Making strong characters in horror is effortless with my method🎻🧛

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I need to talk you through making emotive impact with characters and why it should be effortless! There seems to be tonnes of information out there, I mean tonnes about making relatable characters. There's a lot of 'make them fit the mold for each sub-genre'...In my opinion, this is trope-y and should only be done if fans are literally telling you to go there. But if they are not, if you have no fans yet for your story or if you just want a far easier method to actually make emotionally resonant characters in your story then let me spill the tea. 

Instead, we need to dive deep into the brain and understand how we connect with characters. Initially, we experience storytelling subconsciously. It subconscious mind is scanning stories for recognizable patterns, so the method I'm going to go through is literally that. Giving the audience recognizable traits in characters, blending mythological 'archetypes' with a little modernization. I'm sure you have heard of archetypes before, but let me explain what they are and why you should use them. 

Think of archetypes as the universal pattern that show up across myths, legends, and stories in every culture. In a horror story, they give narratives a kind of ancient, instinctive power that readers feel rather than intellectualize. It's been proven scientifically that humans are naturally wired to detect patterns and assign meaning to them, often subconsciously. This is a core function of how the brain works. And this is fundamental to my blog, in fact most of the mythic principles I talk about are backed up by brain science. We seem to crave belonging, to each other and to this world. It's a survival thing. We find meaning even when it’s not there and read fiction subconsciously more than we do 'logically'.

My take on things goes deeper then triggering the brain, so I'll go into that more deeply. For now, lets take a deeper dive into what archetypes actually are. Ideas explored by Carl Jung—a famous psychologist,  suggested that archetypes are like built-in story templates in the human psyche.

Instead of inventing everything from scratch, using archetypes feel familiar because they’ve existed in myths for thousands of years. It's like borrowing proven mechanics, and meaning that's been brewing for millenia and inserting them into your story. Big impact, little effort right?

Below are a few archetypes in horror, that you can include right away (there's more so just do an internet search):

The Seeker (or Doomed Hero)

A character who goes looking for truth… and regrets it.

• Relevant myth: Think of Orpheus going into the underworld

• Horror twist: their curiosity leads to madness, death, or transformation

• Try it: maybe your protagonist uncovers something they shouldn’t

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The Shadow (the Monster)

This is the embodiment of fear, chaos, or the unknown.

• Relevant myth: creatures like Medusa or Fenrir

• Horror twist: it often reflects something human (guilt, rage, taboo)

• Try it: making a monster that represents more than just danger

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The Forbidden Knowledge

Not a character, but a powerful archetypal idea.

• Relevant Myth: Prometheus stealing fire, or forbidden scrolls

• Horror twist: knowledge = corruption, not enlightenment

• Try it: feature cursed books, ancient rituals, or hidden truths

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The Threshold Guardian

Something that blocks entry into the unknown.

• Relevant Myth: the gates to the Hel (also think riddles, guardians)

• Horror twist: crossing the boundary means you can’t go back

• Try it: a literal threshold doorway, spooky forest, scary shaman

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The Innocent (or Sacrifice)

A pure or unaware character who suffers.

• Relevant Myth: Frodo Baggins, burdened by the ring 

• Horror twist: innocence makes the horror feel worse

• Try it: a child, outsider, or morally “good” character

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The Trickster

A chaotic force that distorts reality.

• Relevant Myth : Loki

• Horror twist: manipulates perception, truth, identity

• Try it: unreliable guides, shapeshifters, deceptive spirits

    

These fit directly into the Joseph Campbell's monomyth, go check out my blog post on that. 

Archetypes example inside this monomyth structure:

• Hero (Seeker) → the protagonist

• Mentor → guides them (wise figure) through trials

• Threshold Guardian → blocks entry to danger/special realm

• Shadow → the main threat or inner darkness

The monomyth provides order, meaning and transformation. However, horror works because it delves into chaos, ambiguity, meaninglessness. So there are a few ways to include archetypes into your horror, and ensure they retain the fear factor.

1. Easiest method is to subvert the archetypes.

Know that you have your archetypes (recognizable character trait), it's time to turn them on their head or just toy with them. This is really effective because, like I mentioned before that humans find meaning even when there isn't any. That means, by twisting the pattern or removing it...you invite your audience to build their own meaning. This drives the audience inward, and can lead to really disturbing/terrifying story ideas.

H.P Lovecraft's mythos used archetypes, but in a distorted way. 

• The Seeker → becomes the doomed investigator

• The Shadow → becomes incomprehensible

• The Journey → leads nowhere

In his stories, he corrupts archetypes instead of blindly following them. 

A Classic myth says:

• suffering leads to growth

• the hero returns wiser

But horror often says:

• suffering is random

• knowledge destroys you

• there is no “return”

Heres some more subversion examples:

• Characters gain knowledge Instead of growth 
• They go insane or die instead of bringing back reward
• The Insignificant Human (anti-hero)
• The Unknowable Entity (not a typical “shadow”)
• Forbidden knowledge (but without reward)

 There is a fine-line between devoid of archetypes, and twisting them. You want to be in the middle ground, include as many archetypes as you like and subvert as many as you like. But do not make the mistake of 'not including archetypes at all', because flipping them actually means the audience is expecting something. And this can lead to upset or no meaning at all, so subvert them intentionally and even brag about it in the story. The more aware the audience is that they should be recognizing something, that's your battle won. Using archetypes is nothing more then setting the trigger. 

The most effective horror often starts with familiar archetypes and slowly warps or destroys them, so you can basically throw all your research into your story immediately, and then slowly break their recognizable archetypes down the more you edit.

2.  Exploration rather than just subversion or structure

This method is slightly more effortless, depending on how your work or what your medium is. I got this idea from games, because in games the player is constantly experiencing multiple paths that the directors intended or didnt intend. 

This is where you can basically lay into mystery of 'getting to know a character', and as you explore their archetype so does the audience. Instead of, 'this is there archetype and I'm feeding it to you', you gently introduce concepts about their archetype and explore them.

This can be effective at taking the pressure off your story completely, as now there really is no mold for you to fill! In games like the Shadow of Mordor, the 'monster' of the game isn't just Sauron, but his army. There, it lets you explore both the structure of this army, as you explore it with your new dark elvish powers. The interactions are different everytime, and makes the player question their dark elvish powers (inner monster) at every turn. But they also get to explore a 'new' monster experience in every level, strategically removing each orc general that defies normal structure of 'good beats evil, the end'. 

Another game example is Bloodborne as you start like a classic hunter (hero archetype), but the deeper you go reality breaks down. Meaning becomes unclear, the “truth” is disturbing and incomplete and the game lets you explore it's dismantled archetypes. 

You can blend this method with method 1, both subverting and exploring but really you only need one or the other to be effective. 

In terms of their interactions, think deeply about their archetype and how they nuture or enable the main character to grow. I've seen plenty of stories too where their archetypes shift, which keeps things interesting but it also provides a recognisable pattern shift. 

Both methods align with how the brain handles uncertainty (pattern-seeking without resolution).

Trying to make non archetypes emotional takes loads of effort. You're battling against this pattern-recognition. So why bother, and why not use signals that help them engage in the main story.  

Give it a go, my advice is to think of just 3 characters that relate to your main story thread, and what are they in relation to your main character. 

Even including 1-3 archetypes is enough to make readers and audiences connect, and all you have to do is make them recognizable enough. 

BEING EMOTIVE IN HORROR  

For extra emotive impact, you can make a mind map/1 page document for each character and make a note of their struggles. Essentially you want to map out:

-their struggles in life
-their relation to main character
-their motives
-judge their archetype
-exploration/subversion of archetype
-growth

The 1-pager, lets you have a tangible document that helps you know your character more, with the relief that it will get through to the audience easily. 

You can also define their EMOTIONAL STATE in every scene, to help balance their interactions. Do this simply by just stating the EMOTION-REASON. And you can refer to your 1-pager for backing up why they'd be feeling that way.

This is great to make emotional scenes hit home, without feeling like you are trying too hard. Its really important that we feel emotionally invested in horror, so that all threats/enemies feel personal. 

If you don't care about your characters facing threats, then why should your audience. 

That's all for today, stay tuned for more insights.