Horror general
Discuss literature that provides the most horrific things every brought to the artistic medium
to start things off does anyone know anything that can top I Have no Mouth But I Must Scream? Its concoction of the nuclear apocalypse alone is some of the most impressive I have ever seen, not to mention It's descriptions of each of the survivors and the enigma that is AM is frightful in conception as well as performance, a thing that has the intelligence and power of a god but who's psychological development is stunned and warped creating a thing
Huge horror buff but can't for the life of me say they ever truly scared me. I adore the classics but one I've picked up just the other day called Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. I remembered reading it when it was just a short creepy pasta like thing on reddit. It gained such a following the guy decided to publish. Went ahead and bought the book, still creepy as fuck. I guess realistic horror in the form of broken humanity is still spookier than any fictitious horror. Still remember a part in that book that made me put it down and just breathe for a little while. Gaaah...
That said, my friend has been shoving "Haunted" by Chuck something or another in my face for ages. I'm not so keen on taking up something out of sheer hype though and I still have a ton to go through so anyone know if it's actually any good?
Has anyone here read The Ceremonies? Supposedly it was a success when it came out, but I don't see people talking about it much. I'm very near the end of the book, and I'm loving it.
>>7812458
Never heard of it. What's it about anon? Also what's the writing style like?
>>7813026
It's about a man(Jeremy) who decides to go to the countryside for summer, in a very small religious town, to finish a college assignment or something, and he also meets a girl(Carol) who becomes sort of his girlfriend the day before leaving town. But all of that happened because an old man masterminded it all. The old man is a servant of some kind of ancient evil and is playing puppet master with the man and the woman so they help him perform a ceremony that will end the world. The man and the woman are, of course, oblivious to it, but they grow more uneasy as weird things start happening around them. We often see things through the point of view of characters, like Jeremy's or Carol's and even the old man's as he goes about his macabre tasks and rambles about his hatred for humans and the ceremonies he needs to perform to advance. It's just great, very creepy stuff.
Horror is not literature and shouldn't be discussed on this board.There's always a containment thread of fantasy and sci fi, go hang there with the other retards.
>>7812458
I read T. E. D. Klein's novella collection Dark Gods. It was quite good, but I've never seen a copy of The Ceremonies and I'm too cheap/lazy to buy it online.
>>7813489
>I dislike horror therefore it is not literature
You don't have to read this thread if you don't want to. There is plenty of valid literature in the horror genre. Fear is a primal instinct and exploring that through written word is just as important as any other human shit.
>>7812421
Wasn't that supposed to be an actual story?
The author was reply to questions about things that happened, people in it and his childhood in the comments like it was real.
>>7812235
>>7813848
Wasn't it posted in /r/nosleep which has that rule about not breaking character? I mean could definitely still be real, there's no supernatural elements in the story if I'm remembering correctly..
>>7813854
I don't remember anything supernatural, the closest thing was the guy sleepwalking.
Yeah, there is that rule. You're also not allowed to call people out, just believe everything. So yeah, that's probably what he was doing, just not breaking character. It did seem pretty real though.
I hear he's in the middle of getting it turned into a movie actually, that should be pretty interesting.
There'll be some salt here, but I read this last year cause my nephew begged me to so we could talk about it. Even at 22 it scared the piss out of me. Kind of makes me wish I had read these as a kid.
>>7813852
Wait, is this horror?
My journal
>>7813502
Came here to post this. I think the Inferno is scarier than any modern horror story that I've read.
>>7815686
What makes you say that? I haven't actually read it but just knowing the premise I could see it being terrifying on a different level than "traditional" horror stuff.
What's your opinion on pic related? I've never actually read one book of his, but I've decided to try a few of the more famous ones.
>>7816753
He's pretty good. He's long winded though. Most of his novels have a pretty slow start and are difficult for the first 10 chapters or so.
I personally prefer Richard Laymon. He's a more grotesque version of King, and his books really just suck you in.
He's probably the only author I felt creeped out while reading.
>>7812421
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIhLDKrePPY
>>7816753
I'm reading IT right now, it's 4chan material. It says the word fag like 20 times in the second chapter alone.
You're walking down a dark alleyway and you feel a tapping on your shoulder. You turn around and this motherfucker right here cups his hands over his mouth and yells " YOU'RE MALIGNANTLY USELESS." What do you do?
>>7813468
Ooh, sounds right up my alley. Will be picking this up soon. Thanks anon.
>>7812458
I haven't, but I've read "the events at poroth farm" a few times. How does it compare? Worth reading the novel if I'm already familiar with the original?
Have also read Dark Gods. Was kinda disappointed with "black man with a horn"... maybe it was hyped too much as one of the best Lovecraftian stories, or so a lot of people said. I actually enjoyed Klein's other shorter story "growing things" a lot more. Very understated horror, that.
>>7816753
I like this short stories ("gray matter", "the jaunt" and "survivor type" are great), but couldn't really get into his novels.
>>7816803
Do a 360° and walk away.
I dig Ligotti, btw.
>>7812421
Haunted by Palahniuk is a very mixed bag. IIRC, he had this collection of poems and stories but his editor convinced him that short stories weren't selling, so he came up with this plot to turn it into a novel (the poems and stories are now told by the different characters in it). Doesn't always work, and the plot isn't very good. The poems are mostly sardonic dark humor. There's a couple great stories.
It reads like every other Palahniuk book, so if you're familiar with his work and like it, you'll enjoy it. If not, well, not sure if I'd really recommend it.
>>7817450
>How does it compare? Worth reading the novel if I'm already familiar with the original?
I say it's worth checking out. The story is elaborated on, taking a lot of cues from Arthur Machen's "The white people". It gives more insight in what the evil is, and the characters are also developed further. The ancient evil is also a threat to the whole planet in this, not just Jeremy or Gilead.
>>7816803
>>7817450
What are your favorite Ligotti stories?
>>7816762
Which books by Laymon would you recommend to start with?
>>7812235
Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus. that's horror
>>7818736
My personal favorite is "The Traveling Vampire Show". It's really good, I ended up staying up all night, and was actually a little creeped out.
"After Midnight" is another really good one, and one of the more detailed grotesque ones. The book is all over the place and is more psychological thriller than horror, but I definitely recommend it.
"The Woods Are Dark" is another one I'd reccomend. Like after midnight, it has a ton of shit going on and even some cannibalism.
All of those other ones are all pretty psychological and involve murder and stuff, if you want a supernatural story check out "Darkness, Tell Us".
>>7818724
The Last Feast of Harlequin
Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror
Sideshow and Other Stories
In a Foreign Town, in a Foreign Land
The Small People
>>7813489
>Muh stories are better than your stories
>>7816753
Very passionate writer, very experienced writer. Doesn't always produce the best material.
>>7812235
Lovecraft is an excellent early 20th Century horror author, yet I think horror films peaked in the 70's with films like Dawn of The Dead, The Thing and The Empire Strikes Back. These films emphasise comfort in the midst of a collapsing Civilisation, which is being confronted by the threat of the Return to Cultural Life. They may be a bit clumsy or inarticulate, but they are dealing with those kinds of questions exclusively.
French and Italian horror films of the 70's are far more artistic (think Jean Rollin, not the gore pornographers) but the American style is more intense because America had always defined itself in 18th Century terms of 'Legalism, Equality and Fraternity', and when those concepts began to break down, it seemed as though Civilisation itself was being assailed, while the Europeans knew that there was a life before the Revolution, and that there will be a life after it as well. Yet to an American, all of this is hostile territory, where the older generation's presumptions about technology, bureaucracy, economic-thinking, materialism and goodwill are no longer operative.
The Hellbound Heart
>>7816753
Hit & miss. For me, his best material is in his short stories.
>>7818724
The Last Feast of the Harlequin
>>7812235
Not sure if this really has to do with the thread, but how do I write horror? I feel like whenever I try it's always a half attempt
>>7819020
>not the gore pornographers
B-but I love those too ! They can be very artistic and beautiful sometimes
>>7820518
Cannbal Holocaust is way worse than Fascination ... which is mostly just a series of paintings with vampiric elements.
>>7820556
In any case, I won't see another Jean Rollin movie in a while after seeing the Iron Rose, it was so boring and pointless I almost fell asleep. The dancing scene in the graveyard seemed ETERNAL
The opening theme is really beautiful though (https://youtu.be/kHZvCsH0zAw?t=197).
>>7820592
His first masterpiece.
I can remember when I first saw The Iron Rose at fourteen, I felt as though I had seen a movie for the first time in my life. It is actually cinematic poetry.
To marry Jean Rollin to one of Lovecraft's scripts would be perfect:
> In August 1925 he wrote "The Horror at Red Hook" and "He", in the latter of which the narrator says "My coming to New York had been a mistake; for whereas I had looked for poignant wonder and inspiration ... I had found instead only a sense of horror and oppression which threatened to master, paralyze, and annihilate me".
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/he.aspx
>>7819765
Monster Culture and its Seven Theses by J.J. Cohen.
http://rps.rollinghillsprep.com/downloads/courses/248/13020/WA.%20HMWK%202012-09-21%2013020-1.pdf
I've written a brief summary of this if you'd like to see it...
>>7820518
Holy shit someone else who saw Fascination! That movie is excellent visually.
>>7812421
There's a short story in haunted called Guts that literally almost made me faint. Everything else was meh..
