September 25, 2006

• Film: The Changeling The Haunting (1963) The Uninvited (1944) If you're a fan of ghosts on film, you owe it to yourself to see these three. I also quite liked The Blair Witch Project, but it's considered cool and hip to diss that movie now. Still, scared the crap outta me. Books, I dunno. I liked Pet Sematary when I read it in high school, and King's short stories, esp. from the 80s, are always a blast. But as far as one actually scaring me, I'm drawing a blank. Neat, creepy ideas, sure, but actual scares... I should read more. :( I usually also ask the Monkeys around Halloween to share their own "true scary stories" in the interest of getting in the seasonal mood. Would this thread be a good place for that too?
• rpm, a great 'haunted house' read is Mark Danielewski's House Of Leaves you may also want to reference some of the great suggestions from fellow monkeys I got in this thread on scary movies (I too prefer chills & suspense to gore). also, TP is the go-to monkey for the scary.
• A peculiar scene from Nabakov's Pale Fire comes to mind. Although it stands at peculiar odds to the book's overall themes, there's a description of a haunting by a phantasmal ball of light that kept me up the night I read it.
• TP, I'm with you on Blair Witch -- it scared the beejeezus out of me when I first watched it. Unfortunately, for me, it doesn't seem to hold up for repeated viewings -- its strength comes in not knowing what the fuck is going on, and seeming so close to being able to be rationally understood. Similarly scary in the less-is-more vein is Alien. Original Alien. Which does hold up to repeated viewings, oddly enough -- the scariness of the John Hurt scene gets greater and greater, as you know what's going on, but everyone else is just standing there. For reading choices, I've only been terrified by two things. First, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper, just for the way it takes you to the abyss, and lets you have a good, long look. Second choice is a strange one. Grade nine textbook, story about a Buddhist monastery, whose sole function is to decipher the 10,000 names of God. They've been doing this for centuries, solemnly writing each combination down. Then, they buy a Mark IV computer, and the names are just whizzing out of it. As the computer salesman is leaving the monastery, laughing at the monks' silliness, he sees that the stars are going out...
• Literature: Elias and the Sea Goblin. This story kept me awake one night. It was the fate of the family rather than the haunting that did it, though.
• A recent good one is A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. Chilling in it's banality, the laconic fatalism (heh) which which the dead... continue.
• Event Horizon and In the Mouth of Madness are both rather disturbing. The Skull is somewhat campy movie but it has a few really good scenes in it. House of Leaves is very good. Also, while not really a ghost story, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has some fairly creepy stuff in it.
• Kafka's Metamophosis and Amerika creep me out. Then again, most Kafka does that to me.
• Session 9 delivers some very good movie creepy-crawlies
• Oh yeah... I should add that Ju-on (Japanese "Grudge") was pretty creepy. The American version seemed watered down and formulaic by contrast. Sixth Sense had some masterful ghostly suspense early on but succumbed to the screenwriter's desire to wring charm and personality into it.
• Better than Ju-On imho and not yet bastardized for western audiences is the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters. This was also referenced in that other thread Medusa linked to. Part ghost story, part psycho-drama, all brilliant, a rare movie with a "twist" that actually holds up on repeat viewings and deepens the story. Plus, creepy-ass ghosts, yo. And Capt. Renault, I read that story--is it Vonnegut, or Bradbury? I think it has to be one of them. Some literature I love that delivers the creepiness: Masque of the Red Death by Poe (last paragraph just barely loses to the last paragraph of Joyce's "The Dead" for "most perfectly written paragraph in English evar" in the TP Awards for Kickass Literature), and also The Black Cat and Berenice. I'll come up with more as I think of it more, I'm sure... Oh--and, if you're in a Region 2 DVD area of the world (or are hip enough to have a region free player), rent or buy yourself a copy of Ghostwatch. Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant.
• Capt. Renault, the story is The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke, and is a really good 'un. That last line certainly sticks with ya. As for movies that scared me - Maximum Overdrive. Yes, it's cheesy as all get out, but to this day I still get freaked while walking through parking lots that the cars are going to become sentient and back over me. And soda machines too. The original Nightmare on Elm Street was seen by me as a pre-teen in daylight, and I thought it was cool. That night (and several nights after) I had some horrible nightmares of my own. (I did not live on Elm Street, however.) The first time I was watching Night of the Living Dead, it was late night, storming outside. Survivors are all boarded up in the house, when the zombies break through one of the windows and BOOM! Power goes out. It was several years before I actually got around to being able to watch the movie all the way through.
• For the ultimate in a good scare, I plan to go the the Haloween party that I am not yet invited to nor have heard any hint of, as George W. Bush. Think of the variety: Early in the evening I can be The War Preseedent, and search in the dip bowl and ladies' cleavage for Osama Bin laden. When the party gets rolling, I will become The Deciderer. When the wet t-shirt contest gets down to the Final Four, I'm the one that will decide the winner. That's what I do. I decide things. Later in the night, I will become a Uniter, not a Divider. I will remind people at the party that by not supporting my many initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are helping the terrorists win. And I will wrap up the evening with this important message to the people of this great nation: "Like the rest of America, I am deeply sadded that Phil and Dave over there are barfing their insides out. It is in times like these that we need to pull together as a country and work hard, pray hard, and get things done for these poor, suffering people. Now watch this drive."
• Thanks, Spish!
• For me scary movies are made by believable scary real people. This is why Audition was creepy as shit. On the other hand there is the frailty of your own mind that makes for an interesting story, that is why I like Brain Dead or Videodrome. Book wise, I never liked any horror writers outside Barker (only his early short stories) and the god of all horror Lovecraft. All that cheesy sped up film jerking around real fast ghost crap you see in horror films doesn't do anything for me. Or the overuse of bugs, or bug like people things.
• Although the stories were your standard spooky folk-tale collection, the illustrations in Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark still haunt my dream.
• Ooh! here's a gallery!
• On glamma's theory, I'd add Shallow Grave. Just the way Eccleston goes all squirrelly and shit -- brilliant!
• Crap I completely forgot about that movie. Yeah that was good.
• For my part, Three...Extremes satisfies my occasional urge to get creeped out. I have to admit I couldn't finish watching "Cut" -- I'm sure it's great, but...well, I just couldn't take it. Book-wise, Salem's Lot scared the piss out of me as a kid, and I still can't watch any of the movies without "spending a penny," as it were.
• One more vote for the book version of The Shining, which far outdid the movie version (even though it was good). I have read quite a few Clive Barker books as well, and found them to get even deeper into my brain than I would have imagined. The Damnation Game, I believe, has some really amazing passages. Also, Weave World was my favorite for a long time. I know this thread could go out of control pretty easily, but I will also add that playing Clive Barker's "Undying" game on a PC was by far the creepiest thing I've done in years. /shivers
• Another for Alien - when she goes back for the cat. Now I loves me some cats, but seriously, Ripley - Hurry the fuck up....Still makes me squirm and I've seen more times than is healthy. The scariest thing I ever read in a book was in an F Scott Fitzgerald story, can't remember which one, but some guy in college sees a ghost standing behind his mate. Completely at odds with the rest of the book. Shit me right up it did.
• though a bit more artsy than most, the others was the only ghost story in recent memory that really struck me as both new and incredibly sad (not quite scary, but it gut me)
• What TP said. I would also add Carnival of SOuls (1962). Yes, it's low budget. Yes, it's short and the plot is pretty simple. But none of that matters when you're sitting in the dark with that gritty black and white flickering on the screen, lost in the atmosphere of the abandoned buildings and the organ music.
• I've always felt that Kubrick's The Shining is a much better movie than King's The Shining is a book. If that makes sense. One man's opinion, obviously.
• I still can't watch any of the movies without "spending a penny," as it were. "Spending a penny" is a euphemism for "jacking off in the popcorn." In case anyone else was wondering.
• Surprised no one's mentioned The Ring. I've not actually seen it myself (not much of a one for horror), but it's the one that always comes up in similar conversations with friends.
• TUM -- I totally agree about Carnival of Souls. I watched that and the Exorcist on the same night once, and when I drove home (at about 3am), I *swore* I was going to see that creepy guy's face in my rearview mirror!! Any thoughts on if the guy from CoS is referenced in Lynch's Lost Highway? They look awfully similar, and may perform a similar function. The movies that scare me the worst are serial killer movies like Silence of the Lambs, probably because serial killers are real. *shudder*
• I'm actually thinking of dressing as "The Man" from Carnival of Souls for Halloween--only problem, no one would know who I'm supposed to be, as not many horror geeks work with me. The Man
• Seriously creepy! I'd give you the whole bucket of sweets. Maybe the effect it had on me was partly fueled by the childhood fear I had of the spare bathroom. The toilet, window, and mirror were placed in such a way that when you were seated, you could see the reflection of the window in the mirror. I was always sure that one day I would see a face in the mirror.
• Carnival of Souls at the Internet Archive.
• Bar none. Hands Down. Scariest THING ever. No book, story, movie, ANYTHING comes close. EVER.
• I've got a longstanding mirror-phobia. I've often said that the most disturbing and creepy supernatural thing I could think of is looking in the mirror and seeing something in it that wasn't there when I looked around--a face, a monster, a bloody bathtub, hell, even a puppy. Just the idea of it so freaks me out I get shivers from the mere thought. If I look in the mirror and see a slavering wolf-beast over my shoulder, when I turn around, HE'D BETTER FUCKING BE THERE. I don't know why I feel that way, but I do.
• Alright lets talk evil clowns. Pennywise scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. Then there was the clown doll in Poltergeist. What scared me more then anything about that doll was the fact that I had a Charlie McCarthy dummy sitting on my dresser, that I knew was gonna come for me one night. These were all childhood fears though. Now I am only afraid of dating some girl, falling in love, and when consumating the relationship finding out she has some nutty gross sex fetish. How things have changed.
• Or worse, a nutty gross sex fetish about Charlie McCarthy dolls.
• I had a Charlie McCarthy dummy sitting on my dresser, that I knew was gonna come for me one night. Humunculi! Brrrr. I still get the creeps thinking about those murderous little man-things in Cronenberg's The Brood. They look like us. But they are not us.
• I saw Dead of Night when I was five years old, and I couldn't sleep for a month. A series of short pieces, held together by a circular dream-frame the protagonist can't escape from. Very scary.
• Oooh, good call on Poltergeist. I haven't seen it in many years, and it's easy to let yourself forget just how truly scary that mofo is. Dead of Night is great too. Though it's been copied so much since it came out that it seems cliched now, never mind that it's the effective shit that started the cliche. Okay, scary doll story--- I have a female cousin who is 11 days younger than me. Our parents always lived in the same town and had a close relationship, so she and I literally grew up together. Anyway, she lived in an old house and had big windows in her room. Being the only girl in her family, she had loads of dolls, which she placed sitting on the windowsill in her bedroom. One day when we were about 6 we were playing in there, and she left to go potty or something. Leaving me alone. With the dolls. Anyway, one of the dolls was this 2-ft tall thing with curly red hair and those eyes that close when you laid her down and open when you stood her up. You all probably saw/owned these things when you were young. But this one struck me as very creepy. I forget her name...but she had one. So I was playing with some toys, my back to the window, and for some reason I turned to look outside, and I SWEAR I saw that fucking doll turn its head. Just a little, like it'd been watching me and then, when I turned, tried to pretend it wasn't. I left the room and my cousin and I played outside the rest of the day. EPILOGUE--a couple of years ago around Halloween I was at my cousin's apartment for a party, and after a few beers told her this story. She grew pale and told me that the doll I was talking about had always scared the shit out of her too. "I used to play with her because I was scared that if I didn't, she would come alive and hurt me," she said. How did you come to that idea? I asked. "Well, I was an imaginative kid--" my cousin said, "But I swear--she TOLD me so." The doll is long gone, thrown away ages ago...at least, that's what we hope. 8-0
• Dolls and clowns and dummies and mannequins, with their lifeless, staring eyes. Watching us.
• maybe it's a manifestation of the uncanny valley?
• Possibly. But where the Uncanny Valley is noteable by creatures that approach humanity but not quite, these... things, are humunculi, in no way could they be mistaken for actual humans. I think it's the eyes. Windows of the soul, right? Dead eyes = no souls. No souls = dangerous. No souls = otherworldly. Other. Alien. Chaos. Them.
• Clowns eh? Boy, if only there were someone around here with the guts to post some pictures...
• nickdanger don't encourage me to whip out my horrifying collection of clown porn!
• Are you actually trying to summon berek?
• ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
• "I've got a longstanding mirror-phobia." Go watch Prince of Darkness. Movies really don’t scare me much. Although I do like horror films. But the dream sequence creeped me out. I can’t think of anything that has come close. Rest of the movie, not so much. But worth it just for those.
• Pettle, I agree completely about "The Dead"'s final paragraph being the best closer I've ever read, but I'm not that well read. Furthermore, a cousin of mine had one of those same dolls which I also experienced the same uncanny feeling of—did it?... no, no... yes, it did—being watched. Now dopplegangers are a new fear. But what scares me most are the shadows on the backs of my eyelids. I can't get them out of my head and have to sleep with my eyes open, lest be torn apart by their abysmal apathy.
• Cardboard cutouts are pretty scary At school a teacher read us this tale - I don't like windows without curtains at night now.
• Oh, I've seen Prince of Darkness, Smedleyman. Great flick, and another good creepfest for rolypolyman's list. Why do I suddenly feel like I walked into the Hall of Justice here? Also, getting back to pure ghost stories, I remember being wigged out years ago by the eponymous Ghost Story, which I think was Fred Astaire's last movie. (He don't dance.) Though I rewatched it some time later and found it a bit long, but still effective.
• Also, in the lit dept. for a good oldfashioned ghost story (or is it?) Henry James' The Turn of the Screw also, its been movie adapted a coupla times, not too horrifically...great story!
• You know, I never really got scared by Turn of the Screw--or that into it, despite my lit degrees. James's style just sucked all the air out of the room, for me. But to each her own... Still hard to beat Poe and Lovecraft. If you're lookin' for horrifyin' readin' at work, here's some stuff online: Lovecraft's Stories Selected Poe rolypolyman mentioned another James, M. R., whom everyone should read. And thanks to the internets, you can, for free.
• ) for TP!
• The Others may not be the scariest ghost story around in and of itself, but I saw it all by myself, alone, in the theater (lunchtime matinee on a slow day). Just me and a huge, dark audirorium full of empty seats. No matter how many times I see it on the small screen in my cozy living room, it will always creep the hell out of me.
• Oh -- can't forget Bunny Lake is Missing. Original, with Olivier, Coward, and Carol Lynley. Not the crap remake.
• Wow, Captain--I never even heard that one, and I call myself a fan of the classics. Must find and watch. Thanks!
• I was at Barnes and Noble today and picked up this anthology for $10: The Scary Stories Treasury Many of you probably know the books collected here: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the less-imposingly titled Scary Stories 3. Editor Irwin Schwartz collected all the scary campfire stories/horror folklore/terrifying urban legends he could find and published them along with Stephen Gammell's truly terrifying art. These are classics of horror lit, and not just for kids. I read them as a young'un and got the crap scared out of me, then re-told them to my friends around campfires and during sleepovers to similar effect. I bought the treasury today for a trip down memory lane, and they still raise the goosebumps. Great stories, great art, great deal. If you've ever got too scared to sleep listening to ghost stories with your friends--and LIKED it--pick it up. Examples of Gammell's art.
• Irwin s/b "Alvin." Sorry.
• TP, you just totally freaked me out in a big way. A few of those pictures are exact copies of the ones I used to see behind my squeezed eyelids whan I was a scared five-year-old imagining the monsters that were coming out of the dark to get me while I slept. I wonder if I saw some of them as a teeny tot and they made a huge immpression long after I'd forgotten seeing them.
• Hell, they're giving me the night shivers now, and I'm 35!
• More literary shivers for you: Algernon Blackwood via Wiki. Links to Gutenbeg, etc. at the bottom. Good stuff, very creepy, strangely little-known. READ.