Horror Or Fantasy?

[thecalimack]

So, vampires and werewolves used to be the thing of horror, but slowly they're more in lore and become less 'scary' depending on the writer. In fact, I think their sub-genre goes into Paranormal more often than not, right next to ghosts.

 

I have to ask, though. Where is the line drawn, though? Labels (or tags) can be pretty hard to apply, since works can be rather flexible. When would you jot something down as Horror? When it actually gets frightening or disturbing (or gory)? When does it fall to paranormal or fantasy?

[Adam Phillips]

The horror genre is one in which the author actively seeks to induce--wait for it--horror in the reader. Authors can still use vampires and werewolves in horror novels, but they won't be used in quite the same way as they are in the "non-scary" ways you're referring to. I don't think vampires and werewolves have lost their inherent scariness. But familiarity breeds contempt, you know, and the culture has become immersed in vampires and werewolves who are sympathetic figures--hell, who are practically cuddly--so it's going to take some intent and some skill for an author to get the reader back in touch with his/her primal, quasi-instinctive fear of and revulsion toward those creatures. But if and when he/she does, he/she is writing horror. And not until then.

 

More broadly, "horror," as a technical term designating a genre, usually involves the supernatural or paranormal, it seems to me. Stephen King and Clive Barker seem to me to be two prime examples of authors of horror novels.

 

It's my contention that Chelsea Cain also writes horror novels, but since she's most famous for her gruesome series of novels centering around the beautiful and psychopathic serial killer Gretchen Lowell, and there's no supernatural or paranormal element involved, her novels usually get categorized as "suspense" or "thriller." Don't ask me why. The stories  are full of horror.

 

Novels which use elements of the supernatural or paranormal for reasons other than to induce horror can't properly be considered horror novels. In my opinion, anyway. And I think I'm on pretty solid ground here.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Adam Phillips

[thecalimack]

 

The horror genre is one in which the author actively seeks to induce--wait for it--horror in the reader. Authors can still use vampires and werewolves in horror novels, but they won't be used in quite the same way as they are in the "non-scary" ways you're referring to. I don't think vampires and werewolves have lost their inherent scariness. But familiarity breeds contempt, you know, and the culture has become immersed in vampires and werewolves who are sympathetic figures--hell, who are practically cuddly--so it's going to take some intent and some skill for an author to get the reader back in touch with his/her primal, quasi-instinctive fear of and revulsion toward those creatures. But if and when he/she does, he/she is writing horror. And not until then.

 

More broadly, "horror," as a technical term designating a genre, usually involves the supernatural or paranormal, it seems to me. Stephen King and Clive Barker seem to me to be two prime examples of authors of horror novels.

 

It's my contention that Chelsea Cain also writes horror novels, but since she's most famous for her gruesome series of novels centering around the beautiful and psychopathic serial killer Gretchen Lowell, and there's no supernatural or paranormal element involved, her novels usually get categorized as "suspense" or "thriller." Don't ask me why. The stories  are full of horror.

 

Novels which use elements of the supernatural or paranormal for reasons other than to induce horror can't properly be considered horror novels. In my opinion, anyway. And I think I'm on pretty solid ground here.

 

I'm glad you cited those examples. Gives me something to look further into.

[Cynus]

I think Adam pretty much covered it. If your intent is to scare the reader, then you're writing horror. if not, then you're writing something else.

However, you can write both. There's nothing to say that you can't write horror fantasy, even if the tag doesn't exist.

[Thorn Wilde]

They can cross over as well. The novels True Blood is based on are often categorised as contemporary fantasy or urban fantasy, but they also contain a lot of horror elements. Why go either/or when you can have both? Horror fantasy may not be a genre in the bookshop, but that doesn't mean there's not a proud tradition of mixing the two.

[The Pecman]

I get antsy when people use "horror" to describe a movie like Psycho, which to me is more a mystery/suspense/thriller, not a horror film at all. I think it has to have a supernatural element like ghosts, demons, zombies, and stuff like that in order to qualify as horror. Often all the labels are boil down to how the book or film or TV show can be marketed.

 

There is a weird dividing line between horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and there are certainly movies that have two or more of these elements. To me, fantasy is more along the lines of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, stuff like that. On the other hand, George Lucas always insisted that Star Wars was "space fantasy," so who knows?

[Thorn Wilde]

I get antsy when people use "horror" to describe a movie like Psycho, which to me is more a mystery/suspense/thriller, not a horror film at all. I think it has to have a supernatural element like ghosts, demons, zombies, and stuff like that in order to qualify as horror. Often all the labels are boil down to how the book or film or TV show can be marketed.

 

There is a weird dividing line between horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and there are certainly movies that have two or more of these elements. To me, fantasy is more along the lines of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, stuff like that. On the other hand, George Lucas always insisted that Star Wars was "space fantasy," so who knows?

 

Oh, Star Wars is definitely fantasy. There ain't much science in that fiction. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series of books is another example of so-called sci-fi fantasty; space based or futuristic stories with magic of some kind, basically.