Everyone determines the list of the best for himself, but let's try to focus on the most popular and look at the alternative with one eye.
had a huge impact on the genre. Edgar Allan Poe. This is especially true of his work in psycho-horror, when the work does not strike with cruelty and dismemberment in the forehead, but slowly squeezes the head with suspense and loss of reason. " The tell-tale heart", "Black cat", "Metzengerstein", of course, "Well and pendulum"- the richest choice. Old Edgar did not deprive his attention of lovers of mystical metaphors (" Mask of the Red Death", "William Wilson") and fans of body horror (" The truth about what happened to Monsieur Valdemar"), there is enough material.
Since we are talking about psycho-horror, the real king of the genre is Howard Phillips Lovecraft(as they say, our everything). With the help of remarkable style and famous painful images, Lovecraft masterfully transports the reader to the locations of his works and conveys such threshold states as psychopathy or catatonia with frightening accuracy. The signature feature of the author is the transfer of the consciousness of a person who slowly (and sometimes vice versa - instantly) goes crazy. The suspense in his rather short works is such that Bava himself would envy, and the games with the reader's imagination impress with their perversity. Howard gives the most detailed, but extremely pointy descriptions, allowing the imagination to connect everything together: it is powerful, and creepy, and debilitating (the incessant forcing of fantasy makes the brain work like a gasoline generator). You can grab from Lovecraft almost everything indiscriminately: " Dog", "Nightmare in Red Hook", "Picture in an old book", "Buried with pharaohs", "Winged death", a series of stories about Randolph Carter, sweeping " Shadow over Innsmouth" And " Ridges of Madness"; even a poem" star horror"(certainly in the original) causes respectful awe.
Perhaps the most popular horror author is Stephen King. If only because none of his colleagues inherited him in pop culture. It is distinguished by stories stretched over time, full of small, but at the same time interesting details. Stephen works in a variety of subgenres, so the reader's task is to find his own (although many, many people swallow everything related to King without any consequences for the body). In his stories one can find wild fantasy, grotesque and surreal (especially good in this aspect " Raft" And " Finger"), there is a brutal dystopia (" running Man"), breathtaking suspense (" Misery", "Shine"), pure mystical horror (" Carrie", "losing weight"), as well as fantasy, childhood memories, sci-fi and manuals on how to write books (by the way, a great thing for those who want to, but do not come out). King is not always well translated, and he himself is sometimes recorded and stretched no one needs for long pages, but, probably, everyone, regardless of beliefs and age, can find kingism to their liking.
Another venerable author - Robert Bloch. Bloch writes very interesting plots ("Train to Hell", for example), does not shy away from visualized violence and is very well-read, which is reflected in the changing style (you will have both Lovecraft and Poe). The choice is rich, but special attention should be paid to short stories, as well as novels " Psycho", "Couch" And " american gothic"plus story" The dead don't die".
And finally, a living horror classic Clive Barker. Barker is far from suitable for everyone because of his language (too ... sensual, or something), but his images and plots can be admired endlessly. The first three are required reading. Blood Books", then - to whom what: someone" Imagika", someone - " Canyon of cold hearts", while others continue to study the remaining " Blood Books". And, of course, " Hellraiser"- at least in order to compare with the film and be surprised how much everything is hidden in a seemingly familiar story.
This is one of the most popular horror writers of today. But also don't forget about Dina Kuntsa, Ambrose Bierce, Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, Richard Matheson and (why not?) Hans Evers.
As for the alternative to the mainstream, it lives in the underground. Consider a few authors as a guide.
David Wong "John dies at the end". Excellently written eclectic novel: there is horror, and sci-fi, and grotesque, and twists ... Everything is so good that Don Coscarelli undertook to make a screencap. And he did. The title, oddly enough, does not contain spoilers, so grab it and read boldly, the book is first class!
Matthew Stockow and his" cows". This book makes sense to poke extreme and fans of ultra-gore. Stokow, although in order to create a metaphor, regularly goes into a deliberate, but no less nauseating provocation, so sex with animals through holes pre-drilled with a drill, murder, dismemberment , as well as eating excrement is a common thing for him.But if you are drawn to the visual side of violence and the stale atmosphere of despair, hopelessness and the meaninglessness of human existence, then "Cows" will occupy an important place in your home library.
"Exquisite Corpse" Poppy Bright- more arthouse than horror, but fans of the dark side of literature will surely enjoy it. Huge work with characters (based on the most famous serial killers), a branching plot, excellent language and an icy narrative instantly made Poppy (at that time - a girl) a sensation in the literary underground.
"Satanburger" Carlton Mellick- a masterpiece of an eclectic American pseudo-pulp, stuffed not only with an interesting message about our reality (and its alternatives), but also with references to all kinds of horror stamps. A massive alien invasion, a homosexual Satan reviving people and...uh...parts of their bodies, punks-andeds and the unrestrained atmosphere of a small-town crust concert that coincided with the end of human civilization! In every respect worthwhile thing!
And since the conversation turned to litandeground, it is impossible not to mention James Havoc and his" Butcher shop in paradise". You can writhe endlessly in an attempt to convey all the convulsiveness and oozing lymph polychaetes of Havok's epithets, his mutilated and, frankly, disturbingly dreary love for Gilles de Rais, his sick fantasy through and through ... But it will not only be long, but also useless It's easier to quote:
Today, our invasion will set fire to an impoverished village, already cursed with minced black meat. My pack of hounds of pigs is tearing the rebels out of the fields where victory trumpets used to sound, the soldiers are nailing the men upside down to the crosses, setting fire to their faces. Having made secrets with the horse, I find a whole camp of pregnant wives embracing in a manger. One dies in front of my eyes, a tar doll, chewing, crawls out of smoking loins; the other, fulfilling the nightmares poured into flasks with her breasts, lives again the story of how the Devil attacked her on the eve of many centuries. Solemnly declared to be his septic bitch, he enters the bedchamber, strips the skin and meat from her husband's sleeping bones to feed his dogs, after which he impales her on a member, as if on a stake - cold, scaly and hefty, like a blacksmith's hand. She pinches and tugs at her cheeks, remembering the two bulging blows at the root of his serpentine organ, dripping with narcotic sludge as one of them thrashes her violent clit and the other screws into her rectum. Here is a two-horned tongue scraping the lining inside her womb to wash all the slop, retreating just at the moment when the goat-femurs are psychopathically twitching, and the chilling mucus floods the inner chambers. After this terrifying intercourse, her dreams were full of pyromania and cannibals in the caves, she is forever pregnant, but she continues to have terrible shriveled menstruation, for the devil's seed is made up of the smallest cannibal sephiroth colonizing the vagina, where they construct inextinguishable coal fires over which they barbecue from the delicious sperm of her mortal admirers.
What could be more interesting than the worlds that can be entered using the key that is the book! Those horrors that unfold before you are connected not only with the talent of the writer, but also with the imagination of the reader. You build the scenery yourself, choose the appearance of the characters, capturing the atmosphere pumped up by the author. There are no special effects in the book, mediocre acting and inappropriate actors or fake pavilions, it's all up to you. Although many popular works, primary source books are still successfully sold both in paper and in the now popular electronic form.
The book takes longer than the movie; it must open up, you need to feel contact with it, find common ground, and it will generously reward you for the time spent, opening up its secrets to you, page by page. You can “swallow” it in just one night or put it off for a few days, thinking about what you read. A book is always a relationship, it is like a friendship - yours and yours the key to the fantasy universe. We hope that you will be happy to make friends with the works from our list, compiled in random order, and want to pick them up more than once, because books are like people - they get bored without the attention of their friends.
1) "Pet Cemetery"
Release year: 1983
Pet cemetery. Nice provincial fun, so the site thought at first Louis Creed, who arrived in a new house with his family. Children from all over the area brought dead animals here. Dogs, cats, canaries, rats. They were buried in ancient Indian land. In one that is harder than the human heart. People are not buried in the Pet Cemetery. But Louis will have to do it one day - in deep grief, in a fit of despair. But everything you do, sooner or later comes back to you threefold.
2) "Call" ("Ring")
Release year: 1991
This novel, after its publication, gained such popularity that it has already been filmed twice - in its homeland in Japan and in the USA. The plot of the work was a Japanese urban legend of the late XX century. A video cassette falls into the hands of journalist Asakawa Kazuyuki, which has already brought death to four people. If exactly in a week he does not solve the magic formula of salvation, he and his loved ones will die.
3) "The Ghost of Hill House"
Release year: 1959
An old mansion on a hill brings only grief to its inhabitants. The owners refuse to live in it, an elderly couple looking after the house does not risk staying here for the night. The reputation of the abode of ghosts was firmly entrenched behind the house. And then one day the silence of the house is broken by a noisy company of visitors. Dr. Montagu, a paranormal researcher, rents a mansion for the summer to study the phenomena taking place there. None of the arrivals can even imagine what a nightmare this trip will end. The popularity of the book was consolidated by its two film adaptations - directed by Robert Wise (1963) and Jan De Bont with the participation of Steven Spielberg (1999).
4) Cycle "Myths of Cthulhu"
Years of release: 1917-1927
During the life of Lovecraft, his works were not very popular, but the site after his death, they had a noticeable impact on the formation of modern popular culture. His work is so unique that the works of Lovecraft stand out in a separate subgenre - the so-called Lovecraftian horror, which most often uses the psychological horror of the unknown. It can also be said that Lovecraft was the first to develop in detail the “cosmic horror” about the intervention of aliens in earthly life, which seriously affected post-war fiction: the author’s influence is noticeable in many works about aliens from outer space.
5) "Omen" ("Omen")
Release year: 1976
Robert Thorne, an American diplomat, upon arrival at the hospital learns that his wife has given birth to a dead child. The wife does not yet know about this, and Thorne is offered to adopt a baby who was born on the same day - the 6th of the 6th month. The nurse convinced him that the newborn's mother had died in childbirth and she had no relatives. Robert agrees without telling his wife. Soon, parents notice strange things about their son: Damien has never been sick, he is afraid of churches, and people are dying around him. In the Book of Revelations it was said that the Antichrist would come in human form, that this birth would take place on the sixth day of the sixth month at six o'clock.
6) "The Exorcist"
Release year: 1971
Ragan, a sweet, well-mannered girl of eleven, transforms before her eyes into a monster with an animal disguise and a rough, raspy voice. Her mother, a famous actress, is desperately looking for a way out of this situation, realizing that she is irretrievably losing her daughter every day. The tender soul of the child groans in pain and horror and tries to resist, but the forces are unequal, and the demon that has taken possession of it is already ready to celebrate the victory. Meanwhile, the priest Karras comes to the aid of the family.
7) "Salim's Destiny" ("The Lot of Jerusalem")
Release year: 1975
Ben Mears, a writer, arrives in the small town of Maine, Salim's Lot, and almost at the same time, a new owner moves into the newly bought old sinister Marsten house. Following this, a little boy tragically disappears, and then people began to disappear all over the town - one by one and whole families. Neither relatives nor even the police could find them. And when hope disappeared, it seemed forever, the lost returned, and the town shuddered with horror. Ben is one of the few who guessed what was the matter, he begins the fight against the ancient evil, whose name is vampires.
This novel has many variants of the title depending on the translation. Here we present two of the most popular.
8) "Dracula"
Release year: 1897
Bram Stoker's novel is a well-known classic of the vampire genre, and his graph site Dracula is a truly immortal creature that has survived many adaptations and has become the embodiment of all the most insidious and mysterious that human fantasy is capable of. The reader is about to hear five voices telling of their nightmarish encounters with Dracula. Beauty Lucy, who received a fatal bite and gradually becomes a vampire; her lover, who cannot find a place for himself from despair; a courageous physician who recognizes ominous symptoms; lawyer Jonathan Harker, who went to distant Transylvania to conclude a fatal deal; his faithful fiancee Mina. Excerpts from their diaries and letters step by step bring the sinister mystery closer to the solution.
9) “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod”
Years of release: 1831-1832, 1835
The book "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", consisting of eight stories, is divided exactly into two parts. "Mirgorod", published in 1835, which includes the famous "Viy", is a collection of stories by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, the site which is positioned as a continuation of "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". The stories in this collection are based on Ukrainian folklore and have much in common with each other. In this collection, unlike "Dikanka", where Rudy Panko was, there is no single "publisher" who closes the cycle of stories. Despite the fact that the stories are grouped, they can be read separately without losing the meaning of each story. "Mirgorod" was published in two volumes, two stories each.
10) "Ghouls"
Release year: 2000
The novel "Ghouls" was published in two books, the first is called "Black Dawn", the second "Fight", and the author himself was declared by the publishers as the Russian Stephen King. Based on the mythological concept developed by the author, the ghouls are the children of Ahriman, the dark deity of Zoroastrianism, whom he created in opposition to the human race. Ghouls do not have a soul, they are insidious, unreasonably vicious, bloodthirsty and the site is practically immortal, they can only be destroyed by fire or sea water. These monsters are born from buried human corpses. According to ancient prophecies, Vassakh Gul appears in the world every few centuries - a powerful leader of the dark army, who arranges a local apocalypse in one single town and, having destroyed its entire population, grows an army of ghouls from corpses for a global apocalypse. This is exactly the situation that arises in a small modern Italian city.
11) "Stories"
Release year: 1834-1847
Edgar Alan Poe is a legend in American literature. It seems that all its genres and directions have grown out of his work. It is his gloomy mysterious figure that runs through all the masterpieces born in the New World. His own works are full of darkness and mysticism. Mysterious dead, mysterious beasts, the Sphinx, King Plague and the Devil himself - these are his favorite heroes.
12) Hellraiser
Release year: 1986
The box, once created by the toy craftsman Lemarchand, opens the way to other dimensions. A mysterious order of senobites who have tasted the highest pleasure that is inaccessible to an ordinary person. And the gates of hell itself, flung open to our world. Hellraiser has become a world horror classic, and cult films based on this novel were shot, in the creation of which Clive Barker himself took part.
13) "Caught by Ghosts"
Release year: 1987
Where is the line between dream and reality? What happens in real life, and what is just a figment of the imagination? Is contact with the other world possible if there is nothing beyond death? Trying to answer all these questions cost David Ash too much. He never believed in ghosts, did not trust the supernatural, laughed at them, considering the site to be their Photoshop. But it couldn't go on like this for long. Sooner or later, he had to fight with otherworldly forces. What awaits him at the end of this terrible, chilling story?
14) "They appear at midnight"
Release year: 1968
In all sinister literature about the other world, there is no other such creature that would cause more horror, disgust and unhealthy interest than a vampire. No other monster has attracted such close attention from the recognized masters of this genre, and no other creature from the power of darkness has managed to inspire writers and become the hero of such numerous and outstanding nightmare stories.
15) "We live in a castle"
Release year: 1962
This book is an American Gothic novel, a real psychological thriller. It was selected by the magazine "Times" among the 10 best novels of the site of the year, withstood 13 editions. In one American family living in their own house near the village, a tragedy occurred: almost all of its members were poisoned with arsenic. Two sisters and an elderly uncle - that's all that's left of the once great clan. Life on the estate flowed quietly and measuredly, but one evening there was a knock on the door, announcing the arrival of a cousin who wanted to visit the sisters.
16) "Florence and Giles"
Release year: 2010
1891 New England. Twelve-year-old orphan Florence lives with her younger brother Giles in a secluded and almost abandoned mansion. Their uncle cares little about raising children, and for his niece, he completely forbade hiring a teacher. He is sure that the girl cannot read or write. But Florence, left to herself, secretly swallows book after book, disappearing for hours into the site of the cold silence of a huge library alone with Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. She invents her own language with which she tells her story. After the mysterious death of the first governess, the guardian did not burden himself with an overly picky choice of a new mentor. Soon Miss Taylor arrives at the estate. She smells of misfortune and the scent of lilies. Florence senses that an evil and vengeful spirit has entered the house and threatens Giles. Unable to turn to adults for help, she uses all her wits and ingenuity to resist him.
17) "Haunted Story"
Release year: 1979
The writer Don Wonderly comes to the small town of Milburn, where his uncle used to live, at the invitation of four old men who call themselves the Nonsense Club; they are busy telling scary stories to each other at club meetings. The fifth member of the club was Uncle Don, who died at a reception given in honor of the enigmatic actress Ann Veronica Moore. This trip is perfect for Don. After all, not everything is going smoothly in his life either: his brother recently died, and Don blames a strange woman for his death, who turned his whole life upside down. In addition, Don hopes to finally write a new novel. But things are not all right in Milbourne either. An out-of-town farmer discovers his cows have been killed and bled to death; a strange woman appears in town, and her appearance shocks the members of the Nonsense Club, one of whom commits suicide. But that's not all: people are starting to disappear in Milbourne.
18) "Madame Mandilip's Devil Dolls" ("Burn, witch, burn!")
Release year: 1932
An unusual patient, henchman of the famous gangster Ricori, is brought to Dr. Lowell's clinic. The patient dies, but the cause of death is unknown, the site and the death itself was so strange and terrible that Ricori, in collaboration with Lowell, begin an investigation. It soon turns out that Lowell's patient was far from the first victim who died in this way, and the only thing that unites all the victims of the epidemic is dolls from Madame Mandilip's shop, a witch who creates reduced copies of living people and relocates the souls of the originals into them.
19) Hell House
Release year: 1971
For nearly twenty years, the house of Emeric Belasco, known throughout the city as an ominous abode of ghosts, has been empty. All attempts to cleanse the Hell House fail, and those who take part in them either die or lose their minds. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the city do not lose hope. Physicist Barret and his wife Edith, medium Florence Tanver and psychic Benjamin Fisher are ready to make another attempt at cleansing. Will the site be able to get rid of the power of dark forces this time?
20) “Vampires. The fantastic novel of Baron Olshevry from the family chronicle of Counts Dracula-Cardy" 
Release year: 1912
A young, rich and energetic American heir to an old family, Harry Cardy, arrives in an abandoned Carpathian castle of the ancient Dracula family, accompanied by inseparable friends: the brave Captain Wright, the inquisitive young man James, nicknamed by his friends Sherlock Holmes, and the calm, sensible Dr. Weiss. This novel, written as a parody in response to the emerging vampiric vogue, is now a classic of the genre.
And which mystical book from our list seemed the most terrible to you?
And we will begin our journey through the dark and terrible pages of literature from the end of the 19th century and make a short halt to rest a little and calm the imagination at the end of the 50s of the last century.
So, you are waiting for the top best horror books of the twentieth century.
This amazing mystical-psychological story was written and published in 1898. This work still causes controversy among literary critics, because many believe that the events that the author described were real.
The story begins with a few people gathered around a fireplace. One of them decides to read the manuscript, which was once given to him by a woman who is now dead. The narrator believes that all the events in the manuscript are real.
The manuscript is full of strange and mystical events that took place in one aristocratic family. Not a free witness, and then a participant, the new nanny, who was only twenty years old, became a participant. The girl sees ghosts and is sure that her wards see them too. Trying to save innocent children, she only makes things worse.
But what exactly happened to the heroes of the story, you have to find out for yourself.
A short story published in 1902 inspires fear in modern readers. This small work can be read in no more than 20 minutes, but the shiver on the topic will run every time, one has only to remember the events described there.
Sergeant Morris returns to his homeland after completing his military service in India. As a souvenir, he brings a dry monkey paw that can grant three wishes. But one must be very careful in their desires, because they can turn into a disaster. Despite the fact that Morris never became happy, his friend still wants to use the monkey's paw.
By the way, that's why several horror films were shot for the story, so if you have strong nerves - enjoy watching!
If you are a lover of horror and mysticism, then you are certainly familiar with the work of this author.
It would seem that such a terrible and terrible thing could happen if a small meteorite fell into the courtyard. Many will answer that there will be nothing left but the funnel, but not the heroes of Lovecraft. After the fall of a celestial body, simply terrible things happen to the farmer's family, while everything around simply dies, and the meteor evaporates. Many years have passed since then, but strange, and sometimes just terrible things all happen in the place where the meteorite once fell. Will the protagonist be able to find out the truth or will he face something beyond comprehension?
It is from this story that the story of the fictional deity Cthulhu begins. The story was published in 1927, but was not appreciated during the author's lifetime. In 2005, the story was filmed and from that moment Cthulhu became very popular. "The Call of Cthulhu" was the first in a series of stories that made up the world of Cthulhu.
Three stories that are interconnected by investigating incidents that are directly related to the dark deity.
In the first story, Thurston finds a clay bas-relief depicting Cthulhu. From that moment on, strange visions begin to haunt him, in addition, creative people also see such visions.
The second story is the story of the policeman Legrasse, who took part in the capture of the sect in 1907, where they worshiped Cthulhu. In this part of the work, you will learn in detail about all the horrors that the sectarians did.
The third part tells about even more strange events that are connected with a dark and bloody deity. In this part, Cthulhu himself appears, leading death.
The Dunwich Horror - Howard Lovecraft
The action takes place in the city of Dunwich, where a strange creature has appeared that hunts for livestock, and at the same time is not averse to tasting something else or someone. Residents are horrified, and three desperate doctors will have to unravel the mystery.
The novel appeared in 1931 and is considered the main one in a number of works about Cthulhu. One of the film companies was going to film the book, but later decided to refuse. Some motifs of the work are found in the film "Prometheus" by Ridley Scott.
The action takes place in Antarctica. Where did the expedition go? One of the groups finds an ancient city and a strange burial. A detailed study of the remains reveals that these are not people, but rather strange creatures. At night, the group dies under mysterious circumstances, and some of the remains disappear. The second group begins to explore the city, but it's not an easy test. Will they be able to choose from the revived city of Cthulhu?
"Who goes?" – John Campbell (alias Don A. Stewart)
The story was published in 1931, and in 1973 was recognized as one of the best science fiction works. The story is also known under such names as “Who is there?” and "Something". It was under the latter name that several films were released.
A spaceship is found in Antarctica that crashed 20 million years ago. A frozen pilot is found in the ship, and the main mistake of scientists was the decision to unfreeze it. The alien can take the form of anyone who has become his food. A group of researchers is trying to find out which one is alien. But what this creature achieves, you will find out if you decide to plunge into the world of horrors.
This sci-fi novel is known to almost everyone who watched the movie "I Am Legend", but this is not the first film adaptation of the work. The book was published in 1954.
The plot takes place in Los Angeles, where the only person left who was bypassed by a terrible virus. In his spare time, Robert Neville is looking for a cure for the disease in order to save the rest of humanity. This virus turns people into vampires. Robert himself is immune. During the day, he walks around the city and kills sleeping vampires. One day he meets Ruth, who can walk in the sun but cannot stand the smell of garlic. He tests her blood for the virus and learns that she is infected. Ruth tells him that some vampires have been able to adapt to a new life and want to build a new society. A hunt begins for him, which could cost him his life.
"The Haunting of Hill House" - Shirley Jackson
The book was published in 1959 and received the highest praise from contemporaries.
The action takes place in an old house where the owners are even afraid to stay overnight. One day, a group of people come to the mansion who want to explore the castle for otherworldly phenomena. They could not even imagine how this summer would end.
This story has been filmed twice.
The psychological novel was published in 1959, a year later the first film adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock appeared. The second film was released in 1998.
The novel takes place in a motel that is gradually falling into disrepair. Fewer and fewer guests visit this abandoned corner. The motel is run by Norman Bates' mother, who is willing to do anything to maintain her power over her son. She is ready to kill, but what will Norman do? Or maybe he is to blame for the strange murders that constantly occur in the motel?
So, you met with the second ten of the best horror books. Now you just have to find the courage to get acquainted with each of these wonderful books.
The list of the most terrible will help you choose a literary work for the evening if you want to tickle your nerves. Naturally, not only films are suitable for this, but also novels, chilling stories and short stories. Writers at all times paid a lot of attention to this genre, so if you wish, you can find a work for every taste.
In the list of the most terrible horror books, the first place is given to the work of Stephen King. This is a recognized master of literary horror. One of his most famous books is Pet Sematary, written in 1983.
This is a post-modern in which the Creed couple with two children moves to the city of Ludlow. In the neighborhood of the new home, children constantly bury their pets. The head of the family, Luis, receives a warning from his already deceased patient, who forbids him to go into the forest, located behind the pet cemetery. But he repeatedly violates this ban. King in his novel exploits the fear of losing a child and necrophobia, that is, the fear of corpses and funeral paraphernalia.
Interestingly, the idea for this novel, which was included in the list of the most terrible horror books, was born when the writer buried his cat Smaki. When King finished the novel, he found it so creepy that at first he did not even want to give it to print. But due to problems with money, he nevertheless agreed to the publication.
The English-speaking public enthusiastically accepted the novel, agreeing that this is one of the scariest horror books. "Pet Sematary" won the Locus Award. Critics who did not like the novel noted that the nature of the fears described in the book was very superficially explored by the author. King's work was first filmed in 1989 by director Mary Lambert, with another film adaptation expected in 2019. The novel is deservedly recognized as the scariest horror book in the world.
2. "Lullaby"
In second place is the novel "Lullaby", which the American writer wrote in 2002. It has since been included in lists of the scariest horror books ever.
In the story, journalist Carl Streator investigates sudden infant death syndrome. This is a real-life pathology, when a baby can die almost instantly in his crib or in the arms of his parents. A reporter discovers that children are dying after being read an old African lullaby. Initially, it was said over the wounded or terminally ill when the tribe needed to move to a new place. It turns out that the song is still effective. People around Karl begin to die from it - his editor, a noisy neighbor, as well as passers-by who just meet him on the street.
In parallel, this terrible horror book tells about the cunning realtor Eden Boyle, who uses this spell for her own selfish purposes. At the same time, she has many other oddities, which are always enough for the creepy heroes of Palahniuk. For example, she mainly sells houses inhabited by a poltergeist or ghosts. She gets the exclusive right to sell them, capitalizing on the fact that the owners change every few months.
3. "It"
Not surprisingly, the master of literary horror has more than one work on the list of the most terrible horror books. In 1986, he wrote the novel "It", in which he touched on many topics that were important to him at once - the strength of a united group of people, the power of memory, the impact of injuries received in childhood on adulthood. The product is in third place.
In the center of the story are seven friends from a small fictional American town called Derry, which is located in Maine. They have to fight a monster that wakes up every few years to kill children. At the same time, it is able to take on almost any physical form, disguising itself as what a person is most afraid of. The story in this very scary horror book takes place in parallel in several time intervals. One corresponds to the childhood of the main characters, and the second corresponds to their adult life.
It is noteworthy that initially the villain was conceived as a troll under a bridge, but then the author decided to develop the idea, forming a collective image of various monsters. This creature has features of a werewolf, a vampire, and even an alien life form.
King projected his own childhood memories onto the behavior of children. In the first year, the novel sold more than two and a half million copies, entering the top scary horror books. The book was included in several lists of the most terrible works of the century and millennium at once, although some critics noted that the narrative turned out to be drawn out, confusing and overloaded, and the ending was not the most successful.
Others, on the contrary, liked the idea of a dual narrative system, a large number of characters, and historical interludes. Much controversy has circulated around the scenes of teenage sex described in the novel.
In the list of very scary horror books in fourth place is the work of the American Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the novel "The Ridges of Madness". It was written in 1931, becoming the key work of the cycle of myths about Cthulhu.
The book tells about the geologist Dyer, who is trying to convince other scientists to send a research expedition deep into Antarctica. This reveals the eerie details of previous expeditions that Dyer has already participated in.
In 1930, while drilling in shale rocks, researchers found prints of unknown living creatures. After some time, mountains were discovered that were comparable in height to the Himalayas. Dyer himself called them the Ridges of Madness. A camp was set up at the foot, while drilling in the cave found even more remains of ancient animals.
The finds didn't end there. In the cave itself were terrible creatures described in the occult book "Necronomicon" with membranous wings and tentacles. When the next day the group of explorers did not make contact, the second group of Dyer went to their temporary camp.
A hurricane of great strength practically destroyed it. Almost all equipment was damaged. In addition, instances of mysterious creatures have disappeared, as well as clothing, supplies, and many belongings of group members. The bodies of people and dogs were mutilated. This is the beginning of a novel that is on the list of the top 10 scariest horror books.
Another master of scaring the reader, the founder of the detective genre is the American Edgar Allan Poe. He mainly wrote novels and short stories. The same genre includes one of his most terrible works, which is included in the list of scary horror books, where it is placed in fifth place - "The Fall of the House of Usher."
It was first published in 1839. At the very beginning, the narrator receives a message from his childhood friend Roderick Asher and goes to his estate. Even when approaching the house, he draws attention to the gloomy landscape that surrounds everything around. A barely noticeable crack cuts through the entire building from top to bottom.
From the owner of the house, he learns about a mysterious hereditary disease, because of which all Asher's feelings are excruciatingly exacerbated, he cannot endure bright lights, flashy colors, loud sounds. All his life lately is imbued with terrible fear.
Roderick is convinced that a certain force has settled in the house, which he cannot calculate. The narrator finds out that Ashera's sister is also sick, she is indifferent to everything, literally melting every day. And lately, her condition has worsened.
The narrator and Roderick communicate a lot, like old friends, once the owner of the house sings the song "Ghost House", then arguing that plants are able to feel and understand what is happening around them. Because of this, in the vicinity of their house, the atmosphere is constantly thickening, which for centuries has influenced the fate of their family.
Finally, his sister Lady Madeleine dies. Roderick asks the narrator's help to get the body down into the dungeon before the funeral. They close the coffin and lock the iron door. Roderick's anxiety only increases after this, and over time it is transferred to the narrator. About a week before the storm, they hear strange blows, the nature of which they cannot determine. Asher opens the window and watches the raging elements.
Then Roderick says that in reality they buried his sister alive, he realized this, thanks to heightened feelings, but was afraid to admit it. At this moment, the door swings open and Lady Madeleine is in the room, she is exhausted and covered in blood. Falling into her brother's arms, she drags his already lifeless body with her.
The Narrator runs away in horror, noticing that the crack he noticed at the very beginning is widening. Poe's works deservedly rank among the scariest horror books in the world.
In reviews of the work, you can always find references to the fact that this story has become the standard for Gothic literature. Poe had many imitators and followers.
6. "Frankenstein"
The fantasy novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus was written in 1816. This is an English work that was published anonymously two years later. The life story of the scientist Victor Frankenstein can always be found among the 10 scariest horror books.
Researchers want to understand the secret of the origin of life, as well as learn how to revive lifeless matter. To do this, he creates an artificial person from parts of the corpses of several people. But then he realizes what he has done, and refuses his offspring. The nameless monster is hated by everyone because of its ugliness, and it begins to pursue its creator.
The novel "Frankenstein", which is included in the top of the most terrible horror books, organically combines elements that are inherent in romantic and gothic works, as well as science fiction in general. This is one of the first novels to use scientific methods to create a monster, so Shelley can be called the founder of science fiction.
Interestingly, the writer creates the first version of the novel when she is relaxing in a Swiss villa with Byron and friends. At the suggestion of a classic of English poetry, all members of the company compose creepy stories. The prototype of the protagonist for Shelley was the alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel, who worked in the 17th century in the German castle Frankenstein.
Fans of this novel immediately notice that this is not so much a mystical as a philosophical work. Here it is more important for the author not to scare the reader, but to tell about the tragedy of a creature that has become unnecessary even to its creator.
7. "The Ghost of Hill House"
Another contender for getting into the list of the most terrible horror book in the world was also created by a woman. This is a novel by American writer Shirley Jackson "The Haunting of Hill House". Today, the work is in seventh place.
It tells about Dr. John Markvey, who studies the paranormal. To advance his work, he invites several people with heightened psychic abilities to spend a few days together in the so-called House on the Hill, which is considered sinister. This scary horror book claims to be haunted.
The doctor's proposal is accepted by two girls - Theodora and Eleanor Lens and the potential heir to the house itself, Luke Sanderson.
Apparently, the spirits of its former owners moved into the House on the Hill. He immediately challenges the brave researchers, frightening them with suspicious sounds, knocks, and cold coming from nowhere. Paranormal forces are especially attentive to the virgin Eleanor, who is extremely insecure. Her story is reminiscent of the fate of the nurse of the last mistress of the house. Theodora is attracted to her, while simultaneously hoping to start a relationship with Dr. Markvey.
This strange love triangle is destroyed by the sudden arrival of the wife of the scientist Grace, who immediately declares that her husband is doing nonsense, she is ready to prove it by spending the night alone in the most terrible room in the house. Throughout the night, the inhabitants hear strange sounds from the room where Grace is staying, and in the morning she disappears.
Eleanor, who mentally wished her rival's death, blames herself for her disappearance. She decides to follow the call of the house and goes up the unstable spiral staircase, followed by the doctor. When Eleanor sees Grace in the window, she realizes that the house has taken the explorer's wife in her place.
Markvey decides to end the experiment, but Eleanor refuses to leave. Only succumbing to persuasion, she gets into the car, but, following the road through the park, she sees Grace again and crashes into a tree. The wife of the scientist at that time was indeed in the park. As it turned out later, it was at this place that the wife of the man who built this house a long time ago died.
"The Exorcist" is a famous novel by American writer William Peter Blatty, which is in eighth place on the list. It tells about the priest Lancaster Merrin, who participates in archaeological excavations in northern Iraq, where the head of the demon Pazuzu is found.
At the same time, in Washington, at Georgetown University, the mother of a young priest Karras, who had been in a psychiatric hospital for a long time, dies. He is very worried about her death, appeals to his superiors with a request to allow him to be temporarily removed from compulsory services.
Another heroine of the novel is Chris McNeil, who takes part in the filming of the film on the campus. Her daughter, who is 12 years old, starts having strange seizures. Her mother takes her to the doctor, with whom the girl begins to behave unusually aggressively. Her seizures, during which the bed shakes, are becoming more frequent. During his blackouts, Regan begins to speak in a strange male voice and perform unusual body movements. Doctors suspect she has a brain disease, but examinations do not confirm this diagnosis.
Soon, under mysterious circumstances, the director of the film, in which Chris was filmed, dies. He falls out of the window of Regan's room. The murder is being investigated by Detective Kinderman. He finds a figurine made by a girl near the man's corpse. Kinderman asks Father Karras in detail about what happened, wanting to connect the death of the director with another crime - the desecration of the statue of the Virgin Mary. Meanwhile, doctors fall into despair, not knowing how to continue to treat Regan. They advise Chris to try asking the exorcists for help. The girl goes to meet her father Karras.
As the priest examines the girl, she announces in an eerie voice that her name is the Devil. Karras attributes this to psychosis, believing that the girl has gone crazy. He has to doubt this when Regan begins to speak in a strange language, which turns out to be English, turned upside down. Karras is tormented by doubts, but he still asks permission from the Catholic Church to conduct an exorcism.
Experienced exorcist Merrin arrives to perform the ceremony from Washington. Together with Father Karras, they try to expel the evil spirit from Regan, the demon begins to threaten them, as a result, Merrin dies of a sudden heart attack. Regan chuckles ominously as Karras unsuccessfully tries to save Merrin. Seeing that this is useless, Karras rushes at the girl, demanding that the demon move into him, freeing the child. The demon agrees to this, but as soon as this happens, Karras, who has a moment of enlightenment, is thrown out the window. Regan quickly recovers after that, together with her mother they leave this city forever.
This is an ageless classic of a good and solid work of the horror genre. The mixture of mysticism and religion always resonates with readers and provides excellent reviews.
9. "Dracula"
The scary stories in Bram Stoker's horror book "Dracula" make this book one of the most creepy and put it in ninth place. The novel was written in 1897, then repeatedly filmed, its main character, Count Dracula, became one of the most popular movie characters of the 20th century.
The book follows a young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, who travels to Transylvania to complete a real estate deal with a local aristocrat named Dracula.
He buys an abandoned abbey. But an ordinary transaction turns into several months of chilling horror for a lawyer. It turns out that Dracula is an immortal vampire who needs new possessions. He leaves Harker to be punished by his three brides, also bloodsuckers, and he leaves the castle in a box with earth from his native places.
Jonathan's fiancée Mina Murray visits her friend Lucy in the coastal town of Whitby, where a mysterious ship soon arrives. There is no crew on it, only the corpse of the captain is found at the helm. At this time, Lucy begins to suffer from severe blood loss, which forces her fiancé Arthur Holmwood to seek help from Dr. Seward. This is a close friend of Lucy, the owner of a clinic for the mentally ill.
It turns out that Seward has long been interested in his patient, who introduces himself as Renfield. He eats spiders and flies in anticipation of the arrival of some almighty host. Professor Van Helsing, who specializes in rare diseases, is invited to consult about Lucy Seward's condition. He immediately determines that the matter is the intervention of dark forces, prescribing a blood transfusion to her, as well as precautions that are incomprehensible to others, for example, spread garlic in her room. Van Helsing guesses that there are vampires nearby, whom he has to confront not for the first time.
With his novel, he gave birth to one of the most popular plots of the 20th century, to which not only writers, but also directors do not tire of returning to this day. This is a classic book that everyone should read.
10. "Zone of horror"
If we talk about modern books, then you should pay attention to the work of Mikhail Parfyonov. He has the scariest book - "Zone of Horror". This is a collection of the popular "father of domestic horror", which is in tenth place on the list.
In this book, an ordinary minibus turns out to be a monster from distant worlds, and an army of insects attacks a high-rise building in Mitino. An elderly man fights a monster possessed by his elderly mother, and a spider-like creature hunts newborns.
Here are just some of the plots of his creepy stories. They are perfect for those who like to tickle their nerves at the end of the working day.
Being a writer, especially in the horror genre, is extremely dangerous. After all, this kind of activity involves a lot of risks: writing books, you can inadvertently dissolve your imagination and go crazy, entangled in realities. Or you can go even further and identify yourself with some psychopathic killer from the book or revive a couple of violent characters. But the risk of these brave people is worth it, because without their rich imagination, the horror genre would have nothing to boast of.
Agree, if they, who had a hand in creating literally everything that pleases us with horror, did not devote at least a small part of the works of this genre, this would be the height of injustice. Movies of this kind have never squealed fashion and they were not put on the conveyor, as once horrors about aliens and giant monsters, and now pseudo-documentaries. This is nothing more than a distinctive feature of several dozen films, but still there are enough of them so that even those who have seen a lot of scary movies have plenty to choose from. And we will pay attention to the most remarkable horror films about writers in this article.
From Masters
As you know, among all the masters of horror, our dear Stephen King is famous for his special love for inscribing his colleagues in scary stories. In the works of the king of horror, writers appear slightly less often than Maine residents, and slightly more often than people suffering from arthritis. His pen belongs to the most famous works of the horror genre about writers, so we will not torment anyone and proceed immediately to a review of his work. Of course, King made his unbearable contribution to the cause of horror about the representatives of the writing fraternity in the book format familiar to him, but we will not dwell on the books in detail, especially since most of them were translated into the language of cinema.
So, for the first time, the writer-protagonist appeared already in King's second published novel, The Lot. True, the emphasis in the work is more on vampires and cursed houses than on the writing profession. According to the plot, the main character, who returned to his hometown of Salem's Lot, is faced with an ominous house that frightened him as a child. But now new owners have settled there. And when strange events begin to occur in the city, he is forced to confront the vampires. The television adaptation of Salem's Vampires (Salem's Lot, 1979) was directed by Toub Hooper, and it is deservedly considered one of the best works of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre director. The Lot was filmed twice: another television version was created - Salem's Lot "(Salem's Lot, 2004).
The following Stephen King book was made into the film The Shining (1980), a cult horror film from the eminent Stanley Kubrick. Jack Nicholson played Jack Torrance, who, deciding to combine writing a new novel with a job as caretaker of the vacant Overlook Hotel, goes crazy over the course of one winter. Perhaps it was this tape that was the main inspiration for the creators of future horror films on writer's themes. The Shining is still regularly featured on lists of the scariest films of all time and is a recognized horror classic. However, after the release, the picture was received with hostility, and even today opinions about it can vary from a “masterpiece” to “this is not King, how is it possible ?!”. This is mainly due to significant discrepancies with the literary source. Among those dissatisfied with Kubrick's picture was Stephen King himself, which was one of the reasons for the creation of a three-part version of the novel for television. The mini-series The Shining (1997) was directed by the great King film adaptation specialist Mick Garris, and the script was written by the Master himself. In addition, Steve was involved in the film adaptation and as an executive producer.
The most famous horror about the writer is followed by the most titled - (Misery, 1990) directed by Rob Reiner. According to the novel, the famous author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) finds himself a victim not of imagination, but - even worse - of his "biggest fan". After a car accident on a snowy highway, he is rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse. Trapped in her home, the writer, as the film's tagline puts it, "writes to stay alive." "Misery" is also an undeniable classic of the genre, but is best remembered for the performance of Kathy Bates, who created the image of one of the brightest movie villains and was awarded the Oscar and Golden Globe awards for this.
In The Dark Half (1993), the writer is confronted by a mystical double. After the author of numerous bestselling books tried to get rid of the pseudonym by burying his fictional alter ego, his dark half returned to turn the hero's life into a nightmare. King's novel of the same name was adapted for cinema and staged by the godfather of the living dead, George Romero, and Timothy Hutton played both the main roles - the writer and his double. However, too restrained criticism and failure at the box office led to the fact that today the film is relatively little known, despite the participation of such legendary personalities in its creation.
In the psychological thriller "Secret Window" (Secret Window, 2004), based on the story "Secret Window, Secret Garden", the author (Johnny Depp) is also haunted: here he is pursued by a mysterious stranger (John Turturro), who accuses him of plagiarism. Unlike The Dark Half, this film was a commercial success and is still popular today, mainly due to the stellar cast.
On television, the theme of horror writers comes up as often as on the big screens, and in the mini-series Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King (2006) as many as two of the eight series, representatives of this profession are present as protagonists. In Umney's Last Case, the author changes lives with his character, and in The Road Virus Heads North, a popular horror writer buys a reality-changing painting.
While naming The Shining as the most famous film about the writer, it's worth adding a small caveat, as for the younger generation of fans of the genre, 1408 (2007), about the skeptical author Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who, not attaching importance to superstitions, he settles in the most “cursed” room of the Dolphin Hotel and on the very first night he regrets it very much. 1408 was a box office hit and is one of the best King adaptations of the 2000s.
The two-part TV movie Bag of Bones (2011) was Mick Garris' seventh directorial project based on the work of Stephen King. It is about a successful author (Pierce Brosnan) who, after the death of his wife, returns to his old house by the lake and there gains experience in communicating with representatives of the other world. However, the transfer of the novel of the same name to the screen cannot be called successful: the mini-series disappointed the fans of the Master and has mostly negative criticism.
The above is not the whole list of appearances of masters of the word in the film adaptations of the works of Stephen King. In a number of films based on the works of the Great and Terrible, although the writing brethren are present, they do not play much weight in the overall picture, which is exemplified by It (It, 1990) and The Tommyknockers (The Tommyknockers, 1993). In his favorite stories, where a small group of people get into a big mess, the writers can easily be secondary characters, as in The Langoliers (The Langoliers, 1995) and Desperation (Desperation, 2006).
The merits of Stephen King in the field of creating horror about his colleagues can hardly be overestimated, but there were other luminaries of the genre, whose work cannot be ignored in more detail.
Ira Levin, revered by fans of horror literature for Rosemary's Baby and beyond, wrote the play that was made into the thriller Deathtrap (Deathtrap, 1982). The famous playwright (Michael Caine) fails after failure, and after another failure, one of his students (Christopher Reeve) sends a masterpiece play, from which the author comes up with an insidious plan ... In addition to excellent acting, the picture is worthy of attention due to the famously twisted plot.
A couple of times forced writers to experience the horrors on the other side of the works and Clive Barker. In Rawhead Rex (1986), a horror writer travels to the Irish outback to collect material for new works, when a farmer accidentally releases an ancient demon, causing chaos to sweep the village. This is the second feature film to be made from Barker's own screenplay, based in turn on the story "The Naked Brain" from Book of Blood 3. The result did not satisfy Clive and after the "King of Evil" he himself began producing and directing adaptations of his own literary works.
But the writers did not return to the ranks of the protagonists of his films soon: in the episode "Valerie on the Stairs" (Valerie on the Stairs, 2006) of the series "Masters of Horror" (Masters of Horror, 2005-2007). The director was Mick Garris, the creator of the entire series, who also adapted Barker's script of the same name. It is about failed writers who have taken up residence in a hostel for those who have not yet published their first book; in history, as is often the case with Barker, there was a terrible demon.
The fantasy thriller Contact (Communion, 1989), starring Christopher Walken, is based on the autobiographical book of the same name. The author Whitley Strieber himself, known primarily for the vampire novel The Hunger, assures that it is autobiographical, but it is difficult to assert the authenticity of the events described, since it deals with the experience of meeting with extraterrestrial beings. The film shows an incident experienced by the writer on a December night in 1985 in his country house.
Horror "The Perfect Killer" (Mr. Murder, 1998) - adaptation of the novel by Dean Koontz, published in Russian under the title "Mr. Killer"). The author of thrillers and his family is not given a quiet life by his double - a ruthless killer, created as a result of an unsuccessful military experiment.
Another film, although not at all scary, is also based on the short story of the same name by Dean Koontz. The fantastic detective Black River (Black River, 2001) tells how the writer settles in the utopian town of Black River, where strange events begin to occur, and, having tried to leave there, he realizes that it is not so easy to do so.
Both films, like many other film adaptations of Dean Koontz, were made for television and are now known mainly among the author's fans.
About the classics
Having dealt with the modern masters of horror, it's time to move on to the classics. But let's look at them a little differently - when they are on the other side of the screen. After all, the classics of horror often became movie heroes themselves; such films will be discussed further.
The events that took place in a villa on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 formed the basis of three films at once, which were released one after another in a short period: Gothic (Gothic, 1986), Summer with Ghosts (Haunted Summer, 1988) and Row the Wind (Remando al viento, 1988). Each of them is a kind of champion in the number of available writers. There are already four of them, and all the real classics: George Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, John Polidori. It was during the period shown in the films that Mary Shelley conceived the plot of the novel about Frankenstein, and Polidori - the story "The Vampire", one of the first works of the vampire genre in English literature.
Steven Soderbergh's mystical thriller "Kafka" (Kafka, 1991) combines the facts from the biography of the classic and the storylines of his surrealistic works (mainly the novels "The Castle" and "The Trial"). Franz Kafka was played by Jeremy Irons, and the main advantage of the tape was the skillful transfer of not the plot, but the gloomy atmosphere of his works.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is not only a cult writer and one of the founders of the horror genre in literature, but also the main character of horror (Necronomicon, 1993). He was played by Jeffrey Combs, best known for his role as Herbert West in Reanimator. According to the plot, Lovecraft finds the legendary "Necronomicon" and, under its influence, tells three supernatural stories; all - inspired by the works of the writer, with excellent special effects and monsters. The role of the dreamer from Providence is not limited to this: in the finale, the classic will have to fight one of the monsters himself.
Burial Of The Rats (1995) is a film about how Bram Stoker becomes a prisoner in a community of bloodthirsty women. Thanks to their writing talent, they saved his life, unlike other captive men. This horror, stuffed with mysticism and eroticism, was jointly produced for television by filmmakers from the USA and Russia and is a free adaptation of the writer's story of the same name, one of the features of which was that the author of Dracula himself took the place of the narrator.
In From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (1999), one of the central characters is the master of the dark story Ambrose Bierce. The action takes place during the American Civil War, and the authors tried to tie to the plot the disappearance of the writer, which remains a mystery to this day.
Another biographical secret was used by the creators of the gothic detective with a "bloody" rating (The Raven, 2012). Starting from the fact that the last week of Edgar Allan Poe's life is full of questions, they offered their own version of events from the life of the master before his death. Starring John Cusack.
Edgar Poe more often than other horror legends became the hero of a scary movie. And this is not surprising: the personality of the writer was shrouded in secrets during his lifetime, so is it worth saying how many mystical stories arose around the author of "Murder on the Rue Morgue" with the advent of cinema. Edgar Poe - a movie hero can also be seen in the films "Castle of Blood" (Danza macabra, 1964), "In the arms of a spider" (Nella stretta morsa del ragno, 1971), "The Specter of Edgar Allan Poe" (The Specter of Edgar Allan Poe, 1974 ), "Shadow in the Dark" (Descendant, 2003), "The Black Cat" (The Black Cat, 2007) (episode of the series "Masters of Horror") ...
In the Spanish mystical detective story The Valdemar Legacy (La herencia Valdemar, 2010), one can observe a whole “constellation” of horror classics: although in episodic roles, Howard F. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Aleister Crowley are present. The film is divided into two parts and is dedicated to the history of a gloomy mansion with ancient Lovecraftian monsters.
About writer's housewarming
The plot, in which the writer settles in a creepy house with a bad story, located somewhere on the periphery, naively hoping to work on his future masterpiece in peace and comfort, is somewhat popular with horror writers. For this we say thank you to Sei King.
This is exactly the plot of the comedy horror "House" (House, 1985), staged by Steve Miner after the second and third parts of the Friday the 13th movie series. In it, the protagonist is constantly distracted from writing a new horror novel by otherworldly creatures that live in the house. "House" successfully fulfills its entertainment function (at least it was capable of it at the time of its release). Although not considered one of the most well-deserved films of the genre, this did not stop him from becoming the ancestor of a four-film franchise. The heroes of the sequels, however, already represent other professions.
There was a place in our review for the Japanese urban legend about ghosts. Based on the novel Summer with Strangers by Tahiti Yamada, which was published even in Russian, the film Summer with Ghosts (Ijintachi tono natsu, 1988) was made. Its main character, a screenwriter working on TV, moves into an apartment in a high-rise building after a divorce. At night, only two windows are lit in the house: his and that of a lonely young woman, whom he meets. Later in the city, the screenwriter meets an elderly couple who look exactly like his long-dead parents, after which the intensity of mystical incidents increases ...
In the thriller Half Light (2006), Demi Moore plays a best-selling author who, after the tragic death of her son, settles in a secluded fishing village in Scotland, not far from a lonely lighthouse. There she meets a man who, according to local residents, died at the lighthouse seven years ago. The plot seems quite simple, although it contains elements of a detective, drama and even melodrama, and only the denouement dispels doubts about the genre of the tape.
Half Light was not a hit, but very similar films began to appear soon after. Perhaps the notorious crisis of ideas is to blame for everything, but the fact is that in the 2000s, the ranks of writers who settled where they should not, in the cinema, began to replenish more actively.
Released immediately on video, Deadline (2009) tells the story of a writer (Brittany Murphy) who moves into a new house and discovers that she lives there not alone, but with the ghost of the previous occupant. Looking through her old videos, the heroine gradually restores the chain of terrible events until she comes to an unexpected denouement.
In the mystical horror (albeit with a “children's” rating PG-13) “Cursed” (The New Daughter, 2009), the once successful author (Kevin Costner), after a difficult divorce, moves into a new house with two children, and everything would be fine if mystical things would not be happening on the ground. Then something strange begins to happen to the eldest daughter, who often walks near the ominous hill nearby ... The film is full of stamped scarecrows, in a word, this is a typical horror movie designed for a mass audience. At the same time, "Cursed" had only a limited release, after which it was released on DVD.
In French (Derrière les murs, 2011), a young writer (Létitia Casta) arrives in a provincial town to work on a new book, but instead has to fight her own hallucinations. It differs from the other tapes given above in a three-dimensional format, which is completely inappropriate in films of this direction.
About writers-maniacs
Less often than ordinary new settlers, horror writers are crazy maniacs and merciless killers. At this point, you need to say hello to old Steve again. True, all the following films cannot be put on a par with his "The Shining": frankly, these are the most "fake" ones. But since maniac writers are very remarkable characters, and since situations where they are armed with something more menacing than a pen or a typewriter are of real interest, we will nevertheless dwell on them in more detail.
The most famous example is Cabin by the Lake (1999), in which screenwriter Stanley Caldwell combines his day job with his inhumane hobby of serial killing. Both of his cases are closely related: real murders are accurately described in his new script. The maniac pursues an original goal: he builds the so-called "flesh flower garden" - a garden at the bottom of the lake from the bodies of murdered girls. A typical TV horror movie with some comedy elements, but the unusual plot speaks in its favor.
It seems that it’s impossible to say that the “Lake House” liked the viewer too much, but nevertheless, the psychopath screenwriter returned in the sequel. It's not uncommon for films about crazy maniacs, as well as the fact that sequels are inferior to the original. Return to Cabin by the Lake (2001) added dark humor but lost all originality. According to the plot, two years after the events of the first picture, according to Caldwell's sensational scenario, the shooting of the film still begins, moreover, on the same lake where the murders took place. But the filming process is accompanied by failures: after Stanley Caldwell entered the site under the guise of a person who once knew the local celebrity personally, people begin to disappear there. "Return ..." cannot be called a failure, but the story of the killer screenwriter ended on it. Thus, a one-of-a-kind horror writing franchise took place.
The little-known psychological thriller Final Draft (2007), a Canadian production, also tells about a crazy horror screenwriter. Having lost his sense of reality, he kills people while a fictional evil clown lives in his head. With such an interesting idea, unfortunately, one can only regret the mediocre implementation of the plot.
In an Italian splatter (Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show, 2010), a young filmmaker meets a popular horror writer to collaborate on a script, but soon realizes that horror can be brought to life just as easily as described in the books... original, but notable for being made in the best traditions of the classic giallo.
From movie legends
Let's finish our review with a number of much more extraordinary films that do not have much in common: only that writers are present as characters, and famous masters of horror films are directors.
Released long before King and associates, House by the River (1950) was directed by Fritz Lang, a German film classic who became a world legend in the era of silent cinema. It is a detective noir thriller in which the protagonist-writer accidentally kills a young maid in his house and tries to cover up the crime by dumping her body into a river. The film did not become a hit upon release, but now, thanks to the name of the director, "River House" is ranked among the noir classics.
The Italian masters of horror are also no strangers to the theme of writers. This fact is confirmed by Dario Argento's paintings "The Bird with Crystal Plumage" (L "uccello dalle piume di cristallo, 1970) and" Trembling "(Tenebre, 1982). The plots of both films obey all the laws of giallo, and their main characters are American writers, arriving in Italy.
In "Bird ...", having become a witness to a crime, the author of detectives becomes involved in the affairs of the police, and then begins his own investigation into the serial murders of girls. This is the first picture of Argento as a director, and after the release, the tape set a box office record in Italy. She thundered abroad, which made the young Dario famous both in Europe and in America.
In the Italian master's later film, a series of brutal murders takes place, embodied from a novel just written. After the author receives notes from the killer, he decides to take matters into his own hands and get to the criminal. In Tremors, the director's favorite tricks are used with might and main, which have become the hallmark of not only Argento, but the entire "yellow" genre.
The film of the cult Canadian director David Cronenberg "Naked Lunch" (Naked Lunch, 1991) is a free adaptation of the controversial novel by William S. Burroughs. This psychedelic picture has no direct relation to our genre, but when viewing it, one cannot help but feel that it is Cronenbergian creepy. There seems to be no point in describing the plot, but in short, it turns out the following: the hero types on a typewriter that looks like a giant talking beetle reports from the narcotic universe of Interzone, and they subsequently turn into the novel "Naked Lunch".
John Carpenter directed one of the key horror films about writers - (In the Mouth of Madness, 1995). The protagonist is not a writer, but an insurance agent - on behalf of the publishing house, he goes in search of the missing author of horror novels Sutter Kane, whose books are in fantastic demand ("more popular than Stephen King"). Readers start to go crazy, chaos and violence reign in the streets, and Kane, hiding in a strange town that is not on the maps, prepares the world for the apocalypse. "In the Mouth of Madness" has many references to the work of King and Lovecraft and unconventionally explores the theme of the writer. It can be called a reference horror film, despite the failure at the box office and a mixed reception from critics.
Francis Ford Coppola's original horror film Between (Twixt, 2011) is about a third-rate horror writer played by '90s sex symbol Val Kilmer. Arriving in a provincial town, he is fond of investigating a series of murders, communicating with ghosts along the way (he also meets the classic Edgar Allan Poe). Like other late works of the master, "Between" was filmed at Coppola's own expense and is deeply personal for the director - it even has biographical elements - and, probably, therefore, not everyone will perceive it well.
These, in our opinion, are the most noteworthy horror films about writers. As promised at the very beginning, there is plenty to choose from: paintings with the only thing in common - the profession of the protagonist - do not have any other framework. Often, the topic of writers comes with a wide variety of horror subgenres (they have especially good compatibility with films about “cursed” houses) and therefore will be of interest to almost everyone who loves the horror genre.
