Fantasy Or Horror?

[HGohwell]

Where do you personally draw the line between fantasy and horror?

Obviously, I'm talking about fantasy horror/dark fantasy ect. Things like slasher horror don't tend to straddle the line very often. But fantasy and horror that involve the supernatural can often be hard to tell apart. Some elements of fantasy can be horrifying and if they're used too much you can start thinking it should be horror. Some horror really isn't scary and just seems like fantasy that's a bit scary.

I started thinking about this when I was trying to figure out the genres of my new comic. It's fantasy but there are a lot of cosmic horror elements and I started wondering if horror was more appropriate. Personally, I think intent and use is important. My cosmic horror elements aren't really intended to be scary they're just an element of the world (although sometimes that's all the more terrifying when these things are just a part of life) so in the end stuck with fantasy (again Tapas, sub genres so I could plump for dark fantasy would be lovely).

What do you guys think? Where's the line between dark fantasy and horror for you? What do you think makes the difference?

[iHateFridays]

Hmm I'm not a big fan of horror but it mixed with fantasy is usually pretty interesting since I love fantasy... the line gets pretty blurred though. A good story uses both elements.

[Legendofgenii]

If someone said Dark Fantasy to me I’d expect it to be horrific in places. Would be cool if Dark Fantasy was a main category.

[Llyrel]

That's a very good question and one I ask myself often, since I also have a fantasy comic with horror elements. There can be a lot of overlap between the two genres, and drawing the line is indeed difficult. However, there are a few things that I think can make a difference. Namely:

-Gore/body horror. Yes, there IS violence in fantasy too. Characters can be beheaded, lose an arm/hand/whatever, there are great battles, people die. However, depictions of the violent act itself are not usually the main focus of fantasy stories: the scenes themselves tend to be pretty quick, with not too much attention given to the gory details. If your comic is featuring multiple scenes in which violent acts are depicted in great detail, we're probably in front of a horror or at very least dark fantasy type of work. Basically: think LotR fights vs The Witcher.
-Grey morality: while fantasy usually has two clearly defined sides -the good guys and the bad guys- this distinction is not necessarily as obvious in dark fantasy or horror. Note, I'm not saying that ALL fantasy is like that: there are plenty of fantasy protagonists whose morality ain't exactly the purest (see Conan the Barbarian), though even then... there's often an even bigger evil our heroes need to fight, while dark fantasy/horror tends to make you question more often who the real bad guy is. Again, see The Witcher or Game of Thrones. Should be noted that grey morality alone isn't enough to mark a story as strictly horror, though it can definitely be a sign that we're in front of a dark fantasy.
-Dark lord vs dark fears: the bad guy of a fantasy work is usually some kind of big bad evil that is capable of putting an entire nation, world or even universe in danger. It can often be interpreted as a political metaphor, with historical or contemporary references. Heroes need to destroy the evil dark lord because it's the right thing to do. Granted, their own lives are at stake too, but once again, the fight of good vs evil tends to be the main theme. With horror works, however, the bad guy is usually something a lot smaller and a lot more personal: fear. You can have a big bad guy which puts an entire nation/world/universe in danger (e.g. a zombie attack), but the main difference is that what this bad guy usually represents is nothing else than humans' worst fears: repressed sexual desires, illnesses, losing control, temptation, murder. Stakes usually tend to feel a lot more personal in horror works than they do in fantasy: the fight against the big bad evil is a fight against your own fears.

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind as of now

[SaxofonSislak]

I'm speechless, nothing more to add your honor haha

[HGohwell]

The more of this answer I read the more I start thinking I might actually be creating a horror more than fantasy lol (urgh really Dark Fantasy writer problems).

[sxxaint]

So obviously this isn't a bible of What You Must Do, but recently I've been looking into genre conventions, and I found this really useful for the horror genre: https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/horror-conventions

The conventions listed do a good job of covering the points that make horror horror - scary and unsettling rather than another adventure/mystery. It's worth a look in if you're stuck on your genre definition.

Edit to add: Another big factor is: What do you want your readers to feel when they read your big climax and your tense moments? Excitement or fear?

[surenlicious]

So I am writing a fantasy/horror. In one. It often depends on how visual the horror becomes. Some people's weaves fly off with body horror, others already fly through the ceiling when something unusual pops from under the bed.

In my case, the horror is initially invisible but is affecting the character's minds and warping their behavior to mental instability and eventual psychosis. In the second part of the book I make the apparitions visible and adjust their behavior to disturbing and in some cases help with the visual aspect.

Since not everyone freaks out over the same thing, I'll just end this with the simple 'it depends on your personal preferences'.

[Darth_Biomech]

There is no line.

It's like "where do you draw a line between science fiction and adventure?" One's a setting, the other's a plot or mood.

[HGohwell]

And then with every episode I'm debating on tagging mature, I'll at least add a warning before the panels, if not M. There are trigger warnings in the series introduction page, too.

This is something I'm going to be doing. A warning at the start of the comic overall that it has horror elements some people might find uncomfortable and then a warning at the start of any chapter that contain a more common trigger. After all, setting it as mature doesn't actually tell the reader why it's mature, it could be anything from sexual to gore to nudity to violence. Until we get the ability to say why it's mature when we put on the filter, it's the best option.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

There is no line.

It's like "where do you draw a line between science fiction and adventure?" One's a setting, the other's a plot or mood.

I was actually thinking the same thing.

Both 'fantasy' and 'horror' are considered genres, but they represent two entirely different kinds of descriptions. Fantasy is usually defined by what physical elements are present: usually magic, rustic landscapes, unknown creatures, and an adventurer or two.

Horror, on the other hand, is defined by what story elements are present: certain things have to happen, not just exist, in order for a story to be considered horror. Like if one of those unknown creatures is eating the adventurers alive one at a time.

If you think about it, it doesn't really make sense for them to both be considered genres, at least not in the same way...which is why you end up with confusing classification questions like the OP. But this is the system we're stuck with for now. ^^;

[Merj]

In my way of seeing, the genres Fantasy and Horror are a loooot diferent.

Fantasy elements are those who doens't exist in our reality, like monsters, magic, etc.
And though horror a lot of times have fantasy elements to show fears of characters in form of monsters, realistic and psychological horror stories can show you how horror don't need fantasy elements to exist. some exemples are the movies "Funny Games" (they play with your expectations as public) or "Krisha" (family partys can be quite stressfull) or even "Hostel" (i don't like how much gore there is in this last one).

the same goes for fantasy without horror. Ghosts and demons are usually from horror genres, but fantasy can pickup those myths and turn into something that doesn't scare a cat. It will all depends on how you tell your story, horror causes fear on the public.

For me personally "dark fantasy" is just a way to say both those genres are in the story and there's no line where it becomes only horror. it can have blood all over the place, as long as there some fantastic beast or magic in the mix, still dark fantasy.

[Rocksteady_Comics]

I don't really see them as mutually exclusive. Horror for me is more about tone while fantasy is more setting. If something's a fantasy and has horror elements I'd just call it fantasy/horror. Same with sci-fi. I don't think dark fantasy always counts as fantasy/horror, just because there are a lot of ways to make something dark with out adding horror elements, but it doesn't rule it out.

[DiegoPalacios]

It all comes to the story's main goal.....

if the goal is to scare readers it's horror, being set in a fantasy world, doesn't change that.

Fantasy, on the other side, is more broad because it focuses on certain kinds of settings and elements, making it more a subgenre.

In a fantasy, some creatures may be horrifying, but that doesn't make it horror on itself, specially if said creatures are not the main focus or main antagonic force.

Gotta agree with the people that mentioned dark fantasy in previous replies, this seems to be more fitting. Now, if dark fantasy is not a category yet in Tapas, the closer would be fantasy as main element, with horror as a subgenre........ perhaps adding thriller to the mix?

[halatir08]

There's no such thing like ,,pure horror". Apparently it IS possible to write a ,,pure fantasy" story (fantasy without horror elements), but the traditional horror genre wouldn't exist without fantasy elements. Those components make the difference, for example, between horror and thriller - although there's no strong borderline eather.

Theoretically, if there're no fantasy elements in a horror story, then it's not horror, but that's not a dynamic way to define a genre.
On the other hand there're some exceptions too, like slashers (they usually lack of fantasy elements) and that's why it's hard to define a genre precisely.

As some of the other commenters said, some genres can be mixed well (horror/sci-fi/fantasy or horror/thriller), because they have something in common. That's why horror is so specific: it CAN have fantasy compontents, but it DOESN'T HAVE TO.

In my opinion it's better to find the place of your story on a spectrum between horror and fantasy. If it leans more towards the ,,horror" side (dark fantasy), then I'd pick horror as the main genre and fantasy as the subgenre. Most of the stories don't have only one genre.

Hope I didn't confuse anyone!

[foxnflames]

While fantasy and horror are their respective genres, there are still some things that you can ask yourself when deciding. Dark fantasy can have "horror" elements, but that doesn't make it horror. Like each genre, there are certain conventions that should be adhered to if you want to make a decent story and help with the flow and give your audience what you're intending. If you don't hit those conventions or add when horror stories typically include, then you're better off in dark fantasy.

Like @sxxaint mentioned, that's a good resource to look at and you can also find other resources for respective genre conventions. Fantasy can also overlap into other genres, so as sxxaint also said, ask yourself what you want out of the climax and key moments. If it leans more fantasy then stick with that. I'm sure readers will pick up on the darker bits and you can always have horror as a sub genre.

(these are more general statements) Also, some of the more "otherwordly" elements might hit more with paranormal and supernatural than fantasy, but since neither of those are genres on tapas, they get shoved into fantasy. And fantasy isn't always about setting. Urban fantasy is a thing for a reason.

[emrowene]

So technically, fantasy, science fiction, and horror all fall under the "speculative fiction" umbrella, and a lot of the time, it's hard distinguishing between the genres. (Cue the age old question: is Star Wars science fiction or fantasy?)

Sometimes, if you write a speculative fiction work, good arguments can be made for a number of genres and subgenres. I think, at that point, labelling it comes down to your preference and what you feel the main emphasis/vibe of the story is. But there will probably always be people who disagree.