During October, members of MoviePoet spent time reading and reviewing over 50 five-page horror SP’s. Mine is among them. We get to see the reviews on November 1st. The assignment, “Deadly is the Female”, was to “Weave a tale of horror, but make sure your killer or monster is female.”
There has been an interesting and spirited debate going on at MP about “horror”. Specifically, what exactly constitutes horror… The thing I have noticed, one person’s “horror” is something else to someone else.
Sure, we are all afraid of serial killers but some people find them interesting! So is a story about a serial killer “horror” or is it something else? I get the impression that many people think: if there’s gore, there’s horror. Personally, if I have to watch a movie through open fingers, then I think it’s horror.
David Trottier talks about horror in “The Screenwriter’s Bible”: “… the oposition is a monster, or a monster-like human. This genre leans heavily on shock and surprise.” Trottier goes on to explain that if focus is “on suspense more than on action” then it is a thriller.
To me, “horror” is something that happens inside your head. Gore can go along with it but it doesn’t have to be there. I also think that a “horror” can also be a “thriller”.
Remember when you were a kid? “Horror” was having to turn out the lights at night because the scarry things that lurk in the shadows come out with the darkness.
If you’re a pregnant woman, “horror” might be an exagerated fear about the baby. Perhaps a vivid memory about the night of conception.
What are YOU afraid of? Getting fat? Losing your limbs? Forgetting who you are? Being alone with no friends? Waking up in a buried casket? Not having your screenplay ever made into a movie?
Of course, horror is often linked to death but if you have deep spiritual beliefs, you might not be afraid of death.
I have heard that pornography is almost impossible to define, that we know it when we see it.
I think the same thing can be said about horror… we know it when we FEEL it.
