Best Horror Of All Time

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I recently wrote a story about some boys who picked up the wrong damsel in distress, so horror often has a close cousinship with erotica. I mean, DRACULA, fairly floats in sex.

So who do you nominate for the Best Horror Tales of All?

1. PSYCHO by Robert Bloch.
2. SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King
3. RED DRAGON by Thomas Harris
4. HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson
5. THE SHINING by Stephen King

 

[Boota]

That's a tough one. It will require some thought. I'll get back to you. Everything on your list has a place in the upper ranks, I would agree.

 

[Lady_Guenivere]

Nothing scared the living crap out of me more than The Exorcist...the novel and the movie.

Still gives me the heebie jeebies...

 

[manyeyedhydra]

Some of my pet faves in no particular order.

FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
THE MAGIC COTTAGE by James Herbert
CARRIE by Stephen King
DARKFALL by Stephen Laws
MIDNIGHT by Dean Koontz

More fantasy/sci fi than horror, but with some monsters far scarier than in most horror books:
PERDIDO STREET STATION by China Mielville

Clive Barker's BOOKS OF BLOOD are the best collections of short fiction (although just about all of King's are awesome).

For horror tales in film form:
RINGU
HELLRAISER
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

My preferences anyway

 

[xssve]

Is Red Dragon Horror? If so, then Lord of the Flies has to on there too.

 

[Techomancer]

John Carpenter - The Thing.

John Carpenter - They Live.

Both for the same reason. It's not the monsters that get me, it's the fact that the people turn on each other so easily.

MIB summed it nicely "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it"

Humans scare me.

 

[cloudy]

The Stand - Stephen King (beats the hell out of anything else he's written)
The Dunwich Horror - HP Lovecraft
It - Stephen King
The Watcher - Dean Koontz
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

XSSVE

I think Hannibal Lector qualifies anything in the horror category.

 

[Guest]

"Showgirls."

The entire movie was a horror.

 

[cloudy]

"Showgirls."

The entire movie was a horror.

Better than Ishtar.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

Brrr, I think that story might be the epitome of humans being the scariest thing of all.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

CLOUDY

'IT' needs some serious editing. About 500 pages of it is sublime, and the rest is inane chatter.

Thomas Wolfe used to send Maxwell Perkins 3 wood crates of ms, and Perkins tossed out 2 1/2 crates of it.

King didnt have the Thomas Wolfe Problem early on, and he's quite good at compressing ms to novella length.

I didnt include IT on my list because of the editing.

 

[kromen]

The long walk - Stephen King (as Bachman)
I kept having recurring nightmares of being forced to walk.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

HYDRA

There are much worse than THE LOTTERY.

THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE by Colin Turnbull is a for-real study of the IK tribe of Uganda. Turnbull claimed they were the only people who ever made him sick, and they truly had no redeeming qualities circa 1960. Parents used infants as bait and feed for wild animals, children were routinely abandoned by the parents at the age of 3, and females survived as prostitutes from the age of 6 to 20, when most of them were dead. Their chief amusement was treachery and raw exploitation.

 

[Boota]

The Stand - (my favorite book ever, by the way.)

The Devil In Connecticut - a supposedly true story about possession. The documentary style narration added a creepiness factor to it.

The Exorcist - although I'm not sure if seeing the movie first made the book have a deeper impact.

It - and I think all the extra pages added to the characters. It's not a waste if it does that. Could have been shorter, but it was useful.

Salem's Lot - great vampire story.

3 out of 5 are Stephen King. Guess I'm a fan.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

BOOTA

I harpoon SK every chance I get, but I'm a fan of his. What I dont get is the haphazard quality of his work. Some of it is almost flawless and sublime, and others I want to burn in Hell.

Of course, I feel strongly that every story should begin with a drive-by shooting, a massacre, or other depravity (including kiddie GOLDEN BOOKS). I mean, God begins his book like what I'm suggesting! This is not a revelation to SK.

Too many writers start out as hormone-controlled teens, and end up like geezers trying to get it up one last time.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The Monkey's Paw (WW Jacobs) - classic
The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) - psychological horror
The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) already mentioned
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Franz Kafka)
I Am Legend (Richard Matheson)
Hubbie would make me include: At the Mountains of Madness (H.P. Lovecraft)

As for King, I'd say:

Rage (as Bachman)
The Man in the Black Suit (short story)
Carrie

 

[cloudy]

I forgot to mention Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Not precisely scary, but creepy as hell.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I forgot to mention Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Not precisely scary, but creepy as hell.

A lot of them you just have to give a nod to as being the first of their kind. Like Dracula and Frankenstein or Jekyll and Hyde. Not necessarily the first, ever, of course, but the ones that captured the collective imagination of a culture...

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Wait a minute! Is The Stand about almost everyone on earth getting wiped out and then some guy called "The Walking Dude" carrying around a H-bomb in a wagon and threatening the rest?

If it is, I have to say that was one of the silliest things I've ever read. That's the book that turned me off to Steven King.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

As I keep insisting, SK writes sublime stuff at times, and then he gets silly and inane.

He ought to take a hint from Hollywood; they seem to make films of his best books and ignore the others. And that tells me most of his books are dogs.

Lessee: CARRIE, SALEM'S LOT, THE SHINING, CHRISTINE, MISERY, CUJO, IT, THE GREEN MILE, LANGOLIERS, SHANKSHAW REDEMPTION....terrific books and good movies.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Wait a minute! Is The Stand about almost everyone on earth getting wiped out and then some guy called "The Walking Dude" carrying around a H-bomb in a wagon and threatening the rest?

If it is, I have to say that was one of the silliest things I've ever read. That's the book that turned me off to Steven King.

It's a great big favorite out there of his. That, and the Dark Tower series. Both of which didn't do a lot for me, especially the endings of each. And I hated the ending of "IT" as well. At least, the monster part. Lame. But not every author can have a hit every time. *shrug* And with someone as prolific as King has been, his "misses" percentages goes up...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

SELENA

To my way of thinking SK's hits should increase. He's suppose to know how to do it by now. BUT! All those hits back in the 70s & 80s may have been his drugs talking to us. He alludes to it.