Art by Kopie

Writing Horror that's actually Scary.

I ran across 'quite' an informative little video series. This particular set is on making Horror games, movies, and stories.

Let's Gripe about Horror
https://vimeo.com/295183486

I suggest grabbing a notebook and completely ignoring the movie in favor of just listening to the voice-over. Expect to use that Pause button a lot. He covers a lot of topics at lightspeed.

Highlights:

What do You want to Do to your target audience with your Horror?

- Unsettle them?
- Surprise them?
- Create Apprehension?
- Convey a message about something you feel is horrifying?
- Disgust them with Splatter?

What does your target audience Want?

- To think about an important issue?
- Feel an adrenaline rush?
- Be titillated by gore?

What is Actual Horror?

-- Something so ghastly you have trouble understanding what just happened and/or what you're seeing.

To be effective, your horror needs to Generate: Anxiety, Panic, and Dread on a Personal level.

"You want to make the audience realize what a horrible person they are while you show them a bunch of weird crap that they can never really figure out."

In other words...
-- Offer them something Dangerously Mysterious, and make them feel Bad about themselves for wanting to know more about it. :) Then, when the final reveal comes, deliver on just how bad it is to Know the answers while hinting that even more remains hidden. HP Lovecraft was a master at this.

To do this you need:

1 To generate Introspection among the audience. ("I really am a horrible person.")
2 A Story Designed to generate that introspection.
3 A Tone of Horror that Supports the Story.
4 A Tone of Mystery that Supports the Horror.

The Steps:


1 Generate Introspection among the audience

Make them identify with Your Opinion/Concept.
-- The easiest way to get your audience to support Your opinion is by using their own established opinions as a base to work from.

-- Being studious is Good.
-- Being hard-working and punctual is Good.
-- Being kind to strangers is Good.
-- Defending the weak is Right.
-- Family deserves unconditional Trust.
-- Loving unconditionally is Right.

Subtlety = Audience IMMERSION.

Don't Tell -- SHOW, but Show by NOT SHOWING.

No Direct hints toward the Horror.

-- No bloody smears.
-- No mysterious notes.
-- Nothing concrete to prove that something really bad has happened.

Instead, Imply that something has gone wrong.

-- Use little things to hint that something has gone wrong, but nothing definite to point to What went wrong, or How wrong it went.

Reward their involvement with small affirmations that something has indeed gone wrong, possibly very wrong. 

-- Give them Clues, not Confirmation.
-- Make them think they can handle it --> until they actually face it.

2 A Story Designed to generate that introspection.

Make your story Interesting to the audience.

However...!
-- The audience only cares about two things:

1. Themselves.
-- Their personal circumstances. ("Oh, woe is me!")

2. Their personal interests.
-- Their family. (Their parents, their siblings, their spouse, their kids, their house...,)
-- Their lovers. (Catching or Keeping.)
-- Their hobbies. ("I adore cats, dogs, anime, lollies...!")

You have Two options:

1. Make something specifically about Them. 
-- Something that appeals to a specific audience.

2. Get them to LIKE (care about) a character in your story.
-- A likable human character*
-- An animal
-- An Interesting and/or unusual Environment (personification)

* "People will always pick (connect with) the cute (spunky) kid over a tragic (angsty) victim."

3 A Tone of Horror that Supports the Story.

Invoke all 5 senses -- and then some.
- Music & Sounds
- Imagery
- Textures
- Smells
- Flavors

4 A Tone of Mystery that Supports the Horror.

What many beginning writers miss is that at its core, a Horror is a MYSTERY.
-- The core value of a Mystery is a Contest between the Author who presents a Puzzle, and the Reader who seeks to discover the Solution before the end of the story.

The sign of a good Mystery is one that Keeps the Reader Guessing until the very last page.

-- Never give anything away until the last possible second. (NEVER give the monster a POV!)
-- The Monster should be the Physical Representation (presented as a puzzle) of the story's Concept AND the final Answer.
-- The final Answer should be More shocking than your Monster.

Why use Horror?

-- Horror conveys themes involving The Darkness within the Human Soul far better than other genres, (such as Comedy, or Romance.)

Subtlety = Confusion & Misdirection

Personify the story's Concept

Transform the story's Concept into a MONSTER that:
-- Embodies the idea, (shows how wrong/evil such a concept can be.)
-- Is ambiguous enough to Visually unsettling.

Subtlety in Design

"Don't use conventional designs!
-- A skinless dog, or a dog made of butterflies, is still just a Dog."

However, a shapeless, amorphous blob with strange appendages MADE from dogs is something else entirely.

"Rule of Designing (Horror) things:

-- To convey existing ideas and make it look enough like [i]something to state (that idea,) but make it look so strange, your brain doesn't know what to make of what it's seeing."[/i]

"What did I just see?"
"What does it mean?"

Important!
- Show it too long and it will Lose Impact.
- Show it too short and it Won't Convey the Theme.

Condition them to learn New Fears.
--> This triggers Jump-Scares.

- Specifically themed music. (Ex. The shark music in 'Jaws'.)
- Specific ominous sounds.
- Specific Actions = Fatal Results. (Ex. In Nightmare on Elm Street, falling asleep = Death) [/list]

Give them strong Negative Results for their actions.

-- Even (or especially) for Positive actions.

Short-term Victory = Long-term Defeat

> Ammo/inventory limits:
--- If used to kill this monster, won't have it later to kill that monster.

> Catch 22 Choices:
--- To gain something, one must lose something.
--- To save someone, some else must die.

Keep the audience invested in continued voluntary Exposure to the threat.

-- Give them an emotional reason (or excuse) to stay and Finish the game, book, or movie.

Tone, Narrative, and so-on all need a Purpose --> need to Support your Main Concept.

- Betrayal.
- Inability to connect with others.
- Lost in a collective society.
- Etc...

You do this by:
- Establishing the Concept you're trying to convey. (Show it in all it's mundane glory.)
- Associating that concept with something Horrifying.
- Showing all possible results of interaction -- and Non-interaction.


I was very impressed by the amount of research and thought that went into this 3 part series.

Enjoy!