Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Horror icon (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. -- Patar knight - chat/contributions 19:34, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Horror icon
AfDs for this article:


 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Despite the common use of this term, there is no clear definition of what it means and the article showcases this. It's a mish-mash of poor unsourced overview of Horror fiction that's a lesser History of horror films and comes off as WP:FANCRUFT to make sure things ranging from Dracula, to Freddy Kruger to Zombies to Stephen King get a highlight. On researching the History of horror films article, I find no real use for this. Andrzejbanas (talk) 15:58, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 16:11, 23 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete Appears to be entirely WP:SYNTH. History of horror films already covers this information. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 06:44, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete - The actual prose text of the article is almost entirely unsourced, and as mentioned, is just a much worse version of the History of horror films article. The remainder of the article is just a list of random topics that, at best, someone at one point used the words "horror" and "icon" to describe, and at worst has no citation at all and is just an entry that someone decided belongs here. There is actually no information in the article that actually has any sourced discussion on what the actual topic of a "horror icon" actually means, and the whole thing is just rife with WP:OR and WP:SYNTH issues. As it is a commonly used term, I would not be opposed to it being used as a Redirect to assist with searches, if anyone has any good suggestions for a target. Rorshacma (talk) 15:35, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Comment There was a proposed merge of this article to...some other article. I closed the discussion about three weeks ago with no consensus to merge, for the same sorts of reasons that we're talking about here. There are suggestions for some potential redirect targets, though. Joyous! Noise! 17:22, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is heavily OR. It beings with "Examples of early horror icons began with the Werewolf or Lycanthrope introduced in the 1500s", but the cited source doesn't seem to mention the term horror icon. It is someone's ORish essay on "what works I think are important in horror", with a WP:IPC mix of "the following works have been called horror icons in random context". This is not even WP:NOTTVTROPES stuff, it's pure OR. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  12:14, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Popular culture and Lists. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  12:14, 27 March 2023 (UTC) Ps. It begun as an unreferenced essay . I am mildly surprised that User:ReaderofthePack tried to rescue it at some point; I'll ping her in case she would like to save this - but I don't think there is much to do here, this is what I see as a classic WP:TNT case. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  12:16, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Keep As the last AFD showed, various directors are called "horror icon"s. News articles refer to various characters in horror films as "horror icons". https://collider.com/horror-icons-from-the-80s-who-still-terrify-us-today/ People are referred to as horror icons as well, such as https://ew.com/movies/2018/10/26/suspiria-jessica-harper/ Horror icon Jessica Harper, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/christopher-lee-obituary Christopher Lee, Horror Icon, Has Died at Age 93, https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/horror-icon-wes-craven-dies-at-76-1/ Horror Icon, Wes Craven Dies at 76.  Just look at anything on the list, search for it and "horror icon" and references can be found.   D r e a m Focus  12:47, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Cultural icon is perfectly fine to explain much of that. I'd argue that even pop icon could be merged into the former article because in those different contexts, icon means pretty much the same thing. "This person was a music cultural icon". "This person was a horror cultural icon".  ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 13:34, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah, even in the context of "George Romero is a horror icon" or what not, how does a list of similar fictional characters, people and tropes help any reader? Especially when it doesn't have any context of the how and why they fit this mold with is extremely subjective. Andrzejbanas (talk) 03:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * To add to this: this article mixes different senses of "horror icon" to the point of equivocation. A real-life person involved in the creation of horror fiction like Stephen King, a character like Count Dracula, and an archetype like the werewolf are horror icons in completely different senses. What's the actual topic here? There isn't one. We wouldn't think List of real people, fictional characters, and archetypes that have been referred to as "horror icons" would be an appropriate list, now would we? That's what we have here. TompaDompa (talk) 15:08, 28 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete Just because someone uses the term "icon" with the genre of horror does not mean this is an encyclopedically significant topic. I can find countless obituaries calling people a "comedy icon", a "music icon", "action icon", "western icon" etc. etc. etc., and it's absurd to think we need a list of anyone that a particular generic phrase has been used to describe. This article is also rather odd to combine both characters that have made multiple media appearances and actors and directors in this space. I could certainly imagine a merge of a list of significant characters and filmmakers to History of horror films or related pages though. Reywas92Talk 13:41, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete This is not a cohesive topic, it's just a collocation. Not every descriptive phrase can be used as a basis to construct a proper encyclopaedic article. "Great singer" has likewise been applied to various people, but we obviously wouldn't use that to write a great singer article, now would we? TompaDompa (talk) 14:43, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete this is WP:OR and WP:SYNTH. This is the kind of thing that should be covered in the reception of the individual concepts, assuming that there's enough sources to support it. Wikipedia should not be creating a collage of random reliable sources to falsely raise those to the status of a reliable and neutral article. Even "list of horror concepts hailed by at least one reliable source as iconic" would be an original synthesis. That renaming is accurate, and brings the fundamental problem to the surface. Shooterwalker (talk) 02:00, 29 March 2023 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.