itt: good horror
>Poe
>Bierce
>Machen
>Blackwood
>Hodgson
>Lovecraft
>Clark Ashton Smith
>Ligotti
>Ramsey Campbell
>Caitlin Kiernan
>Laird Barron
>Robert Shearman
Twilight
>>8232499
I'm reading the Blackwood collection Penguin released right now and I'm really impressed. "The Willows" was legitimately spooky and I find the whole "nature horror" thing that him and Machen did very intriguing.
To add to that list
Robert Aickman (I think of him as a precursor to Ligotti in a way. very subtle and unsettling tales that stick with you long after.)
T.E.D. Klein (Lovecraftian horror from the 1980's that isn't a shitty pastiche with tentacle monsters. His novel "The Ceremonies" has a lot of Machen influence.)
M.R. James (the essential English ghost story writer. also see JS LeFanu.)
L.A. Lewis (more of a second-tier writer, but worth noting down for later. Had one book with some strangely hallucinogenic tales like "The Tower of Moab")
Haven't read a whole lot of their stuff, but Karl Edward Wagner and Clive Barker are solid for more contemporary horror.
>>8231538
Latest horror I read and quite enjoyed.
>>8232677
Gimmick trash bologna
>>8232722
>"Gimmick trash bologna"
>not understanding the metafictional and postmo aspects which have been authentically applied
>>8231538
>No Arthur Machen
What the hell is this?
>>8232769
I don't think the problem with House of Leaves is people not being able to understand it.
I mean I enjoyed reading it but it is kind of goofy.
>>8231538
Matheson is top tier comfy times.
>let's ignore Stephen King and his horror novels because he's popular!
I Am Legend is also great. Pretend the movies don't exist.
>>8234379
I've only read one of his books. Which ones are considered scary or unsettling?
>from the author of I Am Legend
um. . .
>>8234419
Oh, that reminds me. I enjoyed The Stepford Wives. Not scary, but fun.
>>8234630
I Am Legend is fucking great. The movie completely missed the point.
>>8234640
Well, since I already know the plot, give me the point so I don't have to read it again.
>>8234624
If you want to be truly unsettled or scared then your best bet is It. A couple stories in Night Shift and Skeleton Key got me, but other than that, nothing of his has really SCARED me, but I've only read ~fifteen or twenty of his books.
>>8234661
>only read ~fifteen or twenty
Thanks, I'll take your word on it!
>>8234624
Survivor Type and The Jaunt are the two scariest short stories he ever wrote. The Long Walk had a few scary moments, but in terms of legitimate balls-in-your-throat horror King really shines in his short stories. Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Skeleton Crew, and Everything's Eventual are all good.
Why does no one like Anne Rice on /lit/? She is like never talked about on here
>>8234701
I like her, but she definitely lost her touch at least 20 years ago. "The Vampire Lestat" is kino.
>>8234701
Too much focus on the homoerotic tensions between vampires. They're written for women.
If you want a more entertaining trash series, read Necroscope.
>>8234701
Vampires are kind of embarrassing.
It's kind of like saying you like novels about zombies.
Very low-tier stuff.
>>8234734
>In a thread about horror fiction
>Has the balls to say vamps & zombs are "low tier"
hehehe
Has anyone read this?
It's coming up on my reading list.
>>8234734
Vampires are not the same as zombies. Vampires are romantics, and sensitive beings. Zombies are the same lifeless, disease ridden monsters.
That being said never read True Blood or The Twilight Series, that is just low-tier writing in general.
But id rec
Let the Right One In
Dracula
The Vampire Series
or a collection of short gothic vamp stories
>>8234892
Yeah, but it's not his best work imo.
It's also not really horror, there's nothing supernatural about it other than the fact that black people were allowed to run a country.
>>8234949
Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves -- I'm throwing them all together in the "monster" category. I can't take them too seriously.
>>8234977
I don't find supernatural stories very horrific.
I like things tethered to reality, at least to some extent. It makes it more visceral to imagine.
>>8235079
But vamps are not monsters ;-; theyre just like you and me but theyre damned in pain ;-; sounds pretty poetic to me ;-;
>>8235171
>zombies, dead people who come back alive and have to eat people
>vampires, people who live forever and have to drink people's blood
big difference. one had to die first and the other didn't.
>>8234379
Loved his books as a kid.
Forever shall I be grateful to the dude.
>>8235210
vamps represent lust, zombies represent death - pretty huge narrative difference.
i understand what that guy is saying though, they may have started as decent horror elements, but they've been copy/pasted so many times that the symbolism lost all value and they're just a meme now.
>>8237039
Yeah. I unfortunately(?) came into being at a time past when these tropes had worn out their welcome.
I did like the Andy Warhol Dracula (and Frankenstein). That Dracula was believable to me, as opposed to gothic/silly Coppola's one.
>>8232769
Are metafictional and postmodernist aspects desirable? Is authenticity important?
>>8237039
>vamps represent lust
please stop this pseud meme
>>8232677
House of Leaves is way over hyped and borderline meme tier because of attention from r/books, but I found it to be an enjoyable read.
