Poll: Horror Books?!?!?! Can a horror book compair to a horror movie or game?...

[AbusedGrandpa]

Yes, especially if you compare book horror to the movie horror of today. I mean, most "horror" films being released these days are just loud, obnoxious affairs filled with fake blood and featuring someone or something jumping out every now and then to yell "boo."

However, even a proper horror film can't come close to evoking the same kind of deep felt terror that a written horror story can. Not by a long shot. This is especially true with H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[D-Ballz]

I've said it half a dozen times in off topic before and apparently no one ever has taken me up on it or I'd have received thanks by now.

Read Richard Motherfucking Laymon.

Put the harry potter and the twilight down younglings.

THIS is quoted for absolute truth. Richard Laymon is an amazing horror writer. The Beast House series is scary and just downright unnerving at times with the different themes it puts across. I would also reccomend Funland, which got me caring about the characters, flawed as they are, and then put them in a situation which seemed real and terrifying. At least, until the end. The lead up to that ending though, is what suspense is all about.

 

[Dwarfman]

Good luck to you. I'll be waiting for Spade Lead's epic masterpiece with eagerness!

Alas I find I can't write long epics. I've always wanted to be an author but whenever I write, my muse has a habit of becoming unwieldy - or it gets mangled with other imaginings. One thing that I like about Wells, Lovecraft, Howard, Poe, Wyndham and others is there ability to create much shorter stories yet still punch at the same level as an epic volume of King, Jordan or even Tolstoy.

Reading Lovcraft, Howard and Stoker, I like the idea of creating a series of short stories that when laid out, create an epic rather than be the epic themselves.

Well, I have a couple of short stories I am submitting for publication to Playboy for their College Fiction Contest. I could PM them to you if you want, for they area 4 and 15 pages respectively...

Also, rather than one long Epic, I am planning a trilogy.

Umm...wow...Yes please.

It gives me a reason to finish my short story and share it as well!

 

[Moriarty70]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_B._Gone

The book talks to you. Not out loud, but it talks to you all the same. Damned creepy.

 

[HT_Black]

Did you ever read "John Dies at the End"? I did recently, and I haven't slept soundly in weeks--so I'd say they can.

Ooh, I've got that on order. Good?

Well, it'll either make you shake like a methhead or giggle like a maniac, so yeah. It's good.

ALSO: I forgot to mention House of Leaves.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Did you ever read "John Dies at the End"? I did recently, and I haven't slept soundly in weeks--so I'd say they can.

Ooh, I've got that on order. Good?

Well, it'll either make you shake like a methhead or giggle like a maniac, so yeah. It's good.

Possibly a bit of both Ta

 

[The Wykydtron]

Good horror books don't have to worry about bad actors or script writting or cutting out scenes

Can be difficult to get the right atmosphere though

Horror manga can be pretty epic though some of them are pretty chilling (lookin' at you Homunculus)

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

The written word can be far scarier than any visual medium because the reader's imagination fills in the details, and the things I imagine are usually far creepier than some stupid visual effect.

 

[Lisa Cerilli]

No my dear. That's called your imagination.
When you watch a movie, your imagination is turned off as all the hard work is done for you. I find that much less enjoyable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_B._Gone

The book talks to you. Not out loud, but it talks to you all the same. Damned creepy.

No my dear. That's called your imagination.
When you watch a movie, your imagination is turned off as all the hard work is done for you. I find that much less enjoyable.

 

[xDarc]

Read Richard Motherfucking Laymon.

THIS is quoted for absolute truth.

*High fives a fellow Laymon fan*

 

[dlsevern]

Yay, Go Laymonites go!

 

[PureChaos]

i've read a few books that have creeped me out, one gave me nightmares. i have quite a vivid imagination so that probably helped.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

For me it's a bit yes and no. I've never been scared by a book but i can appreciate the authors intent and the atmosphere they are trying to create.

 

[D-Ballz]

Read Richard Motherfucking Laymon.

THIS is quoted for absolute truth.

*High fives a fellow Laymon fan*

*high five*

On another note in general, some of the more horrifying moments in books are from genres which are not horror. One author I would reccomend is David Jowsey, who taught me for two years in primary school. He's currently got two sci-fi books published, called Dragons In The Sky and Shattered Truths. Both of these have some moments which can be scarier than most movies. Part of it comes with a fear of the unknown, and some other parts come from... Well, I won't spoil it. Either way, I would reccomend reading his books for some scary moments in a non-horror book.

 

[HandsomeJack]

Reading "The Exorcist" was far more harrowing than watching the movie. Also, Robert E Howard's "Red Nails" (a Conan short story) excellently captures an atmosphere of claustraphobic fear; read that before going out to play paintball in the middle of the night or going into one of those dark laser tag arenas and if you got into the read enough that gets intense.

Lately movies focus on two things:
1) Loud noise paired with fast movement/sudden appearance
2) Gore imagery

Neither of these is horror. In a presentation in college I showed that making a small red dot grow to a large one in under half a second when paired with a loud duck quack got a jump out of every unsuspecting person in the class. This is a biological button, not well crafted horror. As for Gore, there is a reason in courts that in murder trials the prosecution always wants to show the corpse and the defense always objects: We have a biological disposition to get emotionally involved to a degree based off the intesity of the imagery. Facts often become irrellevant to many upon seeing the intensity.

True Horror comes from feelings of insecurity and helplessness. It comes from when reason fails us and all we relied on is unable to help us.

In "The Exorcist" all our modern understanding of the world and psychology begins to peel away and we begin to wonder if the girl is no longer mentally ill (which they can to some degree deal with or controll) but possessed of something long believed superstition and utterly beyond their powers to resolve. The locus of power shifts from them to the entity.

In "Red Nails" Conan finds himself trapped in a place of long forgotten magics (and in Howards writting, magic is not as it is in most fantasy...it is messed up WRONG) and no light. Every person prowling in perfect darkness, blindly hunting eachother. Each moving silent as a cat to hunt others who do so identically. Conan has to traverse this place without the sense we rely on most, sight.

In short: Gore and Quacking Dots are just cheap scares, watch the movie a few times and it goes away. Horror sticks with you and grows more intense with multiple exposures instead of dwindling.

 

[lacktheknack]

<link=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.211546-The-scary-thread?page=1>Yes. Yes it can be conveyed through words alone.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Definitely. H.P. Lovecraft's works succeed in this. Read "The Picture in the House" or "The Rats in the Walls" at night with the lights off. If you're not even remotely disturbed by these stories, something's wrong. (Minor Sidenote: As a writer in my spare time, I'm experimenting with several writing styles, like noir, horror, and several others, so my opinion might be a little bit slanted in favor of "yes".)

 

[Gord Rollo]

Hi guys,

Glad you enjoyed some of my novels. I totally agree that books can be WAY scarier than movies or games. Books just paint the pictures in your mind and let your imagination fill in all the scary stuff. My Jigsaw Man novel is a perfect example. People tell me all the time how gory of a book that is but it's just not true. Almost all the violence in the novel takes place off camera, so to speak. He goes into surgury and we find out he has lost his arms (etc) but it never goes into the surguries with him as he is being cut apart. The only real gory scene in the whole thing is the garbage disposal scene. As a writer I prefer to just set the stage for the reader and let his or her mind fill in all the details.

Anyway, glad to see some of you have read my stuff. I appreciate the support, big time. If you are at all interested, my new novel, VALLEY OF THE SCARECROW, has just been released in hardcover over on Dark Regions Press website (www.darkregions.com) and the paperback should be in bookstores and online on May 2nd, 2011. The funny thing about this discussion is that I specifically wrote this Scarecrow book with the movie version in mind and I've already had a few decent bites on selling the film rights. Hopefully you can all watch the film version sometime soon too.

Anyone interested in my books, you can check them out over on my website at www.gordqrollo.com

Sorry to spam a little, folks. Just thought it was relevent to the discussion.

Cheers,

Gord

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I think that it's rare for a movie to stand anywhere near some of the books I've read...