Horror Aficionados discussion

Hospitals. They are creepy to begin with.

truck stop in the middle of nowhere.

High school auditoriums...or at least the one the high school I went to. I'd sometimes be in there by myself doing drama club stuff and I'd hear the creepiest noises.

Carnival or County Fair.

I would disagree with the house, I'm armed to the teeth and minus a few situations, not really that scary.

Probably the remote wilderness angles. That kind of goes with my Bigfoot problems.

Any place claustrophobic: spaceship, tiny boat on the ocean, dark basement with steps leading to the only way out. Places where there is not sufficient space to hide, batten down and fight, or escape.

I would disagree with the house, I'm armed to the teeth and minus a few situations, not really that scary.

Have you seen the movie Inside? An about-to-pop pregnant woman in the house alone after her husband's death, and a psycho woman wanting in so she can "deliver" the baby herself.

my wife is fully trained to use all of the weaponry in our house someone unwelcome in our house wouldn't make it more than a couple of steps before being a pollock painting.

I'm sure your wife isn't an idiot like the character in Inside, either.

better not be, I'd kill her myself if she was. Now if we were talking supernatural then that's a different story. But as Arnold said... If it bleeds, we can kill it.

Dark woods are scary, but so are dark alleys late at night.

I think dark woods/outdoors are much scarier than alleys. Especially when something like Wolf Creek can actually happen where you live because of your states size and population.

I always think in terms of who can hear me scream. In a crowded city, in an alleyway, someone might give me a little help (yes, I know no one helped Kitty Genovese). In the woods NO ONE can hear you scream, although there are more places to hide.

It's movies like Wolf Creek that makes me afraid to travel in remote areas or live in remote areas with no neighbors for miles.

That's what I love about remote area's. No one around to get on my nerves or piss me off. Silence is golden...

Middle of nowhere ala Texas Chainsaw, Jeepers Creepers...abandoned farm houses, etc.

Dark woods, tumbled down insane asylums and a room full of dolls. The last one could be just a personal thing though.

I live in a pretty small town, with lots of farmland and woods around...there's this backroad about 5 minutes from my house with this rundown farmhouse, with no one else around that's pretty damn creepy...My mom actually jokes that Leatherface lives there, so that should tell you it's creepy.

I remember my older brother, who always claims he is scared of nothing, had to walk on that backroad all alone at night one time and he said it was one of the scariest things he ever did.

Tressa wrote: "I would disagree with the house, I'm armed to the teeth and minus a few situations, not really that scary.

Have you seen the movie Inside? An about-to-pop pregnant woman in the house alone after h..."

I think I remember that actually happening in real life a few years ago. *shivers*

Melissa, I don't know if I would be brave enough to pass that farmhouse at night. If I just had to, I'd probably be blubbering the whole time.

Jaimie, there have been several instances of nutty infertile women cutting babies out of pregnant women.

Shaun wrote: "Dark woods are scary, but so are dark alleys late at night. "

I hunt all the time. Woods don't usually bother me. One exception. I was tracking a wounded deer...it got dark...flashlight died. I just sat down on a log in the middle of the woods listening to coyotes howl all around me. That was a little unnerving!

Interesting - all you urbanites are terrified of the wilderness. Considering we are the baddest, meanest, toughest, most successful predator in the history of our planet, that's quite funny.

Cities now - truly scary places, and not just because of the noise, pollution, traffic, overcrowding, stress and indifference. You just never know who or what you could be bumping into...

Paul wrote: "Interesting - all you urbanites are terrified of the wilderness. Considering we are the baddest, meanest, toughest, most successful predator in the history of our planet, that's quite funny.

Citi..."

It's not that the wilderness is terrifying, it's the fact that you can literally be devoid of any help for hundred of miles. Not like a city were a good scream a long with fire, rape or some other catchy shout can bring someone curious enough to help. I've grown up in some desolation and find it soothing, but it can be creepy if you let you mind get away from you.

Paul wrote: "Interesting - all you urbanites are terrified of the wilderness. Considering we are the baddest, meanest, toughest, most successful predator in the history of our planet, that's quite funny.

Citi..."

For me it isn't the woods so much as what might be in those woods. I am confident that I stand a chance going "toe to toe" with another human. But put me up against a bear and I am pretty sure I am toast. I don't like guns, so you will never catch me carrying one, so most of your woodland critters could kick my butt. Now, place a bigfoot or something of the sort (even an inbred hillfolk), and there is no way I am coming out of that one alive.

if your not thrilled about guns [scratches head:], then you bring along some spray. One rule is always know the native wildlife in the area before going outdoors especially for long periods of time like camping or a float trip.

I'm thinking I won't ever be too secluded in the woods. I am heading off to Northern Wisconsin in two weeks to spend a week "camping", but this involves cabins and 25 other family members. The most dangerous thing I will be encountering is a drunken brother-in-law. But even our "roughing it" camping isn't too rough and bears and things of the sort just aren't around. But I do always have my Swiss Army knife on me.
To make my Northern Wisconsin camping trip fun, the main thing I am planning on doing is reading The Pines by Robert Dunbar. It sounds like the perfect book to be reading out in the woods.

LOL, that's not camping. I'm not hard core like some of my buddies, but I'm not old enough to think that camping in a trailer or staying in a cabin or pulling off the side of the road into a prearranged camp site as camping. Nothing wrong with it, but it's more of a rugged motel than camping.

I've got one buddy [whos 50+:] that does it the lewis and clark way. Using only technology available at that time. But always packing a knife and gun for safety reasons.

Interesting - all you urbanites are terrified of the wilderness. Considering we are the baddest, meanest, toughest, most successful predator in the history of our planet, that's quite funny.

Hello! This is why I'm afraid of camping. I'm not terrified of the woodland creatures (except for bears), but I am afraid of humans stalking me like prey. Plus, I like my bubble baths, hair dryer, and memory foam mattress. Not into roughing it.

you are truly missing out on some great wonders Tressa. Reading it or watching it on video is no comparison to being out in the woods with your buddies, armed to fu*& all and having a great time. Open skies, full of stars [you've seen them right?:]

I actually know a guy who doesn't even use a tent when he goes!!!
Trust me, I am new to this whole "camping" thing, my wifes family has done it their whole lives, but I am the guy who keeps saying he wants to go and actually "camp". I am sick of going "camping" and having neighbors closer to me than in my own neighborhood! My backyard is darker than most of the campgrounds we go to!
Now though, where I will be next week might be a cabin, but it it in the woods. My favorite thing to do up there is grab my iPod, head down to the end of the pier around midnight, and just listen to somw Blind Willie Johnson as I stare at the moon over the lake and trees. VERY eerie with the music, and yet very beautiful."Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Grave" is pure power up there.

Open skies, full of stars [you've seen them right?:]

Through the haze. I was able to recognize the Big Dipper once. I was so proud of myself.

I'm a city girl; we never went camping when I was a kid. My husband and his family did, though. They're more country than I am, although it's not like they lived out on a farm or anything. My dad and brother were never into fishing and hunting (I think my dad would cry if he ever had to shoot anything).

Carl, the pier, iPod, and sky gazing sounds amazing. Don't turn the music up too loud so that you can't hear the whoosh of the machete as it lobs your head into the lake.

Me and the wife are climber campers. Everything we have can be packed into a mountaineering pack and we can go just about anywhere. I love camping, and I've had the pleasure of floating most of the Missouri river in Montana. I find it's either a love or hate thing. But I've got another buddy who's a base camp guard, that's all he'll do is sit around the camp fire and not move... at all... literally. Went for a quick two day camp a few weeks ago, he didn't move.

You guys are making me miss New Mexico. But at least I get to go back in a couple months, for work. I have a friend out there, and she lets me stay in a rental place she has (when there’s no one staying in it). It’s a double-wide trailer out in the middle of a cattle ranch, in BFE. The nearest neighbor is a mile or so away. Semi-feral horses wander up to the place and crop the grass. I can have a bon-fire whenever I want. I can shoot my firearms around the place, and nobody cares, if anyone even hears. I could go all day and not hear a plane, a vehicle, a siren, a train, a phone. At night it gets intensely dark, and they have these things called “stars” (which I now see were previously mentioned)……..

If the wife didn’t hate it so much, I would retire out there.

::Goes off to look for plane tickets::

Oh, I also do like to drag the guitar with me for these trips. That reminds me, I need strings before next week.

Tressa wrote:
Jaimie, there have been several instances of nutty in..."

And people wonder why I don't want children.

I thought of two more scary places. Dark, abandoned theaters. And has anyone mentioned hotels?

Tressa, I'm a city girl too. I've never been camping and I never will. I like my electricity and bathroom too much. :-)

hell I had kids just so I could have a personal social security plan! Kids are awesome, help you rediscover things you never would have thought of as an adult.

I think the scariest place I ever went to was this dingy hotel/snack diner in South Carolina. It has a 50 retro furnitures like red topped stools, soda fountation area, pinball and 50's boppers music but the soda jerk was a long haired sullen kid in tie dyed shirt who looked like a literal jerk without the soda, and under aged girls in skimpy binkis, their bodies misshaped by fat and pimples. It seemed as if you were stuck in a time warp of totally 50's atomosphere but with characters from the seventies. There was something really sad about it, and creepy too.

That is scary, Patrick. Reads like something out of a Flannery O'Connor short story.

Sounds like a great place to spend a weekend. Name, please? Or was that the entire town? That could be really scary!

Carlsbad Caverns... because we bury people in New Mexico.

Paul wrote: "Sounds like a great place to spend a weekend. Name, please? Or was that the entire town? That could be really scary!"

Nice try, mister. I am thinking of doing like a short story about it myself. But not sure if I should do it like horror or Flannery O Conner. I am leaning toward O' Conner.

O'Conner! Patrick, that diner scene reminds me of "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes (only it wasn't all that scary to me). Bet you could make it more interesting. I would love to read your take on the warped diner scene with a hint of O'Connor flair.

I vote for O'Connor, too!

I can't begin to understand the violation of being burgled. I've been lucky so far in my life and it's never happened to me. It happened to my MIL, and recently my husband's boss arrived home to find that her steel door had been rammed in and every single room smashed up and burgled.

I totally agree with you , home. To be home and robbed or worse couldn't fathom it.

I agree that stuck in someone's home and you don't know what's behind the doors or where anything is would be rough. But Leatherface made his visitors feel welcomed right away.

I think all us women will agree thank GOD for cell phones.{unless its stephen kings} No camping-no ask for help at a strangers house-no middle of no where-if something happens stay with car hold on to your gun and call for HELP.

Unless someone is using a jammer making your cellphone useless. I've though about getting one and using it when I'm in the theater.

A cell phone, a locked car door, etc., won't stop some lunatic from smashing a car window and unlocking a door to get to a victim.

But I am glad that I have a cell phone in case I break down or get lost. I only use it for emergencies. Can't stand to gab on the phone while driving. That's my ME time.

If you rely on a TV and it breaks down, you feel lost. If you rely on a mobile (cell) and it doesn't work, you are lost.

Rely on yourself, and you will never be at a loss.