Blog Post What Genre Is That? – Horror

So today we are moving onto the horror genre and without further ado, let just get on with describing the subgenres.

·         Body horror – can also be known as biological horror, organic horror or venereal horror. This is basically the destruction or degeneration of the body, often done in a very graphic fashion.  It may deal with topics that include disease, decay, parasitism, mutilation, or mutation. Or the focus maybe on unnatural movements or anatomically incorrect placement of limbs in order to create 'monsters'.

·         Ghost story – dealt with this subgenre in fantasy, perhaps, no more than perhaps this subgenre should have been included in horror instead. It is basically any story with a ghost (in any form) in it.

·         Gothic fiction - is a combination of horror and romanticism. This type of story feeds on romance and a pleasing/seductive terror. Think Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There is also often a Victorian feel to this work either because it was written then or dates back to that period.

·         Monster literature – the terror from this story comes in the form of a monster, be that some put together from different parts, vampires, werewolves, zombies or anything else you can dream up with.

·         Psychological horror – this story focuses on the characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension rather than a growing body count.

·         Slasher – for these stories, think bad guy with a weapon (usually a knife) killing pretty much anyone in sight. These stories have high body counts and no one is safe, except maybe the protagonist who needs to be alive to ‘kill’ the slasher at the end.

·         Survival horror – can be very similar to slasher (see above), with the focus on the story just being on the characters survive until the end of the story despite everything being out of the favour. High body counts are to be expected.

·         Werewolf – these stories includes humans that turn into some kind of wolf whenever there is a full moon. These stories can include other shapeshifters too.

·         Vampire – this is any fiction that includes the blood drinkers. This can either be told from the side of their victims (those who have their blood drunk) or the vampires themselves. Vampire can have their restrictions namely crosses, holly water and sunlight – and remember real vampires don’t sparkle.

·         Zombie – people being brought back from the dead to either lead the story or be the main threat to the other characters.