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Harry Potter as a Horror Genre?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Arthellion, Dec 12, 2019.

  1. Arthellion

    Arthellion Lord of the Banned ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    How would you rewrite the books/write a fanfiction turning Harry Potter from a children's adventure series into a Horror series a la stephen king?
     
  2. FitzDizzyspells

    FitzDizzyspells Seventh Year DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    I'm sure most people here are familiar with it, but I absolutely love @Sorrows' take on this in her storyWhelped.

    It's one of the most chilling takes on body horror I've ever read, original or otherwise. I used to recommend it on /r/hpff all the time whenever someone asked for fic that was genuinely terrifying.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019
  3. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter

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    There's a lot of things that are laughed off in HP that is just "magic" that I could see leading to longer term issues in adults. Body disfigurement and other things are treated pretty quickly and we're only ever given examples of like dark magic that has mangled someone beyond conventional healing.

    I'd say a lot of psychosis could probably exist, that people just write off as eccentricity, and goes undiagnosed leading to larger problems later on. We all like to read fanfic where there are serial-killers in the wizarding world. More than an us v. them mentality. I like those kind of stories because they bring realness to a story that's intended for children.

    For true Horror, I think Inferi is a good topic. Every civ has their own origin stories dealing with this. Unstoppable death that can come at the whim of the person controlling them, someone who is truly evil and has no remorse (one would assume) and just fuck your entire world up.
     
  4. Silirt

    Silirt Chief Warlock DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Take out the love magic and you're done.
     
  5. FitzDizzyspells

    FitzDizzyspells Seventh Year DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    There's an idea that I've had in my head for a while but haven't yet had an opportunity to use: Casting the Imperius Curse on a child, to force the child to do terrible things to unsuspecting victims, would be pretty Stephen King-esque.
     
  6. Arthellion

    Arthellion Lord of the Banned ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Gives the thought of a muggle investigator noticing patterns of child serial killers. Story ends with an obliviate.
     
  7. Villanelle

    Villanelle Groundskeeper

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    The Bat Bogey Hex would no doubt terrify me if cast on me while asleep.

    Same with the Jelly Legs Jinx, but that also sounds fun.

    Or, the Department of Mysteries comes up with a way to extract happiness from squibs and muggles. They power Patronus Generators which are sold for 4 sickles $3.99 each, including refill cartridge, so you can imagine how bad the sweatshop is, and how bad it is outside.

    Come to think of it. A lot of the "bad stuff" in Dodging Prison is pretty horrific.
     
  8. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Honestly... I don't even think the content would have to change that much, just the way the content is portrayed.

    Stephen King Quote:
    I’m peeling my hand, she thought. Oh dear Jesus, I’m peeling it like an orange.’ – Gerald’s Game

    If that had been in Harry Potter canon, because of a hand peeling curse or something, it would have been written as:
    The skin on Ron's hand started to peel up, starting at his thumb. Ron winced, and Harry jumped up to walk with him to the Hospital wing.

    Just rewrite all the shit more in King's style. Splinching is a good one. The floo could become a terrifying method of travel involving the feeling of burning alive. Horcruxes. Possession.

    Presentation matters.
     
  9. Blorcyn

    Blorcyn Chief Warlock DLP Supporter DLP Silver Supporter

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    I just read Whelped last night after Fitz’s post. That shit is fucked up. Good job @Sorrows.

    Yeah. That’s a good show at HP horror.

    I remember a while back we had a WbA entry with Harry meeting a very lovecraftian personification of death and other concepts too. It was a rewrite but it was very suitably horror.
     
  10. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    In terms of recs, other than Whelped...

    Evil Be Thou My Good is solid as well, from memory I'd say 4.5, but I can't remember how horrifying it really was.

    Echoes in the Fog is longer and more of a 4/5 max, I think it got more like 3/5 reviews here. Can't remember.

    There's a really short one somewhere about Teeth.
     
  11. James

    James Unspeakable

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    If you want Harry Potter Horror, check out most favorited on fanfiction.net…

    * ba-dum-ts *
     
  12. Innomine

    Innomine Alchemist ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I remember really enjoying this back in the day. Not sure how I’d find it now, however. Definitely the best HP horror I read.
     
  13. annoyedgiraffe

    annoyedgiraffe Squib DLP Supporter

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    I think horror in Harry Potter would not actually require that much of a change to the world of HP actually. Really, you never think about it when reading the books, but even some of the mundane things that happen in Hogwarts alone are pretty terrifying.

    Take for example the impromptu duel with Harry, Ron, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle in Goblet of Fire. Hermione gets inadvertently struck by a hex that causes her teeth to expand continuously. In the text, its just briefly mentioned once or twice, but thats sort of how Rowling writes most things - very generally, leaving it mostly to the readers to imagine. To make that terrifying, all that you really need to do is give it the 'Stephen King treatment,' or basically describe everything in such detail that it paints a vivid picture. And thats not even getting into the climax of the 4th, 5th and 6th books.

    As an example, here are reimagined covers for the books for "Scary Potter" that really captures what you would need to do to make HP horror:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  14. DrSarcasm

    DrSarcasm Headmaster

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    There's plenty of material for a monster horror book too.

    The Quintapeds could be used as a sort of Jurassic Park sort of thing if you're trapped on the island with them without a wand. Sort of a 'being hunted by velociraptors' scenario from Jurassic Park III; specifically how they're almost human in their intelligence.

    Imagine a story being told from the perspective of a Lethifold. Being woken up by having a living cloak wrapped over you, suffocating you slowly. Alternatively, a rash of disappearances in London, specifically of babies disappearing from their cribs, causing law enforcement to go hunting for the creature.

    A slow horror where a small community is trapped under a thick fog, people who try to leave being discovered as empty husks. The fog being dementors breeding, with them Kissing anyone who goes out.

    A Godzilla-styled monster movie where the kaiju is instead a Nundu. It got loose in London, causing mass death. Bonus points for the Obliviators having to accidentally cause a war when the public gets convinced that it was a biological terrorist attack.

    Then there's the classic werewolf story, where one wakes up finding that the cage they locked themself in wasn't quite secure enough or the potion they took wasn't quite brewed right, and they find the bloody scraps of their children's pajamas. Alternatively, a borderline serial killer fic where we follow Fenrir Greyback's stalking of his victims, where he arranges people together so that his werewolf side can kill them, or him arranging those he's turned in situations where they'll kill their own loved ones.
     
  15. Sowaka

    Sowaka Second Year

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    Lethifolds are featured in the second year of *name below*. And yeah, some scenes are pretty creepy.

    Black Luminary
     
  16. Majube

    Majube Order Member DLP Supporter

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    Thinking of Sorrows other fic, it'd be cool to see Hermione stuck in a time loop in her third year because of say a classmate like Ron or Lavender or Draco accidentally leading to her time turner being broken. Cue her desperately trying to get unstuck, everything going wrong for some reason. Maybe a future self of her screwing things up for her.
     
  17. Agayek

    Agayek Dimensional Trunk DLP Supporter

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    I feel like this should be one of those things Hermione does to herself. For example, she's using the time turner to go back for a class, and then just keeps using it over and over again, going back before the first loop fully finishes against Dumbledore's instructions. And she does it so much that it breaks the thing and leaves her trapped in a one-hour loop forever.
     
  18. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    I'd read it.

    Strangly I don't tend to read or watch a lot of horror, I just like doing horrible things to my charecters.

    As has been mentioned, it's pretty easy to find horror in Harry Potter. You just have to take away the children book plot armour and allow the aspects of the Harry Potter world have real-life consequences to charecters and bystanders.

    There is a lot of body horror to be found in even simple jinxes.

    There are plenty of monsters. If you are a Muggle you'll be left with the consequences and none of the memories.

    There are multiple ways for people to violate your mind and override your ability to consent. Some of which are perfectly socially acceptable. Particularly if you happen to be a Muggle in the wrong place or time.

    Any wizard could murder anyone else and make a body vanish within moments.

    Imagine being a Muggle in an abusive relationship with a wizard/witch?


    That's not even getting into the dark side of the wizarding world. Just the everyday stuff needed to keep a secret world secret.
     
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