Hi Readers!
With Halloween inching closer, I thought it would be fun to
write a piece on Horror, taking a mini dive into it's history as a genre, and
application to the modern world.
What is Horror?
Horror is defined as a medium that is intended to disturb, frighten, shock, or disgust its audience. With various sub-genres based upon what causes the fear and how the story is told, Horror is an incredibly vast tool that can entangle itself into most stories.
The history of Horror is intrinsically tied to real-world
anxieties, evolving from ancient folklore to a highly sophisticated academic
medium for contemporary societal critique. Due to it's distinct reflection of localized regional anxieties, Horror differs around the globe. Beginning with ancient folklores, evolving into medieval literature, gothic literature, and modern horror.
This is portrayed by the comparison of Mesopotamian
Mythology's epic, Enuma Elish, which features Tiamat, a primordial goddess of
saltwater, who emobides the fear surrounding chaos and destruction, and the
Norse Mythology epic of the monstrous Fenrir wolf, whose insatiable hunger for
destruction represents uncontrollable anarchy.
Furthermore, Horror may be frequently used as a mirror of
politics, reflecting state-sanctioned terror and systemic oppression, such as
through the history of witch-hunting. In the early modern period, the fear of
the supernatural was weaponized by religious and political authorities to
enforce social conformity, suppress bodily autonomy, and marginalize vulnerable
populations, particularly women.
As societies modernized, these externalized mythological
monsters transitioned into psychological and societal terrors that directly
mirrored changing cultural anxieties. For example, the Cambridge Companion to
American Horror explores how Horror's focus on the body may stem from the
modern American state's restrictions of freedom according to race, gender,
sexuality, etc.
Therefore, taking this into consideration, it may be found
that Horror is not only a genre that many enjoy for the thrill of being
spooked, but for unveiling the darker truths of our societies.
My love for it
I don't actually know where my love for Horror began. My first memories of the genre is only in fear of it. I can remember hiding behind my curtains while watching 'Monster House' with my cousins, and having various nightmares of my baby dolls coming to life after watching 'Toy Story' and scratching our DvD of 'Nine' so my brother couldn't put it on anymore because their soul-functions scared me.
Paranoia and anxiety has followed me my entire life, a gift from my loving, but overwhelming, Mom, trying to prepare me for a life in Johannesburg, where the crime rate sits at 89.6 out of 100. Constantly reminding me of current, horrific, events depicted in the You Magazine, and always watching some kind of true-crime documentary, she kept me well educated in violence.
Somewhere along the line, my fear of Horror became an obsession--it posessed me with anxiety and yet, I couldn't stop indulging.
I'd like to say that I overcame my fears and figured out a way to quell my sheltered idealogies, but I think the reason I love it so much, is that it feels like another way for me to prepare. Watching slashers, or home break-ins, murderous ghosts and vengeful demons--opens a kind of doorway, allowing me to almost act within these scenarios and create gameplans. How to be the final girl, the lone survivor, the one who gets to tell the tale.
As I've started learning more about the craft of storytelling, the hidden societal critiques have only made me love the genre more. Now, not only can I feel like I'm ready for an apocalypse, but I can judge our rigid, pathetic, social norms too.
Due to this, I've decided to list some of my favourite
Horror books, shows, and films that delve into this shadowed part of humanity
below, with open suggestions being available on my Recommendations Page!
Overall, thank you for reading,
Alivia :)
