Category: Let's talk
Good evening ...
In the spirit of the dark, the terrifying, the disturbing and macabre, I ask this of each of you. What creepy entertainment - be it books, movies, music, games or audio dramas stand out in your mind. the opportunities are endless! So please, inspire me!
Zombie flicks.
Oh my goodness; there's so much from which to choose. This is my favorite jaunra as well.
As for books, I'll have to go with It by Stephen King or House of Usher by Robert McCammon.
Regarding movies, I like allot of the old made-for-TV movies from the early 80's, Don't Go to Sleep is a good one. Poltergeist is my all time favorite. Unlike allot of others, I really liked Blaire Witch project.
Authors I like who can write some pretty creepy books include Lisa Jackson and Kay Hooper. I don't like being terrified, but I am fascinated by books about people with psychic abilities and the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Heather Graham is another such author. The reason I included Lisa Jackson is that she comes up with some truly creepy villains in her books. In one, called The Morning After, the villain is killing women by putting them in coffins on top of already dead bodies and letting them sufficate.
I love those horror movies that used to play...not verry far back just those one's in the 80's and 90's that everybody laughs at. I actually think they have that perfect nightmarish quality that many of them lack today. The only acception would be Silent hill. I saw that in the theater and it was like stepping into a bad dream.
Hmm, never heard of that one.
Yeah, movies from back in the day were so much better.
Oh God, that makes me sound really old.
Anyway, I've seen where they're doing a remake of Stephen King's Carry. That oughta be a trip. I thought the original was a classic and shouldn't have been touched but I guess if that's what it takes to get a new generation excited about King, then so be it.
I also like the book, Despiration by King for a good scary read.
I need to go on Audible and find some new scary stuff for the upcoming season so yall come on with the suggestions. *grin*
Speaking of movies from back in the day, let's talk about Poltergeist.
It is one of my all time favorites. I remember when it first came out on HBO in the early 80's. I watched it a bunch and remember being about 7 or so. Not being able to see however, I didn't realize how much visually scary stuff there was and made the mistake of letting my step daughter watch it when she was 8. For one thing, I didn't know she already had a fear of clowns. Oops. She has told me as an adult that she had nightmares about that movie for years. Again, oops.
On bookshare, several years ago, I found a novelization of the movie which was quite accurate. Holy shit, the visual descriptions in the book helped me to realize what was showing on the screen in the movie. Wow!
Hmm, now I'm starting to think I should watch the movie, with one hand on the pause button of the dvd player, and the other controling the book for descriptions. That'd be a hoot but isn't likely to happen. lol
Anyway, it's a great book on bookshare if you like the movie.
Have you read Misery? I both read the book and saw the movie and I was impressed that the movie didn't hold anything back.
I'm a huge Stephen King fan. It's hard to pick a favorite, but The Shining, Christine, and Needful Things are some of the books that stand out. I haven't read Desperation yet; I'll have to check it out.
Oh yeah, Misery is another good one.
Yep, I've read it but it's been a long time. I remember enjoying it allot though. I also liked pet Sematary.
Another truly scary as crap movie is an old one called Entity. It's about a lady who is raped and haunted by an unseen entity. It has some the truly scariest music I think I've ever heard. It's probably the one horror movie in my life that I'll most likely not ever watch again. It freaked me out that badly. lol If I think about it, I can still hear the music and get the heebiegeebies.
It's based on a book, which I also read. NLS has it but only on cassette. Well, they did in 1992, anyway.
Netflix has the movie on streaming so if you want to be absolutely scared shitless, I dare you to watch it. lol
Hmm, Entity (the book) sounds interesting; maybe I can get it in braille from Bookshare, if NLS doesn't have it in braille.
I loved needful things. Hmmm entidy sounds disturbing.
I don't think bookshare has it, unfortunately. I'd like to reread it but can't find it anywhere.
Yeah, Needful Things was awesome too.
I think it had some dark humor if you think about it. Boy I also loved the short story 1408. The movie was great as well.
Great!
I also really enjoy King. I can't say I've ever been freaked out or even all that disturbed by his movies, but Pet semetary has to be one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. The whole atmosphere was just really disturbing.
Margurp (I think?) You said watching Silent Hill was like stepping into a bad dream. Did you mean that in a good or a bad way? I absolutely loved the first three silent hill games; some of the most disturbing ambience I've ever encountered. Creepy little faceless children with knives in a run-down school, bloody ramblings and hints to puzzles scrolled on the wall, and that's just in the real world. The nightmare world....Well that's like something right out of hell! All rust, blood, iron and a terrible pearcing soundtrack which actually set my teeth on edge.
Speaking of which, while it's not necessarily a horror movie, I found the film Jacob's Ladder to have some really disturbing parts in it. It's one movie I'd love to get in (GOOD) DVS, because my limited perception missed some of the more subtle aspects.
The games won't do it justice. Watching the movie was like examining my childhood dreams. It kind of got me to face them and figure out why they used to affect me so much. It's tough to explain to anybody really.
They should definitely DVS more horror movies.
That's very intersting Margurp. I'm going to have to check out that movie. I don't know why I haven't seen it already.
My favorite author for horror books is John Saul. He writes some truly creepy books. Some of my favorites by him are Perfect Nightmare, Suffer the Children, and Shadows. As for movies, maybe I just don't know any better, but the paranormal Activity series is pretty scary. I think that partially has to do with the fact that I've actually had some experiences similar to, though not as bad as, those movies.
I want to see those. Should I have someone with me to describe things or are they easy to follow without sight?
Actually I never went for horror flicks of the Eighties or Nineties just because they seemed full of these multi-sequel slasher franchises, and I just never went much for the splatter. I prefer the so-bad-they're-good kind of drive-in movie fare from the Fifties and Sixties. Give me giant bugs and Vincent Price and badly dubbed Italian and Japanese flicks any day, and many of them can be had for cheap in these wonderful multi-movie packs. Probably not genuinely creepy though. For that there's nothing like a good Alfred Hitchcock film for suspense. Oh, and there's lots of old radio drama to be had for download at archive.org. Theater Five has some good creepy stories, and so does Quiet Please and Lights Out. Shows like the Whistler and Inner Sanctum also have creepy aspects, but I think in those days it seemed horror was synonymous with the murder mystery. Oh, and let's not forget Suspense, that's a good thriller show, and if you can get hold of the more recently produced Twilight Zone radio dramas, those are good, as well as the original TV series and the original Outer Limits.
And there's Horror Theater radio, on shoutcast.com.
Yes, you'll definitely need someone to describe the paranormal Activity movies. On the other hand, I think they have the first two on Blind Mice described, so you might be able to grab them from there.
Sweet! Thanks. I'll check that out.
I love King's work for a lot of reasons. Needful Things is a great book so was Cell.
It seems King has a way of portraying the protagonist's thought life that usually mirrors mine. I relate to the comic in Cell, the sheriff in Needful Things, and to some extent Nick in The Stand.
Oh and the father in the short story The Monkey, which you can get in the book called Skeleton Crew. That also is on Web Braille. I wonder how many Skeleton Crew stories have made it into movies? i personally related to the father in The Mist as well.
I'm typically not a fan of horror anything, as I don't like being terrified. I did enjoy reading cell, though, and there was this CD I used to listen to in elementary school that had cool scarey music. wish I could remember its name. I thought it was fright night, but this CD was pretty upbeat, without much of an orchestra in it.
Leo, I read the monkey. As a kid I had a monkey like that and for some reason I'll never understand, it scared the piss out of me.
yep, that was one scary ass monkey. lol
BTW, blindmice movie vault does have paranormal Activity 1, 2, and 3. I'm currently downloading them. It would be going much faster if I could renew my account with a discover card but that's another rant for another day. lol Thanks for the tip.
Pet Cemetery (the book and the movie) still retain the power to disturb the hell out of me, even more so than the gore movies that have been banned in some countries because of their content.
Oh, I loved Cell too. ShatteredSanity, I'll have to check out those John Saul books at some point, if I can get them from Web-Braille or Bookshare. I've heard of him, but I've never read anything by him.
Bookshare has a whole bunch of his books. Web Braille unfortunately does not. Oh, and Cell was a great book too. I read that a few years ago.
Let's play!
Who's dead?
Is it you?
I like John Saul as well.
I watched Paranormal Activity I and II today and thought they were great. I thought II was much scarier than I but perhaps that's because I could totally picture that happening in my house and because I have a child. I can't wait to get III and watch it tomorrow.
Oh, if you thought it was scary what was happening to the kid, wait until you see the third one. Oddly enough, I liked the first one better. The second one had its moments, but it took way too long to get to the good parts, in my opinion.
Yes, cell was great.
Funnily enough, Sabrena and I thought the ending of Cell wasn't very satisfactory for whatever reason. I mean, King may have had all his ideas tied up and it just wasn't written satisfactorily, I don't know, but I suppose as the storyteller he has a right to do such things. I should take a lesson from the Dark Tower books. It's not the destination but the journey that's important.
Endings where everything isn't all wrapped up or known drive me crazy. lol I kinow that's part of the story but I always want to knnow what happens.
I agree. The ending of Cell was especially bad for that. Great book, disappointing ending.
If I'm remembering correctly, the original publication of The Mist had a similar ending. They went to a Howard Johnson's and then it just ended. The movie, of course, had a very different and far more disturbing ending.
I remember that. Anyone see the movie leprichaun? I only saw the first 2 but I heard it was downhill after that.
I absolutely loved John Saul's Perfect Nightmare. I think it helped that the narrator of the audio book was so good to.
Leo, I really enjoyed the Myst, and Cell also. I'm not generally a huge fan of the zombie apokalypse genre, but there are some stories within it that I really do enjoy. That is one of them. I wasn't aware the Myst had a movie made. I'm going to have to check that out. I too was not a big fan of the ending of Cell. But I find there are a number of King's books whose endings I'm not a big fan of. That whole "it's not the destination, but the journey" only goes so far.
I find gore isn't at all synonimous with horror for me. To me, the creepiest movies are usually the subtle ones. One of my favorites has always been Rose Red. It was a movie which immediately followed Stephen King's book "The Diary of Ellen Rimbower." It had a creepy mantion, lots of paranormal activity and a lot of very interesting backstory, even without having red the book.
I forget who wrote "The Road" about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic time, you never learned what it was caused the apocalypse but you just see them working through it. Liked that book also, but I'm into survival stories and the apocalyptic themes.
Oh man, I loooooooove apocolyptic/survival stories.
Think I might have to start a separate topic just for those. lol I'd love some of your suggestions on good ones.
I would recommend the audio stories from this website:
www.chillingtalesfordarknights.com
They've got a lot of disturbing, eerie and unnerving contemporary stories that will linger on an overly imaginative listener's mind.
There's an old-time radio show called The Innersanctum. The narrator and music are creepy. There's also another one called The Creaking Door that is good. Favorite creepy movie has to be Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.
Lights Outs smokes both of those.
This is true. During the Arch Obler years, Lights Out had some of the creepiest stories. The best of these can be found in a 26-episode series Obler released in the early Seventies to radio stations, kind of a best-of Lights Out comp called The Devil and Mr. O. This is 26 of Obler's best episodes. You can find it at archive.org.
My favorite episode was cemetery. First heard that when I was like 13 and it scared the fuck out of me. Good stuff.
I recently found mp3s of a few halloween tapes and records I had when I was little, from the 70s and 80s. Awesome stuff, way better than the ones that are out there now. You get scary music and track titles like Guillotine, Breaking Neck, Sawing off Head, etc.