The Dark Mythology discussion

What horror book or story frightened you the most? Not film or anything, fiction.
Also, what event? (might have to break this into a second post)

We've all had that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when the hair on the back of your neck stands up and your eyes start to dart all around you.

For me there is one book that has stayed with me ever since I read it in 1973.

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, 1973 novel by Max Ehrlich.

That novel (and later, the film) really got to me. It's not a gory or very physical story, but there is something about it that just chills me. I still don't know why.

As for sheer terror...a long time ago, (I think I was about 21) back in Eureka MT, I was walking home from my girlfriends after watching the Evil Dead film. At night...through the woods...with the wind blowing....
I tried to stay cool but I ended up running down the middle of the highway in total panic. It was a 3.5 mile dash and I bet I broke any and all records!

It was the only time in my life that I completely freaked out and panicked. I've been through earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornadoes. Not to mention wrecks and being assaulted and left for dead in the middle of the street.
But nothing, absolutely nothing has ever affected me the way that night in Eureka did.

The thing is, some of the stories I have read have bothered me as much and certainly stayed with me for as long.
I think our own imaginations are the strongest thing we have going.
It's like when I went on a HP Lovecraft binge and read all his books in a row. Freaked me out so much that I actually had to get rid of the books! I couldn't stand to have them in my home! It was years before I was comfortable reading him again. And now, here I am deep into the Cthulhu Mythos once again. I wonder what will happen this time?

The Witches of Worm terrified me when I was younger and is a big reason why I started reading at a furious rate.

It scared me during the entire summer after 5th grade. I took the book to the beach so I could see anyone sneaking up on me. But zombies terrify me like nothing else, so much that I have not read any zombie fictin. Zombie movies give me nightmares bad. I had nightmares for years after watching Dawn of the Dead. Don't laugh, but I would make escape plans and decide how best for me and my family to survive in case of an attack. No, I'm not crazy. I'm only admitting this because I don't really know any of you!

But my bread and butter is dystopia fiction. Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid's Tale remain at the top of my list but I recently read The Road and one sentence, one horrible bit, gave me nightmares for a month. "What if" and alternate realities truly terrify me. War, famine, and nuclear holocasts scare me more than any monster.

Hey Brett, was your volcano experience St Helens?, From what my mom says our car was one of the last to go over the bridge before the Toutle river swept it away.

Yup. That was the first one. I also experienced a couple eruptions while in Alaska.St Helens was amazing. I was playing frisbee in the park and we saw this huge wall of blackness heading for us. We had no idea what was going on until it got to us and the ash started to fall. We spent the next several days confined to the house. What a mess.

Sounds like you were lucky and a bit closer than I was.

Kathryn wrote: "The Witches of Worm terrified me when I was younger and is a big reason why I st..."

No need to be embarrassed or anything. Your escape plans reminded me of something.
I western Montana the mountains are dotted with huge areas that have been logged out. When I was little my grandpa told me they were the footprints of giants.
You want to talk about nightmares! Wow! They found me in a closet, up on the top shelf behind a bunch of bedding and screaming that it was about to get me!
My grandpa caught hell for that one. Although he thought it was pretty funny. The old fart! -grin-

That's too funny! Your Grandpa sounds like my Grandpa, and I love my Grandpa! My family still gets a kick out scaring eachother and my husband has eagerly joined in, until the one night I woke up and started hitting him. Just another zombie nightmare, he'd made me watch some awful movie, so I didn't feel too bad:)

Yeah, sounds like we're related all right.

The real funny part is the way people on my grandmas side have this habit of laughing at people who hurt themselves. If it happens in a way that looks even remotely humorous the giggling starts.
Like the time a women fell on the sidewalk in such a way that would make Steve Martin envious, my grandma laughed so hard that the woman came over and started yelling. All of which made her laugh harder.
Worst thing, there is no way to explain it to the injured party.

That's funny. Yeah, we do sound related. I've always been the odd one out because I would be running away, embarassed and bright red in the face, while my family would be laughing. My family loves to embarass me.

The Bush administration. Wait, I have to turn on a night light =[

Don't get me started on the idiocracy called the US Federal Government. Decades of mismanagement and the best we can do is argue who's fault it is. My nightmare's are some what being played out currently, luckily I read the script and participated in a screening of it a few years ago, so I'm much better prepared this time.

As for novels, I've got some that have stuck with me, but I'm still trying to remember one that really stands out, other than the ones I've read recently.

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR...

Thank God my boyfriend was home when I read it. I couldn't put it down until I finished it late one night...I had to get some resolution, didn't want to leave the story at a "bad part" and it was ALL bad! I kept remembering how my mom said having books about demons or whatever was like opening a doorway, so I threw the book out on the front porch when I finished it and tore through the house to the bedroom, dove into the bed (accidentally elbowing said boyfriend in the shoulderblade) and laid there all night, wide-eyed, waiting for something to come and get me. Haha, yeah, I know I'm goofy!

Things about demons, possession, evil...they always scare the bejeezus out of me.

Oooh, I love demon stuff, doesn't scare me too much, just really interesting.

Vicki Jean...

VJ, I think that he is scared of you. If so I suggest we call him Fredweak.

Hey, you never know. And who doesn't like a friendly ass paddling?

OMG, I leave you guys for a few days and look what happens! I become Fredweak giving out ass paddlings Vicki, our beloved Republican. I think Vicki would be more traumatized if I wore a leather mask with a zipper, tied her to a chair, and made her watch me give poor people health care, LOL =0

Now you're scaring me!

LOL, that's good Fredstrong.

I went on a Stephen king binge in high school, no one book scared me but the cumlative effect left me afraid to walk the streets at night and a horrible fear of fog, whiich is rather intense and embarrassing.

"It" by Stephen King scared the pants of me as a teenager. I never liked clowns anyway and that book was the final straw.

Arachnophobia, I hate spiders and this movie honestly scares the crap out of me. But I checked under bed for weeks after that movie. Stupid spiders.

I'm irrationally afraid of Fog, Zombies and Spiders. Even shaun of the dead gives me nightmares, but i love the movie. Arachnophobia... yeah i had to lock that movie up into a surpressed memeory, I know i've scene it but... can't remeber anthing.

When i was a kid, the "scary stories to tell inthe dark" series did it for me. I couldnt sleep unless i covered up the books with something. I also read the book about "urban Monsters and Legends" It had bigfoot and Loch Ness, but alos this mothman thing and demon accounts. i've also always loved talking to people about personal experiences. I've lived in a haunted house before, i like to compare stories.

By the way, for the people talking about demons and stuff a bit further up the thread - if you like the demon kind of thing, you'll probably like these:

RealmShift
MageSign

:)

Jerrod wrote: "Arachnophobia, I hate spiders and this movie honestly scares the crap out of me. But I checked under bed for weeks after that movie. Stupid spiders."

I hear that! Spiders and I do not get along in any way. And really, why would we? They are alien creatures not of this earth you know. There isn't anything else on Earth that is like the spider family. Everything else can be linked in some small way, but spiders are freaky alien monsters!

Of course this has nothing what-so-ever to do with a few childhood experiences. Nothing at all.

One word. Hobo's, that's right, these spiders CHASE your ass around the house, very aggressive spiders. Had an infestation of them in one of my old apartments. Chased my friend across the house, the size of a half dollar! Sent it to the university to confirm species, then set tons of traps since most if not all pesticides are useless and only drive it further because it only kills their food supply. My wife took pictures, and I still get shivers. Funny I can watch a full knee replacement from start to finish, but that spider makes me scream like a 5 y/o girl.

Well (this might take a while) I am scared or overly 'concerned' about.......
1. Seeing death
2. Blood (but not movie or video game blood...just real blood)
3. Tight spots (I think it's called clostrophobia???)
4. Visious animals (but I like non-hospital injuries...)
5. Hospitals. They scare the crap out of me.
6. Needles. Hate 'em so much didn't take the novicane when I had a filling.
7. Many many more......
But I love movies with all those stuff in it!!!!

I know!!!!!

yes, they cause necrosis of the skin if not treated shortly after being bitten [unless no venom was injected:]. They are much worse than a wolf, wolfs are cuddly next to hobo's.

Jessica, so I suppose you don't work in health care huh?

The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror probably

So, when i was little, I watched one of the Amnityville movies. I saw it at a friends house and it was the first true horror movie i had ever seen. I couldnt be left alone afterward without freaking out. I had to leave lights on at night. eventualy I grew out of that fear.
I will NOT watch the Exorcist. If like me you believe in God, then you also belive in the devil and some movies just should not be watched.

Scary movies, even when they arent all that scary make me jump like crazy! for example, when i watched Lady in the Water, which is not even a remotely scary movie, I jumped every time the sprinklers came on. But after a movie is over, I'm not scared. Most scary movies are too cheesy to be truly fightening.

What is truly frightening is out walking in the hills with a few friends in the middle of the night and someone starts telling skinwalker stories.

LOL, funny VJ.

and no i dont work in health care..........im 13 yrs old and hate watching vids on what drugs do to ur innerds....*shudders*

that is funny VJ. That would have scared me to death when I was little too.

Jerrod wrote: "One word. Hobo's, that's right, these spiders CHASE your ass around the house, very aggressive spiders. Had an infestation of them in one of my old apartments. Chased my friend across the house,..."

Oh man! Don't EVEN get me going on the Hobo spiders! We have them here in Spokane too and they scare the hell out of me. I thought Wolf spiders were aggressive until I ran into these! They come right after you at warpspeed The last house we were in was infested and I just couldn't take it. As you say bug sprays only tick them off.

Reminds me, time to spray the heavy duty stuff around the house. They are about to start coming out again.

Amen to that VJ, mountains kick ass.

The hobo's are slowly migrating east, a few years ago there were no such things as hobo's around MT. They give me shivers just thinking of them, really nasty, dominating spiders.... uh, you might like them VJ.

I have never seen a hobo spider. Ive never been afriad of spiders but these sound like they could change my mind.

Just to let you know 'ur' is "your" see............I guess I'm the only child that is into dark mythology in this group.......*sigh* It's hard to be me......Tee hee!

......................................................oh......HA HA HA!!!

You know what movie scared me.... "Signs" with mel gibson. It wasn't really even that scary, but it freaked me out. Every saftey rule i had with horror movies was broken in that movie. The little girl calls her dad in the room and the monster was still hanging out outside the window. The first sighting of the alien was in the DAYTIME, at a kids birthday party noless. It tried to get the kid with asthma, I HAVE ASTHMA! I couldnt sleep alone for two weeks. i'd call guys over under false pretenses then say lets just sleep so i wouldnt be alone. :(

Signs wasn't one of his best works, but I still really enjoy his directing, kinda like a throwback to some old school.

Well, as a single author who's stories scare me hair white (if it wasn't already) is HP Lovecraft. It doesn't matter how many times I read him, I ALWAYS get spooked to the point that I have to stop for a few days or weeks.

Robert Bloch is a great writer as well though. High on my list.
As for current authors, I think Brian Keene writes a seriously frightening tale or two. So does Rick Hautala.

See! It's impossible for me to mention just one writer.

barnes and noble has an exclusive printing [HC:] of all of HPL's fiction material in one volume. HP Lovecraft - The Fiction, well worth it for any HPL fan.

i'm not afraid of anything i hate my life but i'll change it if i'm not afraid of anything .

Vicki Jean wrote: "I found a Brian Keene book Brett, Ghost House I think still searching for the other author.
Dylans Birthday isn't untill the 6th but he returns from his winter hiatus on Monday (woohoo!) I've miss..."

That's cool. Although, I think you mean Ghost Walk& and if you can, you may want to pick up Dark Hollow by Keene as well. It precedes Ghost Walk.

Those are some good ones of HPLovecraft too. Some of his best work. The one mentioned by Jerrod is good. The book stores often release collections of the older writers that are inexpensive and contain a lot of work. Well worth the cost if you like the author or genre.
There is also a new release titled-
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft which collects all or most of his pulp submissions including the entire Cthulhu Mythos. It's 2.6 pounds and 896 pages of spine-tingling goodness! Can't be beat for the price. $28.00 new or $18.45 at Amazon new.

As for Rick Hautala, The Wildman is his recent horror release. He has been concentrating on a young adult thriller series he co-writes with Christopher Golden (another great writer).
Personally, I have liked these from Rick;
The Mountain King
Little Brothers
Beyond the Shroud
Occasional Demons - collection of short stories.

I don't know if any of these except Occasional Demons (just released) are still in print. You may have to search the used book stores or online.

VJ,
how could you hate any bookstore? We have only a few and although not the best, B&N has some good HC collections of many popular artists for cheep. Hell I picked up that Lovecraft book, almost some 1000 pages for 13 bucks!

Ewww! Starbucks! Nasty, nasty places. They give Seattle a bad name.

True. I also don't like that they don't put books into separate genres, at least not here. Science fiction is apart, but everything else including horror is all together as fiction.
A minor thing to be sure but it also shows that they think more of the dollar than the convenience of the customers. Which is so stupid because if they tried to make the customers happier, they would get more of their sacred dollars.

Okay, little rant over. -grin-

Earlier the film Signs was mentioned. That was a pretty spooky film to me as well. They let the audience use their imagination about what was going on for most of the film and that is so much more frightening than anything tossed in our faces.

That was great. And the look on brothers face when Mel opened the door.

Since we're talking about scary stuff, I just found another website that has everything scary. Books, film, comics, music, the works. Check it out.

http://www.feoamante.com/

I'm a big M.Night fan, irregardless of what people think of his movies, you have to give him props for being one of the only directors to follow/use another one of my favorite directors style, Alfred Hitchcock! I think he effectively uses the audience to achieve what he wants, something I miss now days with all the in-your-face, your too dumb to understand and put two together scripts/movies we see now days.

THX for the head up on the site brett.