Genre of the week: Horror

So lets kick off this new thing with one of my favorite genres, horror.

I've seen that this is very much a love it or hate it genre. Some people can't get enough of the scares and suspense, while others turn the other way and run out of the scary mansion before anything can grab at them.

One thing I've noticed is that books and movies handle this genre very differently. Books rely on the suspense and dread factor, mainly, while movies prefer jump scares here and there. Movies also like the suspense, but it's almost always concluded with something leaping towards the camera. It's quite obvious why books don't do jump scares, but I've seen very few movies that utilize the suspense factor really well. I'm personally a big fan of the genre, and I love a good scare every now and then.

Despite my fondness for it, I don't really write horror. I would like to try, but every idea I seem to come up with has been done to death already. Maybe someday, though.

What do you think of the horror genre? Do you love it or hate it?

Horror stories isn't really a big preference for me, although I read a few good Pokemon horror fanfics a while back. I admit I can be one of those people that will run away from the haunted manison. XD

Nolafus said:

One thing I've noticed is that books and movies handle this genre very differently. Books rely on the suspense and dread factor, mainly, while movies prefer jump scares here and there. Movies also like the suspense, but it's almost always concluded with something leaping towards the camera. It's quite obvious why books don't do jump scares, but I've seen very few movies that utilize the suspense factor really well. I'm personally a big fan of the genre, and I love a good scare every now and then.

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Yeah. With movies I think it's harder to pull suspense unless the movie is action suspense instead of horror suspense. Horror movies tend to prefer gory violence also.

I'm not a big reader of horror. My imagination runs way too much to forget about the scenes that I've read, and I've woken up from nightmares caused by reading too much horror. That didn't stop me from reading a horror book recently, but that was by my favorite author, and it's surprisingly one of my favorite books.

The lack of suspense and over-reliance on jump scares is why I don't watch a lot of horror movies. Jump scares seem cheap to me. With books, I can use my imagination to make the situation scarier, and the pay-off is better that way.

Bay Alexison said:

Yeah. With movies I think it's harder to pull suspense unless the movie is action suspense instead of horror suspense. Horror movies tend to prefer gory violence also.

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Maybe that's why my favorite horror movie is Signs. The three parts that really got me was a leg quickly moving out of sight, an alien walking past a window, and a hand reaching out to grab someone, and that wasn't even moving towards the camera. I would recommend giving it a view if you're not a fan of jump scares, because they do a really good job on the suspense factor and keeping the audience in the dark. There's practically no jump scares in the entire movie, and it still gets your heart racing.

Horror books don't really scare me. Rather, I like reading about the psychological breakdown of the characters as they're getting hunted down, or whatever the book is using the scare the protagonist. I've picked up a couple Stephen King books recently, so maybe I'll encounter one that gives me the creeps.

I really haven't read much of it besides the odd fic and some classics like Dracula or Frankenstein, and I suppose the odd book by an author like Stephen King too. And I do prefer the horror movies which rely more on a build up of tension rather than resorting to jump-scares as well.

Nolafus said:

Rather, I like reading about the psychological breakdown of the characters as they're getting hunted down

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bnb's post reminded me of it, but this is why Frankenstein was my favorite book when I was younger. I absolutely loved how insane Victor became as the story progressed, and learning just how far he and his monster would go were what made the book scary.

Astinus said:

bnb's post reminded me of it, but this is why Frankenstein was my favorite book when I was younger. I absolutely loved how insane Victor became as the story progressed, and learning just how far he and his monster would go were what made the book scary.

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Ah, I remember reading Frankenstein too during high school and I agree the way the story developed is nicely done. That's why that classic is pretty well-received. I never got the chance to read Dracula, though (perhaps I will someday).

Bay Alexison said:

Ah, I remember reading Frankenstein too during high school and I agree the way the story developed is nicely done. That's why that classic is pretty well-received. I never got the chance to read Dracula, though (perhaps I will someday).

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I read Dracula years after I read Frankenstein and didn't really enjoy it as much. It seems like part of the reason for that is because Frankenstein focused more on character development, and to this day I can think about those characters even though it's been years since I read that book. But with Dracula, I don't really remember a thing about it.

Perhaps I need to give it a re-read some day. Or stop watching so many Castlevania Let's Plays.