3.Carroll (2003) and King (2010) discuss how the “monster” is a defining feature of a horror story. Using references, explain in your own words how a monster in horror differentiates from monsters in other popular genres.
According to King(2011), He has tried to delineate some of the differences between science fiction and horror, terror and horror and horror and revulsion. Carroll(2003)also separates science fiction from horror and claims that “it is tempting to follow the lead of the defenders of science fiction and to differentiate the horror genre from others by saying that horror novels, stories, films, plays, and so on are marked by the presence of monsters”. We can make monsters supernatural or sci-fi, depending on our purpose, which makes Horror distinguishable from tales of terror or Gothic exercises. It is true that monsters are the most necessary conditions in horror stories, but they are not enough to be a prerequisite for horror because they come from all kinds of stories, such as fairy tales and myths. So Carroll is looking for ways to distinguish between horror stories featuring monsters and other popular genres.
First of all, what distinguishes horror stories from many genres is the action taken when characters face monsters in the story. In fairy tales or myths, for example, monsters are accepted as ordinary beings by characters as everyday beings in the universe and come as devices that highlight the heroic nature of the characters. They are annoying or terrifying creatures in the story, but they naturally enter the characters’ perceptions and do not create fear for them. But in horror stories, monsters are accepted as disrupting the order of the universe beyond the existential validity of human. “They are putrid or moldering things, or they hail from oozing places, or they are made of dead or rotting flesh, or chemical waste, or are associated with vermin, disease, or crawling things”(Carroll,2003). In terms of the monster in horror story, Bauer(2018) says that “a monster is something more inhuman than human. The monsters can resemble humans, but they lack the mercy and compassion of a normal human being. Monsters are typically cruel and destructive”. So the characters shrink from the monster or deny their existence. Also, these settings create not only fear but also disgust for them. Like this, The characters’ actions or reactions to the monster determine whether the story is horror or not.
Next, the difference between the monsters from horror stories and other popular genres is that they are intimidating and impure. The monster from the horror story is uniformly dangerous. Monsters can be psychologically, morally, or socially threatening. Also, “Monsters may also trigger certain enduring infantile fears, such as those of being eaten or dismembered, or sexual fears, concerning rape and incest”(Carroll,2003). Besides, creators use a fission or fusion device to impure a monster, for example, they fuse parts of a human body into a monster’s body, or they divide different biological beings so that they can alternate in one body. These terrible productions evoke emotional reactions to readers, such as fear of unimaginable beings, and make them feel scared just by their presence, showing that it is not another genre but Horror itself.
References
Bauer, A. (2018, October 14). The Case For Horror Films, Part 1: Creature/Monster Films. Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://medium.com/cinenation-show/the-case-for-horror-films-part-1-creature-monster-films-3f921a9c0501
Carroll, N. (2003). The philosophy of horror: Or, paradoxes of the heart. Routledge.
King, S. (2011). Danse macabre. Simon and Schuster.
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