CArving A Path To Success Pt.12 (Into the mind of horror)

Sitting here with family and thinking about what drives fear into my heart. The reason? Because I have no particular phobias. Yet something always scares somebody, even me. After watching "The Knowing" I realize that I can still be frightened by a good thriller. This has led me to wonder, what really makes one scared. Is it the feeling of hopelessness? The sense of the unknown. As I delve into writing horror, I feel the need to better understand horror and it's components. I want to embrace it wholly, but not as a cheap thrill or gore for the sake of gore. Even something as simple as a zombie film can generate that fear in people.

Let's take zombies as an example. Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks) quoted about zombies.

"They scare me more than any other fictional creature out there because they break all the rules. Werewolves and vampires and giant sharks, you have to go look for them. My attitude is if you go looking for them, no sympathy. But zombies come to you. Zombies don't act like a predator; they act like a virus, and that is the core of my terror. A predator is intelligent by nature, and knows not to overhunt its feeding ground. A virus will just continue to spread, infect and consume, no matter what happens. It's the mindlessness behind it.[11]"

He makes a very valid point. Zombies don't feel fear. They can't be reasoned with. In their cold lifeless eyes all they see is breakfast. Against one or two you might stand a chance, against five or ten, then it becomes a matter of escape. Twenty or thirty; it becomes a matter of survival. Forty to a Hundred; well than it's a matter of hope versus hopelessness. Hopelessness is one of the greatest elements in fear., with the unknown as the other.

That's what I have to keep in mind when dealing with the horror genre. Hopelessness and the Unknown. They are the building blocks and will serve as the tools I need to better my horror writing and understanding.