Collection 2: "What is the Horror Genre?" by Sharon A. Russell

We all think of creatures like Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and the wolfman as monsters in the horror genre.

The tension we feel when a character goes into the attic, down into the basement, or just into the abandoned house is partially a result of suspense. We don’t know what is going to happen. But that suspense is intensified by our knowledge of the genre.

Part of the tension is created because they are doing something we know is going to get them in trouble. Stephen King refers directly to our anticipation of horror.

“She found herself thinking of those drive-in horror movie epics where the heroine goes venturing up the narrow attic stairs...or down into some dark, cobwebby cellar...and she...thinking:...I’d never do that!”

Of course Susan’s fears are justified. She does end up dead in the basement, a victim of the vampire.

Our advance knowledge creates suspense because we can anticipate what is going to happen. The author can play with those expectations by either confirming them or surprising us with a different outcome.

Some people make further distinctions based on how the stories are organized. We can divide stories into different categories based on how we come to believe in the events related and how they are explained to us.

Stories that deal with parallel worlds expect us to accept those worlds without question. We just believe Dorothy is in Oz; we accept Oz as a parallel world separate from ours.

Other times events seem to be supernatural but turn out to have natural explanations: the ghosts turn out to be squirrels in the attic, or things that move mysteriously are part of a plot to drive someone crazy.

This type of hesitation, when we almost believe, falls into the general category of the “fantastic”.

Works about the fantastic may deal with the search for forbidden knowledge that appears in much horror literature. Such quests are used as a way of examining our attitude toward knowledge.

While society may believe that new knowledge is always good, the horror genre may question this assumption, examining how such advances affect the individual and society.