What’s the difference between horror and terror?
Both involve fear and repulsion, but terror is more immediate and more emotional.
Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence.
By contrast, terror is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared, while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful.
CINEMA
Horror
Horror movies are characterised by scaring scenes that provoke emotions like fear, disgust, and abhorrence.
Stories and characters are often inspired to Gothic novels, for example Dracula (by Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (by Mary Shelley) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson).
The plots generally include supernatural beings, evil characters and monstrous creatures, like The curse of Frankenstein or The Mummy.
Night of the Living Dead and the sequel Dawn of the Dead by George Romero are centred on zombies.
The Phantom of the Opera and Poltergeist are characterised by the presence of ghosts, spirits and haunted houses.
Other typical elements are Satanism and demoniac possessions, as we can see in The Exorcist.
Horror cinema also includes science-fiction, extraterrestrials, alien invasions and supernatural beings, like Alien (Ridley Scott) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Subgenres of horror
- Vampire films, like Nosferatu, Carmilla, Dracula and Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola (adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula) and Interview with the Vampire (based on the novel by Anne Rice).
- Body horror, or biological horror, a horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from a sense of physical "wrongness" with the body. Some examples are Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski), The Fly, Eraserhead (David Lynch), Hellraiser, and The Thing.
- Slasher films typically involve a psychopathic killer (usually wearing a mask) who stalks and murders a series of victims, as it happens in Scream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13rd or Child’s Play.
- Splatter film is a type of horror film that focuses on gore and violence through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts. The term "splatter" was coined by George Romero to describe his film Dawn of the Dead. Another popular example is Hostel by Quentin Tarantino.
Terror
Other subgenres of horror cinema use terror instead of horror to scare the audience.
- Psychological horror relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability to build tension. Well-known examples of psychological horror fiction include The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, The Shining (Stanley Kubrick) and the recent The Others.
- J-Horror is a term used to refer to Japanese contributions to horror fiction. It tends to focus on psychological horror and tension building (anticipation), particularly involving ghosts and poltergeists. Some popular movies are The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water.
- Horror thriller, where conflict between the main characters are mental, emotional, and physical. Two recent examples of this include the Saw series of films and 28 Days Later. Other well-known examples are Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs.
LITERATURE
Horror literature is a branch of fantastic literature which has the aim of horrifying and scaring the readers using the technique of suspence.
The most important author of horror literature is Edgar Allan Poe. He was born in the 19th century, but we can find in his works, especially the Tales of Mystery, the same themes of Gothic novel like the taste for mystery and distress, the research of psychological aspects, in particular obsessions and nightmares.
Another exponent of horror literature is Howard Phillips Lovecraft, whose production (in particular The Myths of Cthulu) influenced the world of novels, movies, comics and cartoons. His works are inspired by his nightmares and they are deeply linked to the human unconscious.
Between the contemporary we can't forget Stephen King, author of many horror fiction best-sellers.
To who has to comment my post:
I know it's long and boring, but I can't cut anything.
Sorryyyy :)
Alessia
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1 comment:
I really like this post, i think u ve done a good job like always ;D it is complete and clear, dunno what to add more (i can't correct grammar cuz is fine too xD); maybe i can write more about gothic novel cuz imho is the thing less verbose, so here below i show my knowledge about it:
"in 1740 was born gothic novel, but didn t start as a litterary gender, it was wrote by architects, rediscovering the medieval architeture, 1st with Cristopher Wrenn, then with Horace Walpole that bought a house and wanted to build it with a gothic style :"i m going to build a lil castle in strawberry hill", their was his words. His project was influential in the community and so lot of ppl started to follow his idea; he became from architect to writer and he was the initator of this current and he wrote The castle of Otranto, the 1st gohtic book. the stories r caracterized by a new sense of terror and fear, ppl wrote more and more novels, with new features:a hero or heroine(good), a villain(bad), monsters, secret passages, ghosts, vampires, ecc. they started to discover the dark side of men, enhancing terror and emptyness, maybe for the instability of that period (there were lot of deaths, pollution, no hygiene, rich landowners lost their property).
i hope to don t have said nothing wrong and to integrate better alessia's work...c u all guys hnd^^
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