Location, location, location. Choosing the right setting is one of the most important decisions we storytellers are faced with. Make the wrong selection and no matter how strong your plot and characters, your story will fall flat without a credible, engaging world underpinning them. This is especially true when it comes to horror where a good spine-tingling setting does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of building fear and tension.
Imagine The Shining by Stephen King without the Overlook Hotel—I can’t. It is so much a part of what I love about that book and movie that I wouldn’t want to. It’s such an iconic setting that imagery from the movie permeates other works of horror to this day. (I’m looking at you Evil Dead Rise and your bloody elevator scene.)
But how do we do what Uncle Stevie did? How do we create a spine-tingling setting that lives in the minds of our readers long after they turn the final page?
We start with these three killer tips to get our brains moving in the right direction:
Make Curiosity a Priority
Most readers who choose fiction want an escape from their everyday lives. A compelling setting helps them do that.
In most genres, this means choosing places people want to explore because they are exciting, interesting, or fun—anything from an exotic island to a cozy small town.
But horror is different. Bad things are going to happen, so the settings might be in locations like an abandoned asylum, an ancient, crumbling house, or a derelict spacecraft—places you are unlikely to see on any mainstream travel brochure.
The reader’s reason for wanting to explore them is different from why they read romance or contemporary fiction. It’s not aspirational longing or nostalgia, it is curiosity, especially around the idea of survival. How would they fare in the settings we choose? A pivotal question to ask when crafting your spine-tingling setting is what sorts of places incite survival curiosity?
It could be the ocean—being out in the water away from land with any number of creatures swimming in the depths just beneath you is a fear most of us have. Jaws used this to great success.
We read (or watch) to experience our fear safely. We get the adrenaline rush without the actual loss of our lives, and we see someone else who is a lot like us survive.
Underscore Theme
When choosing your setting, look for ways to use the physical elements of the space to unsettle your readers and hint at themes. If you can manage both, your setting will shine as brightly as the Overlook.
For instance, a common theme of horror might be the corruption of good. One way to show this with setting is to place your story somewhere that people largely regard as safe and innocent enough—a playground, a suburban home, or in a child’s bedroom—and slowly show the physical erosion of that setting alongside the erosion of the characters themselves.
A good example of a movie that does this well is Sinister. The plot centers around a creature who takes innocent children and turns them into killers who attack their families with common household items.
Scribbled childish drawings on walls become tainted and unsettling. Stacks of home movies depicting what appear to be fun family moments take horrific turns. All the normal items we take for granted in family life are laced with doom. Lawnmowers, cups of coffee, backyard pools all become corrupted and wrong which ups our unease to an uncomfortable level because we are familiar with all these things and have thought of them as good—but now we can never be sure they will remain that way. And it subtly prepares us for the gut-punch ending so that, surprising as it is, it feels not only plausible, but inevitable when the characters are corrupted in much the same way.
Buck the Expected
Don’t get me wrong: sometimes the best setting for a scary story is the obvious one—no matter how many creepy haunted houses have been explored in other novels, there is always room for another—as long as you figure out ways to make it fresh.
But a very effective alternative is to buck the usual formulaic locales and go for something out of the box.
Think Midsommar. A bright and unrelentingly sunny Swedish commune makes for a very unsettling and creepy locale for good reason. The sun keeps shining despite the horrors happening beneath it. Evil doesn’t hide in the shadows in this place. It happens out in the open for all to see. The cheery, unchanging, idyllic beauty of the landscape ups the unease because it underscores the idea that there is no place safe enough.
Evil can and will find you wherever you go.
Some of the scariest scenes in Jaws happen on a crowded beach at the peak of tourist season.
Books to Help You Create a Spine-Tingling Setting:
A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting by Mary Buckham
The Writer’s Guide to Vivid Scenes and Characters by S.A. Soule
Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland
Writing the Breakout Novel (book and workbook) by Donald Maass
Choosing the perfect spine-tingling setting for your story isn’t easy, but taking the time to really think through your choices will pay dividends in the end. No matter how well-developed your characters and plot are, a story won’t hook a reader without compelling locations. Make them a priority of your brainstorming process and watch your writing get stronger!
Amy Christine Parker is the critically acclaimed author of the thrillers Gated, Astray, Smash & Grab, and Flight 171.
You can find her on her website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
