Horror: Fiction’s Most Misunderstood Genre

Possible spoilers ahead for Scream, The Haunting of Hill House, and Dracula

I fell in love with horror at about 14 years old. I remember sitting on my couch and staring at the screen in awe as Ghostface targeted his first victim. I felt a mixture of fear, wonder, and excitement all at once. As I expressed my passion for horror to others, not many people understood my affinity for darkness and terror.

Through the years, I have thought about why I love horror as much as I do. Is it because I’m an October baby and have always loved Halloween? Is it because I have a deep interest in the macabre?

The answer to both of these questions is yes. However, a lot of the credit goes to the incredible work of horror creators everywhere.

Unfortunately, horror doesn’t have the best reputation in society. The entire genre is sometimes written off as B-rated ridiculousness. There have only been six horror movies that have ever received Oscar nominations and Silence of the Lambs was the only one of them that won an award.

The horror genre is full of stories that frightfully entertain audiences, teach valuable lessons, and help people face their deepest fears.

I’d like to start with the movie that started my love for horror, and that movie is Scream.

Scream is filled with witty references and clever kills that captivated audiences. Randy Meeks, one of the film’s main characters, listed the rules for surviving a horror movie at a house party while watching John Carpenter’s Halloween. At this point in the film, the murders have escalated and a few of the main characters have thrown a party to celebrate school being canceled due to those tragedies. This scene is so revolutionary because of its self-aware nature. As Randy recites the ways to survive a horror movie, the other characters are shown disobeying these rules. This essentially disqualifies them from being guaranteed survivors in their own “horror movie”.

This was one of the first horror films that I saw, so a lot of those references went way over my head the first time. However, as my collection of horror favorites and classics grew, so did my knowledge of the genre. As a result, my appreciation for Scream grew as well.

Beyond the kills and one-liners, Scream offers relevant social commentary, such as the influence that violence in movies has in real life. The characters debate the legitimacy of the weight that violence in movies has on real-life murder and crime. A surprising plot twist also adds to Scream’s intrigue. I get something new out of this film every time I revisit it.

The greatness of this film can be chalked up to not only the incredible talent of Director Wes Craven, Screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and all of the actors involved but also the subject matter.

Few genres can be as gritty and as disturbing as horror can. This leads to intense and complex works of fiction that often leave the audience with an unsettling feeling in the pit of their stomach.

The Haunting of Hill House, a recent horror series on Netflix based on Shirley Jackson’s novel by the same name, strikes a beautiful balance between a riveting family drama and a terrifying supernatural horror story. The whole first season takes the audience on a heartbreaking journey through a family’s troubling experience with evil ghosts. Steven Crane, the family’s eldest child, struggles with the existence of the ghosts that he had lived with and the question of his mother’s sanity. The series also tackles the relevant issues of drug addiction, suicide, and intimacy within the narrative.

The literary world also has a variety of great horror titles. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is among them. The vampiric gothic novel, written in 1897, tells the story of Count Dracula of Transylvania. The novel is comprised of journal entries and letters written by the main characters. The feeling of fear escalates as the characters learn about Dracula’s identity and true intentions. Jonathan Harker’s first journal entry includes many examples of unsettling foreshadowing. Harker, a lawyer who is on his way to finalize a property transaction with Count Dracula, runs into a woman that urgently warns him of the impending doom that awaits him at Dracula’s castle. She grows increasingly distressed and hands him a crucifix that was previously around her neck. Harker becomes increasingly worried about his travels when he started his journey with confidence. This scene, as well as the entire novel, showcases the powerful hold that fear can have on a person and how that fear can affect those around it.

Horror brings all of our greatest fears to life. It breeds cautionary tales that make us look over our shoulders a second time when we’re walking down an abandoned alleyway. It materializes the worst-case scenario and makes us think critically about the evils that exist in our world and others. Maybe then those evils will be easier to understand.

Good fiction makes you feel something. It makes you feel as if you’ve known the characters and their stories in real life. Dracula, for example, instills fear into the characters around him so greatly that he jumps out from the page and into the minds of all who read his story.

Good horror makes you feel many things at once, and if you’re lucky, or unlucky, the stories will surely stick with you. Forever.