Haunt Like A Poe

Creating A Horror Story With Edgar Allen Poe

 

   
   Horror. One word immediately generates dark settings, a midnight raven, pale ghosts, and even sparkling vampires (not really though). Edgar Allen Poe's Fall of the House of Usher successfully horrifies readers and viewers through his use of an incestuous relationship, a dark and mysterious setting, the question of insane or sane, a mysterious disease, and the reuniting of old acquaintances. In order to capture a horror story on the level of Poe's today, a writer or film maker would need to look to these small details and elements. 

   Incestuous relationship. It's horrifying to the ear because  has been taught as socially and morally wrong. A horror story consists of anything that goes against morals and  disgusts or frightens the audience. Incest is a morally wrong situation in societies then and now.  It scares and disturbs the audience while producing the very feeling needed.  Repulsion. The very idea repels the audience, but also intrigues them to delve further into the story. Today's horror stories include slasher flicks as remakes of classic stories. A slashed jugular is repelling to the eye, but keeps the audience connected to the story and wanting more. 

  Dark and mysterious. The very essence of the setting in a horror story. The introduction of an empty house on the gloomy English moors where the winds sounds like a banshee cry and the villagers dwell far from creates a sense of eeriness and intrigue. What happens to the house? Who lived there? Why is it feared? These questions rattle through the audience's minds and push them to find out more. The setting creates the story and captures a readers attention. A horror story needs an eerie and horrifyingly creepy setting  otherwise the story is not believable and the audience is bored. Dark and mysterious will scare an audience not flowery meadows or sunny skies. 

   Insane or sane? The plot of a horror story is filled with many different twists and turns in order to continue to intrigue the audience. These twists in the story also generate the question of what to believe. Who is the sane one in the story? Is it the narrator? Poe writes with an air that shrouds the truth of the story and prevents the audience from figuring out who is the sane one in the house or if the house even existed in the first place. This overall question pulls the audience into the story and, in all honesty, blows their minds. 

   The unnamed disease. Already the reader grapples with the idea of the safety of the situation. Should the narrator even be in the house? Will he get the disease too? By not making the disease clear to the audience,  the mystery behind the story and it's context grows. A horror story needs mystery in order to shroud it's truth and the fate of its ending. The unnamed disease is just one of the many details that add to the base of the horror. A disease that might be spreading around scares people, and an unnamed disease makes the fear worse. 

    Reuniting old acquaintances. A man reunites with an old acquaintance who is increasingly different in every way than he remembers. The narrator doesn't know him any more than the last person since their relationship only goes so far. Plus, the reasons behind their sudden meeting is rather odd and mysterious. As yet another small, but needed detail, the idea of reuniting two people who don't know what to expect from the other adds to the mystery of the story. Who is this person? How have they changed? Why are we meeting now? A distant relationship puts a block in the road of discovering the true fate of the plot. Their relationship can be strained easily which gives conflict and action to the story. The audience is intrigued by the information that could resurface or be discovered out of the conflicts that could happen. A story needs a plot with intrigue and a growth of information. A horror story needs that information to grow with the mystery and suspense of its plot. It needs these small details. 

   Horror stories intrigue audiences from their context to their small details that build their mystery. Edgar Allen Poe successfully captures the genre of horror by using the elements of incest, dark setting, an unnamed disease, the question of sanity, and distant relationships. These elements are key to writing or filming a horror story that will capture the audience and keep them wanting more.

Photo:http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b4/37/29/b437294caee83055497c3490e2255bcd.jpg

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXpYKCAEOQc