Talk:Horror fiction

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Horror fiction article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Horror Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Horror, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to fictional horror in film, literature and other media on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.HorrorWikipedia:WikiProject HorrorTemplate:WikiProject Horrorhorror
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Literature Low‑importance

	Literature portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Literature, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Literature on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LiteratureWikipedia:WikiProject LiteratureTemplate:WikiProject LiteratureLiterature
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Actually

Actually I would say that the real well-spring of the the horror genre is more likely to be Sheridan le Fanu's work, particularly Carmilla (of which Dracula is a largely plagiaristic and unsatisfactory hack) and the short story Green Tea. But hey, let's not let historical reality get in the way of comfy modern glosses over the facts in the matter :) user:sjc

Actually, the seeds of horror fiction go back even further, to late 18th century gothic novels. I've added this and will add more on this later. Michael Wells 18:00, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Michael Wells is correct. Early gothic fiction is the common taproot of modern horror and fantasy, and one of the roots of science fiction as well.

Esr 08:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Stoker was not the father of modern horror.

After reading the article, I must disagree. Bram Stoker was by no means the father of modern horror.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol wrote Viy in 1835 and the novel is as classical horror as it gets. It talks about witches, vampires, demons and lesser devils in a traditional Ukrainian village setting during the funeral of a local noble's daughter (who's a witch).

So I think Gogol's name should at least be added to the article. He wrote a myriad of other horror stories in his "Vechera na hutore bliz Dikanki" (Nights in the village near Dikanka).

Naming one person as the "father" of a genre is pointless. Besides, simply being the first to write a horror story doesn't mean you created the genre. Stoker wasn't the first and maybe he got alot of his ideas from earlier works...his novel is still the most popular of any of his time and prior. Most people couldn't even tell you where to find a copy of Camilla. Is it worth reading? You bet, but Dracula remains one of the most popular horror stories to date. To dismiss him as a hack as someone did previously is missing the point.Culmo80 17:47, 8 December 2006 (UTC)culmo80[reply]

New section on connections with other genres

I've added a new section on connections with other genres that reflects recent advances in SF critical theory. These have implications for our understanding of horror and fantasy which I have tries to express here.

You didn't add a new section, you replaced one. The implications you have tried to express are not only faulty, their non-informative. Stop replacing large sections of wikipedia with your personal opinions.

Link

I added a link to horrorcore (a rap genre, which is very grand guinol (sp?) in style) becuase of its obvious ties.

Subgenres

I'd like to see the inclusion of various subgenres of horror fiction with appropriate examples? What subgenres should be included? Obviously vampire fiction, psychological horror, classic ghost story, cosmic horror, gothic horror, splatterpunk, weird fiction... Any thing else? - CNichols 18:41, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Puzzle Horror

Puzzle Horror is a genre that until fairly recently was usually restricted to video games, where solving puzzles is part of the gameplay (Silent Hill for example). But there's been sort of a surge of the genre in film such as the Cube franchise, the Saw franchise, and other films like Mindhunters and the French film Maléfique (which is getting a US remake). It's categorized usually by a person or group of people who are trapped in an enclosed location or situation, and the only way out is to play the game of their captors, whoever or whatever that may be. I think this would be a good addition, but I don't have any references specifically naming the subgenre that don't refer to video games, so I'm guessing people would just edit it out if I wrote one up. 74.76.142.137 (talk) 10:30, 29 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

anti-violence bias?

am i the only one who thinks the "Contemporary horror fiction" section has a POV against explicit violence? it's talking about how some authors are 'capable of' writing horror without 'resorting' to violence. aside from the fact that whoever wrote that has obviously never read "misery", i don't see why the fact that some authors write against the common style of the times should be the main focus of a section devoted to the contemporary. --dan 14:56, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

okay i have fixed it myself to remove the pov, but i still think this section needs to be added to. there has to be more that can be said about contemporary horror fiction than "some authors use violence and some don't", doesn't there? --dan 09:50, 4 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see why everything in the small "contemporary horror" section is related to gore or the lack thereof.

The beginnings of horror fiction?

I've noticed that the article does not have any information on the antique horror, more specific the things which H.P. Lovecraft mentions in one of his works (loose quote, and I can not say from which of his works it originates because I do not know - all of this comes from an article in the local papers): "Petronius werewolf case, Apoleus' excerpt, short but famous letter of Plinius Minor.." Plinius Minor, whom Lovecraft mentiones, is Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63-ca. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger. The work to which Lovecraft refers to is called (again, loose translation; I don't know what the original name is, a bit of googling might yield some results) "The Tales of Philosopher Athenodoros", written in 107. AD, and which can be found in Book 7 of his Epistulae. Does this count? Or does this article deal with works of fiction that belong to the horror genre, and to horror genre alone? In any case, this is the only mention of the early horror (fiction) I've ever encountered so far. If anyone has more information on the matter, I'd be happy to hear it. -- 10:07, 13 August 2006 (UTC) [Bob]

Other games

Seems to me it's a bit strange list of games mentioned here. Is there by any chance that Quake is more horrible than Half Life 2? And what about VtM:Bloodlines and VtM:Redemption? I think there also should be role-playing settings like Ravenloft and World of Darkness. Dreambringer 12:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Link

I added a link to http://www.fantastichorror.com/ under horror fiction sites.Hodgson 18:34, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

The shocking lack of citations makes this article sound like a poor quality essay. Does the horror project do anything? As the article "lacking citations" template has provoked no response, i've fact tagged many of the sentences that need to be cited. I'll start cutting things in the future.Yobmod (talk) 01:07, 6 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Weird fiction

When using the words "Weird Fiction", you end up in the horror article, which has nothing to say about weird fiction. When nothing is said about it, why redirect it at all? It either deserves an own article or its own section in the horror article. 80.202.38.38 (talk) 12:30, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Strange, searching Weird fiction took me here: [1].

did you follow a link? Like this Horror fiction? Maybe it was not changed since Weird fic got it's own article?Yobmod (talk) 16:26, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I AGREE!

Yeah! This place should be non-violent!! I agree with you!

by

becky--212.32.85.249 (talk) 09:01, 26 October 2009 (UTC)(212.32.85.249 (talk) 09:01, 26 October 2009 (UTC))[reply]

P.s. three orphan kittens is a good article

Expert please

This article needs the attention of someone truly knowledgeable about the subject, and needs some wikification. The bulk of the article appears above the toc. The copy rambles in a circuitous fashion. Various dubious claims are made, including a paragraph I excised that claimed horror fiction consists of just three subgenres ("dark fiction", "historical fiction", and psychological fiction; of these only the last is a true subgenre, and all three were ill-defined and the description given for psychological horror was inaccurate). 12.233.146.130 (talk) 19:15, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, and would like to point out this sentence, in particular, which is poorly constructed: "King was responsible for the development of the horror genre beginning in the 1970s." It implies that horror fiction was invented in the 1970s, and by Stephen King. I'd suggest something like "Stephen King has been a particularly influential figure in contemporary American horror fiction since the 1970s." O0drogue0o (talk) 06:42, 16 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Template

I am planning to revamp the template, removing links to categories or stub articles (unless the stub is on a demonstrably central subject). I will include major authors, artists, and works. I did similar work on the templates for sf and fantasy, Template:Science fiction Template:Fantasy fiction. Im mentioning it here because the talk page for the template is silent. of course, this page is not that travelled either.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 08:16, 18 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WorldCat Genres

Hello, I'm working with OCLC, and we are algorithmically generating data about different Genres, like notable Authors, Book, Movies, Subjects, Characters and Places. We have determined that this Wikipedia page has a close affintity to our detected Genere of horror-fiction. It might be useful to look at [2] for more information. Thanks. Maximilianklein (talk) 23:32, 5 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cartoon "Irish Frankenstein"

Was the "Irish Frankenstein" a particular person, or was the monster meant to represent fear of Irish people? Please elaborate, as it is not clear why the general English public should have had a generalized fear of the Irish at the time this catoon would have been published. Or perhaps the cartoon is a reference to a particular person? Either way, please be more specific as to whom or what the cartoon is meant to depict. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.89.193.42 (talk) 21:59, 4 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bad footnote

Footnote 14, "'Elements of Horror'. Redlodge. Retrieved 2012-11-02." leads to a 404 page. Any other source? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.134.86 (talk) 00:34, 9 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This piece on horror fiction was very informative on the origin of horror fiction towards the 20th century and all of the steps and accomplishments that horror fiction has taken. I do wish it expanded upon how it has progressed towards the present and how much further this genre grew over time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:5B0F:B600:C56C:349C:1BC1:96AE (talk) 05:11, 11 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

End of the "horror boom" in the 1990s?

Although there was a big surge in horror books during the 1970s, by the early 1990s the amount of horror books sold in the US declined. For instance: " the 1990s saw the end of the horror boom. Major authors in the field still sold well, but their works were increasingly labeled "fiction" rather than "horror," and their audiences contained more longtime fans than new readers. Meanwhile, new writers of horror and supernatural fiction failed to win mass audiences like those that had flocked to King ten or fifteen years earlier".(Rebecca Stefoff, Stephen King.New York : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2011. (p.64)). And this: "by the early '90s, something catastrophic had clearly happened to the horror field. Those black-covered books with the demonic children and the embossed drop of blood visible through the show-through outer cover were disappearing.With them went, frequently, the entire horror section in major bookstores....the field imploded, largely collapsing down to the small-press or near-vanity press level, where one could become a "big name" with a print-on-demand novel that sold four hundred copies". (Darrell Schweitzer," Who Killed Horror? The Murder on the Orient Express Solution", in The Fantastic Horizon: Essays and Reviews Rockville, Md. Borgo Press, 2009. (p.39)) This information should be incorporated into the article. 176.61.97.121 (talk) 20:51, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Literature?

Shouldn't this be removed since horror is covered by film as well?--Taeyebaar (talk) 01:05, 6 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Horror fiction. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:18, 5 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Horror fiction. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060412140830/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/e/euripides/hippolytus/ to http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/e/euripides/hippolytus/
Added {{dead link}} tag to http://redlodge.schoolwires.com/59610818143418910/lib/59610818143418910/_files/horror.pdf
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.horroraward.org/prevrec.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:06, 6 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Speculative Fiction?

Right out of the gate, this article is, to me, incorrect: "Horror is a genre of speculative fiction..." I think "Horror is a genre of fiction" would be more correct. Horror doesn't have to be speculative (think, Silence of the Lambs and the like). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tonica (talk • contribs) 20:29, 8 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is a good point. The article writer probably was more familiar with supernatural horror. Note that this article doubles as the article for horror and supernatural horror. 2601:647:CB03:5930:402A:BD68:139:CFD5 (talk) 22:05, 24 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

"Cozy horror" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Cozy horror has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 October 26 § Cozy horror until a consensus is reached. Cremastra (u — c) 00:56, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]