Three Reasons Why Ghost Stories Are Seen As “More Respectable” Than Other Horror Novels

Well, I thought that I’d talk about an interesting anomaly within the horror genre today. Although horror fiction has sometimes been overlooked by professional and/or mainstream critics until relatively recently, there is one type of horror fiction that has consistently had a bit more prestige and mainstream “respectability” than every other type. I am, of course, talking about ghost stories.

I ended up thinking about this topic after I started reading Susan Hill’s 1983 horror novel “The Woman In Black”. Not only is the second-hand 1990s UK reprint of this novel that I’m reading published by none other than Vintage, but the previous owner had also highlighted parts of it in a way that suggests that it was actually a set text for an academic course.

In fact, the only reason that I even thought to read this novel was because of an admiring article about a “notorious” 1980s television adaptation of it on the website of a mainstream liberal newspaper. The reprinted novel itself also contains favourable review quotes from four major UK newspapers (both broadsheet and tabloid) on the front and back covers too.

Needless to say, all of this mainstream adulation, press coverage and academic respectability is unfortunately not typical for most types of 1980s horror fiction! So, I thought that I’d look at some of the many reasons why ghost stories are seen as more “respectable” than other types of horror fiction.

1) Writing style: Although most horror fiction – especially older horror fiction – is more well-written than it is usually given credit for, one reason why ghost stories tend to be popular with professional critics is because they almost always use a more formal and complex writing style.

There are two main reasons for this – the first is that ghost stories are a genre of horror that relies a lot more heavily on atmosphere and characterisation in order to unsettle the reader, and the second is that ghost stories will often have a historical theme (eg: old houses, old objects etc..). All of this tends to favour a slightly more formal, antiquated and/or “timeless” writing style than you would typically find in the horror genre.

As such, the gap between ghost stories and “prestigious” literary fiction is often a lot smaller than it is with other types of horror fiction. Yes, there are certainly exceptions to this rule – such as Joe Hill’s genuinely terrifying 2007 novel “Heart-Shaped Box” (which, if I remember rightly, uses a more modern writing style) – but ghost stories are usually associated with a more “traditional” writing style.

This “traditional” writing style also means that ghost stories have a longer, more consistent and easily-followed history than many other genres of horror fiction (except maybe the vampire genre) do. Needless to say, this heavy emphasis on tradition helps to make them more popular amongst professional critics and academics too.

2) Thematic complexity: Although the horror genre as a whole contains more thematic complexity than it is sometimes given credit for, one reason why ghost stories get a lot of extra prestige is because they tend to focus slightly more on their underlying themes than other types of horror fiction usually do.

For example, Charles Dickens’ beloved 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” is as much – or more- of a stylised morality tale about generosity and friendliness as it is a tale of a miserable old man being haunted by three ghosts. Shirley Jackson’s chilling 1959 novel “The Haunting Of Hill House” is a novel about psychology, loneliness, the value of stories and the crushing drabness of ordinary life.

James Herbert’s overlooked 1988 horror masterpiece “Haunted” is a novel about traumatic memories, guilt and childhood. Sarah Lotz’s 2015 novel “Day Four” is as much a brilliantly cynical piece of social satire as it is a chilling horror story.

Even non-horror novels – like Alice Hoffman’s magical realist novels – will sometimes use ghosts in order to explore a variety of themes too. In Hoffman’s case, these themes are usually unhealed trauma, undying love and/or tragic sorrow – and these ghosts are often either an important part of the main story or a significant background detail.

In addition to this, ghost stories also inevitably explore the theme of death too. Whilst death is a common theme in pretty much every horror story, the fact that ghosts are often actual characters with well-explored backstories means that this type of horror fiction can study the theme of death in a slightly more complex and nuanced way than many other types of horror fiction can.

The fact that thematic complexity is a “built in” part of ghost stories – rather than an optional extra – means that it appeals more to professional critics and academics, because there is a lot more stuff for them to study and write about.

3) Bloodless horror: Another reason why ghost stories are popular amongst “respectable” critics, academics and mainstream audiences is because – unlike most genres of horror – they often tend to be a bit more bloodless and/or non-violent. Yes, modern horror novels as a whole are a little bit more sanitised than horror novels were during their splatterpunk heyday in the 1980s, but ghost stories are often one of the least gory types of horror fiction out there.

Not only does this mean that they appeal more to people who don’t typically read horror fiction, but the lack of gore, gruesome monsters or extreme violence also means that these novels have to be a bit more creative in how they scare the reader. This isn’t to say that gory horror fiction is a “crude” or “unsophisticated” type of horror fiction (seriously, the gory descriptions in 1980s novels by authors like Shaun Hutson and Clive Barker are beautifully-crafted works of art) but, if you’ve read quite a bit of it, then it is difficult to really be shocked by it.

On the other hand, ghost stories have to rely on less predictable and less obvious methods to frighten the reader. Whether it is a chilling atmosphere, subtle unsettling details, mysterious noises, a tragic backstory etc… ghost stories are not only a genre that is more palatable to novice horror readers but they are also a genre that can still surprise and scare more experienced horror fans too.

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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂