The Horror genre offers endless many ways for a scriptwriter to celebrate the genre and put their own spin on it. But have you thought about all of the horror subgenres that it’s made up of? Which one could empower your writing the most?
Since cinema began, audiences have flocked to the screens to be scared by horror movies. Since the first horror movie, LE MANOIR DU DIABLE from 1896, the horror genre has fascinated and frightened cinemagoers. As it evolved, so did the number of subgenres. How many subgenres of the horror genre can you name? Wikipedia states there are in fact 50 – from the almost clichéd Gothic to the obscure (but worthwhile!) Jiangshi subgenres. In the rarer but well-known Erotic Horror sub-genre, SHIVERS is a great example. Horror expert David Cronenberg spins a story that erotically exploits the parasitic residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building, turning them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends who are out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.
Meanwhile in a totally different subgenre, no one can forget the terrifying joy of Horror Comedy with such classics as EVIL DEAD II and ZOMBIELAND a subgenre that is still flourishing today. And in another subgenre, have you seen the box office successes of THE CONJURING 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, and THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, which Wikipedia describes as Legal Horror films?
With such vast hoards of horror subgenres to draw from and play to, horror is a great place for writers to show their imagination and originality. Horror can be subdivided in a remarkable number of ways, which all had to start somewhere, with one great original story that broke the mold! Can you create a new sub-genre with your next script? Maybe it´s Roman Dramatical Horror, a Robot Horror Comedy, or a Sci-fi Fake Documentary Crime Horror it seems the options are endless – and so are the number of ways you can refresh and reinvent the familiar, too. What is for sure is that we want more excitement, thrills, and spills that this multitude of growing genres has to offer.