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To write horror fiction you must write believably. There must be a logical reason for the monster and a reason for him to be doing what he is doing for the story to be believable. Frankenstien, a classic horror novel, had a monster created by science, not a monster that apeared out of nowhere. The scarier X-files episodes also have excellent reasons for the evil being to be there, and the reasons are believable, which is many times more frightening to the audience.

Put the victims in the novel in a believably scary scenario as well. Not on the side of a twisted mountain halfway around the world, but rather on any corner on any street in America. The reader has to believe that they too could be a victim for the ultimate fright factor.
People will believe anything that they want to be true. This is a fact of life, so use it in your writing. Leave some things up to the imagination. once you have them believe the monster is real, let thier minds run with it. Reel the reader back in from the horror of thier own imagination only to add another victim or nasty trait to the monster they have grown to hate, then let them run away again.
Horror writing without believability belongs in the Sunday funny page above Garfield and below Charlie Brown.

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