The art of horror is often defined in relation to a series of negative emotions, such as the fear or tension of the audience. It is presented by various media and a form of art about the psychological emotions of horror. This type of art mainly includes horror music, movies, video, text novels and so on. The main initiator of the emotion of horror is the affected audience, and when  this reaction occurs, it is mainly manifested in specific reactions such as fear, anxiety, and even nausea, etc. The physiological signs are mainly the increase of heart rate and the increase of adrenal hormone secretion. But horror is not just a single emotion, but a combination of emotions caused by external stimuli. It is an emotional experience with obvious changes in physical signs. The art of horror was officially recognized as an art type in the 1930s, when horror began to appear in various  films, literary criticism and the discourse of people’s ordinary life.  With the popularity of the  horror film in the later period, it promotes the development and deepening of horror art through a variety of media such as novels, music, television programs, etc., which makes the art of horror become the focus  of daily  life   and even culture.

Horror art, which should not be confined to vampires only, also incorporates elements such as zombies and werewolves. As a matter of fact, these are three main elements of American horror art. The vampire is a being from folklore that subsists by feeding on the life essence, generally in the form of blood of the living. Vampire is the most typical representative of horror art. Vampire  literary

is a special form in American culture, which sets the stage for the popularity of vampire. Influenced by romanticism, vampires are always elegant and mysterious at this time. The original image of the vampire is from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Unknown by public, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, successfully shapes a beautiful but seductive female vampire, Countess Carmilla. Though they are portrayed  as a monster,  vampire  element   actually  becomes  popular.

Zombies are from voodoo in Haiti, which is a primitive religion that originated in Africa. According to their beliefs, the dead can be resurrected, and those who have resurrected cannot be  manipulated by their own consciousness and manipulated by people who hold resurrection rituals. Such dead people are called zombie. Modern western explorers discovered this bizarre phenomenon after visiting Haiti. They recorded the living dead in the form of words and images and sent it back to Europe  and America.  This  is the  original   origin  of the  concept of modern  zombies.

The werewolf is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shape shift into a wolf, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction. The earliest history was in Egypt. The image of Egyptian god Anubis was the wolf head. According to Western legends, one of Cain’s sons used human flesh to pick up the god when he was feasting on the god, and was  cursed  into a werewolf. So the werewolves and the vampires are in the same genre, but they restrict each other. Another legend is that in the Middle Ages, in Europe, a plague broke out in  the  mainland, and people died. A young man named Corvinus in the village saw this  tragic  situation.  In order to survive and get rid of the plague, he learned about the origin of life. He survived alone. There are three descendants of Corvinus, unfortunately one of the three was bitten by a virus- infected bat, the other was bitten by a virus- infected wolf, and only one is a complete human form.  When he survived, his two brothers mutated due to the virus, one became the ancestor of the vampire, and the other became the ancestor of the werewolf. Since then, the werewolves and vampires have spread in Europe. The true origin of the legend of the werewolf is still difficult to pursue. The arguments are different   and there  is  no universally  recognized   origin.