Just thought I’d ask, but how many of you out there are fans of horror movies or literature? I’ve been interested in anything dark or evil since I was a kid. It started with the Universal monster movies, then progressed to the Vincent Price E.A. POE movies, then to the Hammer studios movies of the 60’s and 70’s. The first horror stories that I read were POE’S. Then in high school I found H.P. LOVECRAFT’S works, I’ve read all of their stuff multiple times. I also like Brian Lumley, Charles L. Grant, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, and August Derleth. I have collected a small library of short stories, novels, and history, all dealing with horror, the occult, witchcraft, anything that my very devout christian wife would hate. Probably one of the reasons why I’m an atheist. Anyway, any other fans of the macabre out there like me?
P.S. There’s a member on this forum that uses the name NYARLATHOTEP, can I infer that you are a fan of Lovecraft?
Just a footnote to prevent confusion from anyone reading it: It takes place in the “futuristic” year of 1920, during the aftermath of a FICTIONAL war between the USA and Germany; where USA was successful and quickly becoming a world power. It is not a reference to World War One (but it can certainly fool you into thinking that when you read it); as the story was written in 1895.
ps: I just started listening to it again after posting this, and uhh fair warning; it has some antisemitism and presumably other racist shit. That is what you get when you read stuff from the past.
ps2: another tip. The King in Yellow is the name of the real book written in 1895. It contains several short stories (I linked the first one), that loosely revolve around a fictional book, confusing titled “The King in Yellow”. It is also a reference to an entity (a “king”), so context is really important to understand the phrase.
I loved them when I was a kid but can’t get past the spells, demonic possessions, dark side bullshit any more. It just all seems so ridiculous as the forces of evil and darkness try to take over the good.
On the other hand, give me a good science fiction book and I am in heaven. I don’t know enough about science to be hyper-critical. I also don’t seem to mind all the magic and evil crap when it is a part of a decent fantasy story. The Harry Potter Series was very entertaining. (Obviously not Horror.) But it still has that Good vs Darkness and Evil bullshit going along with the story.
I did like a movie that came out a bit a go… I don’t think it qualifies as horror. The spirit of Azazael jumped from body to body killing people. I enjoyed that and I enjoyed 6th Sense. But mostly I just leave all the spirit, voodoo, mummy raging, Frankenstein, wolfy, dracula, Jason, Freddy, stuff to others. (I recall, the very first Jason movie was good. It just got silly after that.) Oh, zombie flicks, boring as hell.
I have heard and read a lot about this book, but I haven’t read it yet. I have every intention of purchasing and reading it. I prefer to hold a book in my hand while I read it, not swipe to the next page like my wife does on her Kindle. Guess I’m kinda’ old school when it comes to reading. I’m currently reading THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson. I bought a copy of this book probably 40+ years ago and just stashed it away in my collection. Now, a wife, 2 kids,and 4 grandkids later, I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I bought another copy. The 1963 movie THE HAUNTING, which is based on this book, is probably my all-time favorite movie, it’s that good. Loved it as a kid, and today it’s still my favorite.
P.S. Have you seen the NETFLIX series based on this book, I thought it was very well done, I really liked it.
The whole zombie thing gets really boring really fast. I haven’t read any of the HARRY POTTER books, but over the years I eventually saw all of the movies on tv and thought they were entertaining. Another example of good vs. evil that I have read is of course THE LORD OF THE RINGS by Tolkien, nothing else even comes close.
As an atheist, watching horror movies got a whole lot more fun when I started siding with the “evil” that was being portrayed on screen. I don’t believe in any god/gods, but I’d like to think that if any of this christian crap were true that I’d be on the side of evil, not the good guys. Who says that good always triumphs evil? A perfect example of this would be the movie HEREDITARY. If you haven’t seen it you should.
When you run across something this old, chances are it is on YouTube. I think the book was made into a movie and apparently it is now a series on Netflix.
Yes, the original 1963 version of this story is my favorite movie of all time. Don’t waste your time with the re-make from the '90s, it sucks. The Netflix adaptation of it into a series was very well done. The story-line is different from the book, but they used most of it’s elements to create an excellent 10 part mini-series out of it. You should check it out.
I quite like Horror films, but they used to give me nightmares…
Trying again this week by watching the ‘Final Destination’ series’ which I’ve never seen more than 20 minutes of the first one.
Discovered Poe at age 16 and loved his stuff. Also Franz Kafka who I thought was truly chilling.
Discovered Stephen King in the early 80’s and read anything I could find. Last stuff of his I read was ‘The Dark Tower’ beginning with ‘The Gunfighter’ went off him after that, considering him too formulaic for my taste…
The original 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” is a classic. It’s on YouTube. I’d forgotten that it’s in black and white. I liked “Zombieland” and “Zombieland Double Tab”. Woody Harellson was great. I can relate to his quest for twinkies. With the stay at home mandates I’ve found myself craving the damn things. I hadn’t eaten a twinkie in years, and suddenly i can’t live without them. I even looked up some recipes for home made versions. How hard could it be? That’s my personal motto, and what someday will probably be my last words.
As I child I’d kill for a Polly waffle. It was discontinued a few years ago but was recently renewed due to popular demand.
Today I sometimes go to the factory to get seconds "Honeycomb’’ ( in chocolate covered lumps) which I love. Although the recipe is simple, I discovered only this year that’s a lot harder to make than it might seem.
Of course it is My first attempts at making things that looked like they should be easy would make a great comedy YouTube channel.
A twinkie is a little sponge cake filled with a marshmallow cream filling. One recipe I found was for a cup cake with a marshmallow icing. Close enough The polly waffle with it’s marshmallow filling sounds yummy. The twinkie was out of production for awhile too, but it’s back.
I started to lean to cook when I was 12. This continued throughout my marriage because my wife didn’t cook. Became a gourmet cook.
After some years I concluded that the hardest things to cook for others include eggs and steak.
In 2000, I was in Cambridge staying with friends. Both worked and they also had two overseas students staying. To show my appreciation and to help out, I cooked most days, often for 10 people. It was there I perfected the two minute omelette. Idiot simple, yet few people can do it perfectly. Same goes for souffle omelettes AND scones (biscuits).
This is just my opinion, but I think Stephen King is overrated. I have read many of his contributions to horror anthologies and wasn’t exactually blown away or impressed. I have started many of his novels( the shining, the stand, salem’s lot) and barely got through half of them before I put them down. He’s too long-winded and boring. I also think that the reason he sells so many books( he writes a lot, impressive output) is because he writes horror stories for the “mainstream” reader. It’s always either a cliche’ ending or something out of left field that isn’t exactually horrifying.
It bothers me that when I go to barnes and noble and have a look at their “horror” section, it’s always 2/3 full of King or Dean Koontz, very little variety like say 30+ plus years ago. I grew up in L.A. and lived there for 35 years. There were several bookstores down there that had a huge variety of horror fiction to choose from. Now, as far as I can tell, there’s only one left. It’s a store called DARK DELICASIES in my old hometown of Burbank,CA. Now, every time we go back to visit friends and family, I pay them a visit and do what I can to support their small business.
I think you’re right. I reached that conclusion on reading the the Tower series. Easy to read, but are far too long as are most of his books. Imo he’s a competent writer, not a great one. To be fair I have never found him pretentious.
Some of his individual stories aren’t bad. Some lack originality and imagination imo.
Wouldn’t mind having his money. Wouldn’t want his mind though, I bet it’s really creepy in there.
I’d be willing to bet that my mind is creepier than his and almost anyone else, I’ve had some deeply disturbing and really dark ideas for a book or a movie. Problem is, I have no talent for writing, and don’t want my family to know what is going on in my head.
He is a talented author, every time I go to the bookstore, he has a new best-seller out. The quantity of his work is impressive, but I haven’t bought one of his books in 30+ years. The money would be nice too.
Not something I’d brag about. Nor am I convinced your mind is as creepy as you think.
I make the claim on the basis of over 20 years writing performance appraisals at various levels. It was my practice to sit down with the person and ask them to give me a self appraisal. People were almost always far harsher on themselves than I.
Consequently, I suspect you may be too hard on yourself.
I don’t know about that, I don’t think of it as a problem, just a character-trait. I have been living with non-stop chronic pain and depression for almost 10 years now. Kind of hard to have a rosy outlook on life when it’s nothing but pain and numbness. I’ve been a fan of anything “dark or evil” since I was a kid, I’m definitely the black sheep of the family.
Fully Agree. Aparently after a successful run with his early stuff, Carrie, The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Fire Starter, The Stand, … He let success go to his head and forced his publisher to take any old crap he produced. He then went into a bunch of shit he wrote as a kid, polished those turds up and forced his publisher to publish them. I fully agree, his later stuff is pure crap… beginning with Cujo.
My first attempts at making things that looked like they should be easy would make a great comedy YouTube channel.