HORROR and TERROR
Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a hideous revelation. Terror by contrast is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful (being terrified) (Varma: 1966). Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.
The distinction between terror and horror was first characterized by the Gothic horror writer Ann Radcliffe. Terror is characterized by 'obscurity' or indeterminacy in its treatment of potentially horrible events - it is this indeterminacy which leads to the sublime. She says in the essay that it 'expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life'. Horror in contrast, 'freezes and nearly annihilates them' with its unambiguous displays of atrocity. She goes on 'I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr. Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreader evil' (Radcliffe: 1826).
According to Devendra Varma in The Gothic Flame (1966): The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.
Horror is also a genre of film and fiction that relies on horrifying images or situations to tell stories and prompt reactions in their audiences. In these films the moment of horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build up, often using the medium of scary music.
Having read the above (the text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), what is horror for you or to you? What kind of horror freaks you out? And what is the limit that you can take?
Comments
Games:
Most effective tension and creepiness during game play was indeed Resident Evil 4 and Fatal Frame series. In that list of games I have to add Resident Evil: Code Veronica, even if it's the least one of those named. Oh and I almost 4got to mention Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. This game gave me the creeps. It has that very successful recipe for a horror game; it's dark and you have a flashlight.
Real life:
The greatest horror or the most gruesome one is of course man made. People slashing each other in pieces or the pics on the news of a massacre. What would top all that is a sick soul that kills kids. That makes me so mad I would almost look for that guy.
akhorahill