Horror Genre Tropes

-


  • Monster of obscure origin
  • Darkness and dark settings
  • High contrast visuals
  • Shadows
  • Events taking place at night
  • The moon having power over earthly affairs
  • Dungeons/Castles
  • "Multi-chambered environment"
  • Castles and mansions on a mountain
  • Bare trees
  • Owls and ravens as an omen of death
  • Haunted dolls
  • Supernatural elements
  • Prophecies
  • Local legends
  • Rain and thunderstorms
  • Abandoned areas
  • Fog
  • References/allusions to death and death imagery
  • Haunted houses and graveyards
  • Gore
  • Threatened by a monster
  • Powerful man/Frail woman (Damsel in distress)
  • Death of main characters

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Response to "Bloodchild" by Octavia Bulter

-
1) What is your reaction to the text you just read? I am equal parts disgusted and interested. While the specifics of this text were gorey and gross, the premise of it is very interesting. The social dynamic between Gan and T'Gatoi is unique and forms a relationship I feel there is so much more to than the short text allows. Meaning, their relationship is hinted as being far more complex than it is shown to be on the surface. I am also fascinated by the relationship between humans and the Tlic. It was said that humans or "Terrans" were fleeing from their homeworld to avoid enslavement, and found salvation as hosts for the Tlic. I'm interested in the fate of humanity on Earth. How did humans evolve to be compatible hosts for these creatures? What is Tlic society like? How do they truly see humans? What is outside of the Preserve? These questions posed by the short story leave me curious about the world created by it. 2) What connection did you make with the stor...
Read more

The Growth of Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien

-
Compared to eastern styles of storytelling, the classic western story The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien places a significant amount of attention to the individual and individual glory over the glory of a group or lineage. Due to this fact, it seems only fair to analyze how The Hobbit approaches it's single hero as he finds a place within his world. Bilbo is not your typical hero. As a middle aged hobbit, he is at first incredibly set in his ways. He declines his natural urges to explore and curiously question things in favor of comfortable ignorance. Rather than the usual young and eager hero, Bilbo expresses no desire at all to change the world or his place in it. He is neither trained nor motivated to help the party's quest. Bilbo's resistance to become a hero or feel like a hero helps me see the average person in him. Normal people don't feel like heroes, they don't know that they might also be on the hero's journey. Most people aren't agile, eager, st...
Read more

The Universe of "The Stars, My Destination" by Alfred Bester

-
The degree of worldbuilding exhibited in The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester was astounding. From my perspective, it seems like the author decided to implant a few drastic changes to our current reality, and simply let the rest of the universe fall into place around it. In The Stars, those changes were the setting, and the ability of humans to teleport. He considered every possible way that our reality would be affected by these two changes. Everything from planetary systems as a whole to the individual man or women would be affected by these changes. How would we go to work? Without a need for public transportation, people in The Stars have created platforms with black and white symbols for easier memorization to aid their daily "jaunte". But, then, what happens to manual forms of transportation? You would think that cars and bikes would become extinct. However, ever more appropriate is the conclusion that Bester came to: in a world where everything moves in a...
Read more