Alan Moore's graphic novel "From Hell" is very scary.

I thought House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski was creepy as all get out.

I've had weretable in mind since he made that comment and haven't been able to come up with anything really good. Genuinely scary movies? Check. Scary video games even? Check. Books that keep you up at night... not so much.

Stephen King gets (rightly) slammed here, but how do you feel about Dean Koontz? Not all, but a selection of his stuff is fairly creepy. And I find the characterization head and shoulders above King, which helps. I recall liking The Bad Place very much, but you know, it's been awhile, and I'm really not into that stuff anymore. Also, weretable mentioned that gore/violence doesn't do it for him, and Koontz does dabble in those elements.

You know what can be scary? Late night conversations. Perusing first-hand reports of supernatural events online, late at night. Are books just not able to sustain the paranoia that comes from letting your imagination loose at 3am? I do love me some Lovecraft, but the writing is not for everyone.

OK. I dont have a terrorising book at hand, but if you want to see a fantastic film, watch "The Descent". That scared the ever-living crap out of me.

I will look at my book case later to see if i can come up with anything.

I've been scared by two books/stories. One was Comes the Blind Fury, the last book of my foray into the works of John Saul. I think it was the third book by him I read, and I was more scared that there exists a man whose entire output seems to be books about little kids dying. Second was "The Sixth Man" by Graham Masterson, a short story (in Cold Shocks, ed. Tim Sullivan) about a guy investigating a failed expedition to the south pole. It has the best "boo!" scene I've ever read.

The Bad Seed by William March, if you are looking for something else written in the mid-20th century.

"What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born?"

If you have only seen the movie, you don't know the real ending.

Deen Koontz - has written so much that it's hard to separate the bad from the good, but he does have some genuinely scary novels. The problem is that you have to sift through the rest to get to them.

You know, the scariest stories I've read have all been short horror tales. More Tales to Tremble By has 4 stories that always managed to keep me up at night when I was an adolescent, but I don't know how they stand up to adult tastes.

Some of Dan Clore's short stories are quite creepy, although at heart they're mostly pomo Lovecraft pastiches...

Or if you wanna go high-browish, Lautremont's Maldoror can be very unsettling.

Before we drop Stephen King into the abyss, I must say the scariest book I ever read was Pet Semetary.

But horror is much like comedy-- different people have different buttons to push. To me there is no more dreadful thought then knowing an action is futile and even evil but being helpless to stop myself-- hence Pet Semetary pushed my buttons hard.

For others it is a nameless dread or a fear of ghosts or of going insane, or of being invaded by parasites. You tell me your greatest fears and then we'll talk.

You know what, Secret Gravy, I remember finding Pet Semetary -- the book -- very unsettling. The movie was predictable tripe, I thought, but I do recall the book being rather good. As was Salem's Lot.

Glad someone mentioned John Saul. He's the only writer of scary stuff for adults that come to mind (only second-hand, I haven't read him).

Salem's Lot scared the piss out of me when I was about 14 - and It was scary too. Ghost Story, by "Peter Straub" (isn't that actually another Stephen King pen name?) is really good. Other than that, and of course Shirley Jackson & Lovecraft & Poe, I don't know. I do find Harlequin Romances terrifying, to the point where I have trouble walking past the shelf, but that's just me. ;-)

Ghost Story, by "Peter Straub" (isn't that actually another Stephen King pen name?)

Good god, no. I like 'em both, but please... Straub is scary as hell in completely different ways than King. (Which is why they make good collaborators.)

I recommend Straub's Houses Without Doors short story collection. A couple will scare you and keep you awake at night, at least one will make you want to drop the book because you can't read any more (at least it did me), and some of the others are like strange, disturbed dreams that don't make any sense, in the way the most disturbing dreams don't make any sense, but still disturb you anyway.

H.P. Lovecraft is a personal fave, as well, but you need a real taste for the gothic to get into his stuff.

kellydamnit, I have House Of Leaves here and have been meaning to reasd it for ages.. I look forward to it from all that I've heard.

You know what can be scary? Late night conversations. Perusing first-hand reports of supernatural events online, late at night.

I've done that to myself before. Went to sites about ghost-hunting and read about the strange noises and such, and scared myself even knowing that there was a better than good chance that the entire account was fictional.

House of Leaves has it's moments, and I did rather like it. I am not sure if I have read Pet Cemetary, if so it was ages ago. I will borrow a copy and see what it does for me. Some of the stuf in the thread I am familar with, some I am not. I will look into everything mentioned though. Thanks for the thread.

Weretable: It actually is misspelled on purpose "Pet Semetary." And I also put in another vote for Salem's Lot-- far, far scary than anything Anne Rice dreamed up.

It is strange this should come up because Dave (husband) and I were just discussing this yesterday-- how bad the horror genre has been the last 10 years or so. In the past great societal angst has led to a renewed interest in horror. The communist scare gave rise to alien invasion movies. The sexual revolution of the 60's led to slasher films and vampire novels. So I would expect to see some good horror writing coming out of the political mess we currently find ourselves in.

Paging Clive Barker, paging Clive Barker....

For a literary, existential kind of supernatural horror, Thomas Ligotti’s the man: there’s a new selection of his short stories due out next month.

I was just going to recommend Thomas Ligotti's My Work is Not Yet Done. In fact, I believe I'm recommending it now. Great mind, misteraitch.

Went to sites about ghost-hunting and read about the strange noises and such, and scared myself even knowing that there was a better than good chance that the entire account was fictional.

Bit of a mixed bag here, but can be fun in the wee hours.

That reminds. Must have a first-hand unexplained events thread.