Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the audience. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of an evil—or, occasionally, misunderstood—supernatural element into everyday human experience. Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called "horror". Horror fiction often overlaps science fiction or fantasy, all three of which categories are sometimes placed under the umbrella classification speculative fiction. See also supernatural fiction.

Horrific situations are found in the earliest recorded tales. Many myths and legends feature scenarios and archetypes used by later horror writers. Tales of demons and vampires in ancient Babylonian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese folklore, and tales collected by the Grimm Brothers, were often quite horrific.

Some modern practitioners of the genre use vivid depictions of extreme violence to shock or entertain their audiences, often recalling grand guignol theatre (see splatterpunk). This development has given horror fiction a stigma as base entertainment devoid of literary merit.

Horror fiction does not confine itself to literature, however. Countless horror-themed movies have been released in the 20th century, notably Dracula, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Night of the Living Dead. Even computer and video games have used horror elements in their plotlines, such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Quake, the Ravenholm chapter of Half Life 2, and the Doom series, especially Doom 3. Also there are some horror-based role-playing settings such as Ravenloft and World of Darkness.


Source : http://en.wikipedia.org