The horror genre is fairly limitless in what it offers us—body-melting horror from Cronenberg and The Substance, dangerous slashers that are alternately serious, hilarious, and kooky, supernatural scares, monsters, and more. But a new subgenre has emerged within the last few decades that softens horror's rough edges. Welcome to cozy horror.The term might sound like an oxymoron. How can something designed to terrify also be a comfort? But cozy horror occupies that strange middle ground where the spooky meets the soft, where dread gets filtered through humor or nostalgia, and where you can be unsettled without being traumatized. Over the Garden Wall Credit: Cartoon NetworkDefining Cozy Horror Writer José Cruz described cozy horror in Nightmare Magazine as horror that emphasizes familiarity, distance, and fun. (Cruz is widely credited with defining and naming the subgenre.)Instead of exploiting our fear of the unknown, cozy horror leans into recognizable tropes and settings. It keeps the terror at arm's length. Most importantly, it leaves you with warm, fuzzy feelings, not nightmares.On the horror podcast Books in the Freezer, the hosts defined it as horror with all the spooky elements intact, but paired with guaranteed happy endings, lower stakes, humor, romance, or other elements that lighten the scariest moments.In horror storytelling, there's always a buildup of tension right before a big scare. And that can happen in cozy horror, but the tension might be lighter, the buildup briefer, and the scare less dramatic. The conflict often resolves more quickly or less brutally than in traditional...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - 2 days ago