Oh, The Horror of it All!
By Rory C. Keel
The term Horror describes an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. In this genre you will find stories created to stir these intense feelings in the reader. From the classic Frankenstein to The Blob of unknown origins, from the resurrected dead to the mad protagonist who never dies.
The stories in the horror genre make the nightmares of our childhood real by describing the horrific and shocking details in a way that bends them into a plausible scenario.
It has several subgenres including the following:
Aliens: which may also overlap with science fiction.
Creepy Kids: Involves possessed, ghostly or dead children.
Cross Genre: Horror that contains major elements of other genres.
Cutting Edge: Usually associated with graphic novels.
Dark Fantasy: Is the companion to human evil and strife, instead of monsters.
Dark Fiction: This is a term used in the horror genre to market stories without using the term HORROR.
Erotic: Horror that usually contains violent sexual elements.
Extreme (splatterpunk, grindhouse or visceral): When thinking of this subgenre think Texas Chainsaw massacre. It intends to be bloody and gross.
Fabulist: horror emphasizes stories in a specific place or old-fashioned style.
Gothic (English gothic, southern gothic): This subgenre is written in a ‘literary’ style such as much of Edgar Allen Poe’s work.
Haunting: Have you ever seen a ghost? You will find them in this subgenre.
Holocaust: tales involve mass deaths, or a near-future apocalyptic plague, whether past or future.
Humorous horror: The Macabre in parody such as the Munster’s.
Paranormal: These are stories that describe the battle against the evil supernatural.
Rampant Animals: Horror containing animals: birds, dogs, giant ants, etc.
Rampant Technology: Horror where machines take over.
Supernatural (demons, zombies, etc.): Stories of monsters persistent on consuming the lives of mankind.
Be scared, be very scared!
Wordsmith Six 