What makes a brilliant horror story?

Question

In your opinion, what makes a horror story brilliant? Fantasy and horror are genres I really like writing in, but I get that a lot of people have very different ideas about what is scary and what makes a suspenseful horror story really scary, suspenseful and horrific. I can list a few I think:

- Isolation. Being cut off from the rest of humanity, with no where and no one to run to, trapped with whatever is terrifying you? Great example is 'The Shining' by Stephen King, which is (for me) the definitive isolation horror.

- Inexplicable events. Weird things going on that you can't put your finger on. They can be wildly obvious, like zombies jumping out of the dark and eating your brains, or subtle, like the sensation of being watched or things moving about. Pretty much every horror story I've read had these.

- Shock tactics. You can't scare your readers unless you shock them with something. A sudden death, a body, or even a realization that not all is as it seems is enough, most of the time.

- Abnormality. There has to be something fundamentally wrong with it all.

- A bad ending. Might just be me, but I don't really like horror stories that have happy endings. There has to be a high body count, and no one gets away without some kind of loss. The characters are thoroughly disturbed for the rest of their days and have to endure years of painful therapy to get over it.

- Foreshadowing. The queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know something bad is going to happen. Sort of a sub genre of inexplicable events, but you have to have an inkling that whatever is going down is not good.

- The good guy dies. The good guy isn't necessarily the main protagonist, either. He or she can be the character the other characters admire and like, which lulls the reader into the false sense of security that this person will lead all the characters to safety and they will all get home before dinner. This person has to die because it throws the other characters off, hence it throws the reader off.

- All bets are off. It should not be predictable. Vampires swarming your isolated mountain village? You and the remaining survivors are slicing and dicing your way through forest to try and reach the town. There is a final confrontation. Who wins? No one, because the military storms in and shoots every living thing within a ten mile radius. Or the vampires do, and the main character is dragged kicking and screaming to his or her death - or his he/she?

- Openings for sequels. Either leave the back door open or keep it closed. If the story finished with the head vampire beheaded and all it's minions turned to dust, then that should be it because the protagonists won. If the story finished with the protagonist separated from his/her friends in a darkened wood, when hands suddenly grab him/her from behind and the blood is slowly drained from his/her body, there would ideally be a sequel (at least for me) because I want to know what happened to the character. Provided they don't become an emo vampire.

Sorry about the vampire motifs. I just finished watching Shiki (really awesome anime).

Answer 1

I think that what makes the best horror stories is the building up to the final confrentation. Where you are in the perspective of a side character and they are brutly murdered by the creature or whatever.



The unkown - it is always good to know that something is out there but not knowing what it is.



The monster is intelligent - having a monster that is as intelligent as a human and can formulate traps and if ther is more than one creature hunting formations. I remember reading a book where during the night, while the characters were asleep, the creatures went though their bags and arranged them in a maticulous way.



Silance - where the whole forest goes completely silent suddenly. Ya thats scary.



The familiar every day things becoming disturbingly abnormal - if you have ever read Gone then you know about the cyoties. How they were changed. It made my skin crawl every time they were described to me.



The concluding confrentation is never the most scary part for me becuase the monster will always die. Even if it doesn't (Jeepers Creepers_ it doesn't strike fear into my heart. So no matter how creative you are it doesn't bother me o much. Well the movie The Thing scared the crap out of me with it's conclusion so it isn't totaly true. Paranoia.

Answer 2

Little, seemingly insignificant incidences that can go horribly wrong. Ex: When the kid runs out to the road in pet sematary and a semi's coming, or when an old woman falls down a flight of stairs thinking she's broke her hip, or when a girl wakes up with a zit prom morning, etc etc... everyday things can be built up to be extremely horrifying. I am less into jumping into a gore fest than I am jumping into a psychological thriller.

Answer 3

A brilliant writer. A writer who knows how to get inside the mind of a true psychopath or murderer. Some of the best writers out there have gotten the a real murderer's perspective of things and that's what makes they're work so good, the fact that they can state the truth and make it even more believable.

Answer 4

Two kids are in a trailer on a trip with there parents there going up a hill the trailer gets unhooked and rolls downt the hill into a forest where a guy named buddy gets them and takes the to a camp called camp jelly. Jam. You earn coins. Called. King. Coins. When you earn sic you walk in the winners. Walk. The girl named wendy follows the conseulesr. Into a igloo and goes into a closet where she watches the counselors and she sneezes and they hear and they search for her and there are stairs in the closet where the kids that walked in the winners walk are trapped where they wash a giant purple smell blob call King Jelly. J Jam and a girl that she knows tells her to hurry up zand leave before king jellyjam sees them but the king roars and they think they were seen . Then she runs up the stairs back into the main room and leaves to.find counselors searching for her but she dodges them. She finds her brother elliot and he's in a race winning. His. Six. King coin but wendy tackles elliot brings him to the igloo where king jelly. Jam. Is ands takes him were Wendy. Saw king. Jelly jam. And has a plan. So she tells all the kids to stop washing the blob and king jelly jam trries to reach out and grab one of.the.kids to eat them but the girl Wendy tells the kids to lay flat on the ground so kind jellyjam is unable to grab them so he gets mad and tries to grab Wendy but she slips out of his hand.she

Answer 5

Why are you asking? You pretty much just answered your own question. But to answer your question in my opinion what makes a good horror story is....

Abnormality

Description

Gorge

Gruesomeness

And lastly something that we all fear. Like for example being buried alive. Or being EATEN alive. Something along those lines

Answer 6

Hmm, you may like Omineko No Naku Koro Ni.

Answer 7

The answer : Hot guys, they make all things go on..