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In keeping with the spirit of upcoming Halloween, I'd like to ask the board: what are your favourite horror novels? I can't actually remember reading a book that was really scary so I would be interested to get some recommendations.

As for movies, "Mulholland Dr." was one that creeped me out quite a bit, especially after I read about some of the symbolisms in the movie. What are some of your favourites?

The book of The Shining had me jumping for a while. For movies, I have always been attracted to the imagery in the Hellraiser series, and Dr. Channard's laugh in the second film is always in the back of my mind.

djm

Try reading Bram Stoker's original Dracula. The period language takes a bit of time to get used to, but once you do he really tells a great story.

I'm also partial to Rosemary's Baby, but I'm prejudiced...

It depends on what you are referring to as "scary".

I grew up with "Dark Shadows" and a steady (every Saturday night) diet of B horror movies. The blood and gut slasher movies of today don't seem scary to me, just gross.

I love the "original" black and white Frankenstein, Dracula and Werewolf movies of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney. The superb filming in black and white and the use of the music all lead to the "suspence".

For a more modern movie, I think the original "Aliens" was by far the best "sitting on the edge of the seat" movie I've seen for a long time. Think about it - you see the actual alien for what - a total of a minute or two in the entire movie?

For books, the full length "The Stand" or "The Talisman" are two of my favorites. I, personally, don't think Stephen King had written a decent book since "Pet Cemetary".

And I'll second the recommendation of Stoker's "Dracula" and also add Shelley's "Frankenstein" to the mix. Along with most of Poe's writings. And H.P Lovecraft. I don't think you can understand any modern horror writing without reading these.

missy wrote:For a more modern movie, I think the original "Aliens" was by far the best "sitting on the edge of the seat" movie I've seen for a long time. Think about it - you see the actual alien for what - a total of a minute or two in the entire movie?

Ooo, good one! Actually, the best part of Alien to me was that Sigourney Weaver played be terrified so well. She was able to make me feel scared too.

djm

Films:

Arsenic and Old Lace
Young Sherlock Holmes
Little Shop of Horrors (the original one)

Stories:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

J. Sheridan LeFanu's novella "Carmilla" is a great dessert after you've finished the full-course meal of Dracula.

For creepy, noirish stuff, James Ellroy's novels--The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential--should do the trick. And Henning Mankell's.

And you can always throw the Wolf's Glen scene from Weber's Der Freischütz on the cd player. Corny, sure, but good fun.

For a book, I thought Haunted Mesa by Louis Lamour was very creepy. As far as movies, I'm still kind of afraid to watch Event Horizon again. It scared me the first time I saw it.

JS wrote:J. Sheridan LeFanu's novella "Carmilla" is a great dessert after you've finished the full-course meal of Dracula.

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Yes. Full text here.

...which prompts me to add that while there are certainly many good horror novels, I feel horror is more suited to shorter works. I ran across this collection of horror short stories when I was a kid (my parents never censored our reading habits, but for that one they probably should have made an exception, heh); some of those stories kept me awake at night long after... a superb collection.

As for movies, I've seen a lot of 'em, but for some inexplicable reason, none of them has ever creeped me out, given me genuine heebie-jeebies, as consistently as the original Exorcist.

Walden wrote:Films:

Arsenic and Old Lace

One of my favorites! I also tend to like the older B&W horror flicks.
Scottie, in the Exorcist I can't even get past the scene when she first is flopping around on the bed, then she rolls back her eyes and makes that hideous noise. After that one scene, I had nightmares for months, and I never watched any more of the movie. The Exorcism of Emily Rose was also pretty scary...at least to me. But at least I was able to get through that one.

Darn it all...I actually had something to contribute to the discussion, but now I've forgotten what it was.

The Rats in the Walls, by H. P. Lovecraft.

Pretty much anything by Edgar Allan Poe.

I dunno - maybe it was because I read the book before I saw the movie (and I'll never forgive the guy that got MY book taken away from him at the local boy's Catholic school...), but the "Exorcist" didn't scare me at all, in fact, we laughed through most of it, and had jokes about spit pea soup for months afterwards.

scottielvr wrote: As for movies, I've seen a lot of 'em, but for some inexplicable reason, none of them has ever creeped me out, given me genuine heebie-jeebies, as consistently as the original Exorcist.

I'm with you there, 100%. I'd probably laugh at it now, but the first time I saw it, I felt like I wouldn't sleep for weeks.

As for the written word, I'd recommend HP Lovecraft. It's not for everybody, and I wouldn't call hardly any of his stuff scary, but it is often called horror, and he had a style that's widely emulated now. His short novels At the mountains of madness, the case of Charles Dexter Ward, andThe dream-quest of Unknown Kadath are among the best I've ever read.

Alcona wrote:As far as movies, I'm still kind of afraid to watch Event Horizon again. It scared me the first time I saw it.

Hehe yeah Event Horizon was scary for me too... the plot wasn't that complex or anything but man the gore + the techniques they used to build suspense were just so effective. It didn't help that when I first saw it the theatre was practically empty and freezing cold brrrr....

Regarding books, I heard that Stephen King's "It" and "Pet Sematary" were good. Does anyone second that? I read some of his other works like "Salems Lot" and "Dolores Claiborne" but thought they were just okayish.
I also gave the "Rats in the Walls" a go but I found it had too much of a dated literary feel to it for it to be scary at all.

The scariest - THE SCARIEST story I ever read was in a book of stories called "Smoke and Mirrors" by Neil Gaiman. This is the same chap who wrote "American Gods", "Good Omens" and "Stardust". He scripted the Graphic Novel series "The Sandman". (He also wrote "Anansi Boys", but I haven't read that yet.

"Smoke and Mirrors" is very much a mixed bag. Some of the stories were entertaining, some less so. Some didn't hit the mark they aimed for. But they do all lead up, in an obscure but cumulative fashion, to the last story - which is absolutely chilling. Or it was for me. There's no guarantee you'll have the same reaction. I won't tell you more, as the story, and the twist, are so obvious as to be trivial - but it is the way the story is told.
I recommend this to anyone remotely interested in Horror as a genre.