This report will be chopped up into various segments: different productions that are arguably forms of 'horror theatre'; the challenges inherent to horror theatre; the problems with promoting horror theatre; what horror theatre can do that other horror media can't/how to utilise the 'theatre' aspect to aid the 'horror'.

Shows that fall under potential definitions of 'horror theatre':

- Penn & Teller (for the gore in some tricks)
- Pomona
- X
- Philip Ridley's work
- The White Devil/Jacobean Drama
- Secret Theatre's Glitterland
- Cleansed
- Society of Strange
- Dandy Darkly's work
- Grand Guignol
- Lovecraft, M.R. James, Poe adaptations
- Horror (LIFT Festival)
- Carrie
- Punk Rock
- Gloria

The challenges inherent to horror theatre:

- There's a very delicate balance - arguably more delicate than in other performance - between what should be told, seen, and not seen
- There's a heightened need for apt and pre-empted audience care
- Ensuring that there is a strong emotional story as a foundation to the show and it is not solely tricks/jump scares/gore/etc
- Sometimes we need to see so much less to create fear that elements like audio need to be foregrounded/we have to think carefully about how people receive information, so it's not too much or too little
- You still need to care about the characters, believe them, and believe their responses to what happens in the story (and therefore have to resist skipping to 'action' too soon and skimping on developing the characters and our connection to them)
- Identifying the subtext/underlying fear your show or story is tackling

The problems with promoting horror theatre:

- Very little theatre is promoted as 'horror theatre' - the expectations around it are specific and often get in the way
- Philip Ridley's work isn't sold as 'horror' - it might be sold as surprising, violent, upsetting, confrontational, etc, but not 'horror'
- This is potentially a wider issue of how theatre isn't split into genres in the same way as, for instance, film is - we don't talk about 'rom-com' theatre, 'thriller' theatre, etc
- People often associate 'horror' theatre with some experiential aspect or immersive aspect, for various reasons
- 'Horror' in theatre and film often differs - you're not as likely to get the adrenaline rush that films often give you in a theatre show, or at least in some of the theatre shows that are arguably in the horror genre
- How much do people want horror right now? Or which types of horror do they want? Is the world in such a place that we want outlandish horror in created universes because anything else is too close to our lived experience?

What can theatre add to creating horror:

- Taking the pre-existing anxieties around seeing theatre and playing on them
- Working complicity into the horror (similar to how horrifying Milgram's experiments are)
- Dealing with social horror in a direct way, since there's a group of people all present
- Playing with the notion of being in a space, devoid of CCTV, cut off from the world, with people you don't know
- Theatre is particularly good with telling big ideas in small ways/big concepts via small stories which works well here