Introduction to Gothic Horror

Introduction to Gothic horror - 

Gothic horror was firstly introduced by Horace Walpole in 1764 in his novel ' The castle of Otranto, which includes gothic fiction and romance with angst of dark emotions.

Gothic horror in books and films are usually unpleasant, scary and intense. This genre often includes candles, chandeliers and dark black settings to set the scene. Horror and Gothic horror are both tense and scary which makes them very similar however horror is not usually gothic.

Key features usually seen in gothic horrors include:
settings - graveyard, mists, storms, midnight, full moon, and castles
Characters - Vampires, wolves, witches, monsters, ghosts, bats, owls, cats, wizards and corpses.



Literature

Gothic horror is a genre of literature that combines fiction, horror and romanticism with a sublime sensation. The novel makes you feel nervous and tense as the story line puts you on edge. The genre is changing, developing, corrupting and decay. Gothic horrors are filled with many strange places, clashing time periods, power and constraint, a world of doubt, castles, darkness, churches, madness, secrets and curses. An example of this in the novel 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens is the 'satis house'. Satis house is a cold gothic setting with its gloom and its atmosphere of decay and ghostliness.

Satis house , Great Expectations -

i looked at a range of book's, some of these were called 'The gothic vision : three centuries of horror, terror and fear by Dani Cavarlloro, Gothic Pathologies and Blood is the life : vampires in Literature. By reading these books helped me understand the sort of characters which were used and how they were portrayed. Exploring the costumes and setting each of the characters were seen in and the atmosphere the books giver to the reader. The descriptive details helped me when it came to creating my own looks.