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"Psychological horror" is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot. Psychological horror is different from the type of horror found in "splatter films," which derive their effects from gore and violence, and from the sub-genre of horror-of-personality, in which the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until the end of the work. Well-known examples of psychological fiction include The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project. The Others is a more recent example of a psychological horror film.
Psychological horror tends to be subtle compared to traditional horror; typically it plays on archetypal shadow characteristics embodied by the Other. In other words, it creates discomfort in the viewer by exposing common or universal psychological vulnerabilities and fears, most notably the shadowy parts of the self most people repress or deny.
Psychological horror comes from within--it exposes the evil that hides behind normalcy, while splatter fiction focuses on bizarre, alien evil to which the average viewer can't easily relate. Though Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho shocked many people with its blatant gore, much of what made the main character so frightening was how normal he seemed on the outside. Likewise, Hannibal of Silence of the Lambs fame captured moviegoers' fascination because he could disguise his often-blatant evil behind the veneer of gentility.
Carl Jung has argued that our attraction to the uneasiness caused by the Other is an attempt to integrate the "otherness" of the shadow while others believe horror serves only to repress it.
Occasionally - such as in the film Blair Witch Project - the antagonist is never revealed. With no explicitly defined threat presented on screen, the "fear of the unknown" theme becomes central and can be explored fully.
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