Hallowe'en Weird

With the season of exoteric spookiness impending, I though it might be helpful to gather informed suggestions about weird horror with a particular connection to the holiday. For the non-connoisseur, any old scary story might be enough to fit the bill, but those of us who read supernatural horror year-round might enjoy a more targeted selection.

In recent years, I've read a couple of stories that spring to mind in this connection. "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World" by Thomas Ligotti (from Grimscribe) is short enough that it could be read aloud, if you want to inspire disquiet in your whole household. David Mitchell's Slade House is a "haunting house" tale that takes place at the end of October in various years across many decades.

I like this idea. My household doesn't focus too much on the Hallowe'en season, and I don't push back on that too much given the Super Bowl-style marketing extravaganzas so prevalent in the past years. We used to watch the Peanuts special, and I'm pleased the kids are more apt to request The Nightmare Before Christmas now.

But that's a far cry from Weird. Curious what other suggestions will surface here!

For family stuff, not especially weird, Bradbury's The Halloween Tree is a classic. My Other Reader has a soft spot for the 1970s animated TV version.

American-style Halloween has been making big inroads in Swedish culture during the last decade or two, but, not having kids, it's passed me largely by.

I'm not much for American-style Halloween as such. (The holiday I promote for my co-religionists is the Feast of the Dragon.) But All Saints' Eve and Samhain have a long-standing cachet of supernatural associations having nothing to do with candy and costume parties.

>3 paradoxosalpha:

The animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree is new to me, I shall see if the public library has a copy.

I'll be reading The Halloween Tree to my 7-year-old daughter for the first time in a couple of weeks.

If you can find it, the November , 1981 issue of Twilight Zone Magazine has a nasty little trick-or-treat tale by Melissa Mia Hall called "Wishing Will Make It So".

>5 paradoxosalpha: But All Saints' Eve and Samhain have a long-standing cachet of supernatural associations having nothing to do with candy and costume parties.

What they lack, from a Swedish PoV, is either tradition or commercial interests behind them. The Swedish version of All Saint's Day (Allhelgona or Alla Helgons Dag) has, at least in modern times, been neither a great popular festival nor particularly associated with the supernatural. In popular consciousness it's now being completely eclipsed by Halloween, at least outside ecclesiastical circles.

>6 elenchus:

Er, I just looked it up on imdb, and was surprised to find that, contrary to my surmise from the (low) quality of the animation, The Halloween Tree is from 1993:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/139041

Public Library doesn't carry it, so I've checked out the book in hopes of reading to my kids. But if the animated adaptation is that recent, perhaps I'll find it online or on Hulu. I've never read the book myself, though, so I think I'll start there.

ETA clarity

>3 paradoxosalpha: I picked up a hardcover of The Halloween Tree from Abe Books a few years back. I love re-reading that book around this time of year.

>10 elenchus:

I think you might even find it on YouTube.

Robert Aickman's 'Ringing the Changes' is a good Hallowe'en read. It takes place in October, and though Hallowe'en isn't specifically mentioned it's is strongly implied, I think. It's in the collection Dark Entries. And then there's Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October - a spoof, I know, but a good one.

>13 Zambaco:
I'm kicking myself for not remembering the Aickman story.

Although, I haven't been able to come up with anything at all (I had a vague notion that setting a story might be too on the nose, and authors had tended to go for Beltane instead - but the only specific instances I could think of were a couple of novels - The Devil Rides Out and the novelisation Doctor Who and the Daemons).

So, I've cheated. I first found the Vault of Evil site some years ago and from time to time I snoop (there's no other word for it, really) on their message board for information about 40-year old British paperback anthologies, and suchlike arcana. And there I found suggested contents for hypothetical, not-yet existent anthologies, including a couple on the subject of Halloween, which in turn link to a couple of real anthologies on the same subject.

I haven't read most of the stories listed, from either the real or not-yet-real volumes, but I have read the following (and so don't feel quite so guilty about listing them here - I'm not, after all, passing them off as the fruit of my own labours):

Robert Bloch "The Cloak"
H. P. Lovecraft "The Very Old Folk"
Ray Bradbury "The October Game" (and that's another one I'm kicking myself for not remembering - although as it's non-supernatural, maybe it ought to be out of scope, anyway.)

By the way, I'm sure Slade House is set in my home town of Reading, Berkshire.

"The Perfectionist" by Margaret St. Clair comes to mind as weird and scary. I also would say "The Cocoon" by John B.L. Goodwin. Published in 1946, it's the story of what we'd recognize now as a little serial killer in the making. These are probably well-known to everyone here, but they were new to me.

>13 Zambaco:

I picked up Zelazny's A Night in Lonesome October and while not done yet, I am loving it. Never heard of this title before, I'm missing probably half the alllusions and pop culture references, but it's great even so.

>12 paradoxosalpha:
Nabbed the Bradbury from the library at the same time as Zelazny, I may read that next or may check out the animated show on YouTube. It is indeed available there.

>13 Zambaco:, >16 elenchus:

I just put in an interlibrary loan request on the strength of the recommendations. I like Zelazny anyhow.

I'm currently reading Lonesome October one day at a time, on the appropriate date. This could become a tradition.

I read it all at once this first time, but am considering reading it once a day next year. I'm on the lookout for a good used copy, and spent a bit of time yesterday online reading reviews and such. I also need to reconsider Zelazny, I know I read at least the first Amber novel, but wasn't motivated to read further. I suspect I simply wasn't a sophisticated enough reader at the time to appreciate his style and subtlety.

>18 Zambaco: I'm doing the same this year. Do you find it difficult to stop reading at the end of each short chapter? I know I want to keep going - even though I have read the book before.

>19 elenchus: Another Zelazny I never hesitate to recommend is the novella, 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai. If you can find it, the illustrated version adds some nice enhancement. I have the paperback of Frost and Fire and it does not contain the illustrated version. I think you can find it online with some searching but I don't know if that would be a legal copy or not.

>20 ScoLgo:

Am I right in thinking "Mt Fuji" was published in Asimov's magazine?* I thought I read it then, as a teen, and found it indifferent. I wonder if I knew of Lovecraft at the time, I recently saw online it somehow alluded to HPL's fiction. In any case, I seriously wonder what my reaction would be now.

* Wikipedia confirms it was indeed in Asimov's. Can't tell if that version included illustrations, though as I recall Asimov's often did.

There was a Deep Ones read of "24 Views of Mt. Fuji" a while back:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/188107

>15 mstrust:

I don't know either one. I was hoping to find them online so as to nominate them for the Winter Deep Ones vote. No luck yet.

>22 gwendetenebre:

Thanks for that, I'd forgotten. But I repeat myself here almost verbatim for my post, there. Consistent in my senility!

>23 gwendetenebre: I can give you this link to "The Perfectionist": http://www.sphstigers.org/ourpages/users/jasher/SSBootCampWebsite/Perfectionist....

I haven't gone to look for "The Cocoon" yet, but I'll try later.

This discussion has prompted me to got a copy of A Night in the Lonesome October. Read up to the middle of October 7, and enjoying it so far.

The Kindle version has been popping up as an ad in my Facebook newsfeed for the past two Octobers - did anyone else get this?

>25 mstrust:
Thanks for that link, I've downloaded it to guard against the possibility of not being available later.

>26 housefulofpaper:
Maybe if I did fb I'd have read it before now, as it is I'm confident it will turn out to be one highlight of my reading year.

I too am a |f|-resister, so no.

Digressively OT: "Our minds can be hijacked"

I've come to love Emily Temple's lists on LitHub. Here's one for October, with entries from Ligotti, et al.

>28 paradoxosalpha:

I think of it (the Digression) as akin to fast food. For years it was ignored or ridiculed, because Forest and on the other hand, Trees. Yes, the specific criticisms are likely to be found inaccurate or imprecise, there will be problems with the data if not the premise, but in the end my gut tells me, it's not a good thing. It's really not so hard to believe.

The Tristan Harris TED talks were also worthwhile.

>29 elenchus:

"I actually have no idea what this looks like because I can only look at it through squinted eyes." LOL.

>25 mstrust:

Thanks! Will nominate for winter discussion.

>27 elenchus: >32 gwendetenebre: Glad to introduce a "new" one!

In homage to that seasonal treat, the curse.

For your inspection a Literary Curse from WS Burroughs to Truman Capote, via interdepartmental correspondence.