What is the difference between gothic and horror?

Answer 1

Gothic is the combination of romance and Horror (common things found in gothic horror: haunted house, vampires, ghosts, castles, etc.) It's predominately supernatural whereas horror can be non-supernatural, too.

Answer 2

Well, horror is scary, like with killing and demons and stuff. Gothic is more like witchcraft.

ANSWER:

Gothic tales depend primarily on Atmosphere for their effect on the reader: such devices as creaky staircases, damp dungeons, and gloomy mansions are used, sometimes with elements of the Occult, to produce a sense of inescapable Gloom and Doom which threatens the Heroine with unmentioned terrors. There is never - or extremely seldom - any actual blood and gore to be found. The plot of such stories almost always involves the heroine meeting a Dark and Forbidding Lord, who winds up rescuing her from the Menace - or, whom She rescues. For their time, these novels were remarkable for the equality of the protagonists; the heroines are always strong, capable women. Jane Eyre is one example of the Genre, as is Northanger Abbey. These stories were Extremely popular during the late 18th Century and the Victorian Era, particularly with women, but have generally enjoyed great popularity since the invention of the Novel. Many elements of the Gothic Genre have been blended into the Romantic Novels of today.

Horror, on the other hand, is usually much less subtle in its efforts to raise the hair of the reader or viewer. Monsters, Vampires and the Undead, combined with buckets of blood and gore, are the usual tools employed. Sometimes, the Horror Genre brings out the "Monsters Under The Bed" of small towns, as in "The Lottery"; sometimes it gleefully rampages through a bevy of College students. Sometimes it can be Socially Valuable, as with Frankenstein, in which the Monster is actually the Victim of intolerance. In Some Horror the Monsters are just plain folks. Think of Misery.

In the Horror Genre the Terrors are Real. In Gothic they're Atmospheric.