- King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.
The three elements Stephen King defines are named ‘The Gross-Out’, ‘Horror’ and then ‘Terror’.
‘The Gross-Out’ is- as it sounds- designed to disgust the audience with its grotesque use of gore; whether it be a broken bone, a disembodied head or a flood of blood. Now certainly, some horror movies won’t have excessive use of gore if any at all, some examples include a demonic stalker that can only be seen by its victim (It Follows, 2014), or where you only see the monster once in the films entire runtime (The Babadook, 2014). On the other side of the spectrum, you have movies that are notorious for its gore it wouldn’t be the same without; including he movie that started it’s own genre called Torture Porn, (Saw, 2004), or the one that went so far as to be banned in several countries (The Human Centipede (First Sequence), 2009).
‘The Horror’ is the staple of the genre, it’s fear in its purest form. It’s meeting your body double who has a murderous vendetta against you (Us, 2019), witnessing the corpse of a woman emerge from your bed sheets (The Grudge, 2004), watching hundreds of spiders burst from your own pimple (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, 2019), etc. Without experiencing this fear, the whole story fails.
The final and- in Stephen King’s own words- the worst element is ‘The Terror’. Something not wholly explainable by conventional means, it’s not a deranged man in the walls, it’s not your adopted daughter, nor is it your vengeful neighbour. A true example of terror is gripping your friends hand tightly in the dark only for the lights to come on and see her on the other side of the room (The Haunting, 1963).
A great example of a movie that uses all three elements, aside from King’s own works, is Ari Aster’s Midsommar. ‘The Gross-out’ was the elders of this community jumping to their deaths in full view. ‘The Horror’ is watching them all be picked off one by one in different ways. ‘The Terror’ is realising this was planned from the start.
References:
Carroll, N. (2003). The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Routledge.
King, S. (2010). Danse Macabre. Simon & Schuster.
Regal Reel. (2019). Stephen King’s 3 Levels of Horror. Retrieved from https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/blog/stephen-king-3-levels-of-horror
Pop Genres 2020 