: Re: When writing science fiction or horror, how to prevent the villain from becoming less scary as they are fleshed out? I'm trying to write a horror short story about a shape-shifter, but I have

@Angela458

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I have read It. I've watched Terminator 2. (Not familiar with The Thing.) I think I see the difference which makes one horror and the other sci fi.
Horror Is Inherently Arbitrary
The killer clown (ancient god-spider, whatever, etc...) in It is malevolent, delights in making victims miserable, and will go after anyone who is vulnerable and unfortunate enough to catch its attention. You could be next. For no good reason. And there's not really anything you can do about it.
The shapeshifting murder-robot from the future in Terminator 2 will incidentally kill bystanders for convenience, if they are in the way - but it will not go out of its way to harm anyone who is not directly connected with its mission. Sure, the ultimate outcome of its success will be the eventual extinction of humanity (or that's the plan). But it is neither fundamentally malevolent, nor unpredictable. Unless you're too slow to get out of the way, or unless you are personally the fated savior of mankind, there's no immediate threat to you.
Horror is very often supernatural, and this is not a coincidence. Part of horror is the unpredictable, the unknowable, which meshes well with supernatural themes. There is also the element of the irresistible - and if there was no fighting chance, no robot protector etc, then Terminator 2 would have been more of a horror film; desperately running, but merely delaying the inevitable, and not even being sure what face your doom will wear when it finally catches you. Incidentally, you talk about wanting to remove from your story the element of inevitability; not having to run forever, at least until the pursuing doom catches up. This just strips away another layer of the potential horror.
In general, if there is some sense to the source of the horror, if you can engage your reason and try to come to a solution or an understanding, if there is a way to understand or even overcome, then of course the horror dissipates. Now you've reduced your thing to a problem to be solved. When we know what is stalking us, out in the darkness, we can think, lay a trap, build a wall. Something. Horror is a feeling, not a thought at all. When our fear is tied up with the dark itself, something we cannot keep out, something we do not or cannot understand or reason about or anticipate and avoid... Only then it is truly horror.

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