Horror stories are not always about horrifying monsters. In contrast to common assumptions that monsters normally are the source of horror, this paper stresses how human feelings and actions are enough to create horror. This essay aims to illustrate some of the methods Edgar Allan Poe uses in order to create horror. The methods the essay investigates are guilt and the feeling of being buried alive. In addition, the essay examines how Poe succeeds in making those methods create horror. Based on the methods Poe uses in order to create horror, the essay focuses on the three short stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat”, horror derives from the characters’ guilt and lack of guilt. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a source of horror is a character who suffers from claustrophobia and fears the dark. Poe’s methods to achieve horror are successful. Guilt and the feeling of being locked up create horror. But, other factors such as the environment, actions, thoughts and the structure of the story are of great importance in order to make those methods work.