PicoBlog

This is still theoretical, and not pure science, but it is something I think about a lot when coming up with new ideas for horror scripts. First, by TYPE I don’t mean subgenre, which I already did a long-ass thread about. I also don’t claim for this list to be written on a stone tablet somewhere, but stick with me here…

19th Century French writer Georges Polti once decreed that there are only 36 dramatic situations in all of narrative. That ANY story, from any culture, could be reduced down to one, or a combination of, the situations from this this. So we are talking BARE BONES concepts.

Call me crazy, but in my brain, all horror films can be categorized by one, or honestly in most cases, a combination of, six key core types. I’m not trying to recontextualize all horror cinema to conform with my brain, mind you, I’m just reducing things down to core conceits to help me build scripts. The key types are: CREATURE FEATURE, SPLATTER, PSYCHOLOGICAL, SUPERNATURAL, MADMAN, .

How does this help me write? Because each of these types come with a set of built-in building blocks, tropes, and story arcs that help me begin to build a story. Additionally, they can provide answers to the two most key questions for a horror film: "WHAT IS the horror exactly?" And, "what is the delivery device for it?" I find most movies can be boiled down to answering these questions by plugging one of the above types in as an answer.

The horror is what it is-- a ghost, vampire, zombie, slasher, curse, or a concept.

The delivery device is how it directly hits your lead. These two questions don't have to be two different types, but they can.

So to be precise:

A CREATURE FEATURE is a monster movie. Or, some sort of entity that behaves like a monster. Alien is a monster movie. Christine is a monster movie. The key element to a creature feature is that the monster’s motivation is generally tied to a base desire: to feed, to mate, to destroy, to survive, etc. Its methodology is NOT human.

SPLATTER FILMS are obviously all about the gore. Their set-ups are almost always some sort of play of getting unsuspecting people into situations where they have to somehow survive and endure horrible situations… with a lot of blood generally.

PSYCHOLOGICAL horror films are all about what is percieved more than what is seen. Most horror-adjacent thrillers, “elevated” horror films, art house, and the like will lean into the psychological aspect heavily.

SUPERNATURAL is pretty self explanatory, covering anything “from beyond.” Pretty much any sort of monster with more human qualities would be considered supernatural as opposed to a creature feature.

MADMAN is the catchall term I use to describe a movie where the antagonist is a human who has lost key attributes to the point that he is slightly less human… but at the same time, is able to hide amongst the rest of us. They do their horror in secret.

CONCEPTUAL horror films are more common than people realize as they are often hidden inside more obvious tropes. It could be a social commentary and like in allegory, or it could be something more overt like a curse or a Purge or a game with structured rules.

Examples:

The Shining— the horror is supernatural, but the delivery is psychological.

The Purge— the horror is a concept, delivered by Madmen.

Dawn of the Dead— the horror is capitalism, but the delivery is a creature feature.

The Changeling— supernatural as the answer to both questions.

Most slasher films— Splatter plus a monster or Madman.

Giallo— any of the above by way of Splatter.

Arthouse— any of the above, plus psychological. Torture porn--spatter x2.

I can talk more down the road on each type in more depth, but hopefully you can see how each of these offers up a bag of tricks. By deciding "I'm writing a creature feature" you already have a things to play with, Qs to answer to get rolling.

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