- Cover of Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Today I want to talk about What Scares You.
I don’t know about you, but I love to be scared. Not the jump out and yell BOO! scared, unless it is in a movie. I mean while reading. Some books are so scary that I find myself hugging a pillow, dreading the next line.
An example would be Stephen King’s IT. Pennywise the clown is one of my all time scariest characters. I find clowns to be creepy. All that white face paint makes them look dead and their teeth look yellow. Huge creep factor!
And what about Killer Klowns From Outerspace? You would think with a title like that the movie would be lame. It is a classic B-movie with plenty of violence, campy fun and the ugliest clowns imaginable. Scary good.
Recently I read The Dark Horde by Brewin’. Do you remember the old black and white movies about Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein? They did not have all of the fancy CG that we have now, so the movies relied on building an atmosphere that played on our fears. Brewin’ has written a book that reads like these movies. You have this apprehension while reading, worrying about what comes next.
My bookshelves are loaded with horror stories. Many of them are tattered and soft from frequent reading. Now and then I feel the urge and reach for one of my favorites, grab a pillow to hug, settle in and open the book.
How about you? Do you like to be scared? What are your favorite characters in horror books?
I hate horror. I get scared easily, but i still love it! (There is something wrong with me!) The things that scare me are clowns and dolls (their eyes are so freaky!)
Great topic! 🙂
I hear ya! Doll’s eyes are too weird, especially when they follow you! Another creep factor is toys. Oh wow, I just had an idea for another post!
I love that kind of scared – the old Dracula movies, and I love Vincent Price movies, too. What I don’t like is the gruesome, too bloody movies. Books too – love Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and House on Haunted Hill is one of my all time favs.
My all time fav is Bram’s Dracula!! I really like the oldies. Not sure which one, maybe Bela Lugosi, did whole movie without speaking. Really creepy. I like movies that use shadows.
It scares me and always has. Now my fears are more real and involve nasty humans hurting my children. I can not watch movies like Saw etc…they just unnerve me. Give me demons, vampires etc and I gobble them up!
I hear ya Kimba. After my son was born I became paranoid. Now he is 6’2″ and no one will mess with him! I love the classic villains!
YES! Bela Lugosi and shadows! Also clowns and dolls – you guys have that one right. Creepy, scary, disturbing!!! As someone who has written horror, I have to say, it’s the ANTICIPATION of what you think is about happen that’s even more torturous than the actual horror. The well-crafted calm before the carnage is sheer hell. Hee hee.
And we Love it so!!!! Hi Kelan.
Don’t laugh, Laura, but Joker really scares me. When the wind is howling and the branches beating on the roof, a snapshot of the Joker flashes in my head. Great bit of acting, too, by the late Heath Ledger. I think it might rank as an archetypal portrayal of true madness by someone who in his final moments must have been tormented.
I never laugh. My mind flashes on some pretty scary stuff when the wind is howling. Heath’s portrayal of the Joker was the best yet and it was so sad to lose him. Some people fall through the cracks and can’t be saved. Maybe without the fame he never would have went down that path.
Back to the wind, It was a dark and stormy night!!!!
LOL!!
I like to be scared although rarely am. I think the best kind of horror is strongly entrenched in reality. If it’s some kind of thing (it) that evolves to be what you fear, it loses its potential to scare. If the story follows the spectre of a giant shark that goes unseen for the majority of a film, that is freaky. It’s the unknown that scares me. Less is more in my book.
Less is more! I agree. The tension building music and innuendo are the best kind of scares. If a book or movie has me guessing then it is a success for me.
On another note. Zed is up next. Just posted Aftereffects: Zombie Therapy by Zane Bradey. If you like something original, check it out. He scared me and had me squirming.
I’m not a huge fan of horror, but I liked ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson. As for movies, the ones that really scared me were Jaws and Sixth Sense.
Da Da! Da Da! Classic! I still don’t like going in the ocean and turn away when a wave comes towards me. I have caught some sharks off the beach and lost fish to them, so I know what is in the water. I no longer dive off the boat in open water!
I loved Sixth Sense. “I see dead people.” The movie was amazing and I liked the hidden clues throughout.
Hill House has been remade many times but still has stayed true to the original story. A true classic horror story with unseen horror.
Great choices!