Have you ever noticed that there is confusion between horror and horror when you go to buy a book, download a movie, or watch a movie? Did you know that there is a difference between them? And what are these differences between horror and terror?
I'm going to use four movie trailers that you know of to discuss this distinction between horror and terror. The movies are The Blair Witch (1999 version), Chain of Evil, Summoning of Evil, and Anabelle. Well, to begin with, this confusion between horror and terror begins with the fact that the boundaries between these two categories of the fantastic often get mixed up. This confusion is not new today; back in the 19th century, an English writer, one of the leading writers of the Gothic, was already trying to distinguish between horror and terror. For example, she said that terror expands our soul, while horror contracts our soul freezes our soul. That is, it's not a very clear definition, I even prefer a Stephen King version, of this distinction between the two - a great master of American horror - he said that "I will try to terrify the reader, but if I realize I won't succeed, I will try to horrify him, and then if I can't horrify him, I will appeal to explicit horror. So you see in King's definition. Actually, it's not even a definition, but an attempt to show the importance of each category; you see that horror requires a little bit more play on the part of the writer or the filmmaker. Terror needs more elaboration to affect the reader and the viewer, whereas horror is more basic because it has a direct response in the physical person. We will talk a bit about this distinction in a moment.
Terror originates from the Latin word "terrere", which means to cause fear, and we can see this in both The Blair Witch and The Chain of Evil because they appeal to the psychological. This is the keyword to understand terror; terror is psychological. It works inside our mind, in our expectation that something will happen, and we get that tension. So, it scares us causes us fear, apprehension, and anxiety about what will happen. On the other hand, horror also has its origin in the Latin word "horrere", which means to make your hair stand on end, to shake, to shiver, as in "The Evil Summoning". And that's exactly it, because who sees a scene like that, those little clapping hands of the devil, and doesn't their hair stand on end? (Evil Summoning video).
This is a very used resource nowadays that is "based on true history," which makes you even more apprehensive.
You can see, for example, when I say that the boundaries between the two end up blurring sometimes, is that generally, in movies, this is very common. As you can see there (in the video), the mother is apprehensive because she hears some sounds and doesn't know exactly what they are, and she comes across a door that leads to a dark place. And let's remember, the dark is where we put our fears, where we project our anguishes and anxieties. So, at that moment, we are seeing terror: "what is going on? And, as it happens in movies, terror generates the beginning of horror, preparing for horror. And horror is what you will see there: the appearance, the encounter with the creature. Horror is physical; the keyword to understand horror is this, so it makes our hair stand on end, makes us tremble, shake, causes an effect on our body: the encounter with the monster. This is very common in these exorcism movies; you have that encounter with the devil. You see scenes of repulsion, bodies gliding, and so on.
The last one we see, Anabelle, which is a whole horror theme, is about possessed objects. Evil Summoning and Anabelle are horror films because they focus well on this presence of the monstrous. It generates an initial pressure, which appeals to the psychological part, but the real strength is to provoke the horror, this contact with the supernatural.
Another category of the fantastic is Thriller. Thriller operates on more or less the same basis as horror, but Thriller does not use supernatural elements. Suspense is terror without the supernatural, such as the shark.
Video link: TERROR X HORROR: What's the difference? - YouTube
Medieval Legends: LILITH - Adam's FIRST wife
Who is this Lilith, Adam's first wife, anyway? If when I learned this, I said that the first couple of humanity was Adam and Eve. What draws attention to the Lilith issue is her presence until today in pop culture, in the fantastic culture, be it in literature, movies, comics, or even in video games. For example, we observe the presence of Lilith in the Supernatural series; she first appears as a child. Still, even the producers changed the character to avoid children in scenes of violence, and Lilith started appearing in her adult form. She also appears in the True Blood series, where she already appears in the recurring figure of the vampire goddess. Usually, Lilith appears in this form as the queen of vampires. Another appearance of Lilith in the pop universe many people may remember from childhood is Lilithmon, in the Digimon series. And, who hasn't played with Lilith in a Capcom game?
After all, why so much controversy surrounding this character? This polemic is rooted at the beginning of everything, in the book of Genesis, when we have chapter 2, verse 23:
"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man."
That is the moment when Eve was created. But why did Adam say "bone of my bones"? Why, then, did he have an earlier one? Maybe the translation you have in your house could be like this: "This one is bone of my bones [...]". This passage of Eve's creation always gives an idea that there was something; there was someone before Eve. Another route casts doubt on the presence of Lilith as Adam's first wife, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 34, verse 14:
"And the beasts of the wilderness shall meet with hyenas, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow, and Lilith shall rest there, and find a place of rest for himself."
Maybe in the translation, you have, instead of Lilith, it might say "nocturnal animals" or "nocturnal animal," or even "owl" or "demon." This is because there has been a change, it also depends on translations and how the text is presented. Let's remember here that the Medieval Catholic Church instituted the Bible that we had today at the Council of Trent in the 16th century. And then, when the so-called Vulgate Bible was released, it no longer had the name Lilith in the biblical text; it was already being translated as "owl," as "nocturnal animals," and so on. In other words, since the institution of the Bible, let's call it the "official Bible," at the Council of Trent, Lilith's name had already been omitted, but she was still part of Jewish folklore since the Middle Ages.
And what is the relationship of Jewish folklore with this character? This relationship begins back in antiquity, in the first civilizations of humanity, Sumeria and Babylon. Lilith is called "the nocturnal one", the nocturnal creature, a winged female demon. We have the presence of this goddess; because of her owl's feet, there was this association with Lilith. And this connection between this goddess, this supernatural creature from Sumeria and ancient Mesopotamia, was also connected to the Hebrew universe, in the 6th and 7th century B.C., when the Hebrews were exiled to Babylon and remained there as captives of this civilization. And it was there that this contact of the Hebrews with Lilith took place.
When it came to the Middle Ages, we had the presence of Lilith in the texts, mainly in the Ben-sirá Alphabet. This is where we have the basis of Lilith as Adam's first wife, which we know today, it is a text from the 9th and 10th centuries. And there we learn that the child prodigy Ben Sira - it is worth pointing out that this Alphabet of Ben Sira is a text of anonymous authorship and there is narrated the story of the child prodigy Ben Sira - who gives to the king of Babylon an amulet with the name of three angels, Shenoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof. And this amulet had the power to protect the king's newborn son from Lilith, the night demon, Adam's first wife. And when asked about this story, Ben Sirá tells the story of how Adam was created from the primordial clay, as we know it, and Lilith was also created. That is, both Adam and Lilith were the first couple, created from the primordial clay, that is, equal positions. And by having equal positions Lilith did not accept to be submissive to Adam in the first sexual relationship. Adam wanted to be on top, Lilith also wanted to be on top, and the first r.d. in the history of mankind occurred. Lilith, seeing that Adam would not give in, would not accept her as his equal, uttered God's secret name and flew away and exiled herself to the Red Sea. Then Adam was left without a wife and went crying to God, and he sent the three angels (Shenoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof) to try to convince Lilith to return to Adam. She did not accept, and the angels cursed her, saying that all her offspring would die every day and eternity. Lilith, in turn, took revenge and said that she would kill all of Adam's children; in this case, it is us. Remember that Lilith's anger increased even more when God created Eve. This time, in order not to have fatigue, Eve was already born in an inferior position to Adam, being taken from his part, from his rib.
Still, according to artists, Lilith has been there tormenting Adam and Eve over the centuries since then. Sometimes she is even the serpent who gives Eve the apple, which leads to the couple's fall. But this is already artistic freedom since there are mentions in the Bible that a demon was the serpent in Eden, who gave Eve the apple, that whole story that we know.
The fact is that since then, Lilith has been associated as the one who attacks men. She attacks the sons of Adam, especially at night, the young men. For example, in the Middle Ages, it was prevalent for the nocturnal orgasms, called "night pollutions", that men had, to be associated with Lilith, that she went there and seduced him, in the form of the succubus (flying female demon).
The same amulet mentioned in Jewish folklore is also placed next to the children, the newborns so that they would not die at the hands of Lilith. This association, this strong sexual element of Lilith as the one who attacks men at night, also promoted this association with another creature from Greek mythology, Lamia. She also presents a seductive form, leading young men to death, tears the flesh from their bones, and monstrously reveals itself. Both Lilith and Lamia created this image of the first vampires, the first destroyers of the vital essence of humanity.
When the Hebrews were imprisoned in Babylon, they came into contact with Lilith. Why did Lilith disappear? Because the Hebrews would not let this moment, this whole period they spent in Babylon, go unnoticed. For political motivation, according to scholars, they decided to remove Lilith from the original text of Genesis, which served both the Jewish Genesis and the Christian Genesis. That is, originally, according to the legend, Lilith would be in the original Genesis narrative, but as the Jews came in contact with her through their captors, they eliminated her from the original narrative and only left these brief "gaps", which even today end up fostering this legend of her as Adam's first wife.
It is a character that has fascinated artists throughout humanity, as shown in Richard Westall's painting Faust and Lilith, which references a scene from Goethe's Faust. After having made a diabolical pact, Faust has the chance to dance with Lilith, who appears as a seductive witch. She also appears, as a witch, in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's work.
