The scariest of monsters in the horror genre are not the ones we physically see. They are not the ones we can form terrifying image through a vivid book's description, or see through the lens of our eyes on a TV screen. Like with the most notorious of monsters, the fear ebbs away the more we see the creature in question. Having a true mental image of the monster defeats much of the fear connected to them, even when they are covered foot to toe in bloodshed. Being around the known of the world makes monsters just another threat for the protagonist to inevitably fight and predictability defeat at the climax. The known turns monsters into shells of themselves, less scary than the hoards of spiders that inevitability take residence in our houses on cold winter nights.

It is when a monster cannot be seen or imagined that they become truly scary. This fear of the unknown is a phobia that is a universal testament of the human race. Fear of the unknown was engrained into us from our evolutionary history of surviving the most vicious of night stalking creatures roaming the old world of hunter-gatherers. If a threat was unknown, these ancient humans would retreat deeper into the safety of their caves in order to instinctually avoid a confrontation with these vicious creatures. This is the reason why a monster cloaked completely in the unknown darkness is much scarier to a reader or viewer of the horror medium.

The Twilight Zone TV show, an important testament to the suspense and horror genre's evolution, used the fear of the unknown to successfully scare its viewers week after week. After all, a threat that could not be seen by the audience made for a much more interesting, tense experience. The biggest monsters in The Twilight Zone were far from the typical zombie or bloodthirsty vampire. Most of the time, they were invisible internal threats, such as the naturally violent nature of mankind or irrational fears brought on by the overly imaginative brains of the characters. These invisible threats made for nailing biting entertainment that to this day stand as a testament of creating truly scary, suspenseful narratives in the horror genre.

Yet, many inspiring authors have seemed to forget the knowledge formed by ground changing narratives such as The Twilight Zone. Instead, they hope and pray the power of a descriptively horrific figure will be enough to make their creepy monsters in the narrative scary enough for audiences to buy into. In film, this is made even worse through its usually most compelling feature; true concrete visuals. When the audience can see the monster in question, the fear and suspense you could have gotten out of the monster is completely deflated. This is the biggest sin of lower budget horror films, especially those featuring zombies or werewolves. When the audience can suddenly see the monsters, the view of the more obvious make-up or tacky costume designs become extremely apparent. Thus, the film's suspense is reduced to almost nothing and the narrative ends up forgotten by the audience after a couple of days. Letting the audience see or imagine a concrete image of the monster right away takes away the suspense felt by having no knowledge of the creature in question. Being completely blind to the true horror of the creature much like the cast of the narrative makes for the most spine-tingling stories.

Utilizing the fear of the unknown in the horror genre is a great path to creating truly scary, suspenseful fiction. By casting your monstrous creation in shadow for a huge majority of the narrative, saving its reveal until the last few chapters of the story, more audiences will buy into the great levels of suspense you are trying to portray. More people will leave the story feeling a truly emotional impact, inviting more readers to venture into the dark narrative you have woven. Big bads with a cloak of mysteriousness makes for the best villains that people most remember and create compelling reads for the audience to sink their teeth into.

This mysteriousness of the creature in question can also translate into their very nature as a character. Even if the creature can be seen, having little insight of their true personalities or backgrounds can be just as terrifying as not being seen at all. By not having much information on the monster in question, these creatures become much more scary due to complete unpredictability. Audiences do not know yet the pattern of their actions and why they do such horrible things. These creatures are depicted through this as demonically evil threats with their sole goal being to just cause mayhem. Keeping the information on the character limited until the very end makes any simple monster in horror into something uniquely scary that no two people will see with the same light. Again, fear of the unknown is playing into make the monster much more scary.

The level of invisibility of the monster, not the level of descriptive visuals, makes for the scariest of antagonists in a narrative. It is better for a monster to be cloaked in darkness or mysteriousness than be seen or known about by the audience from minute one. They make for monsters the audience will truly be terrified about.