This year for the A to Z Challenge, I'm investigating emotions and reactions and their use to in writing. So, I'll be talking about my first thoughts as a writer when I think about the words we use to describe emotions and my experience of their use in literature.
terror
terror: extreme fear, dread, horror.
Now those of you who popped by yesterday may think the emoticon in the corner looks a lot like the one for shock, but there's a big difference here - shock is momentary and can generate many reactions, terror can last a whole lot longer!
When I think of true terror, to me it is all-encompassing fear. We're at the extreme end of this emotion, just like rage is the ultimate in anger, terror is the zenith of fear. To be terrified, a character must be facing something that makes their fear response hit overdrive. If they're human, their heart beat will race, their adrenaline will pump - maybe they feel light headed, or their muscles go weak. There are many physical responses to terror.
But then, what is happening in the mind?
Terror can be unreasoning dread, making us act both in and out of character. I think Donald Gennaro, the lawyer from Jurassic Park, who abandons the children and runs to the toilet shed is a perfect example of acting in character: his self-preservation in the face of threat, leaving the kids to fend for themselves, and then, when the T-Rex descends on him in the bathroom, we see his unreasoning terror.
Horror stories are the perfect place for terror, and, if the writer/director/actor is good, we as reader/audience, are taken along with that terror, we feel some of the thrill. Susan Hill is excellent at building her protagonist, Arthur Kipps', terror in The Woman in Black, from rationality through suspicion and doubting his own senses, to outright terror that makes him ill and separates him from those around him.
Ash, from Evil Dead 2, also goes through moments of madness brought on by the terror he feels about being alone and under attack from the demons. This is both comedic and tragic and is part of what makes this movie a horror classic.
Terror doesn't just happen in horror, though: many actors will tell you about crippling stage fright, which can be likened to terror - they can't think straight, they sweat profusely, their heart is racing; exams, too, terrify some people; a small child may find being lost in an unfamiliar place terrifying. It's all a matter of perspective, your character's perspective - play with that and you can generate all types of terror.
QUESTION: Do you like reading/watching things that scare you?
When I think of true terror, to me it is all-encompassing fear. We're at the extreme end of this emotion, just like rage is the ultimate in anger, terror is the zenith of fear. To be terrified, a character must be facing something that makes their fear response hit overdrive. If they're human, their heart beat will race, their adrenaline will pump - maybe they feel light headed, or their muscles go weak. There are many physical responses to terror.
But then, what is happening in the mind?
Terror can be unreasoning dread, making us act both in and out of character. I think Donald Gennaro, the lawyer from Jurassic Park, who abandons the children and runs to the toilet shed is a perfect example of acting in character: his self-preservation in the face of threat, leaving the kids to fend for themselves, and then, when the T-Rex descends on him in the bathroom, we see his unreasoning terror.
Horror stories are the perfect place for terror, and, if the writer/director/actor is good, we as reader/audience, are taken along with that terror, we feel some of the thrill. Susan Hill is excellent at building her protagonist, Arthur Kipps', terror in The Woman in Black, from rationality through suspicion and doubting his own senses, to outright terror that makes him ill and separates him from those around him.
Ash, from Evil Dead 2, also goes through moments of madness brought on by the terror he feels about being alone and under attack from the demons. This is both comedic and tragic and is part of what makes this movie a horror classic.
Terror doesn't just happen in horror, though: many actors will tell you about crippling stage fright, which can be likened to terror - they can't think straight, they sweat profusely, their heart is racing; exams, too, terrify some people; a small child may find being lost in an unfamiliar place terrifying. It's all a matter of perspective, your character's perspective - play with that and you can generate all types of terror.
QUESTION: Do you like reading/watching things that scare you?
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I'm a big wuss so I don't watch much horror. I can read it though. Terror I think is different from shock in that you are more than likely to react. Where shock kind of freezes you.
ReplyDeleteYes, you make a good point about the difference - terror is more likely to generate a reaction. Shock can freeze the emotions, terror is an emotion that can freeze the body.
DeleteI'm like Patricia -- I like to read horror more than watching it. It seems like kind of a weird distinction, but there it is. I've enjoyed reading spooky stories for almost as long as I can remember. And stage fright terror--I've felt that. It was like a deer-in-headlights moment for me. I just froze haha.
ReplyDeleteI love watching horror, especially spooky horror, but not alone, definitely not alone :) It is a very different experience reading horror than watching it, I will agree.
DeleteI am thankful I have never frozen with stagefright, but I have been trembling at the knees - it's become worse as I've grown older too! ;P
Love to read or watch anything with terror. It puts me on the edge of my seat and gets my heart racing then I enjoy. Don't mean I like to run across something that put me in a state of terror.
ReplyDeleteI know, right, fiction is very different from reality :)
DeleteThis is where an actor or actress is put to the test. Can they convey a look of sheer terror on their faces? Or do they miss the mark? When an actor looks truly scared, we're scared too.
ReplyDeletePrecious Monsters
Yes, and there are some who do it well and some who ham it up :)
DeleteI have never been a horror person, I have too much empathy to watch characters in terror. It makes me feel real stress... :D
ReplyDelete@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary
I have that problem with embarrassment, but not horror, is that weird?
DeleteI'm not particularly into horror, but I've always loved a good ghost story, and I also love Lon Chaney, Sr.'s films. Though he's known as a horror actor, he actually played somewhat regular people more often than he played monsters. Still, there's no getting around the fact many people best remember him for his horror films like The Phantom of the Opera, London After Midnight, and West of Zanzibar.
ReplyDeleteGhost stories are my favourite - lots of spookiness, but not too much gore :) I actually haven't seen a Lon Chaney Sr film all the way through, only lots and lots of clips.
DeleteWell this is an interesting question? I don't lean towards terror in a horror movie for sure, but on the other had I like terror on programs of Naked and afraid or swimming in the ocean underwater programs. I used to get scared out my witz listing to talk radio on the subject of paranormal activity and even big foot! Not so much big foot any more since they put the program on tv.I find it kind of silly even though i'm thinking they still exist. LOL though, I used to paint all through the night with candles and listen to the paranormal station listening to white truck drivers calling in and abandoning there vehicles. LOL as if that doesn't set the tone for terror. :) sorry I missed a few of your posts. Been sick this week.
ReplyDeletehttp://sytiva.blogspot.com/
Hope you are feeling better!
Delete'True' paranormal stuff scares me more than fiction - I have a lot of books on the subject and, despite most of the stuff on TV being complete guff, I still love the way all the investigators are getting scared :). I used to watch a lot of Ghosthunters International, because, at least if there was a plausible logical explanation for 'hauntings' they used to admit it. :)
My take on Gennaro from Jurassic Park is so different from the one you've expressed. I saw him as totally narcissistic during his final scene. I do enjoy things that scare me. I'm working with paranormal fantasy in a magical realism vein and it is fun but sometimes I scare myself.
ReplyDeleteLOL - I know what you mean about scaring yourself when writing - I suppose if we can manage to scare ourselves, there's hope for it getting onto the page for our readers ;P
DeleteMost of the time, if a movie involves characters feeling terror, it's not going to be a movie I can tolerate!
ReplyDeleteIt's not something that bothers me in a fantasy-horror setting, i.e someone running through a darkened abandoned asylum, because that is too far from reality to impinge on me, but in crime thrillers and 'realistic' settings, it does get to me.
Delete