One of the shortest horror stories in existence goes like this:
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…
Short as it is, this small paragraph has all the good elements of a horror story. It gives us a setting, Earth, and a character, the last man. It establishes that he is alone in a room. Then, the tension rises in the second sentence. It isn’t yet established who is behind the door knocking, but the fact that the only known man in this story is sitting inside the room suddenly makes this story rather peculiar – and scary.
It’s interesting to note that these two sentences don’t actually originate from a horror story. In fact, they’re the opening lines to a science fiction story about a man who encounters an alien race, as well as the last woman on Earth. Yet, those opening lines still make for a great horror story. But what makes good horror?
A lot of criticism has been leveled at horror in recent years. Some say the genre is dead. Others say the industry surrounding it has lost sight of what makes for a good scare. Certainly, some of this criticism is justified. Horror fiction as it is known today originated centuries ago, popularized in dark fantasy by works like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Writers of the past two centuries used horror as an analogy for the larger fears of society. They subverted expectations and went beyond cultural taboos. However, horror today is known by the more predictable slasher and occult films, and unfortunately, these films just don’t have the same staying power as Dracula or even Psycho. Ask any horror fan about the genre and they will be quick to admit that a lot of horror stories are just plain stale.
It’s easy to say that horror genre is on its way out or that people just aren’t scared anymore. Of course, this is just plain ridiculous. Horror is still a staple of entertainment that makes Hollywood millions every year. Still, one has to ask what makes some horror stories like The Shining so damn scary and others so forgettable. Like most fiction, there are a few elements that can be found in almost any good horror story. These elements don’t necessarily have to work in conjunction, but a good horror story will use all of them to their fullest.
FEAR
Fear is a no-brainer for horror, but understanding what makes people afraid is a little more complicated than showing them a skeleton or shouting “BOO”. It’s important to understand what exactly fear is. Fear is primal, a natural human response to a clear and present danger. It is necessary for survival, designed to provoke the fight-or-flight response. This becomes clear by the sudden rush of adrenaline, the instinctive need to curl up, and keen alertness in the presence of a threat. We humans need fear to understand the world and protect ourselves from it.
There are many different layers to fear. Not everyone is scared by the same things, and good horror authors know this. Not everyone is afraid of spiders or corpses or clowns. Okay, a lot of people are scared of clowns. But good horror plays on fears that people may not know they have. The trick is to dig deep. There are many types of fear: fear of standing on the edge of a cliff and suddenly being pushed off; fear of locking all the doors at night, only to find the latch on the back door to still be unlocked; fear of failing to save a loved one in their time of need. Good horror expounds on these fears and introduces the audience to new fears they didn’t know they had. And, of course, this works best when someone learns the consequences of ignoring something they should have been afraid of.
SUSPENSE
The world’s best-selling horror author, Stephen King, described terror, one facet of horror, in these words:
“It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there….”
It’s clear that fear is a powerful motivator and a great way to grab someone’s attention. So what happens when there isn’t an obvious threat to the person’s life? Suspense plays off this idea of terror, of having fear even when there isn’t a clear presence of danger. Uncertainty isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when there’s a character who doesn’t know which of his friends is likely to murder him in his sleep, that tension can be killer.
Of course, the most powerful type of suspense is found in the calm before the action; in the moments when the roller-coaster is steadily rising to the top of the hill. It’s the anxiety of waiting, of letting the characters live out their stress all the way up until it’s time for their heads to be chopped off. Call it sadistic, but watching these characters struggle with their own fears and second-guess themselves can be way more satisfying than seeing them meet a gruesome end. Of course, when the serial killer does jump out of the closet, the surprise is just that more powerful and lasting.
SURPRISE
Never underestimate the power of imagination, especially when it comes to horror. As discussed before, giving someone a shock isn’t an easy task. The writer has to decide on some sort of object that is universally scary, something that preys on the human subconscious. It could be any manner of things – aliens, the devil, free-market capitalism; the possibilities are endless. What’s important is that it is something creepy and otherworldly, but something that can still be identified. The best horror stories are those that have ingrained in them some element of realism. The story may be about Killer Klowns from Outer Space, but unless those clowns look like the one advertising for McDonald’s, the effect just won’t be the same.
A common way to make something familiar seem utterly horrifying is through the gross-out. This is a tactic that speaks for itself – what better way to provoke a scream from someone than to show them a bloody abomination of human skin or the rotting corpse of a hotel tenant? There is a reason to be afraid of something that looks familiar, but just isn’t quite right. On top of being hard to stomach, the sight of a hideous monstrosity can provoke the primal fear of being eaten…or worse.
Then, of course, there’s the scare. Catching a person off guard isn’t the hard part of a good scare. It’s quite easy to make someone jump out of their skin. The challenge is in presenting an opportunity to make a good scare happen. One recent example of this is in P.T., the playable demo for a cancelled horror game project that nonetheless scared the pants off people. The player must navigate through a hallway, with only one way forward, leaving their back constantly exposed and out of sight. Guess what happens when you look behind you?
MYSTERY
H.P. Lovecraft, an absolute master of horror, once said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Good horror is layered in ambiguity. The human mind doesn’t like vagueness, and when things like knowledge, trust, and security are left unclear, it can lead a person to be fearful, to question the sanity of themselves and the people around them. If knowledge is power, not knowing is weakness, and being in a vulnerable position in a horror story is the worst place to be. Mystery also leads to curiosity, and everyone knows what happens when a hapless teenager goes to investigate that noise in the basement.
Creating mystery is essential in setting the atmosphere of a good horror story, but it goes beyond just generating thrills and chills. Horror can force the characters to confront some important issues in a way that can make them and the audience uncomfortable. It can force the characters to ask who they really are and what they are doing to prevent the inevitable.
Horror works best when it can rattle a person’s cage. By confronting them with a sickening reality, giving them time alone with their thoughts before shocking them into submission, and slowly picking away at their innermost fears, horror can become more than just a Friday night popcorn flick.
Good horror does more than ask “who’s behind the door?” It asks a much scarier and more personal question: “Are you gonna answer that?”
