Can anyone elucidate the expectations of readers in Erotic Horror?

[EmilyMiller]

I'm giving my recommendation. 'Dollhouse' HannahBaird. A remarkable writer. Horror is her specialty. Good luck. She makes it hard to sleep.

Yeah - I don’t want to read that. Which is I guess the problem.

 

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

I've experimented in this with a ScFi story.

Themes included consensual sex that becomes painful due to the misuse of technology; loss of control where the pleasure gradually becomes unbearable; a rape scene where the victim is successful in killing the rapist (very slowly). Then there were extreme body modifications using surgery, alien tech, and accidents which has it's own slant on torture as well as pleasure. If you want to read [Link removed. Please don't link to off-site work except in the sticky thread for promotion if you have published Lit work - AH Mod]

 

[EmilyMiller]

I've experimented in this with a ScFi story.

Themes included consensual sex that becomes painful due to the misuse of technology; loss of control where the pleasure gradually becomes unbearable; a rape scene where the victim is successful in killing the rapist (very slowly). Then there were extreme body modifications using surgery, alien tech, and accidents which has it's own slant on torture as well as pleasure. If you want to read it go to [REDACTED]

You can’t advertize off-site stories here. And I won’t be reading it due to its content either.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've only dabbled there once and wasn't all that concerned with the readers expectations. That story was a hell of a brain worm and I had to get it out.

 

[Statius]

Yeah - I don’t want to read that. Which is I guess the problem.

It's tough. I don't do horror either. Not in movies, not in books (anymore), but HannahBaird has been good to me, and I'll promote her work. She's an excellent writer and no way could I do what she does.

 

[DeMont]

The more I read about the category, the more stupid I feel about publishing in it. It’s really not me from many perspectives.

@EmilyMiller,
Good evening my dear colleague,
That may possibly be the case but perhaps your stories do hold elements of "tension", "unspoken but alluded to fear/s" perhaps even situations "putting characters at risk of physical/ psychological harm" all of which can be afforded a "horror" theme of varying degrees. Just because someone doesn't pull out a chainsaw and start carving the guests up doesn't mean a story can't be "psychological horror".

This, I think, is where your choice of category and tags is going to become more important than the actual content of the story. As I mentioned, I am an avid reader of Poe and Lovecraft and Mr. Poe certainly wrote items more suspenseful than horrific and the tale "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" was not directly a hack and slash story but rather centred on the speculations, brief glimpses and discoveries without confirmations of an investigating/rescue party.

As I said, it's the perceptions of people of "horror" that hold sway in such a forum.
If you really want to develop an out and out horror story then I would, as I think I have mentioned before, take your lead from Dean R. Koontz.
Deepest respects and try not to go mad,
D.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I am an avid reader of Poe

People on EH don’t want Poe (I’m a Poe afficiandao) they want R/NC with ghosts. They don’t want cerebral horror, they want rape porn without the guilt.

 

[DeMont]

People on EH don’t want Poe (I’m a Poe afficiandao) they want R/NC with ghosts. They don’t want cerebral horror, they want rape porn without the guilt.

@EmilyMiller, Good evening my dear colleague. If that is your summation of what the reader wants in that category then you have the decision to make. Either to write exactly that, for the reader, or, write for yourself and select a different category and use the tags to indicate content. No one can tell you what to do except you and that, in essence, is what our initial, "I'm going to write a..." decision is based on. Where the story goes after that is in your hands.
Deepest respects,
D.

 

[dirk2024]

People on EH don’t want Poe (I’m a Poe afficiandao) they want R/NC with ghosts. They don’t want cerebral horror, they want rape porn without the guilt.

My EH story has no R/NC or rape porn and its rated 4.65. It's more of a traditional horror story, with a wild sex scene and a little foot fetish work at the same time.

 

[dirk2024]

People on EH don’t want Poe (I’m a Poe afficiandao) they want R/NC with ghosts. They don’t want cerebral horror, they want rape porn without the guilt.

And isn't one of the over riding themes amonth the AH denizons to write for you, and not the reader?

Give us Poe, woman!

 

[EmilyMiller]

Give us Poe, woman!

Literotica isn’t ready for phantasmagoric armorial trophies, trust me, I’ve tried.

 

[dirk2024]

Literotica isn’t ready for phantasmagorical armorial trophies, trust me, I’ve tried.

I don't know what that is, but it sounds hot!

 

[DeMont]

I don't know what that is, but it sounds hot!

@dirk2024,
I believe our colleague may be referring to an arrangement full of different images, like something in a confused dream about the weapons and military equipment that a country owns and are trophies, a prize, that is given to the winner of a competition or race after the fact.

Trying to work the sex angle into that lot might be a little tough though!
Respectfully,
D.

 

[Erozetta]

I had a story in Erotic Horror that was largely psychological/human horror with a 4.86, I think?

It ends badly for everyone, but particularly for the main characters, Michaela and Martin (Mickie and Marty).

The physical horror is maybe 10k words of the total 64k, probably not even that.

I think that if I had written it in a linear way, it would've read much darker. But I broke it up and wrote the experience out of order, with sexual encounters triggering horrific memories for each of them, and keeping such flashbacks short and focused on specific things like a look, a scent, a touch, an emotion, etc., I was able to temper the darkness a little and was able to work through some elements of my own experiences with PTSD and touch/scent/sight/taste/emotion memory triggering flashbacks when I least wanted them.

I leave a lot of what they experienced unsaid. In all honesty, the most horrific scene had absolutely nothing erotic or violent in it. Part of the backstory is her father was hunting this killer. When he got too close to uncovering the identity of the killer, the killer went after his wife. His daughter was home at the time, but was locked in the backyard, completely unaware her mother was being murdered in the house.

While the killer has Michaela and Martin, he gives her the clothes her mother had been wearing the day she was killed and has Michaela wear them. At first, she thinks it's just an outfit that looks like the one her mother wore, she knows there's a small tear in her mother's actual skirt from Michaela tugging it earlier on the day her mother was killed, and when she feels that tear after putting it on, it absolutely breaks her. So far when people read it, that's the scene most have asked me about. Basically saying I went too far with that, but it was so well done they read over it multiple times, because holy fuck that was mental torture.

What erotic horror readers want is a mishmash of things. Some are seeking an adrenaline fix. Some want a deep dive into the psychology of a difficult experience. Some want blood and gore. Some want to have a reason to cheer the good guys on to victory over evil. And any combination in between. They want to hear a noise while reading and look over their shoulder with their heart racing for a moment before getting back to the story. They want to feel a sense of closure by the end.

It's a difficult line to walk because if you stray too far to either side, you're losing the thrill of the combination.

Some comedic elements can work in the genre, but if it's largely satire with various creatures it's going to irritate people. Creatures go in non-human, satire goes in satire. Erotic Horror is for stories that make your heart race and your worry for the characters rise with each passing moment.

Shaun of the Dead is a great horror satire, but it's not horror.

If you want some visual examples of erotic horror, I suggest these movies, not all fall directly at the center of the line, but they do a good job of being fairly representative of the genre with a few that are straight horror with erotic undertones:

Return of Living Dead 3 (bonus of having a gorgeous Melinda Clarke in one of the most memorable and tantalizing horror designs for a character I can recall at the moment.)
The Hunger
Cat People
Hellraiser (erotic undertones)
Near Dark (erotic undertones)
Dracula
The Vampire Lovers
Vampyros Lesbos
Daughters of Darkness
Night of the Demons (erotic undertones)
Embrace of the Vampire
Species
Spider
Suitable Flesh
Strangers by the Lake
Candyman (erotic undertones)


The Vampire Lovers, Vampyros Lesbos, and Daughters of Darkness are the movies I watched before writing my part in Alina's chain story to put my head in the right space while writing.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I don't know what that is, but it sounds hot!

It’s a line from Fall of the House of Usher.

 

[Comshaw]

I'll chip in my two pence worth in a bit. My first foray into EH "Of Ghosts and Flesh" is pending publication. It has sex (an integral part of the story) and I hope enough psychological horror to satisfy the readers. At a wee bit over 19,000 words, I hope it isn't too long for the readers there. If there is one imutable fact that I know, it's this: that I ain't got a clue when it comes to knowing what the readers want. I write, I toss it out there, close my eyes and hope for the best. A hell of a way to do it huh?


Comshaw

It looks like I screwed the pooch on this one. I posted my story yesterday in EH. So far, 921 reads with 5 votes at 3.6. It appears I didn't hit that sweet spot with the readers. Or I didn't put it in the right category. I could have put it into NC/R, but being a Halloween story, I thought EH would be the appropriate category for it. My bad.

While I'm at it, I might as well engage in the age-old art of the gripe. Having spent years in the military, I am intimately familiar with this particular form of expression.

While the contests here are fun, they have more to do with the popularity of the author than the quality of the winning work. The only way such a contest could judge the quality of a story is if it had a blind submission process. All stories would have the author's name removed and a number assigned. Once the contest was complete and all votes cast, the names would be reattached and released. That way the reader would be judging the work on its own merits, rather than being influenced by who wrote it.

Okay, rant done.


Comshaw

 

[Statius]

Maybe Lit needs to do away with LW and EH and just do a bad endings category. Through all the dark stories, bad endings into one. CNC, horror, all of it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

The Hunger
Cat People
Hellraiser (erotic undertones)
Near Dark (erotic undertones)
Dracula
The Vampire Lovers
Vampyros Lesbos
Daughters of Darkness
Night of the Demons (erotic undertones)
Embrace of the Vampire
Species
Spider
Suitable Flesh
Strangers by the Lake
Candyman (erotic undertones)

See, I’m a cinephile and I’ve only seen Dracula (if you mean Coppola’s version) off of that list. I guess this is why I can’t write EH.

I’m more From Dusk Till Dawn / Alien / The Shining kinda gal.

 

[Statius]

See, I’m a cinephile and I’ve only seen Dracula (if you mean Coppola’s version) off of that list. I guess this is why I can’t write EH.

I’m more From Dusk Till Dawn / Alien / The Shining kinda gal.

Alien and the shining not horror? I actually wouldn't call Coppola's dracula horror, if I can watch it it ain't horror

 

[EmilyMiller]

Alien and the shining not horror? I actually wouldn't call Coppola's dracula horror, if I can watch it it ain't horror

Alien is clearly a horror movie. Just a SciFi one. But it’s also more Hitchockian than slasher. I think I prefer psychological horror. I like Mike Flanagan’s work (not Usher ).

 

[Baztrachian]

Can anyone elucidate the expectations of readers in Erotic Horror?​

For some of the people on Lit Erotic Horror includes stories about young people getting married, having babies, and living happily ever after.

{{{ shudders }}}

 

[Erozetta]

See, I’m a cinephile and I’ve only seen Dracula (if you mean Coppola’s version) off of that list. I guess this is why I can’t write EH.

I’m more From Dusk Till Dawn / Alien / The Shining kinda gal.

Yes, Coppola's version.

The others are largely low budget softcore porn/horror combos, a couple are Italian or French, maybe both, it's been a while.

I'm very much not a cinephile just have a deep love of horror that gave me an escape from reality as a kid. (Shit got bad, but at least I wasn't fighting unkillable monsters.)

From Dusk Till Dawn could be seen as the point where Satire crosses with Erotic Horror. It can work really well, but it has to be done very carefully so you don't stray too far into the satire side of things.

Even among horror fans, there are so many niche subjects. Some dark, some funny, some both, some gory. Hell, some of my favorite horror movies are musicals. (Dead and Breakfast strays into horror comedy musical, those are fucking rare and beautiful.)

The whole thing about it is balance. With erotic horror, you can go fully into the horror side where there is no sex but lots of sensuality, but going fully erotic will kill the creepy vibe they seek.

It's one of the hardest categories to do right.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's one of the hardest categories to do right.

Tell me about it

 

[cw5523729]

Hellraiser (erotic undertones)

Admittedly it's been several decades since I watched anything in the Hellraiser series, but I don't recall it being very erotic, even by horny teenage boy standards

 

[Erozetta]

Admittedly it's been several decades since I watched anything in the Hellraiser series, but I don't recall it being very erotic, even by horny teenage boy standards

Over half the movie centers on a woman feeding people to her dead lover and making out with his half formed naked corpse. She then feeds her husband, the guy's brother, to him to finish his revival. I need a rewatch, but I believe he also makes a pass at his niece while wearing her father's skin.

And that's before the pain kink enters the story.