era, partly renewed after the murders committed byEd Gein. In 1959,Robert Bloch, inspired by the murders, wrotePsycho. The crimes committed in 1969 by theManson Family influenced the slasher theme in horror fiction of the 1970s. In 1981,Thomas Harris wroteRed Dragon, introducingDr. Hannibal Lecter. In 1988, the sequel to that novel,The Silence of the Lambs, was published.
Early cinema was inspired by many aspects of horror literature, and started a strong tradition ofhorror films and subgenres that continues to this day. Up until the graphic depictions of violence and gore on the screen commonly associated with 1960s and 1970sslasher films andsplatter films,comic books such as those published byEC Comics (most notablyTales From The Crypt) in the 1950s satisfied readers' quests for horror imagery that thesilver screen could not provide.[22] This imagery made these comics controversial, and as a consequence, they were frequently censored.[23][24]
The modernzombie tale dealing with the motif of the living dead harks back to works including H. P. Lovecraft's stories "Cool Air" (1925), "In The Vault" (1926), and "The Outsider" (1926), andDennis Wheatley's "Strange Conflict" (1941).Richard Matheson's novelI Am Legend (1954) influenced an entire genre of apocalyptic zombie fiction emblematized by the films ofGeorge A. Romero.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the enormous commercial success of three books –Rosemary's Baby (1967) byIra Levin,The Exorcist byWilliam Peter Blatty, andThe Other byThomas Tryon – encouraged publishers to begin releasing numerous other horror novels, thus creating a "horror boom".[25][26]
One of the best-known late-20th century horror writers isStephen King, known forCarrie,The Shining,It,Misery, and several dozen other novels and about200 short stories.[27][28][29] Beginning in the 1970s, King's stories have attracted a large audience, for which he was awarded by the U.S. National Book Foundation in 2003.[30] Other popular horror authors of the period includedAnne Rice,Shaun Hutson,Brian Lumley,Graham Masterton,James Herbert,Dean Koontz,Richard Laymon,Clive Barker,[31]Ramsey Campbell,[32] andPeter Straub.
Best-selling book series of contemporary times exist in genres related to horror fiction, such as theKitty Norville books byCarrie Vaughn that contain blendwerewolf fiction andurban fantasy (2005 onward). Horror elements continue to expand outside the genre. Thealternate history of more traditional historical horror inDan Simmons's 2007 novelThe Terror sits on bookstore shelves next to genremash ups such asPride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009), andhistorical fantasy andhorror comics such asHellblazer (1993 onward) andMike Mignola'sHellboy (1993 onward). Horror also serves as one of the central genres in more complex modern works such asMark Z. Danielewski'sHouse of Leaves (2000), a finalist for theNational Book Award. Like Danielewski, many authors have opted to publish their works online, with notable examples includingBen Drowned byAlex Hall andCandle Cove byKris Straub. There are many horror novels for children and teens, such asR. L. Stine'sGoosebumps series orThe Monstrumologist byRick Yancey. Additionally, many movies for young audiences, particularly animated ones, use horror aesthetics and conventions (for example,ParaNorman). These are what can be collectively referred to as "children's horror".[33] Although it is unknown for sure why children enjoy these movies (as it seems counter-intuitive), it is theorized that it is, in part, grotesque monsters that fascinate kids.[33] Tangential to this, the internalized impact of horror television programs and films on children is rather under-researched, especially when compared to the research done on the similar subject of violence in TV and film's impact on the young mind. What little research there is tends to be inconclusive on the impact that viewing such media has.[34]
One defining trait of the horror genre is that it provokes an emotional,psychological, or physical response within readers that causes them to react with fear. One of H. P. Lovecraft's most famous quotes about the genre is that: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."[35] the first sentence from his seminal essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Science fiction historianDarrell Schweitzer has stated, "In the simplest sense, a horror story is one that scares us" and "the true horror story requires a sense of evil, not in necessarily in a theological sense; but the menaces must be truly menacing, life-destroying, and antithetical to happiness."[36]
In her essay "Elements of Aversion", Elizabeth Barrette articulates the need by some for horror tales in a modern world:
The old "fight or flight" reaction of our evolutionary heritage once played a major role in the life of every human. Our ancestors lived and died by it. Then someone invented the fascinating game of civilization, and things began to calm down. Development pushed wilderness back from settled lands. War, crime, and other forms of social violence came with civilization and humans started preying on each other, but by and large daily life calmed down. We began to feel restless, to feel something missing: the excitement of living on the edge, the tension between hunter and hunted. So we told each other stories through the long, dark nights. when the fires burned low, we did our best to scare the daylights out of each other. The rush of adrenaline feels good. Our hearts pound, our breath quickens, 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 the best horror intends to rattle our cages and shake us out of our complacency. It makes us think, forces us to confront ideas we might rather ignore, and challenges preconceptions of all kinds. Horror reminds us that the world is not always as safe as it seems, which exercises our mental muscles and reminds us to keep a little healthy caution close at hand.[37]
In a sense similar to the reason a person seeks out the controlled thrill of aroller coaster, readers in the modern era seek out feelings ofhorror and terror to feel a sense of excitement. However, Barrette adds that horror fiction is one of the few mediums where readers seek out a form of art that forces themselves to confront ideas and images they "might rather ignore to challenge preconceptions of all kinds."
There are many theories as to why people enjoy being scared. For example, "people who like horror films are more likely to score highly for openness to experience, a personality trait linked to intellect and imagination."[38]
It is a now commonly accepted view that the horror elements ofDracula's portrayal ofvampirism aremetaphors for sexuality in a repressedVictorian era.[39] But this is merely one of many interpretations of the metaphor of Dracula.Jack Halberstam postulates many of these in his essayTechnologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula. He writes:
[The] image of dusty and unused gold, coins from many nations and old unworn jewels, immediately connects Dracula to the old money of a corrupt class, to a kind of piracy of nations and to the worst excesses of the aristocracy.[40]
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Halberstram articulates a view of Dracula as manifesting the growing perception of thearistocracy as an evil and outdated notion to be defeated. The depiction of a multinational band ofprotagonists using the latesttechnologies (such as atelegraph) to quickly share, collate, and act upon new information is what leads to the destruction of the vampire. This is one of many interpretations of the metaphor of only one central figure of the canon of horror fiction, as over a dozen possible metaphors are referenced in the analysis, from the religious to theantisemitic.[41]
Noël Carroll'sPhilosophy of Horror postulates that a modern piece of horror fiction's "monster",villain, or a more inclusive menace must exhibit the following two traits:
In addition to those essays and articles shown above, scholarship on horror fiction is almost as old as horror fiction itself. In 1826, the gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe published an essay distinguishing two elements of horror fiction, "terror" and "horror." Whereas terror is a feeling of dread that takes place before an event happens, horror is a feeling of revulsion or disgust after an event has happened.[43] Radcliffe describes terror as that which "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life," whereas horror is described as that which "freezes and nearly annihilates them."
Modern scholarship on horror fiction draws upon a range of sources. In their historical studies of the gothic novel, bothDevendra Varma[44] and S. L. Varnado[45] make reference to the theologianRudolf Otto, whose concept of the "numinous" was originally used to describe religious experience.
A recent survey reports how often horror media is consumed:
To assess frequency of horror consumption, we asked respondents the following question: "In the past year, about how often have you used horror media (for example, horror literature, film, and video games) for entertainment?" 11.3% said "Never," 7.5% "Once," 28.9% "Several times," 14.1% "Once a month," 20.8% "Several times a month," 7.3% "Once a week," and 10.2% "Several times a week." Evidently, then, most respondents (81.3%) claimed to use horror media several times a year or more often. Unsurprisingly, there is a strong correlation between liking and frequency of use (r=.79, p<.0001).[46]
Achievements in horror fiction are recognized by numerous awards. TheHorror Writers Association presents theBram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor ofBram Stoker, author of the seminal horror novelDracula.[47] TheAustralian Horror Writers Association presents annualAustralian Shadows Awards. TheInternational Horror Guild Award was presented annually to works of horror and dark fantasy from 1995 to 2008.[48][49] TheShirley Jackson Awards are literary awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic works. Other important awards for horror literature are included as subcategories within general awards for fantasy and science fiction in such awards as theAurealis Award.
Some writers of fiction normally classified as "horror" tend to dislike the term, considering it too lurid. They instead use the termsdark fantasy orGothic fantasy for supernatural horror,[50] or "psychological thriller" for non-supernatural horror.[51]
Taken together with the rapture and tribulation themes in evangelical apocalyptic horror movies, this zombie connection testifies to the variety of ways that Revelation feeds into deep, largely repressed correspondences between religion and horror in contemporary culture.
If these books were arranged in a bookstore, one would find all the women writers under 'science fiction.' The Apocalyse, on the other hand, would be found under 'horror literature.'
Stephen King, brand-name writer, master of the horror story and e-book pioneer, has received an unexpected literary honor: a National Book Award for lifetime achievement.
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