This, by far, is the honorable mention that hurts me the most. I absolutely loved the first four books in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The opening line in the series is, “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.” The man in black is none other than The Ageless Stranger AKA The Walking Dude AKA Russell Faraday AKA Richard Fanin AKA Randall FlaggOkay actually in the original version of The Gunslinger it was just a dude named Walter, but King retroactively changed it to Flagg.. Flagg has shown up all over the Stephen King universe, appearing as the big bad guy in The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon as well as making cameos in Hearts in Atlantis and the early Dark Tower books. Everything pointed to an epic confrontation between Flagg and Roland. In Wizard and Glass (Book IV) Roland caught up to Flagg who disappeared right before two of Roland’s bullets would have ended him. I spent more time than was probably healthy thinking about how awesome their final fight would be.
BUT NO! Instead in possibly the worst decision any author has ever made, King decided to job Flagg out to Roland’s demon spider love child MordredThe details of Mordred’s origin are as follows: Roland sleeps with some demon to... you know what nevermind. Mordred sucks. The hell with him. who somehow controls Flagg’s body making him pluck out his eyes and tongue before... eating him. King also gives Flagg the suckiest origin possible for a previously badass immortal agent of evil: he’s the son of a miller who got raped by a hobo when he was a kid. I just cannot fathom why King, after building up Flagg for so many years, chose to dispose of him this callously. I’m almost positive that this decision alone is responsible for 75% of why King is no longer my favorite author.
Thankfully, I can't post a video link to this travashamockery because The Dark Tower remains in film limbo. Instead here's some Randall Flagg goodness from The Stand with some horrible death metal soundtrack.
Honorable Mention: Lucas Buck
I might have been the only person who watched American Gothic back in the mid 90s, but those of you who only know Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh from Office Space really missed out on a great performance. Hearing the phrase "Someone's at the door" still give me goosebumps after all these years, because trust me if someone's at the door you better hope it ain't Lucas Buck.
Winner: Viggo Mortenson
Before saving Middle Earth, Viggo Mortenson played Satan in the underrated cult classic The Prophecy. And he tore it up. Witty. Sarcastic. Funny. Charming.
And oh yea. There's the orgasming while devouring the angel Gabriel's heart .
I rest my case.
Bruce Coville, the author of dozens of children and young adult books, is most well known for his My Teacher is an Alien series. I remember how creepy the cover of the first book was when I saw it in those scholastic reader catalogs we had in grade school. Coville’s tale of three children discovering that they must save the planet from an intergalactic counsel that doesn’t seem any redeeming qualities in barbaric humans is great, but despite being perhaps his most famous work, it just doesn’t hold a candle to the Nina Tanleven series.
Over the course of the series’ three novels Nina and her friend Chris Gurley encounter ghosts and must determine why these ghosts are hanging around. The first two books, The Ghost in the Third Row and The Ghost Wore Gray are great, but the third book, The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed is incredible. In fact, I was paging through it while writing this entry and even though the plot details had remained hazy until I picked it up I got goosebumps the minute I read the name Cornelius Fletcher. Suddenly long forgotten neural pathways in my brain began firing and it all came back to me. I quickly flipped to the front where Nina and Chris first encounter Fletcher’s painting Early Harvest:
At first I thought it was just a pretty picture of a forest. Then I realized there were dead bodies scattered among the fallen leaves. After I spotted the first few, I couldn’t miss them. My eyes began picking out more and more, almost as if I were staring at one of those find-the-hidden object pictures. Some of the bodies were marked with terrible wounds. My head began to whirl. For a moment the painting seem to take me in. I could hear the moans of dying men, the deep thud of cannons in the distance. The air around me felt cold and wet. It was filled with the smell of fire and blood. I tried to look away. To my horror, I couldn’t move. The picture had trapped me and was forcing me to see things I didn’t want to know about.
This description, on page 22, was the passage that was responsible for the goosebumps I got from reading Fletcher’s name. I remember reading this as a kid and being immensely creeped out by the metal image this passage evoked. I’m so glad the book wasn’t illustrated because I know what I pictured in my mind was creepier than any painting could actually be. For the next 160 pages Coville keeps you on the edge of your seat as Nina and Chris unravel the history of Early Harvest, its artist Cornelius Fletcher, and how they relate to the crying ghost of a little girl who haunts the big brass bed. But I’m amazed that 20 years later one name, which I couldn’t even remember until I saw it, could bring back such a flood of memories. For that reason, for me, The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed is Coville’s masterpiece.
And for good reason! That Mama Bunny is a bit of a psycho! I mean sure the book’s message is supposed to be one of reassurance to young children: “Mommy will always be there for you” But that Mama Bunny is a helicopter parent on steroids. Whether little bunny climbs to the top of a mountain or turns into a bird and flies away Mama Bunny tracks his butt down.
Whenever I read it I hear Liam Neeson’s voice in my head:"I don't know why you're running away. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for junk food I can tell you I don't have any. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career as a Mama Bunny. Skills that make me a nightmare for runaway bunnies like you. If you come home now, that'll be the end of it and I will give you a carrot. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will hug you.”
No not the woman who raised Norman, but the psychotic voice in his head. What a great reveal this scene has:
I loved the show Eerie, Indiana when I was a kid and Foreverware was one of my favorite episodes. Mrs. Wilson hosts Tubberware parties for a brand called Foreverware which promises to keep leftovers fresh FOREVER. Eventually our hero Marshall discovers that Mrs. Wilson makes her twin sons sleep in Foreverware at night keeping them stuck in 7th grade for eternity. A Mom who refuses to let her kids grow up is definitely the scariest Mom in my book. And you can watch it all for free right here Hulu
A little background help from Wikipedia: "In October 1994, film students (Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard) set out to produce a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville, Maryland, formerly Blair, and interview locals about the legend of the Blair Witch. The locals tell them of Rustin Parr, a hermit who kidnapped seven children in the 1940s and brought them to his house in the woods where he tortured and murdered them. Parr brought the children into his house's basement in pairs, forcing the first child to face the corner and listen to their companion's screams as he murdered the second child."
So of course after days of wandering in the woods (and after their friend Josh disappears) Heather and Mike find and begin walking through Parr's cabin deep in the woods. Mike is frantically searching the house for Josh, and Heather, holding the camera, can barley keep up. She witnesses Mike head to the basement and then go silent. She hesitantly enters the basement and there's Mike... standing silently in corner. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I got to see a screening for The Blair Witch project and this ending gave my goosebumps goosebumps. I just watched the above youtube video and had the exact same reaction I did 15 years ago. SPOOKY AS HELL!
With The Turn of the Screw, Henry James gives us a haunted house story that exemplifies the psychological scare. A we can't see the monster that is chasing us scare(1). And that's my favorite kind of scare. The narrator of the story is a Governess who has been hired to take care of an orphaned brother and sister at an absentee Uncle's country estate. As the story progresses, the Governess begins to encounter the ghosts of the previous governess and her lover. At first I took the Governess' story at face value but as I read the possibility slowly began to arise that perhaps the Governess is completely off her rocker and the ghosts are only in her head. This uncertainty as well as the tragic ending makes this novel the perfect introduction to James and a great way to kick off 31 Days of Fright.
Honorable Mention:
Shirley Jackson's masterpiece almost perfectly follows in James' footsteps. Where there is some doubt about the Governess' involvement in The Turn of the Screw, there is much less doubt about Eleanor Vance's role. Sure Hill House is a spooky old house, but it really only wakes up once Eleanor arrives. And once again Jackson keeps the suspense up by leaving much of the horror to the reader's imagination (and personally, my imagination is almost always scarier than any written description). Lines like “I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.” and "Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” still give me goosebumps. Hill House is a great read that gave me the desired amount of trepidation as I walked around my house in the wee hours of the morning.
Winner:
I've read a lot of horror stories. But never one like this. At one point I had to grab a pen and some paper to start breaking the codes within. I mean you really had to work hard sometimes. But it was all worth it. To hopefully elaborate, how one usually scrutinizes expositions is somehow barely appropriate due to Danielewski's structure. I mean how can you convey to your fellow readers how the structure of the book completely mirrors the events taking place within the book without spoiling the awesomeness of encountering that place for the first time? When the characters are trapped inside a claustrophobic space the text is designed to trap the reader within the same space. When the characters are hopelessly lost in a maze you as a reader also find yourself lost in a maze of text. You almost feel like you are getting sucked into the story just like that poor bastard Johnny Truant. It's relentless, unique, and amazing. If you like to be scared and you don't mind getting lost in the dark (and footnotes and appendices and indexes) then you should really check out this book.
Footnote
(1) The opposite of Hostel, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Halloween II, Halloween III, Halloween IV, Freddy's Revenge, Dream Warriors, Wishmaster, Freddy vs. Jason, The Final Nightmare, The New Nightmare, Hostel II, Hostel III, Saw, Saw 3D, Halloween H20, Halloween Rob Zombie, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Lives, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Candyman, Candyman II, Candyman III, Feast, Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds, and Feast 3: The Happy Finish.
October is one of my favorite months. The weather has finally turned cool, the autumn leaves are beautiful, football season has arrived, and pumpkins are ready to be turned into pies.
But best of all? It’s time to get scared. I love it when I get goosebumps from reading a scary book, and October is the perfect time of year to stay up until the wee hours reading a scary book, trying not to look out the window or think too hard about that noise you might have heard on the other side of the house... a noise that definitely sounds much much closer than the last time you heard it. To celebrate October, each day I’m going to be covering the scariest, creepiest, and best in the horror genre. Here’s a look at the categories:
1. Best Haunted House Novel
