Must Read Horrors...

[spooknov]

Did you read a book that kept you up for a week?
Did you close your closet door before closing your eyes?
Share the spooky experience. Please list the title, author, and a breif synopsis of your favorite horror stories.

The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice

Synopsis (from Amazon.com)
Rowan Mayfair is a neurosurgeon with an extraordinary power to heal. Sailing off California she rescues Michael Curry, whose brush with death leaves him with strange sensory powers. The two form a passionate alliance, as they set out to discover the key to his gift and her past.

[Nameless65]

The Necroscope series, by Brian Lumley, is, without a doubt, the most fascinating vampire series I’ve ever read. Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot scared the crap out of me as a kid but Lumley took vampirism in a direction that I’d never seen before and the main character, Harry Keogh, was so utterly likeable that I devoured each book in the series.

Synopsis (from back cover of book):
Dead men tell no tales. Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.

In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.

His only opponent: Harry Koegh, champion of the dead and the living.

To protect Harry, the dead will do anything--even rise from their graves!

[MacAl Stone]

The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson--not the movie (never saw the movie, you think I'm TOTALLY nuts?) Man oh man I've never BEEN so freaked out.

That whole "I swear to God it's a true story, it happened just like this" thing? I'm a total sucker for it. I still sit wide-eyed around camp fires listening to ghost-stories and jump and shriek when someone yells "Boo."

One Amazon review says:First of all... this is the only book that I have ever read that has literally scared me. It has great descriptions of all of the horrible events that happened in that house, and even away from the house (in the case of the preist.) I honestly had trouble sleeping while I was reading this book and was scared to turn off my lights again for awhile. I think some of the scariness of this book has to do with the fact that it IS a true story. This is a great story and great, fast read. And it is SCARY AS HELL! Much better than the movie! If you like to be scared, get this book!

Interestingly enough there's a whole disagreement among even the fans of the book as to whether or not any or all of it really happened; which, of course, only heightens the tension and mystique of the whole story.

[arrowqueen]

I still like 'The Shining' best.

[MacAl Stone]

AQ--I loved "The Shining" (well, all except for the animated hedge-animals...that just didn't really work for me)

And "Pet Semetary" was pretty darn spooky, too...

[arrowqueen]

Yep. He's my hero. (I wouldn't mind a page out of his bank-book either!)

[HConn]

MacAl, I thought they had come out and admitted that they made up the story of Amityville over a couple bottles of wine one night.

[MacAl Stone]

H--they may well have, but there are a number of fans and "researchers" who hotly dispute the whole bottle-of-wine story...

www.warrens.net/amityvill.htm (http://http://www.warrens.net/amityvill.htm)

www.amityvillehorrortruth.com/ (http://www.amityvillehorrortruth.com/)

www.prairieghosts.com/amityville.html (http://www.prairieghosts.com/amityville.html)

Whether you believe it or not (and I'm honestly inclined towards "not" --being a cynical old hag) The thing resonates. Dunno why or how, but it does. The book came out in what, 1979? Heh. If I can write a story people argue about 25 years later, I'll be a happy camper.

[HConn]

MacA, all I can say is "argh."

I should mention that I find Lumley unreadable. He may be a great storyteller, but I'll never be able to enjoy him.

I'll recommend:

The Haunting of Hill House (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140071083/qid=1093062049/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/103-9758065-8514266?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Best of H.P. Lovecraft (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345350804/qid=1093062161/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-9758065-8514266)

Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812512960/qid=1093062243/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9758065-8514266?v=glance&s=books)

and of course, Dracula (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451523377/qid=1093062412/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-9758065-8514266)

[nolabohemian]

Anything by H.P. Lovecraft is the best!

I also LOVE Clive Barker, although some of his stuff goes a little beyond just being horror, but The Great and Secret Show is awesome.

Oh, and Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Freaky story about a little girl and a creepy, alternate world.

[LiamJackson]

Ghost Story by Peter Straub
The Dunwich Horror by Lovecraft
Black House by King and Straub (although this piece is probably nearer to "weird fiction."

It by King
Hideaway by Dean Koontz

[MrAngelwithnowings]

I think the scariest horrors are the ones based on true stories...

I remember watching a documentary of a medical examiner on cable...

One was about a serial killer who mudered prostitutes and poked their eyes out. They caught the killer but he claimed his innocence. Yet in his cell you can see numerous pictures he drew of just...eyes.

Another was of a psychiatrist who fell in love with one of his patients. She died, but he brought her body back to his home. He had made a ceramic mask for her decayed face as well as put a tube in her for...necrophilia. Her sister found out and the authorities broke in and found her body. She was later buried in a secret place so he couldnt find her. I forgot what happened to him after but it had to do with his memory of her still....

now THIS scares me....

To think there are actual people out there. So the next time you go outside, look very close at every single person that you pass by.

And remember these famous words:

Darkness falls across the land
The midnite hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y’awl’s neighbourhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse’s shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzy ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the...thriller

Ok someone start moonwalking

:gone

[Lori Basiewicz]

I think the scariest story I ever read was Poe's Tell Tale Heart. I remember laying awake and staring at the ceiling thinking of that one when I was just a kid.

[MrAngelwithnowings]

Reading "legend of sleepy hollow" as a kid...

Reading "IRS noticel saying i owed a few grand" as an adult



:rofl

[LiamJackson]

Reading "IRS noticel saying i owed a few grand" as an adult

That's not a horror story. That's a reoccuring nightmare. :ack

[Writing Again]

I think the scaryest story I ever read was "The Little Engine that Could."

[sugarmuffin]

I was thinking Chicken Little.

The sky is falling?

Shiver me timbers.

Yikes.

:gone

[Dhewco]

DarkFall by Koontz. My favorite of his.

[MacAl Stone]

I think my DK favorite is still Lightning -- but I'm liking the Christopher Snow books a lot, too.

[sugarmuffin]

My fave Koontz is Watchers. Read it twice. Liked Lightning too, though.

[spooknov]

My fave DK book has and always will be Phantoms. It was the first book of his I ever read.

Also, Intensity. A young woman trapped with a serial killer. Oooh, scary! (The entire time I read that story, I kept thinking "What would I do in this situation?")

[sugarmuffin]

Never read those, Spook. Will have to add them to my reading list.--L.

[aka eraser]

I don't read horror anymore but devoured plenty years ago. None scared the willickers out of me more than The Exorcist. Probably because of my early grounding in Catholicism.

The book made such an impact on me that I refused to see the movie until many years after it came out. I waited until it came out on commercial tv reasoning that the commercials would give me periodic "sanity-saving" timeouts. It still gave me some jolts though.

[Cary]

Oh yeah, Exorcist !! Scared me then....scares me still.Several movies from that time period, 'The Omen','The Shining'.... something about possession in general, :ack gets me good !!!!
Carybelle

[NickolausPacione]

<Font face="Copperplate Gothic Bold" size="9">Twelve Days of Terror</font>, if you read JAWS then you would love this book because this is a true story of some shark attacks that happened in New Jersey. They play into the short story I am currently working on. Then pick up Bone Chills by Terry Lloyd Vinson.

[LiamJackson]

Agreed. I liked Vinson's book very much.

[NickolausPacione]

Liam -- keep an eye on <A href=http://www.ebooksondisk.com>EbooksonDisk.com</a> if you like Bone Chills because there is anthology coming out featuring both Vinson and myself. The book is called Reality Check. I get a good amount of Vinson's work for free. I got Mr. Hate, Bone Chills and Passport to Hell signed. He's read a good amount of my work and gave me the lead to the contest and owe a lot to Terry for getting print published. I read Bloodlines as well by him, my favorite stories out of that book are Served With A Little Grey and Tundra. My story appearing with him on the anthology is one called Bite of the Spider. Some of the stories I've written can scare the hell out of him.

[emeraldcite]

surprised nobody mentioned clive barker. hell-bound heart was excellent. some good shorts in the books of blood.

[NickolausPacione]

<div align=justify>This anthology was one I just got done putting together featuring Vinson's and my anthology mates Hasan Abood and Nicholas S. Mounts. If you want your horror and Science Fiction with a bit of a tabloid theme check out this little monster of a horror anthology -- Tabloid Purposes (http://www.lulu.com/content/80578). I edited this machine, it will be one to have if you already own Reality Check.

[scullars]

Anything by Gary Braunbeck. His website is <a href="http://www.garybraunbeck.com" target="_new">www.garybraunbeck.com</a>.

[NickolausPacione]

<div align=justify>Liam, check out his new story in Reality Check titled (Damned On) The Farm and MakeoverKill. Both stories are downright funny but have a frightening kicker at the end of them. My story on there is titled Bite of the Spider. Note to the morons trying to say this story is available for free -- the only way they can read this one is to buy the actual book it is in.

[drgnlvrljh]

None scared the willickers out of me more than The Exorcist. Probably because of my early grounding in Catholicism.

I'm not Catholic, but that was the first horror novel I ever read, and it scared me silly, too! Especially the part where my Mom walked in, and caught me reading it (I snuck it out of her room).:lol

I loved the book, and loved the movie. Then, I recently came across the new, digitally remastered version, with the extra scenes in it. Mind you, I hadn't seen the movie in years, but I still remembered it well.

Those added scenes were disturbing, to say the least, and I made the mistake of watching it when I was alone. :eek

[sinisterbehavior]

my favorite is bllod crazy, by i forget who. it was a really quick read for me and had no dull parts. the premise was adults turning to "zombies" and kids had to create their own communities and survive. sounds lame but a lot of different themes were present, eg. god, government, life.

[NickolausPacione]

Liam -- also give the book Passport to Hell a spin as well. Terry sent me this one for free, and been switching off between six books. Passport to Hell is a little more involved than Bone Chills is but from the first story it is going to be a kicker.

[CourtneyAllisonMoulton]

I'm surrised no one has mentioned John Saul!!

My favorite of his is definitely The Right Hand of Evil. Nightshade is also EXCELLENT.

*waves at Nickolaus* Hi! I remember you from Lulu. I left that forum because I am going to avoid Self Publishing :D

[MacAl Stone]

Oddly enough, I've never been a big John Saul fan. I've read a couple of his books, just never "caught fire" over them.

Nice to see you here, Courtney! Tell us something about yourself. Pull up a chair, we'll throw a log on the fire and all sit close with the darkness at our backs and tell one another shivery stories.

[anatole ghio]

The Shining by Stephen King

Ringu - The American version was directed by a video director and he brought his sensibility to the project: great mise en scene and atmosphere, and also a quick editing pace -- this last point is why it pales next to the original, where the scenes were played long for suspense and so had more of an impact.

"The Midnight Meat Train" by Clive Barker (Books of Blood).

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe.

Midnight by Dean Koontz.

Twilight Zone - various episodes

Night Gallery - this one episode about a haunted jukebox that played the same song over and over. This kept me up all night, literally!

[Craig Shaeffer]

Cool choices, anatole. Ditto on The Shining and the short stories you selected. Anything by Poe, Barker or Lovecraft is fine by me.

[MacAl Stone]

I think The Shining is arguably one of the truly great "haunted house" novels, Anatole.

What did you think about the well-publicized discrepancies between the book and the Kubrick film?

[anatole ghio]

What did you think about the well-publicized discrepancies between the book and the Kubrick film?

I like them both, but consider the film a failure in terms of being a horror film. In the end, it's a Kubrick film. Kubrick was much more interested in the psychology of Jack than he was in the supernatural aspect. That's why his character starts off already a little unhinged; one of Kubricks main themes is how man is an impulsive animal and society just covers over our animal natures (this is a Freudian conceit).

In the novel, the main character is a good person who loses in a supernatural battle with a greater force; so you sympathize with him even as he begins to do evil things to his family.

In the film, the main character already had brutality in his nature because all humans have brutality in their nature. All the house did was strip away the civilized facade; that's why you get that last scene where we see him in the picture of the hotel staff from the 20's, it underscores how he already belonged to the house, i.e. he already was brutal, underneath it all.

I do think the film would've been much more terrifying if the main character had been more sympathetic; instead, it's more disturbing because it says any of us could've been Jack.

- Anatole

[MacAl Stone]

Hmm--I agree that Kubrick's The Shining is very much a Kubrick film. Not sure I agree that it fails as a horror film, though.

Frex, I thought what Kubrick did with the maze seemed a much scarier device, than did King's original topiary animals.

I also agree that Jack in the movie wasn't the Jack from the book. Jack Torrance, in the book, seemed a fairly menacing character, in my reading--here's a guy who broke his son's arm, attacked a student and thus lost his job, and he continues to wrestle with his drinking problem. However, King's Jack Torrance seemed more sincere about seeking redemption, and that marks the real difference between the characters.

The Shining stands right up with the rest of Kubrick's work, though. In some ways, I find it a far superior film to some of his other stuff--Eyes Wide Shut comes to mind, for instance.

[BlueTexas]

The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson--not the movie
Interestingly enough there's a whole disagreement among even the fans of the book as to whether or not any or all of it really happened; which, of course, only heightens the tension and mystique of the whole story.

You should check this out: http://www.warrens.net/main.htm

This is the record of how it really went down by the paranormal/psychic researchers who were there, before Jay Anson wrote a word about it.

[MacAllister]

The problem with the Warren's site is that they've pretty much built their whole reputation/schtick around the story--and then have waffled on occasion about the original story.

[Kevin Yarbrough]

Have to agree with Nicolaus, Vinison is a good writer and a good friend. He needs to find a good publisher and he would be able to go far.

Barker is great. ColdHeart Canyon was so far out there, but yet was done excellent.

"Simplicity" by Mark Dirschel is also great.

"The Fire Within" by...me isn't to bad. Different take on a well known myth. It isn't horror though, not really. Suspense/horror would fit the bill better.

[BlueTexas]

The problem with the Warren's site is that they've pretty much built their whole reputation/schtick around the story--and then have waffled on occasion about the original story.

This is true. I think what we know now about it stems from a kernel of truth that the whole drama was built upon when someone smelled money. Still, the pigs eyes staring out the window gave me the willies as a kid...still does, actually. At work, I get packages from Amityville every few weeks, and I think of the pig every time. Not good when I'm the only one there!

[MacAllister]

Oh yeah--not disagreeing with you a bit, Blue! That book scared the bejeezuz out of me (never saw the movie.)

And I'm dead certain that part of the scare factor had to do with the "true-life story" mystique. Ditto Blair Witch Project. Remember all the hype before that came out, complete with website, etc.?

Interesting how the best scare experiences are very nearly interactive in nature.

[BlueTexas]

Interesting how the best scare experiences are very nearly interactive in nature.

I wonder if that's because it ups the 'this could really happen to you' factor?

[Wolfyn0911]

I'm not really sure if any book I've ever read has kept me awake, jumping at the small sounds of a house settling in the dead of night or peering into closets and around stygian corners of hallways looking for some kind of strangely garbed intruders ... Now that being said, most horror movies to me are little more than shock value of the moment. No, I take that back -- maybe I'm not actually qualified to elaborate on this subject. Although an admitted fan of the horror genre, I still have neither seen nor read any of the Exorcist, Amityville series and have seen pieces and bits of the original Poltergeist. Barker is a fantastic author -- that goes without saying -- and it might be argued that he is this generation's equivalent to H. P. Lovecraft. His monsters are beyond all concepts of horror, and much like Lovecraft, are barely even fathomable to the human mind. His movies (?) however are more of the 'bucket-of-blood' variety than the mind-numbing horror, despair and dread (One of my favorite shorts from the Books of Blood btw) his prose reveals. Ohhhhh yes, there is one particular movie that I will NEVER see again. Ever. "The Serpent and the Rainbow" I'm not a follower of the faith/religion/cult of Voodoo, but I believe in enough weird things to entertain the possiblity so .. better safe than sorry.

P.S. Nearly forgot -- with all the names flying (I saw Anne Rice's amongst others) has anybody mentioned miss Poppy Z. Brite? She's a "goth" author I suppose, but she has a style that demands attention and respect nonetheless.