I've read an interesting article about the different kinds of horror present in games that disturb us.
Here is the source of the article: The Many Different Types of Horror
And there horror is distinguished in six types:
- Jump Scares - immediate and unexpected actions near us that trigger in us immediate panic;
- Anticipatory panic - the fear of the looming doom for which we are unprepared and is coming;
- Disgust - the intense aversion that sometimes leads to panic when something unexpected happens;
- Atmospheric horror - when the setting seems to conspire against the main character;
- Fear of the unknown - the feeling that is common to all of the horrors that lurk beyond our vision;
- Fear of the self - fear of what we might do and what are we;
- Fear of the dreaded known - fear of something you know, where that knowledge makes you afraid of it.
These types overloop into one another frequently, with fear of the unknown combined with atmospheric horror, in Silent Hill 2, or when disgust comes with a jump scare, when that being you are performing an autopsy on starts shaking.
Do you agree with these classifications? Can you find any more types in games?
edit: I added the seventh principle, as it was argued in the comments and it seems valid.
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