Dark fantasy is a fantasy sub-genre – essentially, a mixture of horror and fantasy. Some of the earliest writers in this genre included Gertrude Barrows Bennett, A. Merritt and HP Lovecraft. It wasn’t until the 1970s, however, that Charles L. Grant came up with the name for this particular genre.
Dark fantasy is sometimes known as gothic fantasy or horror fantasy. Often this genre mixes other sub-genres, such as fairy tales, into the stories. However, it is rare for dark fantasy to be mixed with a high fantasy genre. The setting of these tales is often historical or urban, in which case they are known as ‘urban dark fantasy‘.
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