"You wanna read something REALLY scary?"

Sure and why not? It's that time of the year, isn't it?

Favorite scary stories, books...throw in a movie or TV show, let's not be picky.

Scary stories:

"It's A Good Life" (Jerome Bixby)
"Little Girl Lost" (Richard Matheson)
"Miss Gentibelle" (Charles Beaumont)
"I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream" (Harlan Ellison)
"One For the Road" (Stephen King)

Scary books:

THE SHINING (Stephen King)
DAMNATION GAME (Clive Barker)
I AM LEGEND (Richard Matheson)
GHOST STORY (Peter Straub)
THE TENANT (Roland Topor)

...and there was an episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" (from the early 1970's) which, as a kid, terrified me nearly to the point of incontinence...likewise a terrible movie called "It! The Terror From Beyond Space" and the original "Invaders From Mars".

Scary music? How about Coil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZhpIDs_VQ4&feature=related

Or any book by Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or Ayn Rand There's some creepy stuff on the outer fringes of humanity.

> 2, I can't comment on Glenn Beck, but I completely agree with you about the other two!

I'd (maybe) forgive their politics if either of them could write well...

ETA Maybe now is also the time for reading Frankenstein - while I'd hardly call it scary, it seems appropriate given the number of Frankenstein references (which should really be references to Frankenstein's monster) that occur at this time of year.

Speaking of monsters, my wife and I just finished watching the Glee send up of Richard O'Brien's Rock'n'Roll musical. It featured cameos with Barry Bostwick and MeatLoaf. Really fun.

"The Exorcist"; how could I forget "The Exorcist"? A two-diaper movie if there ever was one...

P.S. Ah, Gene, that's a classic. One of the great entrances in film history.

The Beloved by JF Gonzalez is pretty scary stuff. A hellacious family psychodrama wrapped up in some crazy supernatural tomfoolery.

The Sticks by Andy Deane A fun short little werewolf novel.

Total Abuse by Peter Sotos. Horrifying in a completely different way than movie monsters and such. Child rapists, Nazis, killers, but written from their point of view. Guaranteed to sear your brain.

3> Frankenstein is one of my favorite books. It makes me go ♥ ♥ ♥ - though that's probably only because I had to read it and write essays on it no less than 4 times in the course of my undergraduate degree. Learned to love it!

I read The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein over the summer, and it was fairly enjoyable - a bit more of a psychologically frightening story than the original, as I started to realize how Ackroyd was painting Frankenstein to be.

 

If we're talking about classic horror, how about The Monk by Mathew Lewis or The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole? Again, maybe not modern creepy-scary, but they definitely have scary aspects...great ghost stories. The early Gothic novels had a lot going for them, with the dark, labyrinthine corridors and confined places and imagined (and some real!) horrors.

Most of the short stories in Pump Six and other stories are very creepy.

Daleks.

The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

I'm not a big horror reader, I tend to get scared too easily. Still haven't forgiven the cat for headbutting me when I was halfway through The Yellow Wallpaper in an empty house, at night.

I'll back the I am Legend recommendation. I'm reading it now and have all but one short story read. The short stories in the back are of inconsistent quality. Some are quite creepy, and some have been worn out by the genre by now. After all Matheson was a major horror screenplay writer and he influenced the people who are writing horror now.

Cammy: I AM LEGEND is a novel--are you reading some kind of Matheson anthology? Have to say Monsieur Matheson is one of my early influences. He took horror/suspense to a whole other level. Glad you're enjoying him.

Not an especially big horror fan, but I like Graham Joyce's 49220::Facts of Life. I also like a lot of John Shirley's short fiction, and some of Lucius Shepard's "dark fantasy" - 320849::Viator is especially good, a sort of creepy Ballardian tale.

Nice picks, monsieur. I hear good things about Graham Joyce (TOOTH FAIRY, wasn't that one of his) but have never tackled anything by the dude.

I read very little horror these days--the genre went in the toilet about ten years ago and it still hasn't emerged. Bad writing, splatter, zombies and vampires galore. Sickening revenge/rape fantasies, rampant misogyny. No thanks...

Anything by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child together. The best and most accomplished are the Pendergast series. These two are like a Stephen King who can write. Not to mention that one is in great danger of actually learning something when one reads these books. I would consider them adventure/horror. My favorite is The Cabinet of Curiosities. Many of their individual works fall into this same category.

Cliff> You've hit the worst of the genre. Some of it is worth reading. Not the stuff that's just out to shock though. The long dead authors like Henry James and LeFanu were the best. I am Legend is actually a novella that's a little over 100 pages, and many of the editions have a collection of short stories with it.

Ian> You obviously like what I like. Not many people know about Lucius Shepard. I think he's an excellent writer. As for Graham Joyce I'm trying to remember if FOL is the one I've read. Is it the one that talks about the bombing of Coventry? If it is, that one is semi-autobiographical. I don't know how much is "true" but he did have a grandmother that saw ghosts and sometimes made accurate predictions. He also clarified this bit of family history by mentioning that she was always in a room heated by coal, and coal fumes can make one hallucinate. He's an interesting, quirky writer.

Yes, Facts of Life is set in Coventry. I went to university there, although I didn't recognise much of the city from the book. I vaguely remember him telling me it was a little autobiographical too.

Lucius Shepard is excellent, but these days he's only published by small presses like Subterranean and PS. Still, at least that means you can buy handsome signed hardback editions of his books.

Ian> Interesting that you went to university there. I loved hearing him talk about his grandmother. Quite funny, & I'll say that was on of the best grim reaper scenes I've read.

Yes, Shepard is hard to find but we have a little science fiction bookstore in town that gets everything he ever publishes. Yeah independents!

Cammy: every once in awhile, I'll have another look at the genre but the new stuff is really dreadful--the Bram Stoker Award nominations each year show a dearth of originality, literate writing and innovation. About as interesting as the contents of a chamber pot. I'll stick with Matheson, Beaumont, some of the other works I've cited.

Cammy, here's the Shepard books I own.

No H.P. Lovecraft? Pickman's Model, the Music of Eric Zahn, the Shunned House? Read that stuff at night and you won't sleep for a month.

I'm just not a Lovecraft fan. Chronic over-writer, no music to his prose; clunky as a broken down Chevy.

But I know lots of smart folks (including S.T. Joshi) who admire him, so...what can I say?

I haven't read it since, but I remember Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" giving me a chill when I read it in High School.

Cliff> Sigh. You're probably right about the new horror. I wish you weren't.

As for Lovecraft, I don't get it. It seems like half the people I know adore him, so I read a bit from anthologies that did not clean up his prose. Very painful. I can't read him. One of my friends hypothesizes that most people love him because of the movies, not the original works. Maybe, but I don't think so. Perhaps there are collections that have managed to edit his writing into something that is actually good? As for a prose stylist, he rates maybe 2 stars.

Ian> Wow! I'm jealous! Oddly though, I think the two I have are the only two you don't have. I have Eternity and other stories and The Jaguar Hunter. I think they were published by Nightshade.

I do have The Jaguar Hunter, a slipcased signed edition. But no, I don't have Eternity and Other Stories - although I really ought to check whether its contents appear in other collections.

From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/27/kate-mosse-top-10-ghost-stories

Nothing more recent than 1982? That's rather depressing.

Finally finished reading Frankenstein last night. I've tried to read it every year for the past.... 15 years or so. It did get better.

Funny you should say that about Lovecraft's writing. I apply the same over-writing complaint to Stephen King. King has a lot of good ideas, but he feels he has to put them ALL into whatever book he is writing at the moment, whether they are related or not.

Anyway, I'm not an Orson Scott Card fan, but he did write my favorite short horror story: Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory.

Emma's Daughter, by Alan Rodgers, was also pretty horrifying.

"Nightcrawlers" by Robert McCammon. I was never a big fan of his but I recall that story was pretty good.

Never was a big fan of the mannered Victorian ghost story either, M.R, James et all. Dull as dishwater.

As far as I can remember, the only book that ever really scared me (I avoided reading it in bed at night) was It by Stephen King. I loved it at the time (not being scared, I hate that, but the book). I wonder how I would like it now...

You'd think: "Christ, when is this book ever gonna end?".

I suspect you'd have the same reaction to UNDER THE DOME. Either book should only be used as part of the foundation of an outhouse.

Cliff - I'm doing it again! I'm half way through IT. ( although, actually that's not strictly true - I'm part way through IT.) Now you've told me it's no good.
So far it's better than The Dome.
To get back to 'snobs' I agree about 'The Pit and the Pendulum.' The image never quite left me.
Just a thought - these books that we read as youngsters - would they appeal now, or is there a time of life when certain books chime with how we feel?
oldstick.

31: I had the same feeling when I read the revised, updated, and unabridged version of The Stand And then I get to the end ... and it's some contrived deus ex machina suckitude. What a lazy-ass cop-out! And this is supposed to be King's magnum opus? Then again, most Americans mistake page count for profundity, hence the popularity of the dung-monument Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand writing romance, now that's scary!

Jeez, oldstick, I gotta learn to shaddup and keep my head down (especially when it comes to King). I believe the man was a genuinely inspired writer in the early part of his career but at a certain point (right around when he cleaned up his life, got off drugs), his prose became leaden, his editorial skills completely abandoned him. And, like J.K. Rowling, he became so popular that no one had the nerve to tell him he was padding his material like a teenager's brassiere. Good editing is RUTHLESS, something King forgot a long time ago...

Cliff - I second your comments on King, and would also say his worst writing is better than Lovecraft unedited.

Yep. As far as I can discern, ol H.P. was completely tone deaf.

@CliffBurns.....Tone deaf. Lol. That's exactly what strikes me when I try to read his work.

I second the comments about SK as well. He's so overrated.

...but he can make $80,000 in 3 days...

Sigh...

Cliff - don't shut up. I look for your posts.
I must go away . I feel an idea for a story brewing!
oldstick.

32: I suppose how your tastes evolves is personal. I know that what I expect from a book has changed a lot over the years. There are some books that I liked years ago and I couldn't read now, because of the writing. On the other hand, some stories touch me more now, because I have enough experience to feel a connexion, when I was young I had no idea what they were about.

I think it's possible to get hooked on really, really great writing and anything else just seems like a waste of time. So many well written books, so little time.

That's exactly it--once you start reading the good books, the trash seems like a waste of time. Insulting to intelligent, discerning tastes. The genetics for males in my family are pretty piss poor. I'll never have time to read all the good books I should and, therefore, refuse to pollute my brain with populist garbage, churned out with factory-like efficiency, indistinguishable as widgets.

Ditto, movies and music. Why waste 2 1/2 hours of my life watching mindless shit like "Avatar", when I could be discovering the brilliance of artisans like Clouzot, Bresson, Renoir, Murnau, Lang, etc. etc.

Well, as a co-corker told me yesterday, "it's nice to just disconnect your brain once in a while" :-)

THAT attitude is entirely too prevalent in the Western world. How many people have brains to disconnect in the first place? We should be connecting with our world, our environment MORE, rather than flat-lining our alpha waves with lousy commercial fare. Grow and nurture a brain, instead of working so hard to put it to sleep...

I work in a school. I see disconnected brains all the time. Cliff, you're why we need pedants. ;)

"pedant", according to not-so-trusty Wikipedia:

"Being referred to as a pedant, or pedantic, is generally considered insulting,4 However some people take pride in being a pedant, especially with regard to the use of the English language.

Pedantry can also be an indication of certain developmental disorders. In particular those with Asperger's Syndrome, often have behaviour characterized by pedantic speech.5"

In other words, Cammy: I'll get ya for that...

"mindless shit like "Avatar"" is a mis-characterization.

Robert

Avatar was hardly complex. They could have called it Dances With Blue Aliens, and about covered the territory.

Yeah, and if the choreographer had been listed as Martha Graham or George Balanchine, perhaps with music by Aaron Copland, it would have been precious to snobs. But it was an immense cinematic experience, and everybody feels that, well, they can be superior to Hollywood. Nonsense!

Robert

Robert, eye candy has a place in some folks' aesthetic; not in mine. I look for different things in movies, perhaps, than a lot of other viewers do. "Titanic" was hugely popular and I hated it with every fiber of my being. Dopey, special fx laden movies, video game mentalities and comic book adaptations have rendered contemporary cinema a wasteland. Can you quote one great piece of dialogue from "Avatar", one truly innovative plot device? It looked GREAT, I'm sure. But did it really affect you to the depths of your soul?

Cliff, I was thinking of you today as my wife and I watched something called "The Trail of the Screaming Forehead". The production values were Eraserhead in color. The script was sometimes incomprehensible but in a good way, a way that made you think about what they were saying, to listen closely for the joke. It was a truly strange movie about foreheads from outer space and was a terrific send-up of the whole horror movie genre.

If you get a chance to see it, and I'm sure you will, I can't recommend it highly enough, for the chutzpa if nothing else.

"Trail of the Screaming Forehead"???--jeez, Gene, it sells itself! Sounds like something along the lines of "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra", which was a hoot, especially if one had imbibed a little something ahead of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe9Fs10IIk0

I'll put it on my list.

50: It was a silly and formulaic screenplay dressed up with some very spiffy animation. If it had been a good screenplay dressed up with spiffy animation, it would have been a great movie whether regardless of who made it. But it wasn't.

LOL! I'll duck. & mea culpa. Snobs, pedants. I was thinking I was in the Pedants Corner.

Small Horror Presses Fill Niche Gaps Left by Big Publishers

And from the people quoted in the above article comes a list of 12 spine-tingling short stories

I'm not a big horror reader either so my scary books are pretty tame by most standards. I thought Shadow of the Wind was a great literary ghost story though and right now I'm reading There once lived a woman who tried to kill her neighbor's baby: scary fairy tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and really liking it. It's along the lines of Kelly Link's stuff but darker. She was nominated for a Shirley Jackson award in 2009 for the collection.

Some things are better not mentioned and I suspect this might be one of them but I couldn't resist that comment (#52) that began "Cliff, I was thinking of you today as my wife" - it turned out to be much less exciting, not to mention weird, than I initially thought but it perked up my day, nonetheless.

After reading another thread I now have a mental image of Cliff as a wild woman waving a gun! Must go, my Xmas puddings are boiling dry.
oldstick.

So it's "pummel Cliff day" today, is it? And I'm slightly hung over from an evening of drinking decent (for a change) scotch instead of the usual plonk I imbibe. I'm taking down names, just so you know...

Ah Cliff, but this all started with a veiled threat to me. ;) I'm thinking something about things returning three-fold. Mwahahaha!
Oldstick> A wild woman waving a gun just before she turns into a cur of a werewolf.
>Cliff, you're just too fun to pick on.

Let me break it down: Avatar was really long and really, really stupid. It was subtle and profound in the same way as dreck like Atlas Shrugged -- a message so frickin' obvious and so outdated ("The environment is good, mmmkay.") that it would be laughable it wasn't so damn insulting to its audience. (And I read Warhammer 40K novels for God's sake, hardly the gold standard of sci fi!) But the special effects were cool and the alien design was interesting. I've seen "Robot Jox" and "Space Truckers," both high on the camp factor, and both could kick Avatar's ass any day of the week.

Cliff - There's a great one that starts with Mac.....On my wish list for Christmas.
Aah! I was just going to tell you my new idea and realised I was in the wrong group.
Never mind - I'll go and tell the folks where I belong.
oldstick.