Short answers, pulled from the story.
Horror fiction is a genre of speculative fiction intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. It is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. In 1984, literary historian J. A. Cuddon defined the horror story as a piece of prose fiction that shocks or frightens the reader or induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing.
Horror fiction has ancient origins in folklore and religious traditions focused on death, the afterlife, evil, the demonic, and the thing embodied in a person. The Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans produced some of Europe's earliest horror fiction, including Euripides' plays on Hippolytus and a ghost tale told by Pliny the Younger about Athenodorus Cananites and a haunted house in Athens.
Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764, is described as the seminal Gothic horror novel. Its first edition was disguised as a genuine medieval Italian romance discovered by a fictitious translator, and it proved immediately popular despite critics calling it anachronistic or in poor taste.
Foundational 19th-century horror works include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818, John Polidori's "The Vampyre" in 1819, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886, and Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897. Each created an enduring horror icon later re-imagined on the page, stage, and screen.
People seek out horror for the controlled thrill and rush of adrenaline, similar to riding a roller coaster, as Elizabeth Barrette argues in her essay "Elements of Aversion." One study found that people who like horror films are more likely to score highly for openness to experience, a personality trait linked to intellect and imagination.
Stephen King is one of the best-known late-20th century horror writers, author of Carrie, The Shining, It, Misery, and several dozen other novels and about 200 short stories. Beginning in the 1970s his work drew a large audience, and the U.S. National Book Foundation honored him in 2003.
The Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of Bram Stoker. Other honors include the Australian Shadows Awards, the International Horror Guild Award presented from 1995 to 2008, and the Shirley Jackson Awards for psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.