Ever get caught in a nightmare you knew was a nightmare but couldn’t escape? All you want to do is wake up and be safe again. Yet we deliberately go into Halloween “haunted houses”, watch horror flicks and sit around a campfire exchanging spooky tales. We love goose bumps and feeling the hair on the back of our necks stand up … under certain conditions. Every time we face fear and triumph, we reassert our ability to overcome what threatens us, whether or not it truly exists.
The thing about scary things is that they require our participation, our validation that, indeed, they are fearful. The challenge to writers of horror stories is to find those triggers in us that induce fear, presenting questionable situations and events in believable ways. The most effective, memorable horror stories often play out only in the mind of the main character … or maybe not. Emotion overcomes logic as we, along with the protagonist, fall under the spell of the supernatural.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are seven recommended scary classics that are spooktacular:
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
The Shining – Stephen King
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
Collected Ghost Stories – M.R. James
Ghost Story – Peter Straub
Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood – Selected by E.F. Bleiler
If you’re looking for something lighter to get you into the Halloween spirit:
The Canterville Ghost – Oscar Wilde
Topper – Thorne Smith