Most Scary Story You've Ever Read

[Mr. DS]

If I could choose one tale that raises the hairs on my arms it would be HP Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.  If you could choose one book or piece of literature as the most scary what would it be?

[ulthar]

These are not 'stories' but actual novels, so hope it fits with your question:

I found "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub to be very scary (but long), but the big stand out in my mind was my first attempt at reading "All Quiet on the Western Front" by  Erich Maria Remarque.  That book literally gave me nightmares the first go around, but a few years later, I did read it all the way through.

[indianasmith]

Let's see . . . . scariest short story is probably either Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" or Stephen King's "The Mist."

Scariest novel . . .  hmmm.  "Ghost Story" rocked my world as a teenager, but I think just for sheer sledgehammer scare power "Pet Sematary" is one of the spookiest stories ever, closely followed by "IT".

[DodgingGrunge]

Thinking on the fly, I'd have to say that Neil Gaiman's Coraline is the scariest book I've read.  I've never quite come to terms with it, either, as it is technically young-adult fiction.  It seems to me all of the terror I felt in reading it was generated entirely by my own imagination; I cannot point to a specific segment and say, "That was scary!" or, "That was not."

I was fortunate to be able to attend a reading by Gaiman when I lived in Berkeley.  Someone had brought up Coraline during the Q&A section and he said much the same.  Children apparently looked at the text from a much more literal standpoint and found it to be merely a thrilling adventure.  Adults, on the other hand, seemed to bring all sorts of horrendous subtext with them while reading it and thus had entirely different experiences.  My disturbed mind evidently warped it into a horrifically straining series of events and I read it in a single sitting.

Story-wise, it is vaguely similar to Mirror Mask.  A little girl named Coraline walks through a door that isn't there and ends up in a land that is not.  The creator is a wicked woman who, without children of her own, tries to steal those from the real world.  Coraline, trapped, must then go through a series of ordeals to escape to the other side.

[Torgo]

I still think that the Stephen King novella The Mist is one of the best things that he's ever written.

I don't know what it is about it, but it never fails to get under my skin everytime I read it.

I hope that they don't srew up the movie adaptation.

[Andrew]

"The Mist" is a good one.  I think it is the idea that suddenly our world is no longer safe; it becomes an alien place.  Add to that the intrusion of the mist itself, which is a natural environment for the horrors, but a serious handicap for us, and you have an excellent setting.  I've always liked the whole bit about when they went onto the loading dock in the back.  I used to work in a supermarket during my last two years of high school and could picture that scene perfectly.

[Raffine]

If I could choose one tale that raises the hairs on my arms it would be HP Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

When I read the title of this thread this story is what immediately came to mind. Most of Lovecraft's stories still have the power to creep me out. Pickman's Model is another favorite. I seem to reread all of his stuff every couple of years. Some of Ambrose Bierce's horror stories rival Lovecraft.

Flannery O'Connor also managed to write some extremely creepy short stories even though they are not what you'd think of as horror. A Good Man is Hard to Find actually gave me nightmares when we read it in a lit class.

F. Paul Wilson's The Barrens and Other Stories is a great collection I picked up recently. Many of his stories remind me of Lovecraft.


I recently read Tananarive Due's The Good House and thought it was extremely frightening novel despite a sort of cheat ending.

[RCMerchant]

Another Lovecraft fan here! His short story,the TOMB is one of my favorites. Novels...Shirley Jackson's the HAUNTING of HILL HOUSE...without a doubt!

 

[indianasmith]

I've seen both movie adaptations, but never read the book.  Say, did any of you ever read a novel by Graham Masterton entitled The Pariah ?  I read it 20 years ago and it scared me silly, but I lost my copy and have never seen another.

[ulthar]

Another scary novel I remembered is Cold Moon Over Babylon.  I read it as a kid, and I recall it keeping me awake at night.

[Raffine]

Another scary novel I remembered is Cold Moon Over Babylon.  I read it as a kid, and I recall it keeping me awake at night.

Wow, I'd almost forgotten about Michael McDowell! He wrote several really great horror novels in the 80's, including a really creepy six volume series called "Blackwater".  Stephen King was a big fan of his.

He wrote a few screenplays, including BEETLEJUICE. In the late 90's I realized I hadn't seen anything from him in a while and found out he had died of AIDS.  His last, unfinished novel was completed by Tabitha King.

[Dennis]

The scariest story I've ever read has to by Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model", that last line is really frightening. As far as longer works I'd have to choose, "The Mist" and "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King, followed by Dean Koontz with "Phantoms" and "Watchers"
Pickman's Model was an episode on Night Gallery, was just okay, but it's a story that would be hard to put on film and get right in the 20 or so minutes allowed.
Salem's Lot as a miniseries with James Mason and David Soul is an example of how well a printed story can be translated to film when the people doing it make an effort to do it right.
Phantoms and Watchers are 2 films that I use as examples of why a novel is so much better than a movie.
As far I know The Mist has never been made into a movie, the optimist in me says it would be a great movie, the pessimist says it will probably be a Sci-Fi channel movie of the week and it will be awful.

[Shadow]

Dennis:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/

[Dennis]

Dennis:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/

Thanks, I was not aware of this, it looks promising.

[trekgeezer]

Helter-Skelter would have to be the scariest book I've ever read. Written by the DA the prosecuted Charle Manson, it tells the disturbing tale of the Manson "family"  from prior to the Sharon Tate murders through the prosecution.

The part where Manson and his followers would practice by breaking into houses and rearranging things while the occupants were asleep really creeped me out.

The thing that really disturbed me was witnesses describing Manson's total power over his followers. Then there is the day the DA  looks at his watch in court and it's stopped and he looks at Manson and he's smiling.


It's a creepy read.