Horror is a feeling caused by something creepy, gruesome or terrifying . It is an emotion linked to the most intense fear .
For example: “It caused me horror to see my son's car destroyed,” “Horror in Santa María: a man murdered three co-workers and then committed suicide,” “The public's faces of horror when they noticed that the acrobat did not moved after the fall realized the seriousness of the situation.”
Although horror is usually associated with fear , it is a feeling that goes further, unlike terror . Horror is, in essence, an unpleasant impression caused by a terrifying element (a situation, an image, a subject).
Sometimes horror is an aversion to something or someone. A person may say that they are terrified of spiders because, upon encountering one, they feel disgust or rejection and the need to get away immediately.
In the field of art, horror and terror are often used synonymously. There are books and movies designed to horrify or terrify people through macabre stories and gruesome scenes (with murders, torture, etc.). However, some specialists distinguish between the horror genre (which provokes physical sensations) and the horror genre (more linked to the psychological).
Depending on the context, some people classify horror films as "scary" films, while horror films associate them with other labels that refer to the degree of explicit violence that characterizes them. It is worth mentioning that the same individual can be passionate about the horror genre and feel a deep rejection of the horror genre, especially if they cannot tolerate the most violent and bloody scenes.
But not everyone agrees on the characteristics that distinguish terror from horror. In addition to what has been expressed so far, there are those who define them as follows:
* Terror is achieved through a series of events that can be explained by reason . In other words, they must be caused by living beings belonging to reality, such as humans or animals;
* Horror, on the other hand, is related to the paranormal terrain, that is, stories of goblins, ghosts, witches, monsters and other beings whose existence has never been proven.
Cosmic horror is a literary genre created by writer HP Lovecraft . His work departs from traditional horror, in which monsters were ghosts or demons, and presents them as material beings of rational origin.
“Hostel” is an example of a horror film . Released in 2005 , this proposal directed by Eli Roth presents mutilations in close-up and displays an enormous amount of blood that shocks the viewer.
In colloquial language, on the other hand, the idea of horror is used in the plural ( horrors ) to describe something abundant or numerous : “I suffered horrors while waiting for the result of the exam,” “We had horrors of fun at grandma's house.” .
It is also possible to talk about horror to describe situations that cause us deep displeasure with a mixture of sadness, especially when we are told the unfortunate story of another person. For example, when hearing the unfortunate events of a child who grew up on the street, such as sexual and psychological abuse, lack of affection, and exploitation, it is common to use expressions such as "how horrible!" .
In everyday speech this same expression can be used with much less weight, in the context of trivial conversation. If someone tells another person that they had to wait two hours before being attended to at a municipal office to complete a procedure, the response "how horrible!" It does not represent the same feelings and sensations of the previous paragraph but rather empathy in the face of a cumbersome, boring or exhausting situation.