In a word, horror is hopelessness. True horror takes away hope. This hopeless will produce fear, but that fear is only the scent of true horror.
Fear, regret, anger, despair, dread, menace; they're just the masks that the horror hides behind when it enters into your subconscious.
True horror, like a leek, seeps into us. It never knocks on the door but rather comes in through the vents & lets us breathe it in for a while.
Fear, regret, anger, despair, dread, menace; they're just the masks that the horror hides behind when it enters into your subconscious.
True horror, like a leek, seeps into us. It never knocks on the door but rather comes in through the vents & lets us breathe it in for a while.
Horror movies, then, should be taking away the viewer's sense of hope. Good horror movies will indelibly succeed at it.
Consider The Exorcist:
Chris MacNeil is the mother of a girl possessed by an ancient demon. Think of the comfort she will receive from the following Q&A:
• Can the doctors help? No, they can't.
• Any special reason the demon picked my child? No.
• Can the Priests fix this, keep it from happening again? They're both gonna die.
• But the Demon will be killed, right? No, it'll be just fine, alive & out there.
• Well, it can't come back here - can it? It might. We don't know.
• Can I do anything to prevent it from targeting my daughter again? Not really.
Is this bleak or what? Sure The Exorcist appears to end on a happy note, but consider those questions & you'll begin to see how the horror never left but only sunk deeper into the subconscious.
There is evil out there Ms MacNeil. It hates you and there's nothing you can do to stop it, reason with it or change its mind... and no one is coming to help you... or your daughter.
One horror fan said that Horror comes from great sadness or anger. This is not true. They may both be involved, but neither produce horror. Both are side effects of it.
• Sadness is a direct reaction to hopelessness and
• Anger is an indirect reaction to helplessness - what hopelessness clothes itself in.
• Sadness is a direct reaction to hopelessness and
• Anger is an indirect reaction to helplessness - what hopelessness clothes itself in.
Many things frighten us, but the real horror comes when you realize there's no hope of escape, no hope of any kind.
Find any horror movie that got under your skin or into your soul & you'll find somewhere it stung the nerves of being helpless in this life, alone & hopeless to change or stop anything.
Now that's horror.
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