Fountain of Knowledge

One of the scariest movies I ever saw was "The Blair Witch Project." I was on the edge of my seat the entire second half of the film, and, much like the others before me stated, it was about what the director DIDN'T show as opposed to what they did. I, too, find most Hollywood movie monsters innately cheesy, and very rarely get spooked by horror films. Most are comedy, in my opinion. Blair Witch actually stuck with me a while.

As far as books go, I agree that horror and suspense are two separate genres, and also that they often overlap. It's only really when you introduce the supernatural to the picture that the two become more easily defined. Suspense can be suspense without the addition of any elements of horror, and vice versa, but truly good horror must be suspenseful, in my opinion. The best horror stories are always suspenseful. I think horror is, in a nutshell, the concept of being faced with a situation that is so adverse, hopeless, and unthinkable, that it causes strong negative emotions (the central one being fear). Without suspense, though, we have to work a lot harder to connect to the horror. Elements of the fantastical or supernatural should, but don't always have to be present in horror. Remember Jaws? (the book, not the movie--scary stuff). Or Psycho? Suspense, I think, is the sinking feeling that something very bad is about to happen. There need be no elements of horror present, only the feeling that something horrific is lurking in the very next scene, or perhaps in the one after that, but that surely it is there, even if it's not there at all.

For my own use, I think of horror as being suspense with the addition of fantastical or supernatural elements. I think gore is optional, but when used correctly, really drives home the horror. What could be more horrifying than being pursued through dark city streets by a skinless, dripping creature trailing viscera and sloughing off pieces of itself? The trick, I think, is not to overdo it.