These movies are a grab-bag of horrors. Some are goofily creepy, others will bend your brain in all sorts of fun ways, and yet others will take you for a wild, action-filled ride. They vary wildly in tone as well, with some grim and angsty and others optimistic despite the darkness of their subject matters. […]
Horror literature is often known for big fat novels, epics like Stephen King’s It, Mark Danielewski’s seemingly never-ending House of Leaves, and a good number of the other classics that came out in the 80’s and 90’s. Scary fiction, though, is often at its best when it’s quick and too-the-point, launching readers into creepiness before […]
Horrific fiction often veers into nightmarish and inexplicable territory. After all, as Lovecraft pointed out, the oldest and most terrible fear is the fear of the unknown, and art that refuses to resolve itself into reasonable and rational sense is often that which bothers us the deepest. Or at least, so it is for me. […]
There’s a long history in the movies of investigating killers from a close perspective. One of the first was Fritz Lang’s M, a film that followed a child murderer played by the great Peter Lorre as he tried evading discovery and punishment, and the sub-genre has continued strong ever since. While movies can’t depict the […]
Horror and comedy can make for pleasant bedfellows for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. It may have something to do with our customary reactions to surprise. Jokes, witticisms, even prank-falls and slapstick all depend on an element of shock. A character uses the wrong word or behaves in a way wildly inappropriate for a given […]
Cinematic explorations of the haunted house trope can pull off tricks novels can’t. A director paired with an excellent set designer or location scout can present a creepy home in great detail. They can pull us through dark hallways and around corners, filling these spaces with manic energy or quiet unease. Sudden creaks and bangs […]
Visit these ten creepy haunted house novels for housebound horror and architectural evils.
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