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Once people observe and, potentially, make predictions about monsters, they may cease to be scary.

People tend to fear the unknown and unexplainable.

The "unfamiliar environment" genre focuses on mystery and/or social interactions as the drivers of suspense.

Regular readers of this blog know I love horror films. However, I often feel burdened by having to figure out what to watch based on convoluted descriptions and classifications. Perusing streaming sites is a nightmare with respect to descriptions not being specific enough or getting my head around super-specific categorisations, like Lovecraftian-body horror, found-footage folk horror, or some six-way hybrid. Sometimes that kind of thing can be off-putting, especially if you just want to watch a run-of-the-mill monster movie. So, here’s a three-component genre framework discussing what makes horrors scary, which might help make searching less daunting.

Despite initial disbelief in the existence of a monster (typically for tension-building purposes), common within these films is that the monster is eventually presented to viewers and is both observable and scary. Sometimes they possess human-like features (though definitely not human), like vampires, mummies, werewolves, and lagoon creatures—as in most classics. Alternatively, the monsters can be "special" animals, like "Jaws," "Cujo," and the spiders in "Arachnophobia." Other times, the monsters are just people who do bad things (e.g., "Silence of the Lambs," "Misery," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"). What they all share is that a corporeal antagonist is "out to get you."

Regardless of whether they’re a person, animal, or a classic "monster," they all reflect something "abnormal" that elicits some form of fear, nervousness, or anxiety. Such abnormality can be implicit or explicit, the latter exemplified by some monsters having a scary appearance. Design goes a long way—the first time I saw Freddy Krueger as a kid, I couldn’t sleep for days. I even look at "Terrifier"’s........

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