Frightfully

Recently J and I were talking about horror movies. On one of the podcasts he listens to, they were asking people whether or not they'd actually been scared by a horror movie. "And I was like…"

"Me! After Blair Witch!" I profferred.

"Yeah, when we walked past that abandoned church on the way to the car."

I shuddered just thinking about it. "I feel sorry for people who aren't scared by movies."

This came up again a week later with two co-workers who aren't horror fans. I tried to explain to them how good it feels to be scared. But I'd revise that: it doesn't feel good to be scared of everything, but it does feel good to be scared of things that aren't real.

There are plenty of films that do this to me: Suspiria, The Shining, Dark Water (the Japanese version), The Haunting (the sixties version). Two nights ago we watched Paranormal Activity, which had its moments, but was nothing compared to The Haunting and its ability to set my skin crawling with little more than a crescendoed pounding noise. Still, Paranormal Activity edged closest to the type of horror I love: true psychological terror. The things that go bump in the night, but only because of they are a reflection of what lurks inside your head.

But when it really comes down to it, I'd take Shirley Jackson over Peter Jackson any day. (And, by extension, even Shirley Jackson's book The Haunting of Hill House over Robert Wise's fantastic adaptation.) With books, the horror manifests as a more subtle fright. Not the instant terror of something jumping out at you on the screen, but the long lingering terror of a dimly lit hallway, a sound approaching from a distance in the night, the thought of being trapped underground in the dark, or the haunting of a town on one end of the Chunnel by a fifteenth century court jester. The fact that these images live so uniquely in your own head, that they came to exist there out of some sort of collaboration between the author's words and your own creepy mind make them, in my opinion, all the more terrifying. Following is a list of the reads that made my heart race, made my eyes wide thinking about what might be lurking in the closet. Even when I knew it couldn't possibly real.

Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
Nicola Barker - Darkmans
Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase
Jules Verne - Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman
Alasdair Gray - Lanark
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves

And if you only have a moment to spare between experimenting with fake blood and furiously sewing extra eyeballs on ghoulish costumes (or simply stuffing your face with tiny three packs of Whoppers, as I did yesterday), a great chilling short story is Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover."

Elsewhere, Lorin Stein recommends some other spooky reads at The Paris Review blog, James Hynes offers his recommendations (I've linked to this list -- which also includes the Bowen story -- before), and in this old post, Matthew Baldwin shares some of his favorite frights available online.

What are your go-to creep outs, on the screen or on the page?

© Zan McQuade. All rights reserved.

Comments

[jessica maria]

I just recently watched Suspiria - and that was REALLY scary just in the music!!

I've been meaning to read some scarier books...will look into these suggestions, for sure.

[Sam]

At fifteen, I read Stephen King's The Dark Half, in one day while sitting in the kitchen, with my back to the wall, lights on during daytime, completely terrified. Later I had a boyfriend who would mess with me after watching Twin Peaks, by talking just a little slower than normal, and he'd peek around corners wearing a white mask while I was walking back from the bathroom. I hated it, but I loved it. Thrilling and terrifying, they're still some of the most memorable moments.

[Karen from Chookooloonks]

I read Stephen King's "IT" in the 80's, and have had a deep, abiding fear of clowns ever since.

*shudder*

[Zan McQuade]

Stephen King! I should have mentioned him as well. I loved both It and The Tommyknockers.

[bohemianbailie]

When I was a kid my mom would always make me read the book before seeing the movie or play so when I was 11 I read Phantom of the Opera and was totally freaked out. I was so convinced that shadow of the backyard tree was someone coming to get me!

[T]

I am a huge horror movie buff. I think my level of discomfort during certain movies has varied with age. I remember going to see Friday the 13th when it was first released and being really scared afterward but the movie that scared me the most when I was a teen was When A Stranger Calls. Something about knowing the killer was there and not being able to see him really freaked me out. As an adult, I like pyschological horror - slasher films don't really do it for me....they're gross but not scary and most of them are very poorly made. Two movies that have stuck with me in the last few years are The Grudge and The Strangers. The Strangers really got to me - when I'm home alone at night, it is never far from my thoughts.

As for books, I love Shirley Jackson. "Hill House" is great but, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is her masterpiece. I love Stephen King - when he is tight and funny. I can't stand him when I feel like he just tossed something off - The Cell, or when he gets too bogged down in extraneous detail - Duma Key. I like his short stuff the best.

I feel like horror lets us get in touch with something primal - something scary that we have some level of control over as opposed to the real horrors of the world.