Scary Games

I love the Halloween season! Everything’s spooky. It just feels so on brand for me. Now, I don’t have as many games to share with you this year, but I do have a few I thought were unsettling in very different ways.

The first one is called Escape from the Haunted Room and… yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do. There are a few puzzles, but I didn’t have any trouble figuring them out. Mostly it was just creepy. There are some jump scares, especially at the end, but the real scare is the atmosphere. It always feels like there’s something in the corner of your eye and then when you look, it’s gone.

Next is 33, which is very different, and someone even described it more as “interactive art” than a game, something I agree with. You’re in a room, and in order to get money to buy things, you have to kill others. In this case, the horror is in what you’re doing.

In that vein is also Presentable Liberty, where you play someone who is locked in a room during a plague and only receives occasional correspondence from a few people, including one who really, really doesn’t want to let you out. You can play some mini-games to pass the time between letters, which slowly reveal the plot to you. Again, it’s less of a game and more along the lines of a visual novel, but it’s very creepy. Especially when the opportunity to escape comes up… Now, this one actually costs money, but you can pay whatever you choose and it is worth kicking a few bucks to them.

So I guess that’s all for this year. Anything spooky come your way?

Scary Games

Because it’s that time of year again.

You Find Yourself In A Room

Not so much scary as it is psychological, this game is a text based adventure, where you type in words and the game responds almost like a story. Except in this case the game hates you. There are a few puzzles, but they are very simple. Mostly it’s just typing “look” and the game yelling at you. Anyway, it’s a fun, if weird, way to pass the time. Be warned, there is some swearing in this.

Don’t Escape

In a twist on the escape the room genre, in these three games you want to be locked in as securely as possible. They’re a mix of time management and point-and-click, and manage to be both tense and enjoyable. Go check them out when you have some time.

Deep Sleep

I’ve actually mentioned this game and its sequel before, but now the third and final game is out and you can play through the entire series. They are very atmospheric games, Lovecraftian almost. You know, without the racism.

You doing anything Halloween-y this month? Anything scary you want to share? 

Creepy Comics

Back to scary stuff! I’ve already told you about some creepy games, so now it’s time to look at some creepy comics. There’s some pretty good ones out there!

First of all, Emily Carroll is really the best when it comes to horror related comics. Most of them are fairly quick reads, and more on the psychological end of the horror spectrum. His Face All Red is very popular, and I really like Margot’s Room, where you click on the different pieces of the first image to read the different parts of the story. Out Of Skin is full of freaky imagery, and The Groom is pretty intense. My personal favorite is probably Some Other Animal’s Meat which is just so unsettling…well, read it, you’ll see.

I also really like The Dreaded Question by Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon, and I have a feeling other writers will like it, too. It’s very creepy and gothic, and the ending is just perfect. Don’t you wish writing was that easy? ; )

And hey, if you want to check out something from Asia, check out the Korean comic The Bongcheon-Dong Ghost and prepare to never sleep again. It’s translated into English, so don’t worry. About that, anyway. Just watch out for the jumpscare.

So that’s it for this week. What did you think? Are there any scary comics you enjoy?

More Movie Reviews

What can I say? I like to watch movies. Mostly scary this time, because of course last month was October.

The Babadook

TL;DR: Woman finds a weird story book and reads it to her young son. Weird things start happening, adding to the stress of raising her hyperactive son. And then it gets worse.

I’m definitely ambivalent on this one. The horror is pretty good and I thought the characterization of Amelia, the overwhelmed single mom, was great, but yeah, it definitely has problems. I actually liked the ending, but I can see why other people don’t; in some ways, it’s a non-ending and you’re left with the feeling of not being sure what the hell happened, and not in a good way. Give it a watch if you’re in the mood for a very creepy first half, but you might end up being disappointed in the rest. Unless you’re really into symbolism.

The Mirror

TL;DR: Three roommates obtain a supposedly haunted mirror in order to prove that the supernatural exists. Things…don’t go well.

This movie was okay, though personally, I think Oculus did the whole haunted mirror thing better. I didn’t mind it, but it really didn’t leave much of an impression on me, like to the point that I don’t really have much to say about it. Still, it’s perfectly watchable and you might even like it.

Torment

TL;DR: Family goes out for a vacation at their country and when they wake up in the middle of the night to find their son is gone, they realize that someone is out there hunting them.

I would give this a solid seventy percent. It didn’t take any chances or do anything new, but it still managed to have a fairly interesting story. Probably the worst fault is that the end feels a little obvious. I also felt like there wasn’t enough explanation as to the motivations of the villains.

Creep

TL;DR: Videographer Aaron takes a job filming a dying man named Josef, who seems a little off. Then he seems really off.

I definitely liked this one, but I found myself constantly asking why Aaron was going along with what Josef wanted, especially as time went on and it became obvious that Josef wasn’t who he claimed to be. This is also a found footage movie, which is totally overdone but actually works here to enhance the creepiness. So if you can ignore Aaron’s questionable choices, then yes, watch it.

Time Lapse

TL;DR: Three roommates, Finn, Callie, and Jasper, discover that their dead neighbor has a camera that takes a picture of their apartment…one day in the future.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. At first, I was so annoyed with the tropes that were appearing, especially involving Callie, only for those tropes to be turned completely on their heads. This was a brilliant picture and I definitely recommend checking out this twist on a time travel story. The ending was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

Scary Books

And now, for this last week of October, we have a scary book. And it’s a good one, so pay attention.

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

Plot: 10 Characterization: 9 Writing: 10

This book was just amazing. I actually didn’t first read it when it was a book but online when it was just a series of posts the author made. It was so popular that he had a Kickstarter and raised enough money to not only e-publish it but also to print physical copies of the book. And I’m not surprised because it’s really an excellent read.

The writing is good (that 10 was not given out lightly), very deep and easy to get lost in. The story is the narrator piecing together strange events from his childhood that he assumed were unrelated at the time, but looking back on it as an adult, he can only conclude that someone was stalking him. Their motives are unknown but as the book goes on, it’s obvious that whatever the stalker wants, it isn’t good.

The book isn’t very long, but thoroughly enjoyable. Everything about it feels realistic and natural, which of course enhances the terror. Unfortunately, it’s a bit limited by being in a first person-limited point of view. The characterizations of the other people could have been more fleshed out, like the narrator’s mother and a few other adults. It’s not really detrimental to the story as a whole or anything, just a minor issue. Overall, if you like non-paranormal horror, yes, get this now.

You Know What “Horror” Means, Don’t You?

Well, I watched the first season of American Horror Story. Not my idea, I assure you. I honestly would not have finished it except I don’t like to criticize something I haven’t completely watched. But now I have and I never, ever have to watch it again.

Okay, recap: the first season is about a family moving across country after the wife’s miscarriage and husband’s affair. They move into a house that’s way underpriced because the previous owners died in a murder suicide. Obviously the place is filled with violent ghosts and…I guess that’s supposed to be scary? I don’t know. I never found it to be. Granted, these ghosts can actually hurt people and then disappear so they’re actually a threat. But honestly, I thought the show spent too much time confusing gore and shock value (and rape; lets not forget rape) with horror. Probably the only thing they did right was the accurate portrayal of an abusive parental relationship. I guess that was certainly horrifying.

The characters are, for the most part, as dull as dirt, with no characteristics besides “Wife and mother” or “rebellious teenage daughter”, to the point where after watching thirteen episodes I can’t even remember their names. It doesn’t help matters that the overall story is completely incoherent. Things are thrown at you with no explanation and you’re expected to remember them if they’re finally brought up again—which is definitely an if as there are several things that are just there to be weird (or gratuitously sexy) and then…that’s it. There’s no reason for it. Take the sleepwalking that seems to afflict the men of the house. It’s mentioned two or three times, but there’s no explanation as to why it happens, why it only affects some men, and why it happens once or twice and then never again. And even if something is explained, it might seem really half-assed, like the writers couldn’t think of something good so they just went with the first idea that popped into someone’s head. Case in point, the reason they cobbled together as to why the house is haunted. Really, sometimes there’s nothing wrong with there not being an explanation. In fact, the not-knowing can be part of the horror. But they came up with this nonsense and it’s not scary or satisfying and that’s basically the entire series in a nutshell.

If you enjoy it…well, go ahead. I didn’t. Except for Jessica Lange, who is both the best actor of the bunch and the only well defined character. Seriously, I would watch an entire show of just her and I can see why they’ve brought her back for every subsequent season.

Bonus Review: Fear the Walking Dead

Yeah, I watched this one, too. The Walking Dead is a show I could generally take or leave. I enjoy it when I watch it and the good points outweigh the bad ones (unlike the above). This sequel series however...not so much. It fails at literally everything the primary show succeeds at.

It is so, so boring. Like, ridiculously so. Six episodes in and I was still waiting for something to happen, and when it finally did, I found it underwhelming to say the least. I didn’t care about any of the characters except for Daniel, the Latino barber who was trying to keep his wife and daughter safe. They really should have made them the focus of the show. It might have been watchable.

Something Shiny

As in, a shiny new WIP. I really didn’t intend for it to happen, but once it popped into my head, I just had to start writing it down. It’s the absolute worst time for it. Not only am I taking a break at the end of the month, there’s another project that I have to edit and a third that I should be editing.

But. I have to give into it. It’s too good not to.

I’ve written horror before, once for a NaNoWriMo project, and then again for that side-blog project I did last year. Both were okay I guess, paranormal in nature, word count below 50K so not even novels. This one however I think will be at least 60K. It’s also not a bit paranormal, but one hundred percent psychological: four kids go to an abandoned house to shoot a movie. Only two come back. And that’s all you get.

I haven’t been able to think up a name that’s good enough for it, so for now, it’s just going to be “The WIP”. It also has, shall we say, unusual POVs. One is first person. The second, the major POV for the book, is third person present (it’s actually narrated by the person doing the first person). And the third is first person past, and a completely different narrator, which means a completely different voice is needed. I haven’t nailed it yet, but after the book is down, I’ll separate out the different narrations and edit-edit-edit until they’re night and day.

So that’s what I’m up to when I should be editing, and it’s sooooo much fun. How’s it going with your projects? What do you think about different POV’s?

PS: I know there were some maybes on my request for guest posts. Is anyone still interested? Please let me know.

Eternally Yours

Since I’ve been hinting at it for a while, I might as well fill in the details. Remember when I was talking about the Slender Man a few weeks ago (visit TV Tropes if you want to know more about it, but fair warning, that site is a timesuck)? Yeah, it’s based on that. Enduring Eternity is a horror story that I’ve been “blogging” for the past few months about a guy who calls himself Axel trying to make sense of the events that turned his life into a waking nightmare.

The last post went up on Halloween (which ended up being a happy coincidence), bringing the total to thirty nine (a multiple of thirteen, another happy coincidence). It follows Axel through his ups and lows in his personal life as he tries to piece together what happened after his car broke down, leaving him and his friend stranded in the forest. There is no violence, but some gruesome imagery (although only in a couple of posts). Also, he swears kind of a lot. And comments are off so if you have anything to say, you have to tell me here (I hang out on a forum for these kinds of blogs, but I’m guessing you guys aren’t there, so…).

In total, it’s about 37,000 words, so basically it’s a novella. If you like horror and creepy things, I hope you check it out. The blog is here, in the Dynamic Views format, but it actually works for a blog like this and it’s really easy to scroll down to the beginning. Or if you prefer, the first post is here.

Thanks for listening! Um, reading.

Halloween 2013

Only five days until Halloween! Yay! Can you tell I’ve been excited about it? So in keeping with this month’s tradition of sharing scary things on Saturday, here’s the most frightening things I’ve come across this year:

Scariest Video Game

The Last Door, chapters 1 and 2, a gothic horror game about a man trying to determine what happened to his boarding school friends. Has the bonus of also being a great story in its own right.

Scariest Horror Short

Proxy. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you about the Slender Man shows on YouTube? This is another one, but it’s just a short and only about ten minutes long. Totally creep-tastic.

Scariest Horror Short Story

Candle Cove, by Kris Straub. It’s about a bunch of people reminiscing about a bizarre show they used to watch. Trust me, it’s a good one.

Well, share: what are the scariest movies and stories you’ve come across?

Scared Yet?

And in continuing with this month’s theme of things to be scared of, I tracked down a bunch of short stories that are both scary and written by the person you least suspect. Don’t worry. They’re not too scary : P.

                                                                   

The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann. If that name isn’t familiar, he wrote The Nutcracker. He’s not an English writer so it’s a translation, but I think it’s a good one. It’s the longest story I have here, but it’s worth it.

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. Absolutely nothing like the movie. It takes place in England, the main character is a middle aged man with a family—if you’ve read REBECCA, you know what you’re getting into here.

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner. The horror of this story isn’t fully realized until the end, but it’s skillfully foreshadowed. Like most of Faulkner’s work, it’s full of bitterness and heartbreak, but in this it’s taken to an extreme conclusion, hence the classification as horror.

The Landlady by Roald Dahl. Yes, that Roald Dahl. Like most of the stories here, it’s not straight up horror, but more subtle, and definitely not like any of his children’s books. The best part is, the scare doesn’t sink in until you’re done with the story and have time to think about it.

Miriam by Truman Capote. I’ve always considered Capote to be a literary writer, but here he flirts with the supernatural. I absolutely love this story, because even if you don’t believe in the supernatural, you can still be afraid of what’s going on here.

So those are the greatest, most unexpected scary stories I’ve found. What about you? What kin dof rare gems have you come across?

The Meaning of Fear

I enjoy scary movies and such, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not often scared by them. I mean, it’s not like they’re spiders or public speaking. I’m not in real danger, so there isn’t much fear. So when I find something that actually gives me chills, I take note.

Recently, I’ve become quite the fan of the Slender Man Mythos. The Slender Man is basically an eldritch abomination that appears as a tall, faceless man in a business suit. It’s…less ridiculous than it sounds. Those who cross paths with it usually end up in pieces. Or worse.

The two most popular methods of telling Slender stories are via blogs or vlogs (although there has also been a few video games and even movies). There are some good blogs out there, but the vlogs are really where the terror of the Slender Man shines, so I’m going to share with you lucky people the ones that I’m currently following.

Tribe Twelve

In A Nutshell: While reviewing footage of his deceased cousin’s last visit, Noah discovers something stalking Milo. And now it’s set its sights on Noah.

In terms of scariness, this one varies from mild to moderate. It’s more mystery oriented, and unlike some mysteries, there are actually answers. It’s just that they end up being worse than not knowing anything.

Everyman Hybrid

In A Nutshell: Four friends decide to post exercise and health videos with a funny background gag of being stalked by a certain tall being. Then their houses get broken into, they find garbage bags filled with body parts, and everyone around them starts dying.

Moderate to very scary. It’s honestly a lot milder at first, but things keep getting worse for the main characters. There’s a lot of mystery, but also a lot of gore, especially later on. If you watch about six videos in, when they’re still trying to do their exercise videos, you’ll see some surprisingly gruesome things. And that’s nothing compared to what’s in store. Seriously, you just have to be amazed at what these guys can do with a shoestring budget.

Dark Harvest

In A Nutshell: Alex wants to record the strange noises in his house. That somehow snowballs into him and his friend Nick trying to hide from a cult that worships a very nasty being.

For the most part, it’s only mildly scary, but it’s also got a lot going on to keep viewers interested. It’s not as action-y (or gruesome) as Everyman Hybrid, nor is it as what-the-hell-is-going-on?! as Tribe Twelve. Dark Harvest manages to meet somewhere in the middle and give the best of both worlds.

Marble Hornets

In A Nutshell: Jay is reviewing some footage he got from his old friend Alex. And he’s finding some pretty disturbing things. It only gets worse when he insists upon investigating.

I would call it the scariest one, with episodes ranging from “frightening” to “heart attack”. I think the first video is a good example of what’s to come: it’s disorienting, terrifying, and inescapable. All in something like thirty seconds.

Speculative

As I’m sure I mentioned, I started on a new project and instead of being apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, it’s urban fantasy (gasp!) with an apocalyptic twist. Now, I’ve written urban fantasy before, but that was a long time ago, before I had a good grasp on writing. I’m still getting a feel for the story, but I like how it’s going. Plus I realized that it was still speculative fiction, which is most definitely my forte.

But “speculative fiction” is a funny title. Yes, what I’m writing is pretty close to what I usually do, but why are fantasy and apocalyptic under the same classification? If you look at something like LORD OF THE RINGS, you’re not going to mistake it for THE HUNGER GAMES. They’re nothing alike.

It happens that speculative fiction is basically the catch all term for any genre with things happening that don’t really happen. Or, as in the case of alternate history, didn’t really happen.

Then you can get into the subgenres and things get even more complicated. The family tree I posted up there hardly encompasses all the speculative offshoots. Science fantasy, dark fantasy (horror fantasy), and all the crosses with non-speculative genres. Suffice to say, it’s one incestuous family tree.

Really, as a name, speculative fiction doesn’t say much. Science fiction is speculative. Horror is speculative. But science fiction isn’t necessarily horror, nor vice versa. Unless the genres are deliberately joined, like the sci-fi horror movie Alien, they are separate creatures that for some reason share the share a genre.

Sometimes I wonder if speculative fiction is needed at all. The term, of course, not the books. I think we all know how important those are! But why such a broad classing? Is it necessary? Or useful? I’m not so sure. What do you think?

The Horror

Sit back and hear tell of a tale so gruesome you will be compulsively washing your hands as many times as I have today.

While visiting with my mother yesterday we happened to be distracted by the antics of her cat, not an unusual occurrence by far but it did draw our attention to the bedroom the cat was racing back and forth in. She had found a toy to bat around, playfully racing under the curtains and then diving out at whatever object had captured her fancy. However, one thing gave me pause. “Why is your rug so dirty?” I asked my mother, speaking of the clumps of dirt scattered across the floor.

She was aghast. The rug was clean the last time she went in there, two hours before. I pointed out to her the dark chunks clearly visible against the white rug, but she was adamant. Doors and windows were all locked. No one had been out of the house all morning. There should be no dirt in there. Unfortunately, she was right.

We both went in to investigate, and were stricken by the odd nature of the filth. Truly it was not dirt. It was fuzzy, like cotton filling, but it was brown and who would ever bother to dye stuffing? I parted the curtains the cat was hiding under and found the source of the strange dirt, the toy she had been batting around. My mother has several cat toys in her house, some gray and covered with fake fur to make it look like a real mouse. But something was different about this one.

It is at this point I shall tell you that six months ago during high summer, I helped my mother search for the source of a foul odor stemming from that very same bedroom, the kind of odor that only comes from a dead animal left to rot in the heat. We never could find where it came from. Until, well, you should see where I’m going with this.

It wasn’t a toy. It was a mummified mouse.

Upon her realization of that fact, my mother ran screaming from the room. I’m fairly certain you know who had to clean it up. I took off my glasses so I wouldn’t have to look at it while I dumped it in the trash can, then vacuumed up all the fur. The next step was throwing the vacuum cleaner bag in with the mouse and emptying the trash can, and finally retconning that out of my life so I can pretend it never happened.

Why do I share this with you? A) to show that I can write in other ways than short, choppy sentences, and B) so you all hope I never run out of ideas for blog posts again.

Short Story Appreciation

Even though I can’t write them (every idea I think up is just too “long”), I love short stories. I think it may take more skill to write a coherent short story than it does a long one, where you have time to get to know characters and reveal their personality. And to craft a story with beginning, middle and end in so few words! Talent, that’s what it is.

Well, here are some of the best ones I’ve found. Fair warning: here there be spoilers.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

I’m sorry that I only just read this recently. Asimov thinks of it as his best story and considering how prolific he was, that’s saying something. It really is worthy of praise as intriguing, philosophical, and as per usual with him, with a believable glimpse at the distant future. There was once a website that had this story on it for free but it’s shut down now, possibly for legal reasons. I’m afraid your best bet for finding this is in a collection.

The Picture in the House by H.P. Lovecraft

I don’t think I could mention short stories without bringing up Lovecraft. Most of his works are wordy for supposed shorts, with meandering yet vivid sentences that tend to bog down the reader. But if you want one that’s interesting and fairly concise, you could do worse than “The Picture in the House”. It starts out as eerie, builds to unsettling and stays there until the end where it spikes into OMFG!!! If you want a collection, there are several out there and they tend to flush out the weaker ones as well. Since he’s been dead for over seventy years, his work is in the public domain. There are several sites filled with his short stories.

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

Hey, Halloween is in just over a month. It’s time to get in the mood, and you probably can’t do better than Poe. Unlike most nineteenth century writers, I find his work engaging, even when the main character isn’t named and his circumstances mostly unknown, as in this story. We learn a man has been imprisoned during the Inquisition (and even that isn’t described accurately)—that’s all, and yet that’s all we need to know. None are better than at putting the reader into the body of the main character, making his stories intense and powerful. As he’s also been dead long enough for copyright to expire, many of his works are available.

Where Are You Going, Where Have YouBeen? by Joyce Carol Oates

See? It’s not all horror and sci-fi. I read it in college and it made a strong impression on me. Oates is absolutely eloquent with her words here. In a few sentences, the reader has a sense of the main character, Connie, her family, and how Connie views her family, something that becomes absolutely painful when you get to the end. In a word: haunting. It’s available for free on Joyce Carol Oates’s webpage at the University of San Francisco.

To Build a Fire by Jack London

And if that last story didn’t depress you, how about one about dying of exposure? You might think that spoils something, but I don’t. It doesn’t convey the desperation, the fear that the short story does. It’s available for free at several sources since, again, copyright has expired. Definitely worth a read.

Scarefest

I have a confession to make: while I enjoy scary movies and books, for the most part, I’m not scared by them. Okay, it’s kind of a strange confession, but it’s true. I might jump if I’m in a theater (because anything is scary in a movie theater), but that’s it. There isn’t much terror in it. If it’s not the first time I’ve watched it, forget about it. The same goes for books, too. Maybe this is because I’ve read Stephen King ever since I was eight, but I don’t ever remember being sleep-with-the-light’s-on-or-the-monster-will-get-me scared.

Am I weird? Eh, whatever. It doesn’t stop me from enjoying it. Unless it’s a bad movie. Because those just ruin everything. But if you’re looking for something scary, you might want to try the books and movies that actually scared me:

The Orphanage

Fright Rating: 2 (Out of 5)

This was a Spanish movie that received a limited release in the US. I had to travel across the state to see it (not as far as it sounds, trust me) but it was worth it. While it wasn’t super scary, it gave me chills. It was an emotionally driven movie about a family who bought a house that twenty years ago, was the orphanage the mother lived in. Ghostly things start happening and the end was quite a punch to the gut. If you don’t mind reading subtitles, try to pick up a copy.

IT

Fright Rating: 2

Stephen King’s tale of the monster that wakens every twenty-seven years or so to stalk children of a town in Maine. Parts of this book still give me tingles and I’ve probably read it a dozen times. I think the scariest part is Mike Hanlon’s reflections about the nature of the word haunt (is anyone surprised that word play drew my attention?) and what it means to the town of Derry.

The Exorcist

Fright Rating: 3

I’m so glad I was able to see the rerelease in the theater. It really creeped me out, even though it wasn’t the first time I saw the movie. The basic plot is about a girl, daughter to a movie star, who is seemingly possessed. The book delves deeper into the “is she faking it?” question and is at least as scary as the movie, perhaps more so because there’s more time for the tension to build and more tension always encourages horror.

Paranormal Activity

Fright Rating: 3

Found footage movies are kind of this generation’s slasher movies. Some people hate them, but most of them scare me (unlike slasher movies, which I find to be yawn-fests). I thought Paranormal Activity was well done because a lot of the fear hinges on how real it seems. And it’s not gory or full of monsters. It’s just two people trying to make sense of evidence that neither is prepared to deal with.

The Statement of Randolph Carter

Fright Rating: 3.5

Actually, this goes for pretty much everything of Lovecraft’s that I’ve read, including Herbert West—Reanimator, The Call of Cthulhu, and the Whisperer in Darkness. All scared me a pretty decent amount. I think that is due to Lovecraft’s skill at building tension and describing people who are so frightened, that they would rather jump out of a window rather than face the demon (in all fairness, it’s a pretty bad demon).

House of Leaves

Fright Factor: 3.5

This is a great example of realistic horror. No monsters (okay, that’s arguable), just a situation that is so inexplicable that it’s frightening. It’s also very character driven, which I love. Most of the fear comes from this family who returns from a short vacation to find their house has gained new hallways, one of which should lead out into the back yard but instead goes into a cold black corridor.

So these are my recommendations for the Halloween season. Enjoy the scarefest! And all hail great Cthulhu!

Horrifying

I think that horror, true, frightening horror, is hard to find these days, whether it be in movies, television or books. There are things that gross me out (the movie genre known as "violence porn"), but they don't truly frighten me. As I mentioned yesterday on Twitter, there is a certain movie--which I shall not name lest one of you gets it in your head to go watch it--that makes me want to stick a hot poker through my eye and scramblefy my own brain just to get the images out of my head. But it doesn't actually scare me.

I don't know why people today must watch such things to be scared or if, like me, they're just disgusted to the point of horror. I find real horror is slow, deep, quiet, subtle. It doesn't jump out at the screen at you and splatter you with guts. Instead, it's all around you, creeping in the shadows, occasionally swatting you to remind you you are being hunted.

Perhaps today, people don't have the patience for slow building horror. It wouldn't surprise me in this age of instant internet access that people don't enjoy puzzling through House of Leaves or reading the heavy language of Lovecraft. In those types of work, the horror is usually not overt. I mean, what's so scary about a house that breaks the rules of reality? There are no ghosts or serial killers. It's just a weird house written about by weird men. Who cares that it contains materials that are older than our solar system?

Sigh. Horror, where art thou?

What are your favorite scary stories? And what do you think is "scary"? I'm curious to know.

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Hi, everyone. If you’re looking for the Cliffhanger Blogfest, check below, or just click this link.

Yes, I know I’m very late. Technically it’s been two days, although I swear I posted it after midnight on Sunday. So whatevs.

I’m going to keep this short so people will scroll to the previous entry. Any input on my writing would be helpful—too wordy? Makes sense? Too many was’s? Saying something bad won’t make me not vote for you.

And I have finally decided: yes, I will do NaNoWriMo this year--I even put a link to the right-->. My username is the same as my twitter: jefishere. I have the perfect idea and I’d really like to write it. Horror! Should be fun.

Have a fantabulous day.

Holy crap. Fantabulous isn’t setting off the spell checker. I mean…wow.