Horror and Gore |
Author: Byron Millard (---.sub-70-221-195.myvzw.com)
Date: 08-26-08 23:21
I'm just wondering how anyone feels about the use of gore in horror fiction. I personally don't like to use much because I feel that it robs a certain amount of realism from the story. It definitely has it purposes, which I am certainly guilty of, such as making a scene less horrific and more surreal and it certainly works well for comedy. I love it when a story weaves both realistic and over-the-top gore together and uses them to define different scenarios. Anyhow, just looking for some opinions.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-27-08 07:06
I thought this was a Global Warming post ...
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Rogue Mutt (---.uawlsp.com)
Date: 08-27-08 08:32
It probably depends on your audience.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: A.L. Sirois (155.91.28.---)
Date: 08-27-08 08:43
I think that if a writer relies on excessive violence and/or blood-and-guts in an attempt to scare people, he or she is not a very good writer. The best horror fiction terrifies by implication and suggestion. Otherwise what you have is splatter, and that sucks, IMHO.
I write horror at times but I try to make sure that any violence I use is an outgrowth of the story's requirements and not gratuitous. Whether or not I succeed is the reader's decision, of course. But I do try.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Byron Millard (---.dhcp.jcsn.tn.charter.com)
Date: 08-27-08 22:15
Yes, the sudden rise in temperature is causing the polar bears to explode like ripe tomatoes. And now I can't help but see the image of Al Gore holding a chainsaw.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Ray Veen (---.sub-70-210-110.myvzw.com)
Date: 08-27-08 23:19
I thought this was a Global Warming post ...
Funniest thing I've seen all day. Almost makes me want to type 'lol', but I'm against all that kind of new-fangled computery-hooey.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Joe Zeff (---.lsanca.dsl-w.verizon.net)
Date: 08-28-08 02:03
I've said it before and I'll say it again. IMNSHO, if you want to write horror, there are two authors you MUST read: Poe and Lovecraft. Both were masters of the genre, and neither one depended on gore. Where is the gore in The Cask of Amontillado? How much blood do you find in The Mountains of Madness or The Dunwitch Horror? And yet, they're considered classics, masterpieces of horror. Do your job right, and you won't need to show your readers one drop of blood or one speck of gore because they'll know, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, that it is there, right around the corner, just out of sight. And, I might add, they won't want to look because they know what they'd see.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Rogue Mutt (---.uawlsp.com)
Date: 08-28-08 08:01
I don't know, Zeff, you might want to read something written in the last 100 years just to get a feel for the new-fangled style. ;-)
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Stacy Copping (---.hsd1.ga.comcast.net)
Date: 08-28-08 08:26
I like gore. The word 'splatter' alone filled my mind with an assortment of images.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: A.L. Sirois (155.91.28.---)
Date: 08-28-08 08:34
Joe Zeff is right, for my money. The new style is just splatter and goo. Screw that. It's like, the difference between the first HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter's) and al lthe other ones. Carpenter's film has some violence and gore in it, sure -- but overall it is scary and disturbing and all the sequels are for the most part just gory. I want to scare people, not gross them out. I think the obsession with blood in such films (and in splatter wwriting) is symptomatic of deeper fvcked-upedness in our society.
But who am I to say.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: d. Leroy (63.123.69.---)
Date: 08-28-08 10:02
My opinion, for what it's worth, is a little different, I guess.
I'm not a fan of Lovecraft and I read Poe when I was in grade school (just picking on Joe's examples, not him personally), but not much since then. I like the new fiction and I don't mind a little blood; in fact, I expect it. I'd suggest reading John Saul, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Stephanie Meyers (The Host) to get a feel for how more modern successful horror writers are getting it done.
I write horror and love to put a few gruesome details in there. Just be careful, splatter is not popular and if that's what you write, do it for the sheer joy of it because you certainly won't find a publisher to publish it or an agent to represent it.
d.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-28-08 10:02
IMO a great example comes from a movie I wouldn't call horror. Jaws was supposed to be loaded with shark footage but the mechanical fish kept breaking down. Spielberg had to adjust and shoot a different, and in his opinion much better, picture.
km
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Rogue Mutt (---.com)
Date: 08-28-08 10:19
Yeah really, Hitchcock made generations of people afraid to take showers just with some great music and a little chocolate syrup going down a drain. It's more often what's not being shown that makes people more scared. Those "torture porn" pictures like "Hostel" just make people more queasy than frightened.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: nancy drew (---.abhsia.telus.net)
Date: 08-28-08 13:25
I'll shower. It's chocolate syrup I'm afraid of.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Matt Austin (---.dynamic.mts.net)
Date: 08-28-08 13:28
Rogue Mutt:
I agree, movies like Hostel and Saw 1-230 just piss me off. I have nothing against violence and gore in books and movies, but I detest it just for violence's sake.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween (the originals) are violent, but they do it well, and the bad guys usually get it in the end.
I believe Stephen King handles gore the best. I think it was in Needful Things where he describes two normal women going at eachother on the street. One hacked at the other with a meat cleaver (I forget what weapon the other one used). It was so unexpected and f***ed up I couldn't help but laugh at the whole scene!
Then there's Richard Laymon. I read two or three of his books awhile ago, but after 'Endless Night', I took the rest of his books I'd picked up and chucked them out. Violence and torture against women (or kids) for no good purpose turns my stomach.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Rogue Mutt (---.com)
Date: 08-28-08 13:50
I'll shower. It's chocolate syrup I'm afraid of.
If my drum kit wasn't in the shop I'd give you a rimshot.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-28-08 13:57
I could break you of that, Nancy. Just sayin' ...
km
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: nancy drew (---.abhsia.telus.net)
Date: 08-28-08 14:41
Boys, boys ...
You're just leading me on.
(Anxiously searches cabinets for Hershey's.)
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Keith . (---.dhcp.spbg.sc.charter.com)
Date: 08-28-08 15:40
I know, guilty as charged and happily married. But if I ever get that Sybil thing going you WN gals better scatter.
km
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Keith Kirchner (---.hsd1.ca.comcast.net)
Date: 08-29-08 00:02
No one mentions Brett Easton Ellis... so there.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Rogue Mutt (---.uawlsp.com)
Date: 08-29-08 08:38
No one mentions Brett Easton Ellis... so there.
OK, I thought the gore in "American Psycho" got to be too much after a while. The part with the rat and the woman really made me cringe.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: cara k (---.hsd1.ct.comcast.net)
Date: 08-29-08 08:58
Imo, bloody gore is the flip side of graphic sex. From a writer's point of view, that is. I don't want to have everything spelled out for me. I want to allow my imagination to fill in the details.
--Cara K
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: P Allison (---.hsd1.ga.comcast.net)
Date: 08-30-08 22:26
I love the horror genre, but hate mindless "gore porn" and do not read much of the work that's out there for that reason. I like to be scared, not grossed out---big difference.
I have long thought the blood soaked crap drags down the genre as a whole, and that is a shame. To me, horror should be about exploring the emotion of fear with integrity and solid writing (characterization, plot, etc.). It shouldn't be about shock value or splashing buckets of blood across pages. Less is more, and I think if blood and violence is integral to the story or can deliver a true emotional wallop to the reader, then use it. But it has to be meaningful.
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Patrick Edwards (63.240.53.---)
Date: 09-04-08 17:27
I thought this was a Global Warming post ...
I'm late to the game, but that was some funny sh**!
|
|
Re: Horror and Gore |
Author: Patrick Edwards (63.240.53.---)
Date: 09-04-08 17:34
I prefer the gore horror over the psychological/subtle horror. I realize this thread is mostly referring to book-stories, but the films I get off on are the ones like "The Frontier(s)" or "Hostel," not the Asian horror flicks, many of which have not enough bloody gore in them.
BTW: I think once you begin to watch bloody gore in films, it's rather tough to read about it. I mean, one would guess it would be okay because, now, you're probably better able to visualize the eruption of guts...but, for me, it's the opposite: I've come to want to actually see it.
|
|
Sorry. You need to Join WritersNet and activate your account to post a message.
It's quick, easy and free. All we need is a valid email address and the name you wish to use here .
|
|
