Terrifying Tips: 7 Ways to Master the Art of Horror

Seeing and reading a horror story is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s a genre that we see is declining in demand today. Why? Mainly because the storyline of the movie or the novel is always quite the same. A haunted house or area with a ghost seeking revenge, Am I right?

I mean, we all have seen and read The Exorcist, The Conjuring (Movie), or the movie Annabelle, right? I mean, I am assuming you are a horror fan! So, the question for you today is, how do you make your horror content so horrifying that people can experience it!

This is the true art of horror, right? Make people experience what you are writing! And if you can do that, you are an exceptional writer. In this article, we have highlighted 7 ways with which you Can master the art of horror story writing, telling or production, etc.

7 Ways to Master the Art of Horror

So, to make your reader or viewer experience the horror, you need to lay it out for them. The tips mentioned below might help you understand what we mean and how you can do that

• Read All the Horror Stories and Vet Out Your Competition

It is always a good idea to read all the horror you can. This mean goes ahead and read all the book you can on this genre, listen to stories, watch all those scary movies, etc. How will this help you? This will tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. When you view horror content, there is a thing that will stick with you, focus on that why that horror content stuck with you.

There might also be the part that you might want to skip in a movie or a book because it’s just not that interesting. So, when you learn a few pointers like these, you won’t make these mistakes in your horror content.

So Read and explore this genre as much as you can, so you get a clear idea of what you want to write about or make content about.

• Personalized Touch

Yes, I understand, this might sound odd, but unless and until you are not able to familiarize yourself with the horror and terror of what you are relaying to your audience, you won’t be able to get your readers to experience the same.

So always, always add a personalized touch to your horror content. What do I mean by that? Let me elaborate. For example, a lot of us can feel frightened when the lights go out! Right? So use that element in your stories. Also, someone is under your bed is something most of us can relate to as well. Similarly, there are many things that you can use so your audience can relate and feel the terror.

• Characterization

You need to focus on your characters as well. Most horror movies are focused on women and children. So whether you are writing about a housewife, a professional woman working in a software company in Pakistan, or a kid moving into a new house in Connecticut, USA, you will need to tell your audience about the characters. You need to tap on the empathy switch. Your viewers want to be routing for your character to not become a victim.

So in the movie Haunting in Connecticut, weren’t we all rooting for the Campbell family? Empathy and a bit of background make all the difference in horror stories. Dexter was a horror TV show about a serial killer, but the writer wrote the character so well that who knew, we would be rooting for the serial killer to survive!

So Focus on your characters and tap into empathy and compassion in your viewers!

• Use the ‘Surprise’ Element

Whether you are reading a horror story, or watch a horror show, if it doesn’t make you jump out of your sofa or bed, it is maybe not that good! So always include a surprise element. If you have seen the movie The Babadook, I was on my toes every time the door was knocked. The surprise element was on point in this movie.

So get your readers comfortable and then scare the hell out of them!

• Use Unusual Elements

So, some movies use weird-looking dolls, others use a haunted house or a haunted tree, etc. Similarly, you need to figure out one or two horror elements for your story as well. Pirates of the Caribbean used the beards and transformed them into worms and small snakes. Or you can also use body parts and replace them with something creepy to fit the criteria.

• Tone And Atmosphere Matters

The tone and mood are two-element in your movie or story that has a major effect on your audience. You can use these two things to make your viewers feel uneasy or cringy about something. In horror movies or stories, the audience always has that feeling that something is not quite right with the house or the city, etc.

The audience feels the unease I mentioned above, but it’s been intentionally put there by the writer to create an atmosphere and ambiance of the scary movie or story.

• Focus On a Strong Ending

Can’t stress more on this element enough! Your ending needs to be strong and mind-boggling. The ending is not supposed to satisfy the viewer; it should be annoying enough that it leaves the reader in awe of what happened or what is going to happen now.

Although some stories do leave a satisfying ending, most leave a question in the end that leaves an uneasy feeling in the viewer.

Conclusion

Horror Stories are my personal favorite, but it is a very hard job to capture your audience’s attention, given that almost all horror content is similar. Hopefully, the terrifying tips mentioned above will help you with your horror stories, movies, or whatever horror content you are planning to get an engaging audience.