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I love both King and Ligotti. King for his ability to create great imagery and mood in his best moments (Night Shift is still one of the best collections of horror shorts ever), and Ligotti for being the most obviously depressed man alive and bringing that to the reader on every page.
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Nov 23, 2021 00:27
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I really enjoy Nathan Ballingrud's short stories - when I first read the North American Lake Monsters collection, it really floored me Hulu adapted some of them into a series recently but I haven't seen the show
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Nov 23, 2021 00:28
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Ligotti should team up with someone like Gaspar Noe and make the most depressing movie of all time
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Nov 23, 2021 00:28
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all writers have good and bad qualities, no one is better than anyone else. except for me, i'm better than everyone else. trust me.
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Nov 23, 2021 00:37
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Ligotti has a lot of really fascinating ideas but someone bought him a thesaurus when he was ten years old and it absolutely shows.
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Nov 23, 2021 00:47
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Pope Corky the IX posted:King’s work took a noticeable downturn after getting hit by a van. He had a resurgence of sorts after Under the Dome with like a 50/50 batting record. Revival might be the scariest ending he's ever written.
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Nov 23, 2021 01:10
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LemonLimeSoda posted:I really enjoy Nathan Ballingrud's short stories - when I first read the North American Lake Monsters collection, it really floored me the show's very hit and miss but Ballingrud has two excellent collections: North American Lake Monsters and Wounds are both terrific
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Nov 23, 2021 01:27
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North American Lake Monsters sounded awesome until I learned it was fiction 
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Nov 23, 2021 01:31
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monster spotters guide to north america is probably the non fiction book close for what you wanted
Snooze Cruise fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Nov 23, 2021 |
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Nov 23, 2021 01:36
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Kvlt! posted:Ligotti should team up with someone like Gaspar Noe and make the most depressing movie of all time 
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Nov 23, 2021 01:40
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Peter Straub's anthology Houses Without Doors has some horror stories that benefit from how reality-grounded they are.
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Nov 23, 2021 01:49
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I've been rereading Michael Shea and he's a bit uneven, but pretty good. Frank Belknap Long, too.
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Nov 23, 2021 01:59
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A Proper Uppercut posted:I've probably read 90% or all of King's stuff, and definitely think his short stories are his strongest. It's real good, horror Star Trek with a dash of Lovecraft and only 20 or 30 pages or so.
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Nov 23, 2021 02:19
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Tarnop posted:I enjoy our occasional literary derails and there have been some excellent recommendations here in the past, so throw them out there! Assuming you don't mean just King, my top 10.5 recommendations to the thread for non-King horror novels are: The House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons We Have Always Lived In The Castle - Shirley Jackson The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko Little Star - John Ajvide Lindqvist [1] Usher's Passing - Robert McCammon The Thief of Always - Clive Barker Assassin - Shaun Hutson The Doll Who Ate His Mother - Ramsey Campbell The Keep - F. Paul Wilson The Devil You Know - Mike Carey I've left out a number of better, better-known novels because I expect people may have read them already. [1] Except for Kvlt, who should read Lindqvist's I Always Find You instead (or first, at least).
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Nov 23, 2021 02:20
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Jedit posted:Assuming you don't mean just King Absolutely, the King conversation was just a good starting point
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Nov 23, 2021 02:26
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Jedit posted:[1] Except for Kvlt, who should read Lindqvist's I Always Find You instead (or first, at least). This look p cool, just ordered a copy. Will report back when I finish it, thanks!
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Nov 23, 2021 02:31
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By the way, while we're talking short stories, anyone who hasn't read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery should immediately do so (you can generally find it online in its entirety). There's about as much horror distilled into a tiny amount of pages/words as is possible in that story.
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Nov 23, 2021 02:37
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Kvlt! posted:I also think that King is a creep. People defend all the weird pedo and sex stuff in his books "Oh he was on drugs" etc. I'm pretty sure King was a victim of CSA which is why he deals with a lot of weird poo poo in his books. He always writes scenes from the perspective of the victim. Like, Gerald's Game's flashbacks ring as autobiographical to me. Edit: And his best book is "The Long Walk." It's weird that it was never adapted to film since it directly inspired the entire battle royale/death game genre (and no, I don't count the most dangerous game as a death game. Hunting isn't a real game.) Scissorfighter fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Nov 23, 2021 |
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Nov 23, 2021 03:16
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Cannot let horror-lit chat skate by without mentioning Robert Aickman, who thought reading horror stories were a mild form of S&M and whose 'strange stories' operate on the sort of dream logic David Lynch would popularize, like, twenty years later. Check out his short story The Hospice as a starting place. Also, old editions of his books have absolutely killer artwork.  
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Nov 23, 2021 03:29
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AKZ posted:I've been rereading Michael Shea and he's a bit uneven, but pretty good. Frank Belknap Long, too. I read Polyphemus a couple years back and was blown away, would kill to find a copy at a decent price
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Nov 23, 2021 03:31
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Started Hellbound on a recommendation in the thread. Its ok so far, a lot of interesting ideas but nothing really cohesive yet. Hoping the final few episodes bring everything together neatly but when does that ever happen in the age of streaming series?
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Nov 23, 2021 03:38
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Scissorfighter posted:Edit: And his best book is "The Long Walk." It's weird that it was never adapted to film since it directly inspired the entire battle royale/death game genre (and no, I don't count the most dangerous game as a death game. Hunting isn't a real game.) It was supposedly, just before the pandemic IIRC. King has a cool thing where he lets student filmmakers adapt his stories for a dollar. King seems like a real-deal good guy, even if he sometimes nudges into some red flags.
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Nov 23, 2021 04:43
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Rewatching the Scream franchise. I got 20 minutes into 3 before I had a hunch and checked IMDB. Yeah, Kevin Williamson didn't write it. The characters lose all the development they got in Scream 2, especially Gail. Cotton is also portrayed as a "controversial" ex-con, which is weird for a character who had a year of his life stolen and didn't even want revenge. He didn't touch Scream 5 either, so I'm not going to be holding my breath for that one. Seems like the production was also a complete disaster. Wes Craven was coerced into making it so the studio would greenlight "Music of the Heart" and they only had Neve Campbell for 20 shooting days. quote:Kevin Williamson was unavailable to return to writing duties, but he did write an outline for the film. Ehren Kruger all but ignored the outline, and his script was written mostly on the fly, with pages usually completed the day they were to be filmed. The characters bore so little resemblance to their appearances in the prior films that director Wes Craven did re-writes. Goddamn, so the characters started off even worse. Scissorfighter fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Nov 23, 2021 |
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Nov 23, 2021 05:42
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weekly font posted:Started Hellbound on a recommendation in the thread. Its ok so far, a lot of interesting ideas but nothing really cohesive yet. Hoping the final few episodes bring everything together neatly but when does that ever happen in the age of streaming series? Holy gently caress does it not tie up anything and becomes a different show halfway through with a mostly new cast. Also if you watched Midnight Mass and were mad about monologues buckle up. Do not recommend.
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Nov 23, 2021 06:49
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Most important observations about the Screams: Scream 1: Stu and Billy were absolute lunatics the entire time and somehow the reveal that they were the killers was still surprising. They're so fun to watch; best slasher villains imo. Scream 2: Killers barely got any screen time as themselves, which was unfortunate. I wanted more Tim Olyphant as Tarantino. Cop car was the best set-piece in the series. Scream 3: ??? https://twitter.com/dustin_gunn/status/1463089856062496771 Scream 4: Good satire of reboots, with Sydney ending up battling her rebooted self. Some of the kills were turned into jokes though, which sucks rear end. Even Scream 3 never did that. "gently caress Bruce Willis" was the worst scene in the series.
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Nov 23, 2021 11:27
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Scissorfighter posted:
It's in Development Hell right now. Personally I think it needs to be done as a mini-series to give the characters time to breathe. The book has no stakes if you don't get to see the boys become friends and Stebbins gradually come out of his shell, and the horror is greatly muted if you cut out Olsen's decline. E: I don't want to read The Lottery again because Lottery Day is my birthday.
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Nov 23, 2021 12:06
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Scissorfighter posted:I'm pretty sure King was a victim of CSA which is why he deals with a lot of weird poo poo in his books. He always writes scenes from the perspective of the victim. Like, Gerald's Game's flashbacks ring as autobiographical to me. Andre Ovredal is working on an adaption though it's still in the planning stages I think. Covid's hosed all the schedules so when/if it gets made remains to be seen.
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Nov 23, 2021 12:42
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There’s also the issue of greenlighting a movie where ninety-nine boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one get shot in the head.
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Nov 23, 2021 14:57
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Pope Corky the IX posted:There’s also the issue of greenlighting a movie where ninety-nine boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one get shot in the head. Just make sure they're in uniform and it'll be all good.
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Nov 23, 2021 15:44
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Pope Corky the IX posted:There’s also the issue of greenlighting a movie where ninety-nine boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one get shot in the head. 18 is the upper age, not 21; Garrity thinks at one point that someone was too old to be a Walker because they were over 18. And there doesn't seem to be a lower bound if you can pass the physical - Art Baker didn't think Percy was as old as 14. But then, that's the point. The Long Walk is fascist authoritarian America devouring its own young for entertainment. The winner receives the Prize, but nobody really seems to know what the Prize is. Most kids in America take the tests and from that you'd think winners of the Walk would be like sports stars, but just one former winner is ever mentioned by name, and him only in the context of being the only winner from Maine and having died a month after the Walk. Stebbins, who knows everything about the Walk, saw the end once but doesn't know what happened to the winner afterwards. So really, McVries is correct in his nihilistic view.
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Nov 23, 2021 15:51
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See, I thought the ages were younger but couldn't remember. I haven't read it in a long time ever since someone stole my copy of Bachman Books. Which, due to King pulling Rage, has been out of print for decades.
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Nov 23, 2021 16:18
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Pope Corky the IX posted:See, I thought the ages were younger but couldn't remember. I haven't read it in a long time ever since someone stole my copy of Bachman Books. Which, due to King pulling Rage, has been out of print for decades. There's a new edition of Bachman that just has Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. I actually have a pb edition of the Bachman Running Man, and I still on one level regret passing up the opportunity to "accidentally destroy" my local library's Bachman hb Thinner and replace it with a King edition.
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Nov 23, 2021 16:39
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:If I had to do a top 10 Stephen King books I've read I think 7 or 8 or them would be short stories. I'd say his short stories are the best with his full novels being a 50/50 crapshoot. alf_pogs posted:once again i am here to stan Ramsey Campbell. his books meander a bit, but the novels Ancient Images and The Nameless are both extremely good British cosmic horror. Midnight Sun is well-regarded but I don't love it as much as some of his pulpier stuff. there's also Campbell collections of Lovecraftian short-stories from his youth, and an artist friend archived all his sketchbook doodles. http://jkpotter.com/the-art-of-ramsey-campbell/ Ancient Images is one of my top favorite Campbells. I've read that one so much I've had two copies fall apart and I'm probably going to have to go with a Kindle version next. His latest one, The Wise Friend was pretty good. Barker's Books of Blood's pretty much a must read. Of other books I've enjoyed that haven't been mentioned yet are: The Cthulhu Casebooks by James Lovegrove. While Sherlock Holmes against the Mythos isn't anything new, these are particularly well done. Most of what I've read so far from Manly Wade Wellman. Lot of dark fantasy horror here. Guy N Smith's work is pretty much B movies in novel form like his Crabs series, Slimebeast series and Deathbell duology. Jack Quaid's Escape From series is one I'd love to see movie adapted. A final girl becomes a slasher hunter. The Splatter Western series is pretty much Grindhouse era Spaghetti Westerns with a generous several dashes of paranormal in novel form. Each book's its own thing, covering multiple perspectives. I wasn't too big on Human Shaped Fiends and They Built A Gallows For You And Me, but that's no biggie. Grady Hendrix's Horrorstor, Final Girls Support Group, Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, and My Best Friend's Exorcism were all pretty good. Duncan Ralston's Ghostland Trilogy just released the third book. Turns out ghosts are real and doing a haunted theme park's not the greatest of ideas. David J West's various Weird West novels have been pretty good, particularly any of his Porter Rockwell ones. Let Sleeping Gods Lie and Home on the Strange involve Mythos horrors. I've just started getting into Edward M Erdelac's stuff. The Merkebah Rider series was pretty good as was Conquest, and Rainbringer. Monstrumfuher is probably one of the better Frankenstein's Monster in WW2 entries I've read. Cameron Roubique's stuff is pretty much 80s era horror films in novel form. The Kill River series is good, the Year of Blood series is only two books in so far and is okay. Greg Kihn's Horror Show is exceptionally good. On the horror comedy angle D M Guay's 24/7 Demon Mart series pretty decent. Series follow Lloyd, a total slacker who ends up employed at a convenience store that's a customs/border access for Hell.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:33
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I imagine M_Sin spends their days with one eye on a movie and one eye on a book. God bless.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:41
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Kvlt! posted:I imagine M_Sin spends their days with one eye on a movie and one eye on a book. God bless. Actually, yes. Been multitasking like that since I was a kid.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:42
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I don't know if anyone mentioned him and I missed it but Joe R. Lansdale is a modern master. This collection is a good sampler. Writes lots of good Westerns and crime stories too.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:43
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:I don't know if anyone mentioned him and I missed it but Joe R. Lansdale is a modern master. This collection is a good sampler. Writes lots of good Westerns and crime stories too. I'll have to snag that one. I enjoyed his Dead in the West and Drive In series.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:50
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I'm always kinda shocked we don't see more horror westerns. The ones that do exist are usually just horror movies in a western setting, they don't incorporate the genre of western.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:51
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Writes down "Hateful Eight x The Thing" in nanowrimo_ideas.docx
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Nov 23, 2021 18:55
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^ I would definitely read that.Kvlt! posted:I'm always kinda shocked we don't see more horror westerns. The ones that do exist are usually just horror movies in a western setting, they don't incorporate the genre of western. Since I moved out to New Mexico and got more into Weird Wild West stuff, there's so much they could do with movies, but just don't. A lot of the stuff I've read would make really good move adaptations.
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Nov 23, 2021 18:57
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