Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot.
Psychological horror is different from the type of horror found in "splatter films," which derive their effects from gore and violence, and from the sub-genre of horror-of-personality, in which the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until well into the work, or even at the very end.
Psychological horror tends to be subtle compared to traditional horror and typically contains less physical harm, as it works mainly on the factors of mentally affecting the audience rather than the display of graphic imagery seen in the slasher and splatter sub-genres. It typically plays on archetypal shadow characteristics embodied by the threat. It creates discomfort in the viewer by exposing common or universal psychological vulnerabilities and fears, most notably the shadowy parts of the human psyche which most people repress or deny.
The menace in horror comes from within. It exposes the evil that hides behind normality, while splatter fiction focuses on bizarre, alien evil to which the average viewer cannot easily relate. Carl Jung has argued that attraction to the uneasiness caused by the Other is an attempt to integrate the "otherness" of the shadow while others believe horror serves only to repress it. One could ultimately argue that psychological horror isn't in fact of the horror genre, with it having a greater resemblance to the thriller genre. However, in psychological horror the essential element is to frighten the audience mentally, whereas this is not the case in thrillers. There is also a sub-genre known as the psychological thriller, which can be similar to this, but relies on leaving a different impact on the viewer than that of psychological horror.
Another aspect of psychological horror is its use of body horror. The purpose is to develop a feeling of unease by exploiting human fears of the abnormal, human experimentation, disease, suffering, among others.
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