When it has come to my horror novel I always try to change pace and sort of do something that interest me. I had an idea or consideration of writing a horror novel about family dynamics, but with a twist. The family dynamic is that they are the stories murderers. It be an interesting concept to me to see how murder plays a part in the family core and instead of a new marriage in the family being a stressor in the family. A botched killing, etc. But, how do you accurately and realistically write a family of psycho murderers, want the reader to to continue read and do it in a way that feels realistic and not over top, but just enough to be able to get people to suspend their disbelief to be like yeah okay I can get on bored with this. Just looking more for tips. Inspiration. Resources. To help build something that isn't so in your face.
Research. Start with killer couples. Those happen all the time. As for an entire nuclear (or extended) family with kids and all being psycho murders? That would be more implausible. It's probably happened before, but unless you're shooting for satire or dark comedy, that kind of dynamic would seem to dominate the story. It wouldn't be a "just enough" thing. It would be the thing and it would have to be written almost perfectly for me to believe it enough to be disturbed by it. On the "I can't believe this is happening" vs. "There's no way in hell" scale I'd think you'd have two and a half strikes in the wrong direction. Doesn't mean it can't be done--anything can--but it would seem to lean more toward dark comedic lunacy than horror. Try it out, though. What's the worst than can happen?
I can do comedy horror. It's my shin dig. I am trying to write or go on a writing marathon before I have to go and work the Haunted House. And the idea wasn't necessarily to write it as a psychological horror in the sense of disturbing the audience. But the idea was to use themes of physical violence and murder as a way to portray metaphorically the destruction of our family structure. The idea was more like a "lol what if I wrote about a family, but their problems were about murder" rather then I want to horrify and shock the audience with a murder family
