Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural. The genre has ancient origins which were reformulated in the eighteenth century as Gothic horror, with publication of the Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole.

Supernatural horror has its roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic and the principle of evil embodied in the Devil. These were manifested in stories of witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and demonic pacts such as that of Faust.

Eighteenth century Gothic horror drew on these sources in such works as Vathek (1786) by William Beckford, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1796) by Ann Radcliffe and The Monk (1797) by Matthew Lewis. A lot of horror fiction of this era was written by women and marketed at a female audience, a typical scenario being a resourceful female protagonist menaced in a gloomy castle.

Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28 May 1944) is a Northern Irish actress best known for her role as Magenta in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Hers were the red lips that appeared in the film's opening song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (although the singing voice was that of Richard O'Brien). She has appeared in many film and television roles including the Rocky Horror semi-sequel, Shock Treatment (1981), as well as I, Claudius (1976), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), and the 1987 Doctor Who serial Dragonfire.

Quinn was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She began her career as a Playboy Bunny in London.

She has one son, Quinn Hawkins, from her first marriage to Don Hawkins. He is now a London barrister and is married with four sons (Boy, Charles, Jesse and Harry).

In January 1995, Quinn married the ailing British actor Robert Stephens, whose wife she had played in the BBC serial, Fortunes of War (1987). She thus became stepmother to his two actor sons by his previous marriage (to Dame Maggie Smith), Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. Quinn had also appeared alongside Stephens in the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights (1984), in the role of Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. Robert Stephens died in November 1995. He had been knighted earlier that year, giving Quinn the title of Lady Stephens.