Horror Fiction Conventions

The first question that you have to ask in talking about the horror genre is, what is horror fiction exactly? With what modern horror has become, it is very different from the original horror fiction. The way that the term “horror” is loosely thrown around in today’s society has greatly changed what people associate with “horror fiction” (Horror Writers Association, 1). In the article written by the Horror Writers Association, they say that now if you were to ask a person to write horror fiction, immediately an image of Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers pops into their head, instead of (100) Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1). In order to better define what horror fiction is you need to know that horror is a painful and intense fear so horror fiction is writing or film that makes people feel that emotion(Horror Writers Association , 1). There have been many, many great …show more content…
Some common themes in horror films include the macabre and supernatural themes, but they also overlap with the thriller and fantasy genres; they deal with the (300) viewer's nightmares and fears, and the terror of the unknown (Horror Film,1). Some of the first films in the horror genre were depictions of supernatural ideas in short silent films created by Georges Méliés in the late 1890s (Horror Film, 1). In 1910 the first film version of Frankenstein was produced, after the film adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was produced in 1908 (Horror Film, 1). The Wikipedia article “Horror Film” stated, “The macabre nature of the source materials used made these films synonymous with the horror film genre.”(1). Even though the word “Horror” wasn’t (400) used to describe these films until the 1930s, when Dracula and Frankenstein were released by Universal Pictures, some of the films I described above were the start of the Horror Fiction genre in films (Horror