Horror Aficionados discussion

My choices would have to be The Painted Bird , American Psycho, Hell House and Off Season although I could've chosen many more :)

The Girl Next Door was pretty disturbing. I thought it was much worse than Off Season. We Need To Talk About Kevin was another disturbing one for me.

I've only seen the film "The Girl Next Door" which incidentally is one of the most disturbing films I've seen and is what introduced me to Ketchum, I have too check out WNTTAKevin since I've only heard good things

The Girl Next Door and The Summer I Died are my 2 most disturbing.

The Girl Next Door and I'm Not Sam both by Ketchum. Kin by Burke.

KIN!!!

Yes, Kin!!!

Kin and The Summer I died sound quite interesting, I have to check up on them, as well I need to read more Ketchum :)

"Forever Angels," a short story by Ronald Kelly. About a group of kids who stumble upon a cemetery for small children. My favorite horror story: chilling and unforgetable.

I'm adding my support for (view spoiler)[ the birth scene *shudder* (hide spoiler)]

Also

Every Irvine Welsh book that I've read has a chapter that I find hard quite hard going. Filth and Trainspotting especially.

Kate wrote: "I'm adding my support for [spoilers removed]

Also "

oooh Survivor sounds delightful

Davíð wrote: "Kate wrote: "I'm adding my support for [spoilers removed]

Also "

oooh Survivor sounds delightful"

I'm not sure delightful is a way to describe it. There are some pretty hardcore scenes.

Off Season and The Summer I Died.

The splatter stuff is disturbing in the moment, but it's the quiet stuff that colors my nightmares.

I read by Chuck Palahniuk a year or so ago and there are images and ideas from it that still fester up from the bottom of my brain from time to time. Like most of his work, it's a powerful piece of fiction so loaded with powerful storytelling that it really gets under your skin and sticks with you. A really, really great collection of horror stories with a truly disturbing framing mechanism used to hold them together.

Header by Ed lee, I am not sam by jack ketchum deadhead by Shaun hutson and Celler by Richard Laymon

Rakasha by Robert Davis. There are some seriously f*%#ed up scenes in that book that just downright made my stomach turn! Great book but my god is it intense.

Larry wrote: "I'm reading it now and am about half way through it. First Night of Summer by Landon Parham. It is a really good book, but the subject matter is VERY disturbing."

Thanks for the suggestion. I put it on my list. Looks like something I would('nt) enjoy reading. :-)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, understandably very popular. Movie was dreadful in comparison.

And, Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe. Very distressing and disturbing book. I had to stop reading it several times. Expensive to buy, I got it through Interlibrary Loan from my local library.

Is it just me or do the Brits do horror really, really well?

Short story: Thing in the Cellar by David Keller. here: http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/c...

Mel wrote: "The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, understandably very popular. Movie was dreadful in comparison.

And, Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe. Very distressing and disturbing book. I had to stop read..."

"Naomi's Room" sounds interesting. But, you are right. That one is EXPENSIVE!

Bookmarked Thing in the Cellar. Will add that to the pile of books that I have good intentions of getting to.

I think I have bought damn near every book mentioned in this thread so far.

As far as graphic disturbing goes, my vote is for "Exquisite Corpse" by Poppy Z. Brite. Jeez that was one bleak book.

But the book that has disturbed me and stayed with me the longest is "1984" I remember feeling so hollow and empty when I finished it for the first time. It still stays with me to this day.

Naomi's Room is one of the most chilling stories of a haunting I've ever read. And Abebooks.com has many copies very cheap. Ken, you really should read it.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Searc...

And, yes, I find that Brits do chilling horror really well.

Mel wrote: "The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, understandably very popular. Movie was dreadful in comparison. And, Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe. Very distressing and disturbing book. I had to stop read..."

I disagree with Woman in Black, I'm sorry to say. I wished I hadn't even wasted time reading it, to be honest. I was very disappointed. :(

Haven't read Woman in Black, but I really liked the movie and found it to be quite frightening in many parts. I liked the ending, too.

Tressa wrote: "Haven't read Woman in Black, but I really liked the movie and found it to be quite frightening in many parts. I liked the ending, too."

I agree. I've been wanting to read the story forever! i'll get to it one day!

Recently read "Zombie Gigolo" by S.G. Browne in The Living Dead 2. I don't mind being grossed out and a little disturbed, but this story kind of crossed the line for me.

Mehmet wrote: "Header by Ed lee, I am not sam by jack ketchum deadhead by Shaun hutson and Celler by Richard Laymon"

I just finished I'm Not Sam. It is a 5 STAR must-read novella. I didn't find it THAT disturbing. Ketchum has the ability to go way over the top. He really held back on this one.

Ken wrote: "Mehmet wrote: "Header by Ed lee, I am not sam by jack ketchum deadhead by Shaun hutson and Celler by Richard Laymon"

I just finished I'm Not Sam. That is a 5 STAR must-read novella. I didn't find ..."

I agree, Ken. Really good story, but very reserved for Ketchum.

Just finished the novella "The Summer I Died" by Ryan C. Thomas. Hardcore/slasher/torture; extreme. Maybe not best ever (of course) but darn good for today. Loved it.

Jonathan wrote: "Novels: "The Totem" (David Morrell), "I Am Legend" (Richard Matheson)

Novellas: "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (H.P. Lovecraft), "Mrs. God" (Peter Straub), "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" (Tom Reamy)

Stor..."

the shadow over innsmouth is my favorite lovecraft story! and I love I am legend as well

Ken wrote: "I just finished I'm Not Sam. It is a 5 STAR must-read novella. I didn't find it THAT disturbing. Ketchum has the ability to go way over the top. He really held back on this one. ..."

I'm Not Sam is so fantastic!

I have to go along with Charlene, Larry and Traci on The Girl Next Door. Ketchum did an amazing job putting the reader inside that kid's head and making the reader complicit in the abuse. Frakking brilliant.

Upping the ante is We Need to Talk About Kevin. Shriver's book crawled deep under my skin and still induces gooseflesh when I think about it.

But the number one spot for most disturbing has to go to Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy. It's also, IMHO, the best book of the 20th century.

Tim...amen to We Need to Talk About Kevin...I couldnt get that out of my head for weeks...I thought the movie was genius as well.

Scott, I haven't seen the movie. Not sure if I want to, really. The midling reviews kind of warned me off initially but maybe I should rethink that.

Definitely...for Tilda's performance alone!! I thought who the hell is gonna pull that off? Well...she does. The opening...tomato festival...and the slap...thats all Ill say!

Sold! I stand convinced. I've loved Tilda Swinton since Orlando. Thanks, man.

"People to People" by Rachel Ingalls. Successor to Shirley Jackson. A writer with a quiet, disturbing, insidious voice.

This particular story is hard to forget. Four middle-aged men meet up in a hunting cabin to decide how to deal with the shared guilt of a dormitory crime.

They've kept the secret for years, but one of them suddenly wants to make a full confession to the police. They can't have that. But what to do? Its a modern tale of mistrust.

Tim..yes..shes a force to be reckoned with..hope it doesnt disappoint

Ken wrote: "Mehmet wrote: "Header by Ed lee, I am not sam by jack ketchum deadhead by Shaun hutson and Celler by Richard Laymon"

I just finished I'm Not Sam. It is a 5 STAR must-read novella. I didn't find it..."

The thing that disturbed me so much after reading I'm Not Sam was (view spoiler)[ the 'romance' between the husband and 'Not Sam'. He reminded me of a child predator. And the end gave me chills. (hide spoiler)] The story was very effective the way it was written.

Feliks, that sounds good.

Traci L. wrote: "Ken wrote: "Mehmet wrote: "Header by Ed lee, I am not sam by jack ketchum deadhead by Shaun hutson and Celler by Richard Laymon"

I just finished I'm Not Sam. It is a 5 STAR must-read novella. I di..."

(view spoiler)[I didn't see it that way. The man was head-over-heels in love with his wife, They had a very active and healthy sex life. He missed his wife. He was having sex with his wife not "Not Sam".

If Ketchum wanted to go the whole disturbing pedophilia route, I think he would have thrown the reader face first into an oncoming train. (hide spoiler)]

Oddly enough, my most disturbing novel isn't a horror novel, it's Science Fiction. I found Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow very disturbing, I think because throughout the novel you have this awful sense of foreboding that the main character is getting into something awful by allowing himself to go through alien ritual without really knowing exactly what it entails. The description of it and the result of it on his body was extremely uncomfortable, so much so, I could never bring myself to read the sequel, though I thought the book was very good.

I'm not Sam ending was what i found disturbing, because his wife was going through a mental illness. When reading it, i did not get disturbed until the ending which was hard to wrap my head around. i think that was the two authors point. That is why it was considered disturbing for me.

Novellas: "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (H.P. Lovecraft), "Mrs. God" (Peter Straub), "San Diego Lightfoot Sue" ..."

Another vote for "Shadow Over Innsmouth." Lovecraft and MR James ("Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" http://www.classicreader.com/book/192...) are old school but write very disturbing and memorable stories.

I don't recall the name... I think it's technically a science fiction story, about a post-nuclear apocalypse. It stuck with me, though.

The whole story is set on this empty world, in which the technology has persisted after the people have died. The house reads its owners favorite poetry at teatime, and their dog starves outside. It's a very quiet story, but the atmosphere is just chilling.

Nicolas, that sounds really good. Just that idea, the world carrying on without the people.

Nicolas wrote: "I don't recall the name... I think it's technically a science fiction story, about a post-nuclear apocalypse. It stuck with me, though.

The whole story is set on this empty world, in which the tec..."

Would that be Ray Bradbury's short story? "There Will Come Soft Rains"?

Mel, you got it right off. Thanks!

Nicolas wrote: "Mel, you got it right off. Thanks!"

Yay. Though not technically horror, several of Bradbury's stories were disturbing. "The Veldt" http://www.veddma.com/veddma/Veldt.htm was one which was particularly frisson inducing.