"Horror
1. an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust."children screamed in horror"
synonyms: terror, fear, fear and trembling, fearfulness, fright, alarm, panic, dread, trepidation
"children screamed in horror"
antonyms: delight
2. a thing causing a feeling of horror.
plural noun: horrors
"photographs showed the horror of the tragedy"
synonyms: awfulness, frightfulness, cruelty, savagery, gruesomeness, ghastliness, hideousness;
3.a literary or film genre concerned with arousing feelings of horror.
"a horror film"
4.intense dismay.
"to her horror she found that a thief had stolen the machine"
synonyms: dismay, consternation, perturbation, alarm, distress; More
antonyms: satisfaction
humorous
5.used to express dismay.
exclamation: horrors; plural noun: horrors
"horrors, two buttons were missing!"
6.intense dislike.
"many have a horror of consulting a dictionary"
synonyms: hate, detest, loathe, greatly dislike, have a strong aversion to, abhor, abominate, be unable to bear/stand
"Laura had a horror of pubs"
antonyms: love
7. an attack of extreme nervousness or anxiety.
plural noun: horrors; plural noun: the horrors
"the mere thought of it gives me the horrors""
All text above is taken from the Google search definitions of 'Horror':
Harvard Reference of text: Google, (n.d.). 'Horror Definition' Search Results. [online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=horror%20definition [Accessed 15 Feb. 2016].
The Horror Genre
Although I am looking at Horror from a genre perspective, I feel it is important to understand what the word 'Horror' means in other context as the definitions for the word coincide with the aspects of the genre. The 'Horror' genre is created to give the audience negative emotions. It is supposed to play on the audience's fears, nightmares, anxieties and even own negative experiences. The Horror genre is to, put simply, horrify us.
The Horror genre derived from the Gothic Horror genre. The classic novels were the initial direct inspiration for the Horror Genre in films, books and other media but has evolved over time, as has the audience. When the Horror genre came about, the idea was to shock the audience/reader by playing on old fears and creating new ones. Although that idea is still the same today, the Horror genre to a modern spectator is a much broader, and simply more direct and shocking than what was considered Horror when it first came about from the Victorian era.
Victorian Horror. (2014). [image] Available at: http://www.anglotopia.net/british-history/guest-long-read-victorian-spooks-charles-dickens-art-good-ghost-story/ [Accessed 15 Feb. 2016].
A key theme, which is not always seen to be obvious, but is reoccurring, is the theme of sex or lust. This theme was used, although not directly suggested, in most of the classic Gothic Horror books, particularly ones of a vampire focus. This theme is often taken from 2 completely different angles: the fear of rape, or the seduction of the unknown and forbidden. Books such as Dracula took the theme from both of these angles, from the force from Dracula on to Lucy, or the seduction of Mina. In modern film, these themes are a lot more literal and obvious. The appeal of sex used in horror is not simply because 'sex sells' but instead because it is in fact one of the most vulnerable moments in persons life - literally, due to being stripped to a naked self, or, emotionally, where a person is putting trust into a person by allowing intimacy.
Dracula film. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://cinemathequefroncaise.com/Chapter5-1/Read_05_01_DRACULA.html [Accessed 15 Feb. 2016].
In old Horror, the focus was typically on monsters: Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, demons, etc. In modern Horror, the focus is typically on things we feel are more applicable to real life, such as psychopaths or serial killers. This is most likely due to influences such as, in the Victorian era, people did not usually travel, and their access to media, mostly news papers, were usually local. This would have made people feel like there was a whole world of the unknown, and monsters seemed like a concept that was not completely ludicrous, but in fact quite possible. In modern society, we are aware of a large amount of what goes on in the world we live, as well as seeing a large quantity of it. Modern media allows us to know most of the horrific stories that go on, therefore, our fears are more on those that could be around us; murder, terrorism, torture, war and even the fear of an apocalypse. This means that modern day horror simply touches on monsters more out of tradition, and tend to not scare people in the same way that modern fears do.
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