Horror fiction

Horror fiction is a genre of literature, and film which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle their readers or viewers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon has defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society.

History

The genre of horror has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic and the principle of the thing embodied in the person. These were manifested in stories of beings such as witches, vampires, werewolves and ghosts.

Gothic horror in the 18th century

18th century Gothic horror drew on these sources with the seminal and controversial The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. This marked the first time a modern novel incorporated elements of the supernatural instead of pure realism. In fact, the first edition was published disguised as an actual medieval romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. Once revealed as contemporary, many found it anachronistic, reactionary, or simply in poor taste — but it proved to be immediately popular. That first novel of Gothic horror inspired such works as Vathek (1786) by William Beckford, A Sicilian Romance (1790), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1796) by Ann Radcliffe and The Monk (1797) by Matthew Lewis. A significant amount 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.

Demon's World

Demon's World, released in Japan as Horror Story (ホラーストーリー), is a platformer arcade game that was developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in 1989. This game is multi-regional, meaning that it can be configured for different regions via the DIP switches. These settings change the legal warnings, can display the Taito licensing message and can change the title between the English version (Demon's World) and the Japanese version (Horror Story).

Gameplay

Demon's World consists of several linear autoscrolling stages. Armed with a gun, complete with energy pack similar to the Ghostbusters, the player must shoot or jump on various ghosts and monsters that infest each area. Along the way, the player can collect a power-up to change his gun to fire lasers, bombs, or even 3-way bullets.

The game's opening stages begin in an eastern setting, featuring various spirits and creatures of Japanese folklore. Some of these include ghostly karakasa, chochinobake, kappa, hitotsume-kozou and rokurokubi. The game then changes course, moving to a ghostly pirate ship and then the haunted American Old West, featuring a ghost town and a canyon inhabited by traditional ghosts and monsters from western culture such as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and even Jason Voorhees-style masked monsters. The game's final stretch takes place in a medieval setting complete with cursed castles and dungeons infested with haunted armor, goblins and dragons.

Horror Story (film)

Horror Story is a Bollywood dramatic horror film written by Vikram Bhatt and directed by Ayush Raina. The film stars Ravish Desai, Hasan Zaidi, and features the Bollywood movie debut of noted television actor Karan Kundra. The film was released on 13 September 2013. The plot revolves around a night spent by seven youngsters at a haunted hotel.The film received positive reviews and was successful at the box office. The film is based on the Stephen King short story 1408.

Plot

The film opens with Vikrant Nerula (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal) entering the deserted hotel Grandiose all by himself. He proceeds to room 3046, then goes to the terrace and jumps off, killing himself.

Seven friends, Sam (Hasan Zaidi), Margesh(Ravish Desai), Achint(Nishant Malkani), Neel(Karan Kundra), Meera(Radhika Menon), Sonia (Nandini Vaid)and Maggie(Aparna Bajpai), reunite in a local pub after several years apart to celebrate the farewell of one of their friends, who is going abroad for higher studies. They learn about an abandoned hotel that is reportedly haunted. It had originally been a mental asylum for the criminally insane but was almost completely destroyed in a fire, the origin of which has never been fully explained. After years of neglect, the ruins were refurbished into a five star hotel by a builder who is Vikrant Nerula. The hotel was unsuccessful due to the strange happenings and drove the owner to suicide, though rumors state that he was pushed by the ghost of an asylum inmate. Intrigued, the group decides to explore the abandoned building.