InkyBlots

The other day I got to thinking about horror. Since I arrived in Australia, I have become immersed in the speculative fiction world. (If you’re not familiar with the term, it covers most science fiction, fantasy, and horror.) While I have only tried my hand at writing horror once as a writing exercise, I have to admit I wish I could write the kind of horror that makes people shudder. (I have fantasies about writing in nearly every genre.)

But that got me wondering: What makes people shudder?

Horror movies these days certainly don’t give an answer about true horror; they’re all about making you gasp and jump. You’re not really scared but for the jump.

For me, there are two things that scare me the most:

1. The cosmic, cold intelligence. I actually have to thank a new acquaintance on Writing Discussions for bringing this one up because, while it is something that scares me, I don’t come across it very often in what I read or watch. Yet, there is something about the idea of an otherworldly force that humanity doesn’t understand – and has no hope to understand – that is scary to me.
2. Human evil. While it may sound cliché, the capacity of humans for evil acts is the scariest thing to me. Be it the child who kills, the adult who only knows how to dole out cruelty, or just the person you meet walking down the street who happens to have body parts in his/her basement freezer. There is just something about human evil that gets to me. Probably the fact that it’s possible for any of us…

Even so, those are only two examples of what horror writers use to get our hearts racing.

What scares you? What makes *good* horror?