BY ALICE FONTANESI
STAFF WRITER
Disclaimer: Spoilers to Ghost Eyes Season 1
Horror is quite broad of a genre, and the simplest definition of horror is media that is meant to strike fear in you. But not everything that is suspenseful and fearful is horror, and there are many other genres of horror that are different variations.
Some of the earliest forms of horror writing were gothic horrors like Dracula and Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. A lot of these stories were about fear and things that people didn’t understand at the time. H.P. Lovecraft’s stories were all about different kinds of fears like fear of the unknown, and, not going to lie, it’s not too surprising.
Modern-day works of horror rely on fear too, but fear alone is not an effective way to make a horror story. You can’t just write horrific and gruesome events over and over again because it will burn out your audience. They already know what is coming, so then what is the point of continuing?
The main elements that make horror are suspense, fear, and mystery. All of these things are what keep people on edge, and if you can use them correctly then you can craft an effective horror story.
First is suspense. Suspense is the key factor that keeps your audience on their toes, and it is done very well in the web series Marble Hornets. Marble Hornets has very effective pacing that allows a slow build up with the moments when the Operator appears, something their terrible spinoff did poorly. The Marble Hornets “spinoff,” Always Watching, completely reverses it by having the Operator appear almost every other second with his symbol. The difference is that the Operator becomes expected with him being shoved in our face. The suspense is killed in Always Watching, and it burns out the audience.
Marble Hornets, on the other hand, made the audience actually fear the Operator as it built up suspense and eventually paid it off. The plot is kept going by the element of mystery, the next thing we’re going to talk about.
Despite how mystery is a genre in itself, the mystery part of a horror story is to invoke the audience’s curiosity to figure out what is going on or to further events.
Marble Hornets makes this very clear at the beginning of the series with Jay’s investigation into Alex. The series drags the audience further and further into the plot, building up that tension and suspense.
The series does have a mysterious ending with the ambiguity of the final entry. The ending isn’t frustrating because we have all of the loose ends tied up, though. The ending is left ambiguous with the question, well, what happens next? Essentially, it opens up the potential of an unnecessary sequel. The series also doesn’t baby the audience with explaining everything because it already did throughout the series.
Then, there are the effective moments of fear. That fear is when the suspense finally pays off and the plot continues. These are usually high moments of tension like when Maskie suddenly broke into Jay’s hotel room. The event was led up with plenty of mystery and Jay’s tendency to get into things he probably shouldn’t. The suspense was paid off when that incredibly intense event happened and is exactly the element of fear that makes horror, horror.
While occasionally scaring the audience during the build-up is good, the worst thing to do is completely rely on jump scares to make your audience intrigued. This is what Always Watching did.
The pointless jump scares don’t add to the plot, and they were obviously not meant to be all of the scare factor because of the Operator. But when you already suck at suspense, the jump scares are the only fear factor left in this abomination of a spinoff.
Of course, not all horror stories need an even balance of each element. Thriller relies on more suspense than fear and mystery because it is a mix of the action and horror genres. The suspense is usually paid off with not exactly fear but intensity that is usually violent. But the mystery element is usually not a key factor. Slasher is purely just fear because that is the point of the genre, but there is usually a plot to keep it going and interesting.
The webcomic Ghost Eyes leans a lot on the suspense and mystery elements and crafts its story very satisfyingly.
During the first few pages, we are already thrown into the messed-up world of Tobias Curtis Schnien, our protagonist. To put it into perspective, one of the first things we saw was Tobias being let out of a small dark room with crosses all over the walls. As well as the introduction of Mr. Edburt, we are already terrified, disturbed, and interested.
As the story went on, a lot of the elements were dragged on with no real concise explanation with it being gradually revealed to us. Furthermore, the story drew us more and more into the characters’ lives as our own questions were begging to be answered.
Season two recently started up and is going to be featuring the perspective of Tobias’s brother, Mattias. From what I can guess, it will give us even more insight into what is going on from a different perspective with more answers and more questions.
While dragging something on and on seems like a bad decision, it works for Ghost Eyes because of the slow pacing we are already used to. The story makes it very clear that the pacing isn’t going to have major leaps, and because of the immediate intrigue, we stay interested. The vague explanations and genuinely terrifying events help us piece together everything without a panel that doesn’t further the plot in some way. The suspenseful rising action pays off very nicely with gut-wrenching and horrifying climaxes.
The best example I can think of is during the Halloween arc when Tobias and Rudolph get into a fight.
Their friendship was always kind of forced with Tobias only staying around because Rudolph kept coming to him. But then there were the truly disturbing moments between them like when Mr. Edburt possesses Tobias, and Rudolph is actually being honest with himself and others. Up until now, Rudolph often puts up a facade to hide how much he hurts. It is rare for him to open up to others, so when he breaks this act, we know that something is wrong.
Despite this, it’s Rudolph who always stays by Tobias’ side against his better judgment. After all, they are just kids, and Rudolph was determined to help Tobias.
That all comes crumbling down when all of Tobias’s slip-ups are revealed when Rudolph witnesses Tobias go completely out of control. Tobias shoots back with Rudolph’s own problems and even tries to murder Rudolph.
What makes this even more terrifying is that Tobias is not even being possessed by Mr. Edburt. We had seen Tobias finally snap and reveal his true nature under everything he had been bottling up. To add to that, Tobias was going to murder Rudolph, something that Mr. Edburt hadn’t attempted when possessing Tobias.
Rudolph and Tobias truly just snap at that moment with them being completely honest with each other for once, despite what they’ve been through.
The falling action to this arc is even better with Tobias trying to convince Rudolph and him to remain friends during school. The scene really shows how desperate Tobias was to keep someone who at least cared about him with him hugging Rudolph and showing vulnerability. Despite that, Rudolph still cuts ties with Tobias in the nicest way possible, and Tobias is still absolutely heartbroken. The scene just acknowledges their growth as characters. It doesn’t put the two of them against each other, like most broken-up friendships, because we understand both perspectives.
But whatever genre you do choose for your next horror novel, the general formula is the same. You need to be aware of your audience, try not to waste their time, and find the perfect balance between your elements.