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"Then there's the kind [of horror] where the guy in a scary mask isn't in a cupboard but standing right behind you and you just know he's gonna go "ABLOOGYWOOGYWOO" at some point but he doesn't and you're getting more and more tense but you don't want to turn around because he might stick his cock in your eye."
Psychological Horror is an element of fiction, not tied to a particular genre (it manifests itself in many stories which are not identified as "horror stories"), which aims at creating horrific or unsettling effects through in-depth use of psychology.
This may involve replacing physical threats with psychological ones (e.g. madness), thorough exploration of the mind of the involved protagonists (including the bad guys/ Monster of the Week), replacing overt displays of horror by more subtle, creepy details, and so on. Often overlaps with Surreal Horror.
Often works hand in hand with Nothing Is Scarier, Mind Screw, and Through the Eyes of Madness. Due to the nature of this form of horror, it is usually Nightmare Fuel.
Examples:
Anime
Film
- The Shining
- On that note, any other film based on a Stephen King novel.
- Carrie, maybe?
- The Bad Seed
- The Dark Knight Saga appears to have traces of this, especially The Dark Knight.
- Take a movie by Tarkovsky. Any movie by Tarkovsky. But particularly Stalker.
- This is a big part of Japanese horror, and why it was so popular a few years ago.
- A Tale of Two Sisters is Korean, and Korea is no slouch in this department, also putting out movies like:
- The Eye, which is a Hong Kong movie, also does feature some elements of J-Horror.
- Shutter, a Thai movie.
- Alone, by the directors of Shutter.
- Almost any Alfred Hitchcock movie ever made:
- The Cell (takes place inside the mind of a serial killer. It's a very unpleasant place.)
- The Silence of the Lambs and that whole series.
- Antichrist
- Most of David Lynch's movies fall into this category.
- Alejandro Amenabar's The Others.
- Right at Your Door
- Black Swan
- Julia\'s Eyes
Literature
Live-Action TV
Video Games
- Quite a bit of Survival Horror or just horror-themed games banks on this as well to supplement the atmosphere and Paranoia Fuel:
- Since Psychological Horror is so universal a trope, it can commonly be found even in games that are not built around a horror premise :
- One or two of the missions of SWAT 4 tackle extremely disturbing crime cases in very creepy locales.
- One of the reasons why the original Operation Flashpoint and its current successor ARMA are praised for their realism is how they not only accurately portray the tech and tactics employed on a modern battlefield, but also the tension, paranoia and uncompromising unpredictability of military operations. Compared to most other military games, which are usualy action-pumped thrill rides with lots of loud set pieces, these titles have the player experiencing almost unbearable tension while moving through enemy territory. The enemies can be well hidden, may already know of your position, may be already surrounding you stealthily and killing you before you even manage to register them and realize your grave mistake. And don't even get us started on situations like being Trapped Behind Enemy Lines, completely out of ammo and hiding in the bushes, because heavily armed brigades of soldiers and vehicles are combing the whole area. All of this goes hand in hand with the horror occuring commonly during missions set in broad daylight.
- IronStorm is another good example of a shooter that has zero supernatural elements, but is set in a nigh-nightmarish Diesel Punk world scarred by an increasingly insane and dystopic Forever War.
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