Markup View

Author: xanderiskander

Jun 24th 2014 at 12:06:21 PM

Well to start off I think I've done a good job in the description in saying that blood is used a signal system for danger. It says that it signals something is very wrong ''at least'' twice. And you're being too literal about the violence and gore bit. If there's blood involved it can still be played for BloodyHorror.

Now on to the more complicated bits

[[quoteblock]] How would you discern a "blood for horror" from general "violence for horror" or "mutilation for horror", or "stab for horror", or "injury for horror", or "dismemberment for horror", or "just another unexpected illness symptom for horror", or "ahh, yes, something like that is expected now that you're surely dying for horror"?[[/quoteblock]]

Blood and gore in general is used for horror because [[AfraidOfBlood it's a common fear]]. So DAN has that right. But we also have pages like {{GORN}} where it's not used for horror, but to thrill. So here are some other ways we can tell:

* What genre is the work in?:
** Is the work itself a horror, murder mystery, medical drama supernatural drama? Then it's ''likely'' being used for horror.

*How do the characters react to it?:
** Is the character bleeding out scared for his life? Is the character dying? Did someone scream or cringe when finding he's bled to death? Did someone find blood, but can't find the body? Odds are it's being used for horror, or at least being played for a creepy factor

* Is the way the scene plays out deliberately over the top and morbid seemingly just for the sake of it?
** It's likely they're not being morbid just to be morbid. It's to scare the viewer. This is especially true in literature if the author deliberately goes out of their way to describe the scene in graphic detail.

And yes bloody symptoms like IncurableCoughOfDeath count (which this would be a Supertrope to) if they're coughing up blood. The reason is because it's ''not'' just a regular illness. It signals the character is in danger. It's deliberately used so the audience fears for the character. So Soap opera examples where this happens would count.

Heck they don't even have to be dying. The bleeding just has to indicate danger for the character. For example in ''Series/{{House}}'' a lot of characters survive in the end of the episode, but symptoms of bleeding always mean their health is taking a turn for the worst, so the audience is fearing for the patient because they want the patient to be okay in the end.