Psychological horror is a type of horror and psychological fiction that focuses on the mental, emotional, and psychological feelings of people to scare, bother, or make them feel uneasy. This type of story often overlaps with psychological thrillers and uses mystery elements and characters who have mental issues or are not trustworthy to increase suspense, horror, drama, tension, and feelings of being watched or suspicious. These choices help create a scary, unpleasant, and unsettling environment.

Characteristics

Psychological horror is a type of horror that traditionally shows characters dealing with mental instability or intense emotional pain. The scary or unsettling mood in these stories often reflects the characters' inner struggles. Today, this genre has expanded beyond just a character's mind. For example, the movie Ju-On: The Grudge is often considered a classic example of psychological horror in Japanese horror films.

In the past, psychological horror aimed to make people feel uneasy by showing common fears and hidden parts of the human mind that people often hide. This idea is called the "shadow" in psychology and includes feelings like suspicion, distrust, and fear of others or the world around us.

Sometimes, the genre makes it hard for the audience to understand the story by showing characters who are unsure about what is real or if they are losing their minds. These characters may see things that are not real, be tricked by others, or experience mental health issues. Directors may also use lighting and camera angles, like in the movie Bird Box, to limit what the audience can see, which increases tension and makes people imagine the dangers.

Like psychological thrillers, psychological horror sometimes uses a character who may not be telling the truth or who sees events in a way that is not accurate. This can confuse or scare the audience. In other cases, the main character is mentally stable but is involved with someone who is mentally troubled. These stories often focus on mental conflicts and can include supernatural elements, immoral actions, or mysterious events. Unlike other horror genres that focus on monsters or physical dangers, psychological horror usually keeps the scary elements hidden and focuses on realistic situations.

Plot twists are often used in these stories, where characters face inner struggles, such as desires for love or revenge. Unlike splatter fiction or monster movies, which show strange, alien threats, psychological horror is more about the audience's own fears and experiences. However, sometimes these genres overlap, as seen in the French movie High Tension.

In modern times, psychological horror is not always about internal fears. The source of fear can be from inside a character or from outside forces, as shown in stories like the Cthulhu Mythos or the SCP Foundation. Because of global cultural influences and creative ideas, today’s psychological horror focuses more on how it affects the audience’s emotions. It usually avoids stories that focus on physical harm from real monsters, like traditional monster movies. Because of this, the fear people feel is often personal and depends on their own background and experiences.

Psychological fascination of psychological horror

People are often drawn to horror films because they explore strange, confusing, and impossible situations. Psychologists like Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche believed that humans enjoy horror because it lets them imagine a world different from their everyday lives, where anything can happen. Horror films allow viewers to step away from normal, predictable life and explore their own confusing thoughts and feelings. H.P. Lovecraft suggested that people are fascinated by horror because it makes them think about how small and unimportant they are in the universe. Horror reminds people of things they might not want to face, and psychological horror especially helps people see their own fears and inner struggles.

Psychological horror can cause fear, worry, and discomfort, but it also helps people understand others. It lets viewers see characters dealing with difficult situations, which can help them relate to others. Studies show that people, especially females, may be more affected by psychological horror than males. One idea is that this difference might be linked to how society teaches boys and girls to act from a young age. Because research on how horror affects people in different cultures is limited, it is possible that each culture has its own way of understanding what is scary.

Some people believe that psychological horror can help people feel better emotionally. Just as listening to a sad song can help someone deal with hard feelings, horror can help people process their emotions and feel relief. Geraci and others say that people are drawn to strange or scary things because they want to understand and control what frightens them. Humans often focus more on negative things than positive ones, a tendency called the negativity bias. This might explain why people are curious about scary things, even if they are unpleasant. Sigmund Freud also noticed that children often repeat difficult experiences to overcome them. After facing these challenges, people may feel more at peace.

Tools of psychological horror

Hitchcock's film Rear Window used light and carefully placed shadows to create suspense for the audience. Suspense is an important part of horror films made by Hitchcock. Using shadows to hide details increases suspense and fear because the audience does not know what is hidden. In Rear Window, the main character is the only source of information for the viewer. This makes the audience feel confused and unsure. The audience does not know everything that is happening, which builds suspense and leads to a slow but powerful discovery of the truth. Shadows can hide events or truths, sometimes hint at future events, and signal the audience about hidden information, which increases suspense and makes the audience think about things they already know. Light represents what is known and visible, while shadows represent what is unknown and needs to be discovered. Partial lighting can show two sides of emotions and uncertainty. A small light, like a burning cigarette or cigar, can show that something or someone is present but does not reveal more, which can make the audience feel fear about what might be there.

Studies by Thayer and Ellison in the 1980s looked at how different types of music affect people when they watch stressful images. They used tools to measure physical reactions, like changes in skin, while people watched and listened. They found that when stressful music was played with stressful images, people had stronger emotional reactions than when non-stressful music was played with the same images. Music with happy tones made people see the same images as positive, while music with sad or negative tones made people see the same images as more threatening.

They tested three ideas and proved two:

• When following a character in a movie or show, music shows the character's emotions. The audience feels the same emotions as the character, creating a connection between the character and the viewer. Adding music adds depth to emotions that only visual scenes cannot achieve alone. Music can influence the audience without them noticing, making them feel more deeply about what they are watching. This makes music an important part of psychological horror and its ability to create emotions in the audience.

• In horror films, sound is carefully designed to create emotional reactions. However, not having sound can also be effective in creating emotions. Soundtracks are used to build tension or highlight sudden events, like a jump scare. In the film A Quiet Place, suspense is built using very quiet and limited sounds. Films with few sounds make the audience unsure of what will happen next. This often causes stronger emotional reactions when a sound is finally heard.

Novels

Some examples of psychological horror include the novel The Golem by Gustav Meyrink, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Robert Bloch's books Psycho and American Gothic, Stephen King's works Carrie, Misery, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The Shining, and Koji Suzuki's novel Ring. The book We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is often considered one of the best examples of psychological horror in fiction.

Films

Bill Gibron of PopMatters described psychological horror films in different ways. He said they could include any movie that causes uneasiness or fear, or a film where the audience imagines things not shown on screen. Gibron called this genre an "unclear area between extreme violence and a frightening cinematic experience."

Experts and historians have different ideas about when psychological horror films began. Historian David J. Skal said The Black Cat (1934) was considered the first psychological horror movie in America. Academic Susan Hayward described these films as a trend that started after World War II, using Psycho (1960) and Peeping Tom (1960) as examples. She also said psychological horror films and slasher films are often used as the same term, "horror-thrillers."

Hayward explained that psychological horror films and slasher films are similar in how they show harmful attitudes toward women in a way that makes it seem normal. She wrote that in both genres, male characters often rely on female characters to understand their identity, and frequently use tools like knives or chainsaws to harm them.

Video games

Psychological horror video games are a type of horror video game. These games can use many different kinds of gameplay, but they often focus on exploration and aim to make players unsure about what is really happening. Early examples include Phantasmagoria (1995), D (1995), Corpse Party (1996), and Silent Hill (1999). Some games, like the 2017 visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club!, may show fake crashes or errors. Others, such as OMORI, start as normal games but later reveal scary or unsettling themes.

Studies show that people often feel similar emotions when playing horror games as they do when facing unpleasurable experiences, as noted by psychologist Sigmund Freud. Scary or disturbing characters in horror games often represent real fears and anxieties in exaggerated ways. It is natural for people to be drawn to things that cause fear because overcoming these fears can feel like a victory. Horror games create anxiety and let players act on it. To survive the game’s dangers, players work to protect their characters. Success in the game gives them a sense of achievement and helps them feel like they have conquered their fears. Research also suggests that some players reported feeling less scared in real life after playing horror games.