Would you say that the definition of Horror has changed over time along with everything else? What was defined or seen as horrifying might be viewed as amusing today!! Our view on what is horrifying in the true sense has changed since we're raised with a different sense of horror.
How should we define horror? Should we define it by the monster present? The plot of the story? The atmosphere? Or should horror be defined on personal terms?
So, what is Horror??? Sounds like a pretty simple question, doesn’t it? I’m sure that many of you already know the answer, or think that you do. Some would say that for a piece of fiction to be considered ‘horror’, there had to be a supernatural element. It didn’t matter what kind of supernatural element – vampires, ghosts, werewolves, zombies, witchcraft, curses, and so many more; but it had to be there, or they just didn’t consider it to be horror. According to Carroll, the monster is a necessary but not a sufficient component. I believe that there's more to horror than just a monster, the atmosphere, the sound effects and the reactions of the characters help us generate the feelings that the author originally intended.
What is horror really? If we take away all the monsters, the vampires and the ghosts, horror is about fear. It’s about abnormal occurrences happening to normal people, which they are often powerless to prevent. Lots of novels that aren’t considered horror are based around fear, some would say that that’s a different kind of fear. But is it? Imagine you are home alone and your hear a noise outside. There could be a ghost or a monster, or it could be a maniac with a knife or chainsaw. One is a scene straight from the pages of a traditional horror story or movie, and the other from crime. But is there any difference? Both focus on fear but one has a supernatural twist, and the other does not. For both types of fiction the fear comes from horrific and abnormal events happening to ordinary people. The fear is instilled in us by the belief that we might and can be in the position of the person in trouble.
So are we looking at horror in the strict terms of the supernatural? Most people would agree that two types of horror exist - supernatural horror, and horror that is based around the horrors of our real world – hate, murder, cruelty, insanity.
On a different aspect, according to Lovecraft, the true weird tale has something more than secret murder, or bloody bones; a certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present. Lovecraft says, "We must judge a weird tale not by the author's intent, or by the mere mechanics of the plot; but by the emotional level which it attains at its least mundane point." This gives us some freedom to define horror on our personal reaction to the literature or film. If something doesn't instill fear in you then can you say it is not Horror even though others can agree that it is??
According to the Horror Writer's Association (www.horror.org), the horror genre is just evolving, and what scared people 20 years ago isn't the same that scares people today. 'Just as our fears and terrors change with time, so too will the definition of horror, not just from age to age but from person to person.'What do you think of the genre, as opposed to the authors of old? What do you see as the future of this genre?
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