Danse Macabre

[schmendrik]

Something in the "Are you a B-Movie Addict" thread brought this to mind, but I forget what. Being a fan of all things Stephen King, even the bad TV adaptations and his forays into alternate publishing and other kinds of stories... one time I picked up his non-fiction book "Danse Macabre". It's basically a history of the horror genre, books and movies, written by a guy who's obviously a fan of both. He sounds like a guy who'd share a lot of the same tastes as people here. I read this book cover to cover like a novel and enjoyed every word. I'd like to recommend it to the readers of this forum.

BTW, if anyone wants to know, his favorite ghost story seems to be "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson. He raves about the writing, in fact spends a couple of pages raving just about the opening paragraph!

My other main memory from this book is King's description of the movie "Freaks", which I haven't yet seen but if Netflix has it I guess I'll get around to it sometime. Sounds damned scary.

[RCMerchant]

I love the book. It even has a chapter devouted to BAD movies-"the Horror Movie as Junk Food.".
  I have to agree with Mr. King on 'the Haunting of Hill House." I t IS IMHO, one of the very BEST novels ever written.. It goes beyond being a horror novel,it is LITATURE. A MUST. The passage with Elenor running through the fields outside of Hill House and encountering...only for a split second-the ghostly picnic-is unreal and truly terrifying.
 He also states that PROPHCY (reviewed here by are fearsome leader Andrew) and TOURIST TRAP (a personal favorite of mine as well) as guilty pleasures! The only thing I DON'T agree with King on his opinion that these bad films should be discarded. I believe in even some of the most insane,ridicoulous films are some true moments of horror. Even in a garbage nudie cutie like The WILD and the NAKED...the scene where the weirdo hermit is doing his disturbing little dance around  the tied up girl....that could be any serial killer nutjob. Reality is MUCH scarier than fiction.

[Allhallowsday]

I love the book. It even has a chapter devouted to BAD movies-"the Horror Movie as Junk Food.".
  I have to agree with Mr. King on 'the Haunting of Hill House." I t IS IMHO, one of the very BEST novels ever written.. It goes beyond being a horror novel,it is LITATURE. A MUST. The passage with Elenor running through the fields outside of Hill House and encountering...only for a split second-the ghostly picnic-is unreal and truly terrifying.
 He also states that PROPHCY (reviewed here by are fearsome leader Andrew) and TOURIST TRAP (a personal favorite of mine as well) as guilty pleasures! The only thing I DON'T agree with King on his opinion that these bad films should be discarded. I believe in even some of the most insane,ridicoulous films are some true moments of horror. Even in a garbage nudie cutie like The WILD and the NAKED...the scene where the weirdo hermit is doing his disturbing little dance around  the tied up girl....that could be any serial killer nutjob. Reality is MUCH scarier than fiction.

Back in the day, I read all of KING's books.  I stopped after The Tommyknockers or It (I did read Misery, which I think is later.)  Ironically, I never got around to his first, Carrie, but read 'Salem's Lot 3 times (and The Shining 3 times...)  I had a hardback edition of Danse Macabre, but dropped it about half way thru...  and just never got around to finishing it.  I do recall KING was an admirer of SHIRLEY JACKSON.  I need to re-read The Haunting of Hill House, but must recommend another novel of hers, her last, We Have Always Lived In The Castle. 

[RCMerchant]

I love the book. It even has a chapter devouted to BAD movies-"the Horror Movie as Junk Food.".
  I have to agree with Mr. King on 'the Haunting of Hill House." I t IS IMHO, one of the very BEST novels ever written.. It goes beyond being a horror novel,it is LITATURE. A MUST. The passage with Elenor running through the fields outside of Hill House and encountering...only for a split second-the ghostly picnic-is unreal and truly terrifying.
 He also states that PROPHCY (reviewed here by are fearsome leader Andrew) and TOURIST TRAP (a personal favorite of mine as well) as guilty pleasures! The only thing I DON'T agree with King on his opinion that these bad films should be discarded. I believe in even some of the most insane,ridicoulous films are some true moments of horror. Even in a garbage nudie cutie like The WILD and the NAKED...the scene where the weirdo hermit is doing his disturbing little dance around  the tied up girl....that could be any serial killer nutjob. Reality is MUCH scarier than fiction.

Back in the day, I read all of KING's books.  I stopped after The Tommyknockers or It (I did read Misery, which I think is later.)  Ironically, I never got around to his first, Carrie, but read 'Salem's Lot 3 times (and The Shining 3 times...)  I had a hardback edition of Danse Macabre, but dropped it about half way thru...  and just never got around to finishing it.  I do recall KING was an admirer of SHIRLEY JACKSON.  I need to re-read The Haunting of Hill House, but must recommend another novel of hers, her last, We Have Always Lived In The Castle. 

Iv'e heard of that novel...and do believe I'll hunt it down on ebay! 

[Doggett]

I always thought that enough time has passed so that King could write a sequel to it. There's loads of horror films these days and Clive Barker has turned up and we could have King's thoughts on him. King could talk about Romero losing the plot completely with Land and Diary of the Dead.
Maybe even that episode of the X Files he co-wrote.

[Brother Ragnarok]

How timely.  I just finished this book.  It's mostly really good.  If you have a friend wanting to get into horror, it's a great starter manual.  There's plenty of stuff in it I now have on my list to check out, mostly in the book realm as I've seen just about all the flicks he mentions.
Some things bug me about it, however.  At times he gets a bit self-congratulatory and professor-ish.  He also seems unable to figure out whether he loves or hates things.  He bashes the hell out of TV, says Duel is a great movie, and then later says Duel isn't very good because it was a TV movie.  He keeps saying Lovecraft is the greatest, but later says he couldn't get his ideas across very well.  After the chapter on Harlan Ellison, it seems King derides TV as much as he does simply because Ellison thinks it's crap and King wants to be like the cool kid.  For hating TV so much, though, both of them have done enough of it...
King also apparently has a huge mancrush on Ramsey Campbell.  Rightly so, I feel.  Campbell is one of my top favorite horror writers.  His stuff is every bit as unsettling and perfectly crafted as King says it is.  I've never read anything of Campbell's that didn't make me feel icky and uncomfortable, and not too many things have that effect on me.