Horror stories: for dummies

To be perfectly honest with you guys, I don't know much about Edgar Allen Poe except that he is insanely good at writing horror stories and poetry. Besides the short story we read in Mr.Thomas' class , I have read another short story by Mr.Poe, but I can't quite put my finger on the name of it. What I do know now is that both ended vague , and questioned the validity of the whole story. I challenge you as I will myself , that after reading this post, go check out one of Poe's many terrifying stories and see what all the buzz is about.

  After reading The Fall of the House of Usher ,there are a couple a things that an intelligent writer should pick up and use. Five things that stuck out to me as I was reading the story were: point of view, tone, twisted characters, symbolism, and the vague ending. With these basic literary devices I will be able to write Mr.Thomas an amazing horror story , rather than using blood and weapons that modern day "horror" stories/movies use.

First I would establish my tone by creating the setting , and also introduce my characters and add some kind of twisted mental problem just to make it more interesting like Edgar does.Who wouldn't like a mental character in a horror story? I would write the story so that the audience gets to experience and feel whats going on in and let them feel as if they were in the story themselves.Throughout the story some type of symbolism would be included that connects it back to the theme. In Tell Tale Heart, the symbolism of the beating heart is only in his conscious(so we think)and its the guilt he has.The story I would create would have a deeper meaning behind it , than it just being a horror story.Just as the story has given you goose-bumps and everything seems to be solved, the validity of the whole story would be questioned. The story would only be finished in the minds of the readers . ____evil laugh____.

After seeing countless of horror movies , there are a couple of changes I would do myself if ever given the chance. One thing that eerrks me is when people ask "Hello, is anyone there?" as if the murder or ghost is going to respond to that. You know that you're home alone and you hear a noise , of course somebody is in your house! Another thing I could change is that most movies are based on the dramatic killing scenes and the splashing of blood everywhere to convey the feeling of horror, more like disgust! I would add more twists to characters as I mentioned before. A metal patient on loose sounds way scarier than someone that's going around stabbing people,personally.