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I think you need to make a distinction between horror, which runs largely on anticipation (like every other genre) and splatter porn (which relies on the perverse titillation that some people feel ...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:58Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47851 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:54:43Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47851 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:54:43Z (over 4 years ago)
I think you need to make a distinction between horror, which runs largely on anticipation (like every other genre) and splatter porn (which relies on the perverse titillation that some people feel when regarding scenes of gore, torture, etc.). If you are writing splatter porn, you probably can't go too far, but the audience is (I hope to God) small. If you are writing conventional horror, you don't have to go all that far at all. What you have to do is to build and sustain an ever heightening anticipation of an event. In other words, the core of horror is watching the cheerleader going down the steps of the basement where you know the killer is hiding. It is not in watching said cheerleader getting dismembered in grisy detail. The better you get at building anticipation, the less gory you have to be to move the reader. Sometimes just jumping out from behind a tree a shouting boo is enough if you set things up correctly.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-09-05T22:59:20Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 7