Personally, I base this genre on monsters like Dracula by Bram Stoker and Frankenstein's Monster by Mary Shelly. The realm of ghosts, werewolves and mummies too. So, anything, and everything else, like sci fi or political or whatever other horror, is a sub-genre to 'Horror', in my eyes, but, what do I know? Zombie too, but, IDK what author if any ever decided to do that from Voodooism is beyond me unless it was Night of the Living Dead. Zombies are horror too, but comes from Voodoo and not an author. Much like Mummies come from Ancient Egypt and Werewolves in Europe.
Not knowing who abducted one as a child, marked and then brought back. Only to vaguely remember technology that defied gravity. But because the details are so bizarre, it is best left … locked.
Feeling helpless against someone or some force - of having my strength and independence taken away from me. There's a film called The Eyes of My Mother, where a woman holds people captive for years and they can't call for help because their vocal chords have been cut and she's removed their eyes; it really upset me. Martyrs and Audition have similar elements, too. Peoples' bodies being violated in any way disgusts and terrifies me, as well.
Night of the Living Dead-style 'zombies' are distinct from proper Voodoo zombies. They're called 'ghouls' in the film; it was other people who started calling them zombies. The restless or violent dead are pretty much a universal constant, same as lycanthropes.
I fear power abuse I usually have nightmares about being forced back to my old workplace that broke all kinds of employment laws and made me sick with Chinese working standards. I had a young boss that wasn't qualified at all and had a need to push people around only for his own amusement. He could halt all production for a month if anyone disagreed with his incompetence, just to show that he's the boss. He used to say the same things as Joffrey in Game of thrones (only with the word "king" replaced with "boss"), as if he really saw his coworkers as his own property to torment. Everyone who used to sit next to him resigned at the same time. I might have some kind of PTSD from working there, because I get spastic seizures from thinking about it. I fear diseases and suicide When my ex had a deadly disease, my life turned into a horror movie. I feared that my future self wouldn't be strong enough to continue and take the easy way out. Still pictures of organs I cannot stand still pictures of brains if it's for medical purpose, but somehow I don't care if I'm covered in brain substance in a realistic dream where I'm biting zombies in their necks. I won't even think about it if I'm walking on a pile of dismembered bodies or talk to people without any skin in the dreams.
Hi everyone. I would like to continue this old post of mine. So what scares you? I want to know all your fears so I can learn more about what scares people and get inspired. It can be something you saw in real life, in movies or read in a novel or in a non-fiction book (ex; an animals, a monster, a ghost, demon ...). It can be a sound that scares you (ex; animal call, drop falling on the floor when it's very quiet, tunderstorm ...). It can also be a smell or a place you are afraid of (ex; old barn, abandoned building, asylum, alone in the woods, trapped in a close space, big crowds ...).
I don't think any book has the ability to genuinely instil fear. Only films and real life can do that. That's not to say good horror can't be written, but for me it must stay away from guts and gore. That's the cheap way to try and scare, and just like the movie equivalents they come across as cheap 'n' nasty. For what it's worth I find things like The Signalman far more scary than any modern day gorefest.
I've found books really scary but I have to read them at night. The books that have freaked me out are stories that involve things being in the house at night (haunted stories, boogeymen, or etc). My personal theory is that people are prone to being scared of things that scared them as a child. Or perhaps just moments in life they experience true bone-chilling fear and I'm sure for a lot of people that was mostly in childhood.
I spent a lot of time this year watching movies for inspiration. Trawled through a lot of garbage but there are certain gems out there that make you wonder if the boundaries of morality can be crossed any further in this genre (in a worthwhile way). Although, I find real life documentaries much more depressing/scary than any fictional film could be. I've seen most exploitation horror out there and don't attribute much merit to the likes of August Underground etc, but Martyrs (2008) is probably the most disturbing film I have ever seen...and it has merit. Depends on what you're hoping to accomplish....but nothing has surpassed that film in my lifetime. There is much gorier stuff out there, sure. But that's the one that made me wonder, how do you create something more unsettling?
I know of this film, but this kind of a thing sickens me, not scares me. And the reason it sickens me is not because I think they're done well or have merit, but because I sense the writers/directors are getting some kind of perverse kick from their depiction of the suffering so prevalent in such films. There's nothing clever in showing someone being tortured for 90 minutes.
What are your thoughts on Salo? It's been something of a competition with a friend of mine to find harrowing films over the years. The House That Jack Built was interestingly introspective by the director, echoing your sort of sentiments. I only got around to watching that last week, it was pretty good. Edit: I'm a big believer in the Sade sense of artistic freedom. There is always worse going on in reality. What Martyrs accomplished so well was a sense of empathy towards the protagonists, I don't know why movies of such a nature so rarely portray that... Your differentiation between fear and disgust towards the human condition is a fair point though, man.
Not seen it. Getting hold of bootleg video nasties was a big thing when I was at school, but they never lived up to the hype. For what it's worth I think the scariest horror film is The Exorcist. That film either scares the crap out of you or has you in fits of hysterical laughter. I fall firmly into the former camp. It's the only film I genuinely can't watch alone.
I agree that gore is not always scary. I prefer stories like "Invasion of the body snatchers" in which suspense builds up slowly and you don't really know what is happening.
[CW spiders] As someone who wrote both body horror and existential horror, I'd say everyday scary stuff doesn't work that well in writing. If I say "there was a big spider" it won't do anything but to the most touched among the arachnophobes You have to figure out exactly what creeps people out about spiders. The long legs moving in the wrong order. The belly that seems about to burst open. The speed. The random jumps. That said... big dogs are scary
I find Salo to be quite effective and harrowing. Pasolini was no exploitation hack- a genuinely great director.
Google's first answer covers it pretty well, emphasis mine : "Existential horror can therefore be defined as the dread and terror experienced by the individual upon realising the circumstances of their existence. In horror movies this translates to fears of isolation, uncertainty, meaninglessness, insignificance, oblivion, responsibility and inevitability." Think lovecraftian horror with less racism ^^
