Innate Human Fears

So this is what I summed up from my Horror Lectures, If you want to scare people, here are a few key points to remember.

1.) The in-between or the undefined (Dichotomy). Example: Living Dead
2.)Normally man-made and later becomes a uncontrollable force of destruction.
3.)Always uglier than the societal conception of beauty.
4.)A threat to society and Authority.
5.)A sexual threat to woman.
6.)An outcast, marginalized figure rising to power.
7.)Sometimes more intelligent than humans.
8.)Against all laws of religion.
9.)Normally deformed and extremely large.
10.)Silent and Distanced.
11.)Unnatural.
12.)Sensitive, but has brutish strenght. (Dichotomy)
13.)Often based on Satan.
14.)Something that can not be understood.
15.We sometimes feel sympathy for the monster.
16.)The monster or villian, often has masochistic tendencies, which alerts us to the fact that if he can do that to himself, what will he do to me.

Final Thought:

We fear that which we created, but the fact that we might be replaced by them, we fear even more.

By James Honiball
JamesHoniball©2010