For some reason, summer always puts me in the mood for spooky stories. The last one I really enjoyed was a computer game, actually, called Dark Fall, although stories by Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard's weirder things are enjoyable as well as long as they don't get into "racial purity" stuff (which just makes the author seem creepy, rather than the story). The key is that it has to be mysterious and spooky, without being nasty. Strange noises from the basement? Good. Eviscerations? Not so much. Ghosts a big plus, brimstone-type demons or satanic references a big minus.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency sorta falls into this category, although it's a little more comedy than I have in mind. Barbara Michaels books and Lillian Stewart Carl's Ashes to Ashes are also good choices -- except that after two or three Barbara Michaels books, you start to feel like you've read them all. I'd try Stephen King, except that I can't take his seamy prose style for very long without wanting to read some Wodehouse just to wash my brain out.
Any suggestions, LJ brain trust? :)
-The Gneech
PS: Wanna see something really scary? In the '80s, people actually looked like this. I even knew some. 0.o
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency sorta falls into this category, although it's a little more comedy than I have in mind. Barbara Michaels books and Lillian Stewart Carl's Ashes to Ashes are also good choices -- except that after two or three Barbara Michaels books, you start to feel like you've read them all. I'd try Stephen King, except that I can't take his seamy prose style for very long without wanting to read some Wodehouse just to wash my brain out.
Any suggestions, LJ brain trust? :)
-The Gneech
PS: Wanna see something really scary? In the '80s, people actually looked like this. I even knew some. 0.o
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the_gneech- John "The Gneech" Robey
- gneech.com -- John "The Gneech" Robey's writing, comics, and art.
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It's weird, I can't stand scary movies because of the gore or whatever but I love getting scared by my own experiences like the idea of ghost hunting.
And as for me, I actually preferred "Cleaning up the Town" by the Bus Boys (Warning: poor quality video)
- By The Pricking Of My Thumbs
- The Hallowe'en Tree
- The October Country
"Wanna see something really scary" was Ackroyd's line from the Twilight Zone movie.
Well played.
And I'd forgotten how many celebrities [and now has-beens] were cameoed in that video.
Oddly, though, I remember that Chevy Chase actually burned inside his mouth with that lit cigarette trick at the end.
-TG
I love the fact when he said "When your all alone, pickup the phone and call" he made a rotary phone dialing symbol. XD