Khizan posted:

Pet Sematary, Stephen King

Ivan Yurkinov posted:

Toxic Sludge is Good for You by Tom Tomorrow

Ivan Yurkinov posted:

Yes it is seriously terrifying. Because it is REAL.

I forgot it is no authored by Tom Tomorrow - it just has a bunch of his illustrations.

Ivan Yurkinov posted:

On a more serious note I highly recommend anything by Richard Matheson. Also, The Beast Within by Edward Levy.

Liquid Communism posted:

The original Amityville Horror is a terrifying book.

Earwicker posted:

non-fiction: In the Garden of Beasts by Eric Larsen

fiction: hard to say maybe something like The Man Who Watched Trains Go By by Georges Simenon

I've never really found fiction that scared me as much as some non-fiction can, especially anything involving ghosts or demons and poo poo that stuff just comes across as silly - the behavior of actual human beings is much more frightening.

Although Cujo did scare me pretty good when I was a kid because at that time I was already kind of frightened both of large dogs and of getting rabies, and there are some hosed up scenes in that book

Lightning Lord posted:

jagstag posted:

Oh man a thread just for me

Some of the scariest books I have read:


The House of Leaves.


Hmmmm.... how to describe this. I really do not want to give too much away because it really needs to be experienced. Note I said experienced and not read. It's sort of like a cross between The Blair Witch Project and the Lament Configuration (the gold puzzle box from Hellraiser) - the book goes from being a document about a haunted house to actually becoming a doorway into entering the fragmented experience of the haunting.

The Road


I really love The Road. Now its not a scary ghost story but stay with me. Its just so brutal. Most people might choose Blood Meridian instead but most of it just went over my head anyways and I really did not appreciate how it portrayed native americans as blood thirsty savages. When I start thinking about its meaning and the reason Cormac McCarthy wrote it, I get chills because you realize the world of the book is not that different than our world if you are a parent. I forget who said this but the quote I often associate with the book is "What gives anyone the right to rip a soul from nothing - to bring it into this flesh?" (I might have messed up the quote sorry) but as a father of a child this book really opened me up to how a parent's choice for their children truly affects how they see the world and what you must do to be a parent. It makes me question if I can be a parent at all ethically.

Hedrigall posted:

It's pretty loving scary. But it's also pretty loving not-well-written.

Definitely give it a go if you want to be creeped the gently caress out though. I still go cold thinking about the endings to some of the chapters.

Juanito posted:

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons was great. One of my favorite books. Really scary stuff. It won a lot of awards.

Song of Kali, also by Dan Simmons was creepy.. maybe a little slow, but I remember reaching an OH poo poo point that absolutely freaked me out. Not everybody agrees on this.

Ornamented Death posted:

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

I read this in third or fourth grade and it hosed me up.

It's not scary to me now, and I've certainly read horror books that are better by all appreciable measures in the intervening years, but that is the only book that ever made me lose sleep.

MeatwadIsGod posted:

These may not hold up for everyone, but Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" and "The Wendigo." Fear isn't really the right word - more like a sense of dread and isolation that continues to grope your brain even after you're done reading. Definitely something that's never been replicated for me, and I read a ton of horror short stories and weird fiction.

Inspector Gesicht posted:

I can't wait for Del Toro's movie to be not made like every other project his name is attached to. Maybe he should use a nom-de-plume.

Talmonis posted:

Horror is my wheelhouse, as I'm always in search of something that can bother me. Most of the time, I'm unsuccessful, but House of Leaves is a standout from the past few years.

I'm reading through all of Laird Barron's work, as he's entertaining, if not terrifying.

Stephen King is the master of course, and I'd recommend The Shining, IT, and Pet Semetery.

Neurosis posted:

i don't even think that much of stephen king's writing and i still thought this was good. i love writers writing about writing. all kinds of writing. i'm a lawyer, and i really started to think about it after starting to work in a government agency where most of my time i spend poring over applications written into us by law/big accounting firm partners on well over $1m/year. most of them write atrociously. the accountants tend to be worse. one application i read had 22 initialisms and acronyms in the first 12 pages, and every time you came back to it you'd have to reread the first few pages to refresh yourself.

but i digress. as i say, sometimes writers i don't think that good have good insights on writing. charles stross writing about the similarities he saw between cosmic horror and cold war fear of nuclear oblivion was cool. dan simmons writing about what he found horrifying in the foreword to carrion comfort was also cool, and i find him terribly variable. how to write is cool and interesting and learning it will probably help you in all but the most menial of jobs.

Oh precious katana posted:

I also read Song of Kali on a recommendation from a similar thread. I didn't like it much, it just made me somewhat depressed rather than scared (having a small baby myself at the time).

Juaguocio posted:

The Shining is one of the very few cases where I think the film is better than the book. Kubrick made the right decision to remove a lot of the really obvious supernatural stuff and focus on the characters' relationships.

Anyway, the scariest book I ever read is Bruce Coville's Book Of Nightmares: Tales To Make You Scream:

Specifically, the story "The Fat Man" by Joe R. Lansdale literally gave 8-year-old me nightmares, so mission accomplished, Mr. Coville!

JackBobby posted:

I'm reading Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. It seems pretty solid so far, but it's funny how much it recalls his old man's work. Specifically the aging rock star protagonist and the use of several repeating mantras/phrases. Still, it's starting stronger than anything King has written in awhile. I was hoping for something legitimately scary but it seems like it might be something I enjoy more for its decent character work- which is how I feel about a lot of King. Anybody in here read it?

Ornamented Death posted:

Joe Hill didn't rely on his dad to sell books. In fact he specifically chose to not let people know he was King's son for a long time.

Drifter posted:

I saw the movie of Horns and thought it was loving stupid and boring.