The Glossary Perplexum

Welcome to the Glossary.


This is the place to be if you encounter terminology you aren't familiar with or just need to brush up on your perplexum lexicon. 

Terms are organized alphabetically. If you can't find what you're looking for or have an entry suggestion, email me with the subject line Glossary Suggestion. I'll get around to it as soon as I can. 

A

  • Alternate Reality Game (ARG): An interactive, online narrative where players and participants engage directly with the story using the real world as a medium. (Ex. Hiimmarymary)
  • Analog Horror: Horror which uses the tropes and limitations of analog media to create scares and atmosphere. (Ex. Gemini Home Entertainment)

C
  • Cognitohazard: A stimuli (typically audiovisual) which causes harm to those who view it often in a supernatural or anomalous way. (Ex. The Ring)
  • Cosmic Horror: A form of horror that emphasizes fear of the unknown, unknowable, and generally metaphysical. Highlights feelings of existential dread and human insignificance in the wider frame of the cosmos. 
  • CreepyPastas: An online horror piece which has been copied and posted across the internet. A variant of the term copypasta which refers to non-horror counterparts.
  • Cryptids: Cryptids are creatures that many believe exist, but are yet undocumented in a scientific setting. (Ex: Bigfoot)

D
  • Digital Horror: Horror which uses the tropes and limitations of digital media to create scares and atmosphere. (Ex. Petscop)
L
  • Lovecraftian Horror: A kind of horror akin to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft which emphasizes fear of the cosmic unknown typically in the form of unknowable monsters that make humanity seem like ants in comparison (Ex. Call of Cthulhu) See also: "Cosmic Horror" 
M
  • Macabre: The sense of something being frightening or uncomfortable due to their association with death or the gruesome details of the natural world.
U
  • Unfiction: Stories (typically in the horror genre) which present themselves as occurring in the real world. These stories often include multimedia elements and can be interactive in nature (in which case they would also be considered ARGs). (Ex. Unedited Footage of a Bear)

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