Horror fiction is a genre that aims to scare or horrify readers, often following a plot structure with supernatural or psychological elements. Traditional folklore has influenced horror stories, which focus on uncomfortable emotions and situations that protagonists cannot escape.
Horror fiction is a category of writing in which a story is crafted to scare or otherwise horrify the reader. The story almost always follows some sort of story arc with exposition, escalating action, climax, resolution, and denouement, although this plot structure can be modified. Narration can be done from any point of view, although first and third person narratives are the most common.
Supernatural horror fiction is one of the most common types of horror stories. These stories tend to focus on beings or situations that exist beyond the realm of humanity. Ghosts and monsters fall into this category, and horror fiction in this case is often scary because the protagonist does not have the necessary knowledge to defeat or otherwise avoid the supernatural being. The supernatural being is often far more powerful than humans, though more often than not he has some kind of weakness that will ultimately lead to his downfall. Vampire stories, for example, focus on beings who are in many cases superior in strength and intellect, but are weakened or defeated in the open.
Psychological horror fiction presents a situation that affects the protagonist’s ability to think clearly. The events that take place during the story are often not possible in reality, but the character experiences them and therefore often doubts his sanity. Psychological fiction mainly focuses on the function of the human mind and the situations or events that can alter the mind’s ability to function properly.
Sometimes horror fiction will focus on people or events that could actually occur in reality. The story thus tends to be quite gruesome, sometimes involving murder, mutilation, ritual sacrifice, or other horrific situations that can harm or kill a human being. Stories like these often focus on unstable antagonists who have a penchant for murder or torture.
Traditional folklore often focused on the horrific or the supernatural, so some readers may argue that horror stories have their origins in traditional texts or word-of-mouth stories. Many cultures have often passed down stories of supernatural beings, strange disappearances, warnings to people behaving immorally, and stories about the nature of the afterlife. All horror fiction focuses on the emotions and thoughts that frighten or make people uncomfortable, and in many cases, the stories revolve around the desperation and desolation from which the protagonist cannot escape.
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