# Most Terrifying Book (Movie, etc.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772 "2009-06-05T03:04:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/21 "2009-06-05T18:35:54Z")
Am I the only one who didn’t find House of Leaves remotely scary? I can’t understand why people think it’s a horror novel, when it’s really a book suited for a Madness in Literature class. The only scene in the entire book that’s at all scary is when the protagonist is worried something in the store room is reaching for him, so I find myself confused every time someone says they found it terrifying…am I wrong to think they almost never read horror? Actually scary novels: **Lost** by Gary Devon **Mine** by Robert McCammon **Cujo** , **IT** & **The Shining** by Stephen King **The Others** by James Herbert (no relation to the Kidman movie) **Strangers** & **Phantoms** by Dean Koontz **The Floating Dragon** & **If You Could See Me Now** by Peter Straub (the latter was shamelessly ripped off by Dan Simmons) **Neverland** by Douglas Clegg **Heart-Shaped Box** by Joe Hill and **The Ghost Writer** by John Harwood both have their share of scary/creepy moments, and I look forward to more books by each of them. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/22 "2009-06-05T18:40:23Z")
Thanks to this thread, I’ve put House of Leaves on my library list, but in looking it up I remembered why I’ve been avoiding it…it seems like it’s going to be gimmicky. And difficult. With my shortage of quality reading time, it’ll probably defeat me. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/23 "2009-06-05T19:33:49Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > **The Floating Dragon** & **If You Could See Me Now** by Peter Straub (the latter was shamelessly ripped off by Dan Simmons) Which Simmons? I’ve read a lot of his stuff but not all of it. _A Prayer for the Dying_ by Stewart O’Nan. The paperback has a different cover, but my hardback had [this cover](http://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Dying-Stewart-ONan/dp/0805061479/ref=ed_oe_h), and I gave the book away as soon as I finished it. Yeah, I know you can’t see the cover when a book is shelved, but I knew it was there. The book had some horrific scenes (one in particular) but the cover is what did it for me. _At the Mountains of Madness_ (Lovecraft) had me afraid to go into my basement for months. More recently, there were a couple of scenes in _The Little Stranger_ by Sarah Waters that resulted in me sleeping with the covers over my head. Nothing gory, just “What the hell **IS** that!?” ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/24 "2009-06-05T19:49:17Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > …am I wrong to think they almost never read horror? Yes. It wasn’t threateningly terrifying like most horror novels are, as in “This book is scary because I hope \_\_\_\_ doesn’t get me, too.” The parts about the house where what got to me the most - the idea that something has just gone very, very wrong, such that laws of geometry no longer hold. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/25 "2009-06-05T20:09:24Z")
Stephing King would be near the top. My pet guinea pig died while I was reading Pet Semetary and for several days afterward I’d look out thinking I’d see her wandering around eating the grass. I also read Cujo and a few years later was trapped in my parents car with my mother’s enraged St Bernard, unable to get out because the doors locked from the inside and my father was too dumb to figure how to unlock the doors from outside. When my co-workers thought I didn’t read Stephen King because I was too snotty and intellectual I told them about these incidents and then they understood why I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about King. The top books that I feared would be one old book of southern ghost stories which featured a tale of the Bell Witch, something that frightened me so much I thought I would die ( I eventually decided that if life was that terrifying then death must be preferable and at that point my fear went away.) ---
**Author:** ![myriad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@myriad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myriad)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/26 "2009-06-05T20:57:40Z")
**City of Masks** by Daniel Hecht I’m pretty hard-core jaded with spooky stuff, read all the scary Stephen Kings early on (when he was still good) and have read tons of horrible serial killer books…so it’s a nice surprise when a book can frighten me, and THIS one certainly did! (the scenes upstairs when woman is being stalked by the “animal ghost thing” YIKES! Also **Ghost Story** by Peter Straub. Chilling movie too… ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/27 "2009-06-05T21:24:19Z")
Through a scene in Godard’s film _Weekend_, I ended up finding [Les Chants de Maldoror](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Chants_de_Maldoror). So far I’ve only read the ‘selected’ poems from the link on its wikipedia page. I printed it up rather than having to read it on screen. Then, rather than the folder of other short stories I’ve printed out, this one went in to the shred bin; not for the quality, as it is very well written, but because it just felt safer there. I needed a serious dose of ‘happy’ after reading that damned thing and still haven’t brought myself to read the entire work. I should have paid much more heed to the first sentence… > [@](#): > > God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/28 "2009-06-05T22:55:56Z")
When I read _Tailchaser’s Song_ in seventh grade, I wasn’t able to sleep properly for months. _Months_. ---
**Author:** ![Goblin\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Goblin\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goblin_Queen)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/29 "2009-06-05T23:44:42Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I’m not a fan of horror, but a lot of my favorite books fall into the realm of “difficult” literature, and having only vaguely heard of this book, I had an equally vague idea that it might be something of interest. I didn’t even know that it was a horror novel. Is it possible to say, without spoilers, what’s so disturbing about it? Is it just general creepiness, or do shocking and repulsive things happen? In effect, it’s general creepiness, or, more specifically, _nothing_. Nothing is where the real horror lies. Also, the multiple layers of “filter” that the story goes through make it strange. The book is supposedly the editing (by a young man who is losing his grip on reality) of an recently deceased older man’s book, which purports to be a piece of literary criticism about a film that does not exist in the young man’s version of reality, but apparently does in the book world, where the film was released as fiction, but in fact actually happened to the people who made it. Unreliable narrator cubed? I finished it today, and many things were left unexplained. It was awesome. There are a few scenes of violence, but nothing over-the-top disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Goblin\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Goblin\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goblin_Queen)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/30 "2009-06-06T00:00:54Z")
Also, thanks for all the responses! Not that I’m in the mood for more scary stuff now, but it sounds like I’ll have to check out _The Amityville Horror_ sometime. And, man, I can’t believe I forgot Stephen King! The problem with his books is that I read them rather quickly, so I’ll feel that I can finish the book by a reasonable bedtime hour–and then end up finishing _Pet Semetary_ at 1:30 am. A bad business indeed. Movies that have creeped me out: _Poltergeist_, like others have said. Scares me every time. But why do they go back to the house?! (I still hear that word in blue in my head right now.) But the all-time creepiest movie for me is definitely _The Mothman Prophecies_. It’s just so calm about all these cracks in reality showing up. I also like the ghost/haunting stories that are presented as if they really happened. Even the cheese on TLC (? maybe) “An American Haunting” or “A Haunting in…” wherever, usually disturb me more than regular horror movies. ---
**Author:** ![mariposalabrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@mariposalabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mariposalabrown)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/31 "2009-06-06T00:35:11Z")
> [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > In effect, it’s general creepiness, or, more specifically, _nothing_. Nothing is where the real horror lies. Also, the multiple layers of “filter” that the story goes through make it strange. The book is supposedly the editing (by a young man who is losing his grip on reality) of an recently deceased older man’s book, which purports to be a piece of literary criticism about a film that does not exist in the young man’s version of reality, but apparently does in the book world, where the film was released as fiction, but in fact actually happened to the people who made it. Unreliable narrator cubed? I finished it today, and many things were left unexplained. It was awesome. > > There are a few scenes of violence, but nothing over-the-top disgusting. I stopped around the time when I had four or five different post-its, to remember where the footnotes were taking me, and then it was a full page of nothing. Gimmicky, most certainly. But it was a gimmick that worked enough that I wasn’t ready to start reading where words began again. Ok, damn it, once I’m done with the Little House on the Prairie series, I will pick it up again. I am a horror movie freak, loved Drag Me to Hell which was the latest, but that’s comedy/horror. There have been two things that terrified me in my life, movie wise. First was White Noise, that Keaton film about tv’s. Shitty movie, but I was scared shitless of the static. The other is I think the last story in Creepshow 2. The rich man in the penthouse in New York who had a generator when the power went out, and the cockroaches. Oh god, the cockroaches. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/32 "2009-06-06T01:02:02Z")
> [@Goblin\_Queen](#): > > But the all-time creepiest movie for me is definitely _The Mothman Prophecies_. It’s just so calm about all these cracks in reality showing up. spoiler coming up in a bit Is that the Mothman book I read and movie that ends up in the bridge collapsing? I found it mildly interesting, but certainly not frightening. YMMV, etc. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/33 "2009-06-06T01:10:34Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Which Simmons? I’ve read a lot of his stuff but not all of it. **A Winter Haunting**. All the major plot points are nearly identical. Other people [like this one](http://kellyshaw.livejournal.com/2006/10/23/) have noticed too. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/34 "2009-06-06T02:03:51Z")
Thanks for the House of Leaves info, everyone. Sounds like something I want to check out, though I probably won’t get around to it for quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/35 "2009-06-06T02:04:15Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I read _Salem’s Lot_ one night when I was about 11. it scared me so that I didn’t sleep the rest of the night. But the book that scared me the worst was _Helter Skelter_ by Victor Bugliosi. The idea that it was all real and there were people out that that would kill just for the heck of it disturbed me for a long time. > > StG Are you me? My parents never paid any attention to what I was reading or watching so I saw and read a lot of age inappropriate stuff as a kid. The movie Helter Skelter is the one that got me more than the book. Seriously, to this day, my impression of California is that it’s just a desert full of drifters who would just as soon kill you as anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/36 "2009-06-06T15:03:18Z")
Despite being an English major, I didn’t have the patience to try to keep track of all the little clues and references in House of Leaves. One day I might go back and try it that way. But I just read it (and skimmed through the more tedious notes like the list of names), and I found it really effective and fun and creepy. So despite it being ergodic literature, I got a lot out of it without investing too much work. As for “is it horror?” I would say it isn’t like Stephen King horror. It’s just vastly creepy. There’s something so much scarier about the description of building a bookshelf in a wall nook (very mundane and grounded in reality), only to find that the next day the nook has somehow expanded so the shelf doesn’t span it, versus a monster trying to come get people. I found the movie \*Session 9 \*to be really scary, to the point that I’m trying to work up the nerve to watch it again, because it was great, but it freaked me out so well I’m a little hestitant. Oh, speaking of ergodic lit, I really liked [Ted’s Caving Page](http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/). Creepy as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/37 "2009-06-06T15:12:06Z")
_House of Leaves_ scared the shit out of me. I’ve been meaning to reread it for awhile now. I think there were parts I had to skip because it just got too weird and I didn’t have the patience to keep turning the book this way and that. But the scariest thing I ever read was _It_. Fucking Pennywise. ---
**Author:** ![D.Fenestrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@D.Fenestrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.Fenestrator)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/38 "2009-06-06T15:56:30Z")
Another vote for Lovecraft, specifically _The Color Out of Space_. I was seventeen when I read it, and discovered right then that I was not the horror-story/novel type. The movie _Poltergeist_, too. Brrr. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/39 "2009-06-06T17:08:46Z")
I can’t mostly suspend disbelief enough to feel scared but the television version of Salems Lot with david Sou ldid the trick as did Severance,a low budget movie made by students on a grant about a companys adventure training trip in eastern europe. It is comedy horror but for all that is has some truly horrifying scenes plus also uses suggestion to increase your fear. It can have you laughing and then literally seconds later without any transition have you ready to puke. Also a Korean film called R Point about a S.Korean army patrol in the Vietnam war sent to find a lost patrol. Its a ghost story not a war film and totally creepy,I recommend that you don’t watch it alone. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772/40 "2009-06-06T19:34:13Z")
> [@D.Fenestrator](#): > > Another vote for Lovecraft, specifically _The Color Out of Space_. I read this in my parents century and a half old, isolated house in New England. Definitely the most jumpy a book has made me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-terrifying-book-movie-etc/498772.md?page=3)