As of recently, I have been going through all the Harry Potter films for the first time since they came out, due to my finishing of the books close to a year ago, and the movies being put back onto HBO Max temporarily. While reading and watching, I have decided that Harry Potter is a closet horror series. As a voracious consumer of horror in the form of both movies and books, I noticed quite a few similarities. Now is Harry Potter terrifying? No, but there are copious amounts of films and books that classify themselves as horror that are not scary at all, and there are moments of horror throughout the series, so it would not be farfetched to classify Harry Potter as a fantasy horror. There is so much material to cover between the books and the movies, but I will do my best to reach every corner to prove my point.
So, to start from the beginning chronologically, Harry's parents were murdered by Voldemort, he broke into their house and killed them both, but his main goal was to murder a child! He wanted to commit infanticide! The reenactments in the movie are not that terrifying, but if you were to be put into their shoes and had someone break into your house to kill your kid it would be the scariest moment in your life, and this is the event in which the whole story is based off.
Then in the first book alone, there are a few aspects to hit on for the case. To start with, there is the part where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy are in the forbidden forest for detention, and Harry finds a unicorn that has been killed due to the healing powers in its blood. The whole act was very vampiresque, not to mention that the hooded figure, Voldemort then tried to attack Harry. Next there is the whole monster aspect with the troll and the three headed dog, although the CGI at this point was not great, they are still monsters, which are based in the horror genre. Then they must do the potentially death causing tasks to get to the sorcerer's stone. This is like the Saw movies, where a person either does the task successfully or dies. Then for the final confrontation, Harry takes on a professor possessed by Voldemort, which is like devil possession in horror films. The professor had Voldemort’s face coming out of the back of his head, which definitely scared me as a kid, then when he is defeated, he disintegrates in a gross manner.
The Chamber of Secrets is by far the most horror-like of the whole franchise. There are the numerous mentions of Harry hearing a voice in his head, that turns out to be parseltongue, but this is like many scary stories where a person is hearing an ominous whispering voice in their head that no one else can. Then there are the students that are found petrified, and in one case they find Ms. Norris, the cat, hanging from the wall with a foreboding message that looks like it was written in blood beside her. Due to these various petrifyings, there is a sense of dread and suspense throughout as to who will be the next victim, and who is causing it. They also end up in the woods with giant spiders, which most people fear or at least loathe. Then when Harry finally arrives in the chamber, there is a giant snake, again something many people fear, and in the movie the whole chamber is creepy with its big statues, and it has a cult-like feeling. Then there is another possession of Jenny by Voldemort, so this whole story revolves around horror elements.
Next there is the Prisoner of Azkaban. This movie has a strong werewolf presence due to professor Lupin. Werewolves are incredibly popular and associated with the horror genre. The story also focuses on an alleged murderous escaped convict, so there is the whole terror of a serial killer being on the loose in the school. This is also the book/movie where dementors are introduced. These look like black ghosts, but they are even more terrifying than ghosts with their long boney fingers and their ability to suck happiness from a place. Not to mention that they can suck the soul out of a person. The movie does an alright job of portraying this, but when reading, the reader's mind could conjure up a scarier image. Finally, there is also the Bogart, which is the creature that hides in dark places and turns into the person's worst fear, and the students are forced to face it in practice in Defense Against the Dark Arts Class and facing one’s fears is another strong component in horror.
Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the books, and it is where the stakes of the story are raised. The book begins with the return of the Death Eaters at the world cup. The book does a better job of describing the horror of the Death Eaters parading through the campground and terrorizing those fleeing the scene. There is also the chase that ensues of Harry hiding in the woods trying not to be attacked. This is also the book and movie where Voldemort is revealed in his final form with his snake-like face with slits for nostrils. Honestly, he is scarier looking then many monsters in horror films. This takes place in a graveyard, right after murder is committed and right after they go through a dark and haunting maze. This movie also has sea monsters in the second task. While under the water, Harry not only has to find an abducted friend, but he has to fend off some sea monsters to reach the surface.
From the start of the Order of the Phoenix, it has a horror aspect to it. When Harry and Dudley are on the playground, then the weather turns dark, and a massive storm is brewing, but there is something more sinister there as well. The dementors are present. In the movie the dementors chase them into the tunnel, and they even do the shot of Harry and Dudley running in the classic horror way of having the camera shake, so the viewer feels like they are also running away from the monster. Switching the dementors' attack from the street to the tunnel for the movie did give it an added suspenseful feel. Then once at school, Harry has a horrific dream of being a snake and attacking Arthur Weasley in the room with all the prophecies. The whole ministry of magic gives off a dark feeling in the movies anyway due to the onyx black bricks that it is made of. It never really feels like a safe place. This includes the climax of the movie where the death eaters lure Harry in and attack. The whole running and hiding and chase through a maze seemed more suspenseful in the book because there were other aspects in the rooms that made it better. Dolores Umbridge makes her debut in this movie, and she is a terror in and of herself, but not actually scary. She deserves a mention nonetheless.
The Half Blood Prince has quite a few good examples as to how Harry Potter is a closeted horror story. One of the main goals of the last two books is to find and destroy all the horcruxes. The idea of horcruxes really gets introduced in this book, which is the separating of one's soul, so that one can attain some sense of immortality, even though the cost of this act results in the person becoming less human and a monstrosity like Voldemort. This story also gives the viewer more background on Tom Riddle. There was definitely a horror aspect to him, from the way he treated the kids and talked about hurting them when he had his meeting with Dumbledore, and how the orphanage told Dumbledore about Tom taking the kids into the cave, and the kids never being the same after. Having a demented kid is a quite common horror trope. Lastly when Harry and Dumbledore go to the cave to retrieve the Horcrux there were multiple tests, like sacrificing one's blood to enter. Then in the cave it was pitch black, and there were the creatures under the water who attack after Harry tries to help Dumbledore and get him water after Dumbledore drank the poisonous solution in the bowl. Oh, and I even forgot about the girl getting possessed by the necklace and Ron almost getting poisoned.
This brings us to the last book. One of the opening scenes has an old professor being suspended in the air over a meeting, and then when she gets dropped Nagini devours her. Voldemort serves as a cult leader in these films too. All his followers have the dark mark tattooed on their skin, and it is common in a cult to have some kind of marking signifying your allegiance. The death eaters are also all willing to do his bidding no matter how horrible it is, and once one joins, there is no quitting and surviving. In the movie when Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrate the ministry of magic they get chased out by the dementors in a terrifying chase scene. Then when Harry and Hermione go to Godrick's Hollow to look for a Horcrux, the movie has a jump scare with the snake, and when Hermione finds the dead body. When reading this chapter, the passage is draped in a sense of dread because the lady, who is secretly Nagini, is acting so weird. Hermione also gets tortured in this film and has mud blood etched into her arms. Since the death eaters took over the ministry of magic there was also, for a lack of a better term, a witch hunt. They were searching high and low for those with magical powers, but no magical parents. In the movie, the way they were producing the pamphlets to let people know about the undesirables, it was very reminiscent of dictators attempt at genocide, which is the scariest event that can occur in the real world. In the movie, when Ron destroys the locket, it attacks some of his biggest fears, and this is right after the locket tries to drown Harry.
Oddly enough while I was writing this, an article came up on my Google news feed about the best horror books to read right now, and at the end of the article, it had a list of horror sub genres, and there was one called dark fantasy. Clearly Harry Potter is a fantasy series. It is about witches and wizards and a whole magical world hiding in plain sight, but it does have a much darker side to it. The definition the website gave was a fantasy story with a dark feeling over it, and the two examples were The Shining and The Stand. Now Harry Potter is nowhere near the horror level of The Shining, but the whole series does have a dark tint to it. There are moments of levity in the story, but for the most part, it is an overarching battle of good versus evil draped in a lot of dread, which is what The Stand is. Harry is trying to take on the wizarding version of the devil, whose goal is to rule the world with an iron fist and obtain immortality, there is not much scarier than that. So if you love Harry Potter, but have been reluctant to try a horror book or movie out, if you pick the right one, they really are not that different, and it might surprise you how much you enjoy it.
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