Yeah, they tear him apart after what we see here – and one of them is his mother. Pentheus being torn apart by maenads in a Roman fresco in Pompeii (public domain)

(6) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

Remember my introduction’s reference to modern horror fiction prompting to mind Greek dramatic tragedy and its catharsis – its intense feelings of fear and pity?

Well, here we are, as classical mythology was the usual subject of that Greek dramatic tragedy and catharsis. Or for that matter, the usual structure of Greek dramatic tragedy of hubris followed by nemesis, with the latter usually personified as the goddess Nemesis or similar figures such as the Furies.

And as I said, it wouldn’t take too much to tweak most Greek tragedies into horror films.

The Bacchae by Euripides demonstrates the horror inherent in classical mythology. The tragedy is based on the myth of Pentheus, king of Thebes, who is opposed to the new god Dionysus and his cult. It’s easy to see it as modern horror fiction, from the folk horror of The Wicker Man to cosmic horror – Dionysus as Yog Sothoth, perhaps?

A conflation of folk and cosmic horror pretty much sums up the horror of classical mythology, particularly the latter with brutal divine punishments or cruel divine wrath. There are also monstrous creatures and the body horror of metamorphoses, often combined – and both tend to be instruments of divine punishment or wrath. Even when your adversaries or antagonists are human rather than supernatural in classical mythology, it often resembles slasher horror.

As for the Bible and Biblical mythology, modern horror fiction tends not to adapt classical mythology directly – few or no minotaurs, sphinxes, chimeras, or hydras for example – but instead draws on its themes, tropes, and above all its templates of dramatic tragedy.