Common weaknesses of horror stories

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Alien

Science versus faith

Defining what is human

Concept of evolution

Horror is dealing with most fundamental question: what is human and what is inhuman

Horror comes from something inhuman trying to act like a human being or enter the human community.

The purpose of the horror story in a nutshell is to test the boundaries of what is human.

Which means that horror stories deal in area that used to be known as natural philosophy, which is simply the connection between biology and culture.

Virtually all horror stories in some way do this. But that do it from a negative perspective. They show us the most negative possibilities of men.

In most horror stories, we watch the devolution of men not evolution. We see human beings’ worst qualities made real.

Basic strategy of the horror story:

Horror story takes the biggest concepts that it can play withs and jams them into the smallest space possible.

Story sequence very simple: we watch the hero been reduced while the monster increases.

Some of the big concepts and questions that horror story asks:

What is man and what is machine? (Frankenstein, Terminator)

What is man and what is animal? (King Kong, Fly, Wolfman)

What is death? Can death be postponed or sopped? (Dracula, Pet Cemetery)

Can man create a man? (Frankenstein, Westworld)

What motivates a person to act? (Dr. Jekyll, Shining)

Does every human being have both a good and a hateful side? (Dr. Jekyll, Psycho, Angel Heart)

Can humans leave their past and change? (Fundamental question for all fiction) What are the great that hold people back from living well? (A Nightmare on Elm street, Alien)

Is even the ugliest creature among us human? (Frankenstein, creature from the Black Lagoon)

Typically, horror stories resort to religion to answer this question (although it’s not necessary and genre have been moving away from that in last years).

Common weaknesses of horror stories

- Horror story = blood producing machine.

- Horror is the narrowest of all forms. We don’t have a lot of room to operate

- A lot of horror stories are too past oriented. They rely too much on the ghost (which always holds the story back)

- Weak hero or stupid hero (reactive or silly story)

- Often hero has no need (simply innocent victim) so story can’t go anywhere

- Cardboard villain (diablo ex machina)

- Thin and obvious plot

Reasons

- Very confined space

- Basic idea - let’s pound the hero as many times as possible

- Once we set the heroes decline in motion it’s pretty clear where we going. We just gonna each him fall. It takes away any possibility of suspense.

- Horror stories tend to be very repetitive (the monster simply attacks again and again)

- Texture is missing (while we try to go from the real to way over the top, go far beyond the bounds of normal reality). To make that believable you need a lot of texture. Which is why typically horror stories have work better in novel form than in film.

- We usually miss the details of the hero’s obsession. When details are missing process of hero becoming obsessed seems unintentionally funny.

- Usually horror stories do not have self-revelation (because hero usually don’t have need).

- Most horror stories are based on gore, not psychology while in a good horror stories we’re really interested in psychological devastation. (Not physical)

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