Favorite Horror Movies and what influence

[Lord DragonsWing]

The other night, Bravo showed a multi hour special of the ratings of favorite horror movies and how they've affected the arts. The interviews made me think again. I know that's always a problem.

What are your favorite horror movies and do the writers influence your writing today? Do you follow the style of Wes Craven? Or is there someone else? Did the movie The BLOB at the Big Show give you a shudder and run screaming? Or did it or another movie move you to write?

Dig deep and let us all know.

LDW

 

[Guest]

Interesting questions. However, I can honestly say that I have never been inspired to write by a film. By horror books, most definitely, but not horror films.

Horror writers definitely influence me today, albeit subconsciously, but not screenwriters, or adaptations of novels to film. That's a whole different thing.

Sorry for a vague answer, but I'm feeling vague this morning.

Lou

 

[Lord DragonsWing]

Interesting questions. However, I can honestly say that I have never been inspired to write by a film. By horror books, most definitely, but not horror films.

Horror writers definitely influence me today, albeit subconsciously, but not screenwriters, or adaptations of novels to film. That's a whole different thing.

Sorry for a vague answer, but I'm feeling vague this morning.

Lou

You're not vague Lou. The special made me thing of movies and the interviews with the writers showed me the influence.

So which horror writers influence your writings? I ask this to anyone. And show us your stories that they have influenced you with. Not just film, but the good old paperbacks.

 

[Guest]

You're not vague Lou. The special made me thing of movies and the interviews with the writers showed me the influence.

So which horror writers influence your writings? I ask this to anyone. And show us your stories that they have influenced you with. Not just film, but the good old paperbacks.

Okie, I get you! Sorry, I'd only had one cup of tea. I've had two now - brain functioning better.

Horror writers who have influnced me... the biggest influence, so far, has to be Richard Laymon. I've been told my writing (especially in novels) is very "Laymonesque". As I said, above, that influence is subconscious. I do not go out to write like him. I do believe I have a very different style and voice, it's more the content and plot devices that I use which are "Laymonesque". His writing was very cinematic, and I believe mine is, too. He pulled no punches with his writing, and neither do I. (I speak of him in the past tense, btw, because he passed away a few years ago. )

In fact, many of his books would make brilliant movies and a lot of us (his fans, who met through his official site) have tried petitioning movie-makers. No success, yet (although In The Dark was made, as a low budget movie), but we'll keep the pressure up.

One story I have on this site, which has been called "Laymonesque" is Faithful. It's in Erotic Horror.

He tended to write a lot about "normal" people (i.e. not the paranormal - although he did, rarely), in very intense and extreme situations. I like writing like that.

Another influence (and currently my favourite author) is Ray Garton. He's in the same vein as Laymon, but more experimental, I believe, and not as formulaic in his writing.

I will say, though, that I try to shed my influences, somewhat, because I want to be "unique". Don't we all?

Lou

 

[Guest]

 

[Blackie Malone]

I watched that also....I'm sorry, but Jaws being the scariest??? Sorry, the Exorcist did it for me, the part when her head spun gave me the willies.

The show however, did get me to go back and start working on a horror story I've put on the back burner.

It's always amazed me how someone can put words on paper that can scare the shit out of you.
and I thought Clive Barker was British?

 

[rgraham666]

Clive Barker is British.

I think the closest to horror writer that influences me is Harlan Ellison. His story I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is one of the most unnerving stories I've ever read.

A writer called Raccoona Sheldon wrote a story called The Screwfly Solution. I read it once 25 years ago, never again since, and I can recall every word. Brrrr.

Lilred? Try the books King wrote under the name Richard Bachman. Very short novels. And very good in my opinion. The Running Man was especially good. Do not judge this book by the movie. The movie blew huge fucking chunks.

 

[Sabledrake]

Like Lou, although I'm a lifelong horror fan I read it much more than I watch it. I read THE SHINING when I was ten and so it's fair to say that King has been a big influence on my life. I love Koontz's middle-career work; STRANGERS and LIGHTNING are two of my favorite books ever. Robert McCammon, Bentley Little, and Richard Laymon are also all just fantastic.

And I guess if I'm being honest here, John Saul has probably had a lot of influence on my horror writing, at least so far. The Trinity Bay books have a kind of Saul-ish feel to them. Except that then there's the nasty sex in a couple of them ...

I think the reason JAWS made the top of that 100 scariest moments list wasn't because it was the scariest moment of all, but that proportionally it scared the crap out of the greatest number of people. Damn near everyone saw JAWS, and damn near everyone was at least mildly freaked. Fewer people saw stuff actually billed as a "horror" movie. So the overall amount of worldwide scare was higher

On a related note, I just saw THE RING recently and was quite pleasantly surprised by how downright-damn-creepy it was. Good stuff. I will actually go and see the sequel.

-- Sabledrake

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Ray Bradbury and Charles Beaumont.

What I love about these two authors is the way they deal with existential horror: the horror of everyday life. Anyone can create some slimy blob or maniac and send it skittering towards a helpless victim. That’s child’s play. But to show the horror of loneliness or the terrors that haunt real life - those moments of dread when we suddenly realize that things aren’t what they seem - that’s an art. Monsters are easy to deal with, existential horror isn’t.

Beaumont’s not as well known as Bradbury, but he’s probably more terrifying. He wrote one story I read when I was very young (maybe too young) about a boy who lives with his evil mother on the edge of a swamp. She insists on dressing him in girl’s clothes and calling him Roberta, and in one scene I’ll never forget she punishes him for something by cutting the wings off his pet bird with a pair of dressmaker’s shears. Beaumont describes the fluttering and the feathers falling as the kid has to watch. It’s one of those scenes I wish I’d never read.

Lovecraft is great fun, and he gets close to existential horror, but I love Bradbury's October Country-type stuff better. I remember the story about the man who became obsessed with the idea of his skeleton inside him and went around to Doctors asking if they'd help get his bones out. As I recall, he finally tried to claw his way into his own body to let them out. That was scary. Didn't he also write one about a woman yawning to death?

People obsessed, people suddenly seeing the familiar in new and terrifying ways. That's the essence of horror for me.

 

[Boota]

I read a lot of horror and I always wanted to be a horror writer. Somehow I have ended up writing comedy. I'll get around to horror some day, though.

I have pulled some influence from horror writers and even a few movies. The ideas of pacing and setting up scenes the way it was done in The Exorcist is something I often come back to when plotting a novel. Even a comedy novel. Like the psychological explosions of horror in that movie, I try to build to a climax, whether it is for a joke or a serious point to move the story.

If I ever try to write a story with a fuckton of characters I will refer to Stephen King's The Stand. Back when I read that I wasn't even thinking of being a writer yet, but now I am amazed at how well me managed such a huge cast of important characters.

 

[scheherazade_79]

I have trouble finding horror movies that scare me, because I don't get freaked out by monsters, beasts, vampires and werewolves. The ones that work best for me are always the ones that could actually happen. My top three are as follows:

The Shining - I once watched it on my own at uni. Everyone else had gone home for the weekend, and I lived in a flat with a long red-carpeted corridor, almost identical to the one in the film. My room was one end and the toilet was the other. I was so terrified by the resemblence that I came close to having to pee in a bottle, in order to avoid walking down the hallway.

White Noise - I saw this at the cinema the other week. I don't know what it was about it, but it scared me senseless. It's the only film I've been to that I've contemplated walking out in the middle because I couldn't take any more of the horror.

The Sixth Sense - This one also gets my imagination going. I keep thinking that I'm seeing things out of the corner of my eye.


I'm not sure if they influence the way I write, because I've never really written any horror as such. But they're definitely a reflection of my style, because I tend to stick with plot lines that could actually happen.

 

[Op_Cit]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Alien yet.

Horror doesn't do anything to/for me, but a few times I've been creeped. Alien made me jump and seriously creeped me out. (The amazing thing is that a friend described to me the entire film beginning to end the day before I saw it. I knew who was going to die and when. And everything in the movie still surprised me.)

Doc had it right with RB & CB.

One short story that gave me the shivers was Lost Boys by Card (short not book).

OC

Oh wait, there is one seriously scary thing I catch a glimpse of now and then: "Barney".

 

[cloudy]

Ray Bradbury and Charles Beaumont.

What I love about these two authors is the way they deal with existential horror: the horror of everyday life. Anyone can create some slimy blob or maniac and send it skittering towards a helpless victim. That’s child’s play. But to show the horror of loneliness or the terrors that haunt real life - those moments of dread when we suddenly realize that things aren’t what they seem - that’s an art. Monsters are easy to deal with, existential horror isn’t.

I can remember reading Something Wicked This Way Comes when I was fairly young - maybe 11 or 12, and it scared the bejesus out of me. There are few books that I can remember little picky details about, but that one's on the list. I've never been able to hear calliope music without thinking about that story since then.

*shiver