Horror Junkie

[jallenecs]

You know, I love science fiction novels, and I generally enjoy certain categories of fantasy novels. But I have a confession to make: I am a bona fide, frothing-at-the-mouth horror junkie. Books, movies, comics, art, you name it, I'll consume it. I even have a special place in my heart even for grade Z cheese-flicks, from Edward D Wood, Jr, on up. (one caveat: slasher flicks. Norman Bates was scary as hell; Jason and his coterie are just revolting)

Shocking, no?

The fact is that I love to be scared! Do I believe in ghosts? No! But to read a good creepy ghost story is like a roller coaster ride for the brain: I buy into it for the course of the story, and am perfectly willing to sleep with the lights on for a couple days.

Suspension of disbelief rocks! :roll:

What brings up this particular topic? Well, we're rapidly careening toward my favorite holiday, Halloween, which also happens to be the birthday of one of my oldest, dearest friends. What does he want every year, without fail, as a gift? He wants me to write him a scary story. I've written a dozen of them in the past, from nearly verbatim transcriptions of traditional ghost stories, to homages to Night of the Living Dead or Dracula, etc. This year is a short story that is based on the newish fad of ghost hunting.

I feel a mild twinge of guilt about this. I think ghost hunting is a crocka. But I am writing a story that is centered around the concept of those very same ghost hunters finding more than just orbs or mystic voices. Is somebody perpetuating the ghost hunter's myth of validity, by writing such a story, professionally or not?

But then I get over it, and move on to the next day's writing. :p

Does anybody else here enjoy horror? I'd love to hear your all's "Top ten Lists"

My own top ten list (in no particular order, and DEFINITELY cross media)

1. Night of the Living Dead (the original, thanks!)

2. Dracula (pick one movie, dating before 1970)

3. various and sundry Urban Legends (I grew up on stuff like Bloody Mary and the "Lover's Lane" cautionary tales)

4. "Pickman's Model" by H. P. Lovecraft

5. The Haunting of Hill House (the novel)

6. Salem's Lot (the novel)

7. Dracula, the novel

8. "Bride of Frankenstein"

9. Evil Dead series (not scary, but funny is good, too!)

10. "Turn of the Screw"

(Note: Blair Witch Project scared me, in the same way that the others scared me, ie suspension of disbelief. I knew going in that it was a crocka; but watching it at 1 am on a stormy night helped me get into the mood. It did not make my top ten list because it was only the first viewing that was scary. Besides, I'm appalled at the public reaction to it)

[Nyarlathotep]

I too enjoy a good scare. I pretty much agree with your list except that I have never read 'The Haunting of Hill House' so I can't really have an opinion on it, and I really appreciate the old Hammer Dracula films (despite their cheesiness, they have a certain quality to them that I can't quite put my finger on but which greatly appeals to me) which I think were mostly made after 1970 (but I am not sure on that). I think "The Dunwich Horror" ought to be on the list somewhere too, though "Pickman's Model" is a pretty good Lovecraftian choice.

As to whether writing stories about Ghost hunting perpetuates the myth, I for one don't think so. I like to write stories that involve UFO's, ancient astronauts and psychic powers and my take on it is "IT'S ONLY A STORY" and if someone can't tell fact from fiction, that is their problem, not mine. A writer should no more feel guilty for writing about those things than a magician like Randi should feel guilty for pretending to have magical powers. It's not real and unless you are claiming that your story is somehow true, no one should take it otherwise.

[jallenecs]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep
I too enjoy a good scare. I pretty much agree with your list except that I have never read 'The Haunting of Hill House' so I can't really have an opinion on it,

I think "The Dunwich Horror" ought to be on the list somewhere too, though "Pickman's Model" is a pretty good Lovecraftian choice.



The Haunting of Hill House is a novel by Shirley Jackson, possibly the modern epitome of the ghost story. There have been various movies made of it, of moderate to egregious quality. ("The Haunting" of just a few years ago is a prime example of the egregious). It's definitely worth a read. I recommend it so highly, if you'll PM me with an address, I'll send you a copy.

I liked the Dunwich Horror. Heck, one of my favorite Lovecraft writings is "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward." But Pickman is my absolute favorite; it scares the crap out of me, and doesn't actually SHOW me anything to be scared of! It just suggests, and leaves the rest to my imagination.

That seems to be a theme in a lot of my current horror reading, in fact. I've become a big fan of the interactive experience. Not those dreadful "hypertext" things. But ones where the the novel dances around and around the nightmare, hinting at this, and giving a shadow of that. It essentially gives you the Tinker Toys that let you scare yourself.

When it's done badly (Some of Stephen King's later works leap to mind), it's BORING. When it's done well, it's electrifying.

The Haunting of Hill House is a prime example of this. And Turn of the Screw. (So was The Blair Witch Project)

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by jallenecs


The Haunting of Hill House is a novel by Shirley Jackson, possibly the modern epitome of the ghost story. There have been various movies made of it, of moderate to egregious quality. ("The Haunting" of just a few years ago is a prime example of the egregious). It's definitely worth a read. I recommend it so highly, if you'll PM me with an address, I'll send you a copy.

I liked the Dunwich Horror. Heck, one of my favorite Lovecraft writings is "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward." But Pickman is my absolute favorite; it scares the crap out of me, and doesn't actually SHOW me anything to be scared of! It just suggests, and leaves the rest to my imagination.

That seems to be a theme in a lot of my current horror reading, in fact. I've become a big fan of the interactive experience. Not those dreadful "hypertext" things. But ones where the the novel dances around and around the nightmare, hinting at this, and giving a shadow of that. It essentially gives you the Tinker Toys that let you scare yourself.

When it's done badly (Some of Stephen King's later works leap to mind), it's BORING. When it's done well, it's electrifying.

The Haunting of Hill House is a prime example of this. And Turn of the Screw. (So was The Blair Witch Project)

Was "The Legend of Hell House" also based on it? I rather liked that movie and I vaguely sort of remember hearing somewhere that it and "The Haunting" were based on the same novel, though I don't notice a lot of similarities between them excpet for being set in a haunted house.

I also thought of another Horror classic, "Alien". Though most would class it as a sci-fi movie, I think it is more of a horror story (at least the first one). In fact I remember reading somewhere that Ridley Scott pitched it as a "haunted house in space" movie.

[Chris Haynes]

I like the old Roger Corman movies, especially those with Vincent Price ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000339/bio ).

My parents used to go out on Friday nights my older brother was in charge of taking care of me and my sister (this was the mid-1960's). After my little sister went to bed, he would insist I stay up and watch the Friday Night Horror movie (usually the ones introduced by someone doing a bad Dracula imitation with a cardboard coffin and fake cobwebs hanging around). I think he disliked watching them alone.

I developed a fondness for some of the old campy movies, especially the ones that are tongue in cheek. I do not like the teen-slasher movies.

In my family there is only one other person who enjoys horror movies... and that is my oldest son. We watched "The Others", "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" together. Dear hubby and the other kids stayed away.

I have not read any horror books in a long long time... I used to before I read science fiction. But I am not even reading much science fiction any longer (mostly non-fiction, heavy on biographies). But I do remember reading some very scary short stories as a kid (they belonged to my big brother). The ones that I remember the most are "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Imp in the Bottle".

[jallenecs]

Originally posted by Hydrogen Cyanide
I like the old Roger Corman movies, especially those with Vincent Price ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000339/bio ).

I developed a fondness for some of the old campy movies, especially the ones that are tongue in cheek. I do not like the teen-slasher movies.

But I am not even reading much science fiction any longer (mostly non-fiction, heavy on biographies). But I do remember reading some very scary short stories as a kid (they belonged to my big brother). The ones that I remember the most are "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Imp in the Bottle".

I love the old Roger Corman stuff as well. Let's face it, I'll give even the REAL stinkers a fighting chance; "Bride of the Monster" is one of my all time favorite cheese-flicks. I saw BofM when I was about ten years old, on a "Monster Matinee" they had on Halloween one time. I can also remember seeing "Invasion of the Spiders" (I think that's the name; there's a VW Bug with really long mechanical arms as the main creature) at the tender age of four (snuck out of bed)

Being a equal-opportunity horror junkie, I do love the short stories. There was this one, called "The Hand" about a dismembered hand chasing this guy around. There was another about a car that was apparently haunted by a cigar smoking mobster ghost that used to give me the creeps.

I was surfing the Urban Legends Reference Pages the other night, and they referred to a book that was published in the 1950's, and for the life of me I can't remember the title. But it had a number of VERY scary "true" accounts in it. The one that stands out in my mind is the old chestnut about the boy who was vanished into thin air while walking out to his well one evening. There were scores of stories in this thing, ranging from the Hitchiker to a screaming scalp of all things..... :confused:

I read this book when I was still too young to be a skeptic (eight or nine, I'm thinking); I ATE this thing up as Gospel, and was frightened literally for months. Later, when I got a little older, and a little wiser, I realized that the stories in that thing were about as factual as the Tooth Fairy. But I still count that as some of the finest scares I ever got from the pages of a book.

Fact is, crap or no, some of the mental images in that little tome still give me nightmares from time to time, if I'm in the right frame of mind (ie, tired and stressed at the same time) .

(BTW: no, my school library didn't have the thing. How an innocent little kid got exposed to that "brain-warping stuff" was that my dad, a high school teacher, had confiscated it from one of his students, and forgot to take it out of his coat pocket before he got into the house. Incidentally, that's how I got exposed to my first science fiction novels, as well :wink: )

[jallenecs]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep


Was "The Legend of Hell House" also based on it? I rather liked that movie and I vaguely sort of remember hearing somewhere that it and "The Haunting" were based on the same novel, though I don't notice a lot of similarities between them excpet for being set in a haunted house.

Yep, so far as I know, Hell House was based on it. I KNOW the Haunting was based on it; same characters, though the pretense at replicating the plot was..... well, there are no words to describe how pathetic it was. The only thing I like about that movie was the setting, which was appropriately creepy, if you ask me.

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep


I also thought of another Horror classic, "Alien". Though most would class it as a sci-fi movie, I think it is more of a horror story (at least the first one). In fact I remember reading somewhere that Ridley Scott pitched it as a "haunted house in space" movie.

Ooh, ooh, forgot about that one! I liked Alien. I LOVED Aliens. The rest were not so good. Aliens is more science fictiony, I grant you. But every time the cat takes a notion to skitter up and down the roof at night (chasing birds?), I get a little thrill of unease! :D

I also thought of other H.P. Lovecraft stories that got to me (though I didn't care for the movie on the first). "The Reanimator" and "Cold Air."

[lofgoernost]

For a few years now I've made a point of reading Lovecraft tales in September and October - "The Colour Out of Space," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," and "Pickman's Model" are favorites. "The Rats in the Walls" is good for this time of year too, though if I recall correctly it doesn't take place in my precious New England. New England references play a big role in my enjoyment of Lovecraft.

I was blown away when I first started to read Lovecraft - I'd avoided his stuff for years, imagining it was all satanic claptrap with Anton Levay lookalikes running around after schoolgirls in the woods. Then I saw an Arkham House book with Cthulhu on the cover and figured I'd give it a try. The first story i read was "The Dunwich Horror;" a couple of pages in and I was pretty certain Dunwich was a fictionalized version of the hamlet I spent boyhood summers in, so I was hooked. (I've since learned that, despite what he says in the story, Lovecraft had a different location for Dunwich in mind).

Of course, we have a different understanding of horror than Lovecraft had. To him, his stuff was weird, because it couldn't really happen. Suspension of disbelief was necessary to enjoy the tales. Stories like "The Tell-tale Heart" and "A Cask of Amontillado" were horror, because they could conceivably happen. That's why I like your contrast of Psycho and Freddy or Jason movies. As far as I can tell, weird fiction no longer exists as a genre, long since having been subsumed by our new conceptions of horror, SF and fantasy.

("The Turn of the Screw" always freaks me out - I do love that to thos day there's debate as to whether it is a ghost story or a psychological thriller. Been ages since I read it, but I think I finally was persuaded to the pure psycholoical horror side.)

"Legend of Hell House" is one of those movies I saw as a kid and loved. I rented it for Halloween a few years ago and was easily able to fall back into that same old fear and wonder. I tried the same thing with "Phantasm" last year and just laughed through most of it. I wouldn't mind tracking down a film called "The Monster Club;" there was one story where a movie director ends up in a village of the damned - great, haunting atmosphere - I remember being truly frightened at the notion of such a horrible place of darkness existing right off a busy highway, through the fog and mist.

A couple weeks ago my brother and I went to a neighbor's house to help her relight her hot water heater. This place is an old New Hampshire country house, gambrel roofed, with an earth-floored cellar. My brother and I are down in that dank place, surrounded by all these lichen-covered foundation stones, with nothing but a flashlight and a lighter, when he tells me to go stand in the corner. . .it took me a second to get the Blair Witch joke.

In closing, I just started "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" last night. Afterward, I think I'll read some M.R. James stories. Those are supposed to be good ghostly enjoyment (Neil Gaiman says to make sure you read M.R. James by candlelight).

[Chaos]

The only things to ever scare me as an adult - aside from seeing how much tax I had to pay on my first salary :eek: :D - were the stories of Lovecraft´s Cthulu mythos, especially those written before, say, 1945; they get a bit weaker after that.

[jallenecs]

Originally posted by Chaos
The only things to ever scare me as an adult - aside from seeing how much tax I had to pay on my first salary :eek: :D - were the stories of Lovecraft´s Cthulu mythos, especially those written before, say, 1945; they get a bit weaker after that.

For me personally, the pure Cthulhu mythos stuff is, well, weird. I can't really completely suspend disbelief long enough to accept the Great Cthulhu, or Azathoth, etc. Not the way I can with Pickman's Models, or the other, "smaller" nightmares.

As for being scared as an adult? I may be a skeptic, but I also have a massively overactive imagination. I don't believe in ghosts, but don't ask me to stay in a dark, abandoned house after dark! :eek: My imagination will psyche me out, and I'll be freaking in no time.

Did anybody ever watch a show that was on for a little while, "The Scariest Places on Earth"? Where they'd give people videocameras and "ghost hunting" equipment and send them into supposedly haunted houses? Week after week, it was like a textbook study of how to talk yourself into thinking there were ghosts.

My husband and I used to watch that show every time it was on and dissect it; this is what the producers did to get the people into the right frame of mind, this is what the people did to themselves, etc.

It was a fun and entertaining exercise in skepticism.

[Peach Jr.]

I really enjoy horror. Usually books and movies, but I suppose "The Sandman" graphic novels come under that umbrella too.

My personal faves:
Night of the Living Dead : I have some ...interesting memories associated with that one.
The Haunting/The Haunting of Hill House: or pretty much anything by Shirley Jackson - I'm a big fan of hers.
Dracula : The book - I haven't seen the movie adaptation yet that I really liked (but I'm open to suggestions)
H.P. Lovecraft : hubby and I are both big fans of his. Anything - I especially enjoy the Cthullu stories, but all of them are great.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre : plain dumb fun
The Evil Dead movies: Yes, I truly enjoyed all three of them. :p
Suspiria :a great creepy movie
And many things by Neil Gaiman; my favorites so far are Neverwhere and American Gods.

[Marc]

The Lovecraft story that freaked me out the most was The Temple. The idea of being trapped in a submarine realy induced the claustraphobia.

Also love F.Paul Willson. The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal, Nightworld. All 6 books go to make a heck of a story.

[Nyarlathotep]

No one so far has brought up one of my favorites, so I guess I will have to mention it. "Hellraiser" was one of the coolest and scariest movies ever, in my opinion. The sequels got progressively worse, though ( I also like "Hellraiser 2", though, and it would have been fine by me if they had left it at that). I also liked the short lived "Hellraiser" comic book series, which I thought was really imaginative and well done.

[Checkmite]

Originally posted by jallenecs
Did anybody ever watch a show that was on for a little while, "The Scariest Places on Earth"? Where they'd give people videocameras and "ghost hunting" equipment and send them into supposedly haunted houses? Week after week, it was like a textbook study of how to talk yourself into thinking there were ghosts.

My husband and I used to watch that show every time it was on and dissect it; this is what the producers did to get the people into the right frame of mind, this is what the people did to themselves, etc.

It was a fun and entertaining exercise in skepticism.

I did not enjoy that show. Oh, the first one or two which were "documentaries" (for example, of the Paris Catacombs) were interesting...but the "send a family to scare themselves" show that it became got on my nerves. Here you've got some scared to death family sent into Castle Hunadoria or someplace, you give them rune stones and have them do some stupid ritual, then bring them out and tell them "their actions may have awakened forces best left untouched" and send them back in to do another stupid ritual to fix a problem you made them create in the first place. Yes, I realize it's fiction, and yes, I read the little disclaimer at the end that said "Some effects may have been simulated". But way too much of the show was endless screaming and dizzying camera shots spinning around and showing absolutely nothing. It's fine that the family got scared but it wasn't entertainment...not for me, anyway.

[Denise]

1. The Exorcist
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
3. Night of the Living Dead (original).
4. The Body Snatchers (original).
5. The Shining.
6. West World (no laughing please)
7. The Trilogy (was on tv)
8. Omega Man
9. Children of the Corn.
10. The Other. (not the Other's the other one!)

[a_unique_person]

How can anyone ignore the Hammer Horror films. I remember watching the start of one estimable production. It was some sort of Pirate Movie, in which the pirates berth their ship at the start of the movie, (presumably to save production costs), and then wandered around an English forest for hours after that, in something that closely resembled "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

After half an hour of this, I realised they weren't ever even going to get back on the ship, and went to bed.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by a_unique_person
How can anyone ignore the Hammer Horror films. I remember watching the start of one estimable production. It was some sort of Pirate Movie, in which the pirates berth their ship at the start of the movie, (presumably to save production costs), and then wandered around an English forest for hours after that, in something that closely resembled "Talk Like a Pirate Day".

After half an hour of this, I realised they weren't ever even going to get back on the ship, and went to bed.

Actually in my first post on this thread I mentioned the Hammer Dracula films. I never saw the pirate movie you mentioned, but I Hammer made the best Dracula films.

[Peach Jr.]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep


Actually in my first post on this thread I mentioned the Hammer Dracula films. I never saw the pirate movie you mentioned, but I Hammer made the best Dracula films.

Yes they did. As far as Dracula movies go, they're all pretty good. I still stand by my statement though...I haven't found a screen adaptation that I *really like*.

At one of our "movie day" 8th grade assemblies, we were treated to a double feature of "The Fly" (the original, with Vincent Price) and "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave"with the amazing Christopher Lee.

edited to add: One of the Mr.'s all time faves is a Hammer movie, "The Blood on Satan's Claw". He saw it with his uncles when he was 6. Hasn't been the same since.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Peach Jr.


Yes they did. As far as Dracula movies go, they're all pretty good. I still stand by my statement though...I haven't found a screen adaptation that I *really like*.

At one of our "movie day" 8th grade assemblies, we were treated to a double feature of "The Fly" (the original, with Vincent Price) and "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave"with the amazing Christopher Lee.

edited to add: One of the Mr.'s all time faves is a Hammer movie, "The Blood on Satan's Claw". He saw it with his uncles when he was 6. Hasn't been the same since.

The funny thing is about the Hammer Dracula films is that they are just about the furthest from the book of any adaptation that I know of. But they stand well on their own merits.

I don't know that a straight adaptation of "Dracula" would be all that good. I think it is one of those books that will always work much better as a book than as a movie. Likewise, I don't think any good movie version of Dracula can be done without some major deviations from the book.

[Brown]

I'm not a big fan of scary movies. As a kid, I used to get nightmares when I saw one. "Jason and the Argonauts" and "The Birds" were responsible for several unpleasant sleepless nights.

I remember "Aliens" as being the first scary movie that I ever enjoyed. I saw "Alien" before that, and it was okay, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. The final third of the movie was actually boring, I thought.

"Night of the Living Dead" (the original) was pretty good. I actually read a column about the movie before seeing it. The column condemned the movie left and right, and included lots of spoilers. But one Halloween night, I stayed up and watched the movie and found out why the author of the column was so upset. If I'd seen that movie as a kid, it would have kept me awake for a week.

I like some of Stephen King's work, including some of the short stories in "Skeleton Crew." I enjoyed "Pet Sematary" even though a lot of the plot didn't make much sense. On the whole, I liked "The Stand."

I read "Watchers" by Dean Koontz and just couldn't swallow it. The story had some good moments, but the plot holes were just too damned big. I resolved not to read any more of Koontz's stuff.

I used to enjoy the work of Edgar Allen Poe, especially the really horrific stuff (which was described in such a way that your imagination could fill in the details and scare you even more!).

[Candace]

Oh, sweet bebee jebus, you mentioned Blood on Satan's Claw ! I thought I was the only person still remembering that. I had nightmares for months about that whatever it was that thumped up and down under the trapdoor. I think Sam Raimi stole the deadite-popping-out-of-the-cellar idea from that.

Another good Hammer film was The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism , no, I'm not making that up! It starred Christopher Lee as an undead insane Count who had to imbibe the blood of 13 virgins before something (midnight? anniversary of his death? NCAA final four?) in order to be immortal. The carriage ride through the creepy blue-litten night woods, where the limbs of trees become grasping, undead arms, still gives me shivers...

Oh, on the subject of Hell vs. Hill Houses, Shirley Jackson wrote The Haunting of Hill House, almost a throwback to refined Victorian haunted houses, whereas Richard matheson wrote Hell House, where incest and self mutilation was the rule of the day and they drowned children in the tarn.

And of course, anything written by the Elder Statesman from Providence absolutely positively rawks !

[a_unique_person]

Then there is always the mannered horror, like "Turn of the Screw".

[Peach Jr.]

While I was desperately trying to get the baby to sleep last night, I thought of somebody I had missed. Richard Matheson.

The author of one of my favorite vampire stories (well...not long enough to be a novella, too long for a short story) - original, inventive, and truly scary (at least to me). He also wrote "The Incredible Shrinking Man", among other things.

I can't believe I forgot him :(

[Renfield]

Originally posted by jallenecs


Yep, so far as I know, Hell House was based on it. I KNOW the Haunting was based on it; same characters, though the pretense at replicating the plot was..... well, there are no words to describe how pathetic it was. The only thing I like about that movie was the setting, which was appropriately creepy, if you ask me.



The Legend of Hell House was based on a different book with a similar set up - Hell House by Richard Matheson. I can see why you might assume otherwise, with the similar titles and plots.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Candace

Oh, on the subject of Hell vs. Hill Houses, Shirley Jackson wrote The Haunting of Hill House, almost a throwback to refined Victorian haunted houses, whereas Richard matheson wrote Hell House, where incest and self mutilation was the rule of the day and they drowned children in the tarn.



Thanks for the clarification. After seeing your post I did a bit of googling and found out the source of my confusion. Mathesons "Hell House" apparently has a lot of people convinced that it is a cheap rip-off of Jacksons "Hill House". Myself, maybe I'll read both books and compare for myself. I've already seen both movies and, frankly, I like "Hell House" better.

[fhios]

For me, there is nothing irrational about the love of horror. Each of us has certain individualized things that scare us--hence, what strikes one person as scary may in fact bore another to tears--and we do need, every so often, to check our ability to cope with these personal fears as well as any fears general to people at large. Stephen King suggestted this as the reason for horror in Danse Macabre

My biggies:

Soylent Green: An interesting piece of horror, simply because the threat is not that of death, but of complete emotional corruption.

The novel Frankenstein: The true afficianadoes of horror claim that the gross-out is ultimately uninteresting to them, but this novel does deliver literal "thrilling horror"--a thrilling revulsion, essentially--and disproves this point.

Psycho: ...and for me, the creepiest scene is when Norman describes the smell left by moisture in the rooms of his motel as, well, creepy. His saying this implies a sort of normal personality belows the madness, and makes him much more troubling.

PIN: A more detailed study of a psychotic mind; very effective because it does portray him as something very similar to ourselves, just less adapted.

[Azathoth]

I'm pleased to see all the Lovecraft fans out there.

Here's some stuff off the top of my head.

John Carpenter's The Thing (which can trace its pedigree back to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (which itself is now in development to be filmed by Guillermo Del Toro))

Alien

Carrie (film & book)

The Kingdom (Lars von Trier's Danish TV miniseries)

The Wicker Man

HPL's "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Dunwich Horror", "At the Mountains of Madness" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"

MR James ghost stories -- don't read too many in a row.

Phil Rickman's _Curfew_ (has some delicious swipes at New Age-ry, in addition to being a creepy story on its own)

Session 9


Anyway, if I can work in some plugs, here, I'll be at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival (http://www.hplfilmfestival.com) in Portland, Oregon in October. I went once before and it's a real blast. Make sure to find your way to the 'secret' midnight screenings and the afterparties. Continuing the plug, I'll also be selling my book of Lovecraftian limericks (http://eapress.home.comcast.net/eldquint.html) at the festival, but you can order one from the safety of your own home.

[Prospero]

I'm a little surprised to see that Clive Barker's Books of Blood haven't been included thus far. Lots of fun, thoroughly creepy short stories. His novels aren't necessarily impressive, though The Damnation Game kept me rather amused.

H.P. Lovecraft is always the top of my list as far as horror goes. I think his gift lies in his inextricable linkage of horror and insanity, though I sometimes find myself thinking that modern men would have a higher threshold for the alien.

As far as Hollywood goes, well, I'm a very visual person, so it takes no effort to scare me with some non-too-spectacular special effects, but I have to say that the Hellraiser series did an excellent job of confusing the boundaries of grotesque and horror, though I think psychological horror as opposed to horror resulting from, say, a vivisection, holds more value.

Oh, and though this may be slightly tangential, the video game Eternal Darkness, which draws heavily from Lovecraft, is quite possibly the scariest creation of which I know. The random screams, disappearing doors, bending of the walls and movement of otherwise inanimate objects creates quite an unsettling mindset, especially when playing at 3 in the morning while it's storming.

[Duncan]

I am a big horror buff as well. I can't believe nobody has mentioned Robert R. McCammon. I have yet to read a book by him that wasn't good. Granted, some are weaker than others, but overall I like him better than King. I recommend Swan Song (an end of the world novel) Boy's Life (Probably his best) and his newest book Speaks the Nightbird (About a 1699 witch trial in the colonial Carolinas) Also, if you can find a copy, the short story "Blue World" is pretty good about a priest who falls in love with a porn star.

[Psi Baba]

Originally posted by Hydrogen Cyanide
I like the old Roger Corman movies, especially those with Vincent Price ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000339/bio ).

His The Pit and the Pendulum is one of my all-time favorites. That image of Barbara Steel's eyes through the face of the iron maiden is unforgettable!

I'm also a big Lovecraft fan. I like to read his stuff every fall and winter when things turn cold and colourless, like in this stories. I think the most passable movie adaptations so far have been Dagon which is actually "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," and Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected based on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." The Curse, based on "The Colour Out of Space," wasn't bad if you don't mind Will Wheaton being in it.

My favorite horror director, however is Dario Argento. I love all his films as well as many of those of his mentor, Mario Bava.

Originally posted by Chaos
... the stories of Lovecraft´s Cthulu mythos, especially those written before, say, 1945; they get a bit weaker after that.
I'd say so, being that Lovecraft died in 1937. ;)

[Psi Baba]

Originally posted by Azathoth
At the Mountains of Madness (which itself is now in development to be filmed by Guillermo Del Toro))

Is there any more you can tell us about this? I'm intrigued.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Psi Baba

I'd say so, being that Lovecraft died in 1937. ;)

I think he was referring to all the mythos stories that were cranked out after Lovecrafts death by other writers. If that's what he meant, I agree. I have read a lot of August Derleth's stuff and while some of it was okay, Mr. Derleth is certainly no Lovecraft. I haven't read any of the mythos stories by anyone else other than Lovecraft or Derleth, though.

[Marc]

BTW Lovecraft fans. Saw something that the Sci-Fi channel is presenting a brand new ReAnimator movie sequal this saturday, still staring Jeffrey Combs.

Got the soundtrack to the first two movies here, looking forward to seeing this feature! :) Oh yea, also saw Bride of ReAnimator at its world premiere, midnight on Lovecrafts 100th birthday in Providence. Still remember the fog driving home, getting a little lost as what looked like a street we wanted was actually the enterance to a parking lot.


now I gotta check out those other movies you mentioned

[lofgoernost]

How could I have forgotten "The Wicker Man"? Frightening climax. And a great slap-wall dance by Britt Ekland.

Have any of you seen the film "Out of Mind"? I think it was actually a Canadian television production. It's supposed to be a decent nugget of Lovecraftiana.

Other than a few Derelth stories, I've read King's "Jerusalem's Lot," which contains some Lovecraft elements. I'd like to read the Bloch story where he kills off a Lovecraft stand-in -- the title escapes me now.

[Bluegill]

I first saw the old b&w version of “The Haunting” in a movie theater about fifteen years ago, and I loved it. As with so many great horror classics, it’s what you don’t see that’s so creepy. The scenes where Eleanor and Theo are in the room and something is banging on the door, then slowly turning the doorknob, the banging again—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! I think that scene holds it’s own quite well against any other horror scene ever filmed.

Also, the constant lesbian innuendo is sort of fun. It surprises me that they could put that in a film of that era.

I have a copy of the movie on VHS now, and I watch it every October.

Four years ago I found and read a copy of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. I have to say that I was disappointed. It’s been so long now that I can’t recall exactly why, but I remember that it didn’t have nearly the impact on me that the movie did. Maybe I should try re-reading it.

I saw most of the movie “Hell House,” and I’m interested in seeing it again. I read Matheson’s The Legend of Hell House not long after I saw the movie (this was in high school, I think.) I liked it—it was scary—but it was also disturbing on a different level. There is quite a bit in it that is profane and vulgar, and it lacks the class of the Jackson novel and its first movie version.

I have only seen fragments of the recent version of “The Haunting.” Nothing I’ve seen or heard about it makes me want to see more.

Other favorites:
The novel Dracula

The novel Frankenstein

Ditto on the people who’ve mentioned the Lovecraft stuff, though I haven’t read a lot. “The Whisperer in Darkness,” and “In the Vault” are ones that I remember to have given me the willies.

There are quite a few other short stories I’ve read. “How Fear Departed From The Long Gallery,” is absolutely fantastic, but I don’t remember who wrote it. I’ll come back and edit this post when I track it down.


Wonderful: You can read it online! How Fear Departed From The Long Gallery (http://www.blackmask.com/books74c/feardepart.htm) by E. F. Benson

[Bluegill]

Oh, and I forgot "The Ring." I thought that was a very good silly horror movie.

[alfaniner]

Not really a horror buff -- only watched a few that might qualify in the last several years. I have to mention

The Ring

I really hated it. At first. But it certainly left an impression. Now I'm anxious to see it again, along with the original Japanese version.

That was creepy. You posted about The Ring at the same time I was typing my reply.

[lofgoernost]

"The Ring" is a horror movie? You see, it's just that I consider that a Naomi Watts movie. She's kind of a genre in and of herself.

[Psi Baba]

Originally posted by lofgoernost
How could I have forgotten "The Wicker Man"? Frightening climax. And a great slap-wall dance by Britt Ekland.

I forget to mention it myself in my previous post. And this was my avatar for while:

http://www.port.pittsburgh.pa.us/discards/wickerman.jpg

[Duncan]

"The Ring" is a horror movie? You see, it's just that I consider that a Naomi Watts movie. She's kind of a genre in and of herself.

Ah, that she is. Have you ever seen Mulholland Drive? She has a great scene in that movie. I'd love to explain the movie to you, but unfortunately, I haven't the foggiest idea what it's about. It's just one of those Naomi Watts movies.

[Azathoth]

Originally posted by Psi Baba

Is there any more you can tell us about this? I'm intrigued.

I wish I could. You can check here (http://www.countingdown.com/movies/609348) for some info and links.
The best source of info on Lovecraftian film is Unfilmable (http://www.unfilmable.com)

Out of Mind is indeed pretty neat. You can buy it on video (NTSC & PAL) at Beyond Books (http://www.beyond-books.com/catalog/) along with a few other fine Lovecraftian films. I understand that most of these titles will be released on DVD at the HPL Film Fest, which is now less than two weeks away! Woohoo!

[lofgoernost]

Duncan wrote

Ah, that she is. Have you ever seen Mulholland Drive? She has a great scene in that movie. I'd love to explain the movie to you, but unfortunately, I haven't the foggiest idea what it's about. It's just one of those Naomi Watts movies.

Sure I've seen it. I didn't like it too much, but I'll watch it over and over again.

[pupdog]

I enjoy reading horror stories at bedtime, particularly when on vacation. They no longer scare me, but when I was a youngster some, like "The Upper Berth", did. At that age, a favorite Saturday show was "Zacherly at 12", which aired all the old horror movies, with horrible commentary.
Someone I know used to write horror stories, had a hiatus, then began writing stories more horrible than ever before--he became a Right-wing Fundamentalist!