Horror: What Is It?

What is horror?

Horror is a type of fear. This type of fear includes feelings of repugnance. 

How is “horrified” related to “horror”?

When someone is horrified, they may feel repugnance or loathing. A core component of horror is feeling disgust. 

Horror often is used to describe literature and films. In this sense, things that cause feelings of disgust and revulsion are often used to create fear. In this context, horror is used as a means of creating fear or terror, which is extreme fear.

In other contexts, horror is less about fear and more about abhorrence. To abhor something is to loathe it. 

How is “horrified” different from “horror”?

When someone has no positive feelings towards anything and only wants to avoid or eliminate the thing, they can be described as horrified. 

“Horrified” in American English is generally used to express a positive response to something near-universally accepted as very wrong. When someone expresses shock and disgust at seeing an adult stomp on a baby, we can describe the viewer as being horrified. 

We do not primarily mean that the viewer is afraid, although they might be. We mean that they are repulsed by the adult's actions.

In contrast, someone who sees something frightening, like a monster slasher film, would not typically be described as horrified. They are watching events that cause feelings of horror, but we describe them as frightened, not horrified. 

This means that context is important when talking about horror. Do we mean the emotion, which may be a socially-desired response to something socially condemned, or do we mean a genre of literature, film, or other artistic expression?

Context tells us whether what we are seeing is in the horror genre of art or is a reason to be horrified.