Horror fiction

Horror fiction includes fiction in various media (literature, film etc) and settings, such as contemporary, historical, science-fiction, and fantasy.

Understand
"I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye."

- Hannibal Lecter

Horror fiction can be traced to folklore which has existed in virtually all societies around the world. The settings can vary a lot, and be fantastic, historical, contemporary, as well as futuristic.

Recurring themes are death and afterlife, the uncanny (the slightly unfamiliar), human instincts, and the unknown. Gothic fiction (which inherited its name from the hardly related Goths and Gothic architecture) was a literary genre originating in 18th century Britain, as an expression of the romantic movement.

Owing in part to the limitations of early motion pictures when it came to "special effects" (and in far more cases, simple limitations of budget) many visual media of horror rarely or never depict the object of horror - a goofy rubber suit might not evoke nearly the sheer terror as something only glimpsed from the shadows or hidden in the fog which kills and maims our plucky protagonists one by one.

Modern horror fiction has integrated themes and characters from around the world.

Franchises and genres

 * Frankenstein – a story by Mary Shelley about the mad scientist who created a monster, featured in countless motion pictures
 * Dracula – a character inspired by Vlad III of Wallachia and East European folklore, popularized by Bram Stoker
 * Nordic Noir – Scandinavian crime fiction with elements of horror
 * X-Files tourism – Chris Carter's series about FBI investigations of the paranormal