The Book of Lists: Horror
Page 27
30. “The Hell Screen” by Akutagawa Ryûnosuke
THE ORIGINAL TITLES OF TWENTY HORROR NOVELS
1. Original Title: The Shine
Final Title: The Shining (1977)
Author: Stephen King
2. Original Title: Cancer
Final Title: Dreamcatcher (2001)
Author: Stephen King
3. Original Title: Butcher Boy
Final Title: Play Dead (2005)
Author: Michael A. Arnzen
4. Original Title: Knife Edge
Final Title: The Face That Must Die (1979)
Author: Ramsey Campbell
5. Original Title: The Morbidity of the Soul
Final Title: Hannibal (1999)
Author: Thomas Harris
6. Original Title: The Incarnations
Final Title: Incarnate (1983)
Author: Ramsey Campbell
7. Original Titles: Behind the Mask; The Lecter Variations
Final Title: Hannibal Rising (2006)
Author: Thomas Harris
8. Original Title: Nightmare New York City
Final Title: Dead Lines (1989)
Authors: John Skipp and Craig Spector
9. Original Title: Skull & Crossbones
Final Title: Ripper (1994)
Author: Michael Slade
10. Original Title: Blind Dark
Final Title: The Hungry Moon (1986)
Author: Ramsey Campbell
11. Original Title: The Mantis Syndrome
Final Title: Ladies’ Night (1998)
Author: Jack Ketchum
12. Original Title: Home to Mother
Final Title: The Nameless (1981)
Author: Ramsey Campbell
13. Original Titles: The Summer of the Shark; The Terror of the Monster; The Jaws of the Leviathan
Final Title: Jaws (1974)
Author: Peter Benchley
14. Original Title: For the Rest of Their Lives
Final Title: Obsession (1985)
Author: Ramsey Campbell
15. Original Title: We Love the Scream
Final Title: The Scream (1988)
Authors: John Skipp and Craig Spector
16. Original Title: Birdland
Final Title: Drawing Blood (1994)
Author: Poppy Z. Brite
17. Original Title: The Funhole
Final Title: The Cipher (1991)
Author: Kathe Koja
18. Original Title: The Huntress
Final Title: She Wakes (1989)
Author: Jack Ketchum
19. Original Titles: Second Coming; Jerusalem’s Lot
Final Title: ’Salem’s Lot (1975)
Author: Stephen King
20. Original Title: The Un-Dead
Final Title: Dracula (1897)
Author: Bram Stoker
— Compiled by S.B.
GARY BRANDNER’S TEN FAVORITE HORROR NOVELS
(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
Gary Brandner, born in the Midwest, followed such diverse career paths as bartender, surveyor, loan company investigator, and technical writer before turning to fiction. He is the author of The Howling, Cameron’s Closet, Floater, Walkers, Doomstalker, Rot, and numerous other horror novels. A hit movie version of The Howling was released in 1981. He has also contributed short fiction to many anthologies, including Post Mortem and Dark Delicacies. Brandner lives with his wife and cats in California’s San Fernando Valley.
1. Dracula, by Bram Stoker: There are slow patches, but you can’t be a real horror fan if you haven’t read it.
2. The Shining, by Stephen King: Some really shuddery scenes, from back when the King was doing real horror.
3. The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty: Even scarier than the movie.
4. The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson: Who cares if it’s true or not? This will keep you awake nights.
5. The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris: The best of the Hannibal Lecter series.
6. Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin: Proves you don’t need blood to be scary as hell.
7. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury: Poetic spooky atmosphere with a great carnival centerpiece.
8. All Heads Turn as the Hunt Goes By, by John Farris: For the cool title, if no other reason.
9. ’Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King: The best vampire novel ever.
10. 7 Footprints to Satan, by A. Merritt: The first horror story I ever read. Satanic images that stick with me.
NINE HORROR WRITERS WHO HAVE WRITTEN
CHILDREN’S OR YOUNG ADULT BOOKS
1. Roald Dahl
Today Roald Dahl is better known for his children’s books than his earlier excursions into the macabre. But it was with his tales of horror that he made his initial mark, publishing in periodicals such as Playboy and producing collections such as Switch Bitch and Kiss Kiss. However, with his skewed vision—and since many children’s fantasies trade in revenge against grown-ups—Dahl quickly found an enormous audience with his first children’s book, James and the Giant Peach. On the first page, the parents of young James are dispatched by “an angry rhinoceros that escaped from the London Zoo and ate them in full daylight.” Soon our hero is entrusted to the “care” of two evil relatives, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge, who meet their comeuppance when they are squashed by a giant peach. Dahl’s other best-known children’s work is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which became the basis for two hit films.
2. George R. R. Martin
A bestselling fantasy novelist and much-acclaimed horror writer, Martin also published the lovely children’s fantasy novella The Ice Dragon. In this book, a young girl named Adara, born during the worst winter in the land, befriends a dragon made of ice. Martin packs enough plot and fine writing in his tale to satisfy adults as well as children; and, in typical horror fashion, there are touches of dark, macabre drama, and a melancholic rather than happy ending.
3. Algernon Blackwood
A highly prolific author known for classic chillers like “The Wendigo” and “The Willows,” Blackwood penned several works for children as well. In one, A Prisoner in Fairyland, the protagonist passes through a “crack” between yesterday and tomorrow into a timeless fairy land. Another, The Education of Paul, reads like a children’s book but proves to be a thoughtful exploration of a deep mystical experience.
4. Stephen King
The King of Horror published his fantasy work for children and adults, The Eyes of the Dragon, in 1987, saying that he wrote the book for his daughter Naomi, who wasn’t a fan of her father’s tales of terror. Although the book is far gentler than any of King’s works to that date, it does have several interesting connections to other tales by the author, in particular, his Dark Tower series.
5. Clive Barker
Though his name is synonymous with some of the most extreme horror ever in fiction and film, Clive Barker has also written several works for younger readers, including the fable The Thief of Always and the internationally bestselling Abarat series. The multitalented author also provided original illustrations and paintings to accompany these works.
6. Whitley Strieber
The author of The Wolfen, The Hunger, and Communion produced the young adult novel Wolf of Shadows in 1985 as a sort of companion piece to his book about the aftermath of nuclear war, War Day (written with James Kunetka). The harrowing but poetic and intensely moving tale depicts a postnuclear world from the point of view of a wolf.
7. Kathe Koja
Known to horror readers for the acclaimed novels Skin, Bad Brains, and others, Koja in recent years has become an acclaimed author of young-adult fiction with such novels as Buddha Boy, Kissing the Bee, and Talk, which have earned raves from both adolescents and adults for their lyrical writing and insightful depiction of the teenage world.
8. Ian McEwan
The author of creepy novels such as The Cement Garden and The Comfort of Strangers (as well as acclaimed mainstream literary works, including Atone
ment and the Booker Prize–winner Amsterdam) has also authored a pair of books for children. The Daydreamer is about the rich fantasy life of a little boy, while Rose Blanche concerns a young German girl who secretly aids the prisoners in a concentration camp during World War II.
9. Joyce Carol Oates
The prolific Joyce Carol Oates is as well known for her mainstream literary works as she is for her horror fiction. But she’s also written a number of young-adult and children’s books, most recent, Naughty Chérie, about a kitten who learns the importance of not misbehaving.
—A.W. and S.B.
TIM LEBBON’S TOP TEN APOCALYPSES
IN HORROR FICTION
Tim Lebbon is a bestselling novelist from South Wales. His books include Dusk, Dawn, 30 Days of Night, Berserk, The Everlasting, Hellboy: Unnatural Selection, Exorcising Angels (with Simon Clark), Dead Man’s Hand, White and Other Tales of Ruin, and Desolation.
Future publications include two more fantasy novels and a series of contemporary fantasy novels in collaboration with Christopher Golden (all for Bantam Spectra), and a series of young-adult novels based on the adventures of Jack London (also in collaboration with Golden). He has won three British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, and a Tombstone Award. His novella White is soon to be a major Hollywood movie, and several more works are in development in the U.S. and UK. Find out more at his Web sites: www.timlebbon.net and www.noreela.com.
1. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham: I’ve always been a sucker for end-of-the-world scenarios set in the UK, from Survivors to The War of the Worlds (see below), and this is one of the best. We all know the story, and I just love the originality. And for walking plants, ridiculous as the concept may be, the Triffids are bloody scary!
2. The Mist, by Stephen King: King has destroyed the world several times over, but for me this is his best, turning the end of life as we know it into a tense, claustrophobic siege story in which survivors are besieged from the inside as well as from without.
3. The Death of Grass, by John Christopher: This one sticks in my mind because it’s just so plausible, not relying on zombies, biological warfare, or anything else, other than crop blight. Brutal, bleak, and quite unrelenting, it’s a very British take on the apocalypse.
4. The Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney: One of the best and most imaginative takes on alien invasion, which spawned one of the scariest horror movies (the 1978 Kaufman version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, for me, takes the biscuit). Maybe it is all about Cold War paranoia, and not knowing your enemy from your friend, but it’s damn scary.
5. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson: One of the best vampire novels ever. While Robert Neville agonizes over what has happened, his day-to-day survival in a world infected by vampirism is fascinating, and terrifying. This brilliant novel drags us, kicking and screaming, to one of the best climaxes in apocalyptic fiction.
6. The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells: Usually classed as science fiction, but for me it’s a horror story. A sense of hopelessness pervades the book, and to the Martians, we humans are simply germs—which makes the ending even more ironic.
7. Blood Crazy, by Simon Clark: One of Clark’s best, and a brutally realized, imaginative take on the end of the world. It’s obvious that John Christopher and John Wyndham influence Clark’s fiction in a very positive way. You won’t look at your parents the same way again.
8. The Rising, by Brian Keene: Zombies have enjoyed a resurgence over the past few years, and Keene’s take on them is interesting and refreshing. Zombies possessed by demons? You just know there are going to be problems.
9. The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson: Dark, forbidding, mysterious, and almost endless, you need to spend a day in the sun after reading this one.
10. Domain, by James Herbert: A perfect end to the Rats trilogy. Herbert upped the ante on this one, throwing in a nuclear war on top of the rats for his heroes to tackle. And that ending . . . oh my!
A TRIFFID BY ANY OTHER NAME WILL STILL KILL YOU:
TWELVE ALTERNATE NAMES FOR TRIFFIDS
In John Wyndham’s horror/science fiction novel The Day of the Trif fids (1951), when the walking, stalking, carnivorous plants with “that active, three-pronged root” are first discovered, nobody quite knows what to call them. Eventually, they come to be known as “triffids.” But before that, according to the book, “what the newspapers and the public wanted was something easy on the tongue and not too heavy on the headlines for general use. If you could see the papers of that time you would find them referring to . . .”
1. Trichots
2. Tricusps
3. Trigenates
4. Trigons
5. Trilogs
6. Tridentates
7. Trinits
8. Tripedals
9. Tripeds
10. Triquets
11. Tripods
12. Trippets
— S.B. (Source: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham)
LISA TUTTLE’S TEN FAVORITE SCARY SHORT STORIES
The prolific and award-winning Lisa Tuttle was born in Houston, Texas, in 1952. She moved to London, where she spent twenty years of her life, and now resides in Scotland with her husband and their daughter. She has written science fiction, fantasy, erotica, and extremely upsetting horror. She began as a writer of short stories—a form for which she retains a strong attachment—but is also known for her nonfiction (The Encyclopedia of Feminism), anthologies (Skin of the Soul), and novels (including The Pillow Friend, The Mysteries, and The Silver Bough).
1. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Totally creeped me out when I first read it as a kid. Years later, when I discovered the writer had written it about her own experience, it was even more horrifying.
2. “The School Friend,” by Robert Aickman: The only story that ever made me scream out loud. It was the first of Aickman’s strange stories I encountered, and I was so caught up in its spell that I thought I was alone, until my roommate spoke.
3. “The Mezzotint,” by M. R. James: A deceptively mild and donnish little tale, chillingly unforgettable.
4. “The Monkey’s Paw,” by W. W. Jacobs: A powerfully mythic horror story.
5. “Afterwards,” by Edith Wharton: The perfect ghost story.
6. “The Victorian Chaise Longue,” by Marghanita Laski: Most time-slip fantasies are romantic, but this one is full of dread and terror.
7. “The Demon Lover,” by Elizabeth Bowen: Works with beautiful ambiguity: supernatural or real-life horror?
8. “ Casting the Runes,” by M. R. James: Great story, good movie (Night of the Demon), and inspiration for the scariest party game I’ve ever played.
9. “The White People,” by Arthur Machen: Brilliant evocation of a hidden world, secret knowledge, and the dark side of folklore.
10. “The Pear-Shaped Man,” by George R. R. Martin: Okay, this is personal. I met a (the?) pear-shaped man and told George about the weird encounter, and he wrote it up as fiction. It’s true, I tell you!
AMY WALLACE’S THIRTEEN MOST MEMORABLE
MOMENTS READING HORROR FICTION
Amy Wallace is the co-author of The Book of Lists: Horror and cocreator (with her father Irving Wallace and brother David Wallechinsky) of the Book of Lists series.
1. “The Veldt,” by Ray Bradbury: This was the first story that scared me as a child. I have only reread it once, and it held up. This story (and several other Bradbury classics of that era, like “The Next in Line”) led to many disturbed nights and worry about what might be under the bed, even though it’s not about things under the bed. Read and beware.
2. Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber: The only novel ever to scare me so silly that I read it until dawn, like a deer fixed to headlights or a tongue stuck to the freezer. I was twenty-one, and traveling in Paris with my parents and husband, and even my snoring better half beside me gave me zero solace. I’m afraid to read it again. Some similar themes are explored in Ira Levin’s novels The Stepf
ord Wives and Rosemary’s Baby, both fantastic, but with all due respect, they didn’t scar my psyche like Conjure Wife did. Shudder.
3. “Lukundoo,” by Edward Lucas White: Oh, dear. A shattering, terrifying story about a fellow who’s wronged a woman and his punishment is . . . to have excrescences growing out of his body. They . . . gibber. The end is a mysterious shocker, with a few unforgettable, haunting lines from our suffering protagonist. He is utterly doomed. Just as good with every read.
4. “Petey,” by T. E. D. Klein: When it comes to Mr. Klein, it is difficult to choose. Another Klein story, “Nadelman’s God,” battled for a place on this list. But in the end, that story made me melancholy and disturbed, while I always get a frisson out of “Petey.” I have a weakness for horror in suburban settings—the macabre in the midst of cocktail parties and the like. “Petey” is, in part, the tale of a housewarming thrown by a bourgeois couple, complete with an amateur tarot reading that leads to no good. It was this get-under-your-skin story that made me conquer my shyness and acquire Mr. Klein’s telephone number, thus leading to what has been, to me, a most gratifying friendship by phone and mail. He does sound like Alfred Hitchcock on the phone, yet I’m not sure how scary he is. Probably very.