Horror
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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:"Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies." --[[Aristotle]] from the ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]''. | :"Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies." --[[Aristotle]] from the ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]''. | ||
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- | :"[[Fear]] is the most powerful [[emotion]] in the [[human race]] and fear of the [[unknown]] is probably the most [[ancient]]. You're dealing with stuff that everybody has felt; from being little babies we're frightened of the [[dark]], we're frightened of the unknown. If you're making a [[horror film]] you get to play with the [[audience]]s [[feeling]]s" -- [[John Carpenter]] | ||
'''Horror''' may mean: | '''Horror''' may mean: |
Revision as of 21:44, 16 November 2009
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- "Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies." --Aristotle from the Poetics.
Horror may mean:
- Horror (emotion), the physical and mental sensation
- Horror art, art focusing on horror themes
- Horror fiction, the general genre
- Horror film, the genre in film
Contents |
Horror tropes
Horror as a genre started with gothic fiction. Its tropes include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets and hereditary curses.
The stock characters of gothic fiction include tyrants, villains, bandits, maniacs, Byronic heroes, persecuted maidens, femmes fatales, madwomen, magicians, vampires, werewolves, monsters, demons, revenants, ghosts, perambulating skeletons, the Wandering Jew and the Devil himself.
Modern subgenres and tropes include bio horror - body horror - carnivorous plants - Count Dracula - erotic horror - exploitation - fantastic - Frankenstein - freaks of nature - gore - ghost - gothic fiction - grindhouse - magic - Mondo film - monster - phantom of the opera - psychological horror - slasher films - snuff films - vampire - video nasty - werewolf - zombie
Related vocabulary includes terms such as bizarre - blood - controversial - cruelty - dark - death - demon - devil - disgusting - disturbing - evil - fantasy - fear - gothic - grotesque - hidden - inquisition - macabre - midnight - night - occult - offensive - pain - phobia - prison - repugnance - secret - shocking - sadism - sick - strange - sublime - supernatural - surreal - terror - torture - ugly - violence - visceral - war
Towards a theory of horror
Lemma
- An intense painful emotion of fear or repugnance.
- An intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
- A literary genre, generally of a gothic character.
- (The horrors, informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression.
Derived terms
Related terms
Synonyms