Dread, Terror, Horror

[wizard]

There is a difference between these three things: dread, terror, and horror.

Dread, which is the feeling when you know something is wrong but you don’t yet know what. Dread is the anticipation of Terror to come.

Terror, which is the heart-pounding, adrenaline-fueled rush when you see the monster and experience immediate danger.

Horror, which is the revulsion and discomfort we experience in the aftermath of seeing something, er, horrible, and usually bloody.

The strongest of these is Dread, but it’s also the hardest to sustain. Because you know the monster is out there but you don't know where.

Terror is when you see the monster and it is chasing you. Like when Ripley fought the Queen alien.

Horror is seeing all the blood and entrails fly around and over the walls. (To me these are the most boring types of movies.) Slasher films tend to deal almost entirely in Horror with snippets of Terror.

If you have a spare mind, try to determine which type of story you find best.

[TheWhiteknife]

Good post. I knew the dread vs terror thing, but wasnt aware of horror being a third classification.

And dread FTW.

[Crimson Jester]

Dread, like most of Alien. You do not see the creature. When you are at the Terror part, it still slips back to dread because you still only sometimes see the critter.

Which turns out to be a fun mistake since from what I heard the full outfit looked so cheesy they only showed snippets.

[TheWhiteknife]

Crimson Jester wrote:

Dread, like most of Alien. You do not see the creature. When you are at the Terror part, it still slips back to dread because you still only sometimes see the critter.

Which turns out to be a fun mistake since from what I heard the full outfit looked so cheesy they only showed snippets.

Same with Jaws. I think the best mix of dread and terror that Ive seen is The Exorcist.

[yellowdingo]

Then were would you qualify the moment in the Mountains of Madness where having been told over the radio that the Expedition Team at Site B have discovered aliens buried in a cave in the mountian and they have conducted an autopsy on one of them, and now that Team A have arrived and discovered that Team B were insane and chopping up their own people?

Horror...or Dread? After all you see the aftermath that is Horror but it is the Dread that marks your growing understanding of what went wrong.

[wizard]

yellowdingo wrote:

Then were would you qualify the moment in the Mountains of Madness where having been told over the radio that the Expedition Team at Site B have discovered aliens buried in a cave in the mountian and they have conducted an autopsy on one of them, and now that Team A have arrived and discovered that Team B were insane and chopping up their own people?

A story does not strictly have to be only one of these. A story can move from one to another, and back again.

Dread > Terror > Horror

So, seeing the chopped up bodies is horror, but afterwards the story can move back to dread because you know something is out there waiting for you... wait and watching...

And when it steps out from behind your closet door, that is terror.

As we get to see you chopped up and your brain flies up into the ceiling fan and pieces get sprayed across the room -- that is horror.

yellowdingo wrote:

Horror...or Dread? After all you see the aftermath that is Horror but it is the Dread that marks your growing understanding of what went wrong.

Yes. You got it.

.

This is dread: "Jess, the caller is in the house. The calls are coming from the house!" — Sargeant Nash, Black Christmas

There is a sense of dread that a phone call is coming from the very building you are occupying. Learning that instead of being safe in your home, you're actually locked in the building with the psycho who's been making threatening calls, can still be pretty scary, cell phone or not.

.

This is terror: "We are going to need a bigger boat."

.

Horror is the easiest, which is why there are so many low-budget slasher films.

[Crimson Jester]

And yet dread, is a much less expensive prospect, all it requires is good writing and a talented actor. Oh....yeah.... no wonder there are so many slasher flicks out there.

[Cosmo]

Crimson Jester wrote:

And yet dread, is a much less expensive prospect, all it requires is good writing and a talented actor. Oh....yeah.... no wonder there are so many slasher flicks out there.

Dealing nearly exclusively with dread is what made Blair Witch Project so successful.

[Crimson Jester]

Cosmo wrote:

Crimson Jester wrote:

And yet dread, is a much less expensive prospect, all it requires is good writing and a talented actor. Oh....yeah.... no wonder there are so many slasher flicks out there.

Dealing nearly exclusively with dread is what made Blair Witch Project so successful.

Well it was dreadful alright.

;)

[Sanakht Inaros]

yellowdingo wrote:

Then were would you qualify the moment in the Mountains of Madness where having been told over the radio that the Expedition Team at Site B have discovered aliens buried in a cave in the mountian and they have conducted an autopsy on one of them, and now that Team A have arrived and discovered that Team B were insane and chopping up their own people?

Where do you keep getting that? I've re-read the story and he mentions that the second party finds several of the alien bodies as well as the bodies of all but one man and one dog.