I love to be scared. It’s why I love Halloween and walking late at night. When other people want to unwind with a good book, they choose something light and funny. I go for straight-up horror—the creepier, the better—which is why I recently looked up what are broadly considered the scariest books of all time. There are tons of lists, but here is a pretty accurate accumulation of books that were mentioned repeatedly:
The Shining by Stephen King (and several other books of his. The movie is one of my all-time favorites, and his short story collection, Everything’s Eventual, is still the best collection of all time.)
Hannibal Lecter by Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs made the cut, as well. Also a great flick.)
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (Also a great flick.)
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (ALSO a great flick.)
The Road to Madness by H.P. Lovecraft (anything by him, generally)
Ghost Story by Peter Straub (I remember this one scared the crap out of me in college. Movie was so-so.)
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Duh. Goes without saying.)
Turn of the Screw by Henry James (The Others with Nicole Kidman was an adaptation of this story.)
I could go on for a while here, but you get the idea.
I went to the library and picked up The Exorcist, a book of Poe stuff, Turn of the Screw, and The Road to Madness. I felt it important that I read some of the “great horror authors” in order to become a better horror author myself. The Exorcist, as expected, was creepy. I adore Poe—always have, always will. Turn of the Screw was terribly boring and not scary in any way. Lovecraft may be over my head a little, but I haven’t passed judgment on him … yet.
The point of all this? I think something’s wrong with me. Because I wasn’t scared at all.
The same goes for movies. I adore horror movies. I watch them all the time. I think I remember that they used to scare me, but they don’t anymore. Now, I watch them for the cinematic value and because I just, well, like ‘em. But I’m not necessarily scared of horror films, especially when you consider I have to walk our dog at 3 AM, by myself, and all I do is yawn. After watching Halloween or The Shining, any normal person would probably look over her shoulder at least a little bit and wonder if someone’s there.
Our country as a whole has a similar problem, I think, and it has never been more apparent to me than right now. Yesterday, the White House announced they would not be releasing photos of Bin Laden’s shattered, bloody forehead, and everyone started to complain. What the hell is the matter with us? Have we watched too many episodes of CSI? Why on earth do we want to see a picture of some dead guy, even if he was a terrorist? It’s because we’re not afraid anymore of what we should humanely be afraid of. We’re not scared of gore, which is why we watch terrible, grotesque torture films like Saw, Saw II, Saw III … you get the
Just to let you know, I hate horror movies. Always have. I have not read, nor do I ever plan to read a Stephen King novel.
I have read some of Poe’s stories, they are more mystery to me than horror, there is a touch of self-fear in them. I have not read all of his stories.
I watch CSI, NYCSI, NCIS and sometimes the First 48. I do tend to avert my eyes when they are doing the autopsy thing, but then again not so much. Probably because I have had so much surgery myself.
I do not watch hospital shows, even the real ER shows. The fictionalized stories are bogus, the real one is too traumatic.
I hate the whole vampire, zombie, ax murder type of stories.
bwack bwack, bwack.
Horror is definitely an acquired taste. There is no “kind of” liking it. Either you love it or you hate it. Much of it can be traumatic, for sure, but as a fan of Halloween, I can’t help but love it!