about "horror" as a fictional genre

@moonbus said
Horror touches something intensely visceral and primal in many people which other genres do not.

I can find myself weeping at the drop of a hat these days regardless of genre. I was watching a grim film once about a famine with all these skeletal people and eveything. I felt suitably grim until they started playing Everybody Hurts by REM and I started weeping. It was visceral, amost primal.

@kevin-eleven said
What's the point?

What does "horror" mean to you?

Freeform essays on the "horror" genre also welcome.

What's the point?

The "point" is profit. Horror is now big business. Haunted houses, Halloween costumes horror movies etc. rake in billions every year. The traditions are now deeply engrained in our culture. Frankly I think it's all rather stupid and unnecessary, but as long as there is a market for this nonsense, they'll be enterprising folks ready to fill that desire (for a price)

@kevin-eleven said
What's the point?

What does "horror" mean to you?

Freeform essays on the "horror" genre also welcome.

People like being scared when there is the safety net of it just being a film.

@the-gravedigger said
People like being scared when there is the safety net of it just being a film.

I like horror / crime books and movies that don't focus on the actual murders or killings but rather what is happening before and in between. I don't want to watch evil people or sadistic murders and children must be left out of the story.

@the-gravedigger said
People like being scared when there is the safety net of it just being a film.

I would still give Buffy 1

-Removed-

I dont want to hear how you and your missus get it on.....u7 must have to strap a plank on your back.

-Removed-

Do you have a list that would be ok with you? 🙂

-VR

-Removed-

I think you and @Torunn are the only ones who followed on in an overtly bookish sense.

So much for reading culture. Just a transitory fad, apparently. 😢

On my side, when I was a kid I had a big hardcover "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" book of ghost stories, plus I read a lot of Ray Bradbury's short stories -- looking back, although a lot of people might think of Bradbury as a poetic science-fiction writer, many of his stories are horror stories.

If you haven't read any of Thomas Ligotti's stories, I'd like to recommend him. For balance style-wise, there's another American author I'd like to recommend, but that might take a while to surface. [Edit: Dennis Etchison is who I had in mind.]

For Rusty: If you are interested in this kind of thing, maybe look for Mammoth Book of Ghost (or Horror) stories, or collections edited by Stephen Jones. Collections by various authors are a good way to find authors you especially like.

For anyone interested in Victorian ghost stories, look for the Wimbourne collections on Amazon.

@very-rusty said
Do you have a list that would be ok with you? 🙂

-VR

I'd just like to clarify that I was not in any way answering on behalf of @divegeester in my post above.