Horror is a type of fiction that aims to make people feel scared or uneasy. It is often divided into two categories: psychological horror and supernatural horror. In 1984, literary historian J. A. Cuddon described a horror story as "a story that shocks, frightens, or makes readers feel disgusted." Horror stories aim to create a spooky and scary environment for the reader. The dangers shown in horror fiction often represent fears that are common in society.
History
The horror genre has ancient roots. It began in folklore and religious traditions that focus on death, the afterlife, evil, demons, and the idea of evil in people. These themes appeared in stories about beings like demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. Some of the earliest European horror stories were written by the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans. Mary Shelley's famous 1818 novel Frankenstein was greatly influenced by the story of Hippolytus, whom Asclepius brought back to life. Euripides wrote plays based on this story: Hippolytos Kalyptomenos and Hippolytus. In Plutarch's Parallel Lives, the account of Cimon describes the spirit of a murderer named Damon, who was himself killed in a bathhouse in Chaeronea.
Pliny the Younger, who lived from 61 to around 113, told the story of Athenodorus Cananites, who bought a haunted house in Athens. Athenodorus was careful because the house seemed too cheap. While writing a book on philosophy, he saw a ghostly figure tied in chains. The figure disappeared in the courtyard. The next day, magistrates dug in the courtyard and found an unmarked grave.
Elements of horror also appear in the Bible, especially in the Book of Revelation. The Witch of Berkeley by William of Malmesbury is considered an early horror story. Werewolf tales were popular in medieval French literature. One of Marie de France's twelve lais is a werewolf story titled Bisclavret.
The Countess Yolande commissioned a werewolf story titled Guillaume de Palerme. Anonymous writers wrote two other werewolf stories: Biclarel and Melion.
Much horror fiction comes from the most cruel people of the 15th century. Dracula is based on Vlad III, the Prince of Wallachia, whose war crimes were described in German pamphlets. A 1499 pamphlet by Markus Ayrer is famous for its woodcut images. The violent actions of Gilles de Rais are thought to have inspired the story of Bluebeard. The idea of a vampiress comes from Elizabeth Bathory, a real-life noblewoman and murderer. Her story helped start the rise of horror fiction in the 18th century, such as in László Turóczi's 1729 book Tragica Historia.
In the 18th century, Romanticism and Gothic horror began to develop. They used ideas from the Late Middle Ages. Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto was the first major Gothic work. The first edition was disguised as an old Italian romance, translated by a fake person. When readers learned it was modern, some thought it was outdated or poor in taste, but it became very popular.
Otranto inspired other Gothic stories, such as Vathek (1786) by William Beckford, A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Italian (1796) by Ann Radcliffe, and The Monk (1797) by Matthew Lewis. Many horror stories from this time were written by women and aimed at female readers. These stories often featured clever women in danger inside dark castles.
The Gothic tradition grew into the horror genre that modern readers know today. Important works from the 19th century include the Brothers Grimm's Hänsel und Gretel (1812), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), Jane C. Loudon's The Mummy!: Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Thomas Peckett Prest's Varney the Vampire (1847), the works of Edgar Allan Poe, the works of Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot No. 249 (1892), H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man (1897), and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Each of these stories created lasting horror icons that appear in later books, plays, and movies.
Cheap magazines in the early 20th century led to more horror writing. For example, Gaston Leroux wrote Le Fantôme de l'Opéra as a serial before it became a novel in 1910. Tod Robbins wrote horror stories for magazines like All-Story Magazine, focusing on madness and cruelty. In Russia, Alexander Belyaev wrote Professor Dowell's Head (1925), about a mad doctor who does experiments on stolen bodies. Later, magazines like Weird Tales and Unknown Worlds gave horror writers a place to publish their work.
Important horror writers in the early 20th century, like H. P. Lovecraft, created the Cthulhu Mythos, which changed the idea of cosmic horror. M. R. James helped redefine ghost stories during this time.
The idea of serial killers became a common theme in horror. Stories about real murderers, like Jack the Ripper, Carl Panzram, Fritz Haarman, and Albert Fish, influenced this trend. After the crimes of Ed Gein, Robert Bloch wrote Psycho in 1959. The Manson Family's crimes in 1969 inspired the slasher genre of the 1970s. In 1981, Thomas Harris wrote Red Dragon, introducing Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In 1988, the sequel The Silence of the Lambs was published.
Early movies were inspired by horror books, starting a tradition of horror films that continues today. Before the 1960s and 1970s, when movies showed lots of violence, comics like those from EC Comics (such as Tales From The Crypt) provided horror images that movies could not. These comics were controversial and often censored.
Modern zombie stories, about the living dead, come from works like H. P. Lovecraft's Cool Air (1925), In The Vault (192
Characteristics
A key feature of the horror genre is that it causes readers to feel fear, either emotionally, mentally, or physically. H. P. Lovecraft, a famous writer, once said, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." This quote comes from his important essay titled "Supernatural Horror in Literature." Science fiction historian Darrell Schweitzer explained that a horror story is one that scares people. He also said that a true horror story must include something truly dangerous or harmful, even if it is not related to religion.
In her essay "Elements of Aversion," Elizabeth Barrette explained why some people enjoy horror stories in today's world. She wrote that humans once relied on the "fight or flight" reaction, which helped our ancestors survive. As society developed, daily life became calmer, and people began to feel a lack of excitement. To cope, people started telling scary stories during the night. These stories create a rush of adrenaline, making people feel alive. Horror stories also make people think about difficult ideas and challenge their beliefs. They remind people that the world is not always safe, which helps keep them alert.
In a way similar to how people enjoy the controlled excitement of a roller coaster, modern readers seek out horror stories to feel excitement. However, Barrette noted that horror fiction is unique because it forces readers to face ideas or images they might prefer to avoid, challenging their beliefs.
There are many theories about why people enjoy being scared. For example, people who like horror films are often more open to new experiences, a trait linked to imagination and intelligence.
It is now widely accepted that the horror elements in Bram Stoker's Dracula, such as the portrayal of vampirism, represent hidden themes, like repressed sexuality in the Victorian era. However, this is just one of many possible interpretations of the story. In his essay "Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula," Jack Halberstam suggests that Dracula symbolizes the corrupt aristocracy. He points out that descriptions of old money and jewels connect Dracula to the greed and excesses of the wealthy class. The story also shows a group of people from different countries using new technology, like the telegraph, to work together and defeat the vampire. This is one of many possible meanings of Dracula, with other interpretations ranging from religious themes to antisemitism.
Noël Carroll's Philosophy of Horror suggests that in modern horror stories, the monster, villain, or threat must have two important qualities.
Scholarship and criticism
In addition to the essays and articles mentioned earlier, studies about horror fiction have existed nearly as long as the genre itself. In 1826, the gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe wrote an essay explaining two key elements of horror fiction: "terror" and "horror." Terror is a feeling of fear before something happens, while horror is a feeling of disgust or shock after something happens. Radcliffe described terror as something that "expands the soul and awakens the mind to a high level of life," and horror as something that "freezes and nearly destroys them."
Today, research on horror fiction uses many different sources. Scholars like Devendra Varma and S. L. Varnado, who study the gothic novel, refer to the theologian Rudolf Otto. Otto introduced the term "numinous" to describe religious experiences, and this idea is now used in discussions about horror fiction.
A recent survey shows how often people use horror media for entertainment. Respondents were asked: "In the past year, how often have you used horror media, such as books, movies, or video games, for fun?" The results were: 11.3% said "Never," 7.5% "Once," 28.9% "Several times," 14.1% "Once a month," 20.8% "Several times a month," 7.3% "Once a week," and 10.2% "Several times a week." Most people (81.3%) said they used horror media several times a year or more often. There is also a strong link between how much people enjoy horror media and how often they use it (r=.79, p<.0001).
In 2025, the Chicago Tribune named librarian Becky Spratford as the Chicagoan of the Year in Books. Christopher Borrelli called her work "a career that has consistently helped horror literature become more widely accepted in American culture." Spratford has written three textbooks about horror, added a horror column to Library Journal, and worked with organizations such as the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Horror Writers Association, and the Bram Stoker Awards.
Awards and associations
Achievements in horror fiction are honored through many awards. The Horror Writers Association gives the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named after Bram Stoker, the author of the important horror novel Dracula. The Australian Horror Writers Association presents the annual Australian Shadows Awards. The International Horror Guild Award was given yearly to works of horror and dark fantasy from 1995 to 2008. The Shirley Jackson Awards recognize excellent work in literature that includes psychological suspense, horror, and dark fantasy stories. Other significant awards for horror writing are included as categories within broader awards for fantasy and science fiction, such as the Aurealis Award.
Alternative terms
Some authors of fiction that are usually placed in the "horror" category often prefer not to use the word "horror," as they find it too shocking or graphic. Instead, they choose to use terms such as "dark fantasy" or "Gothic fantasy" to describe stories with supernatural elements, or "psychological thriller" to describe stories without supernatural elements.