# My favorite horror story **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2000, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829 "2000-11-12T00:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/21 "2000-11-12T19:26:18Z")
Ok, a couple of more: “Wet Straw” by Richard Matheson “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood “The Great God Pan” by Arthur Machen For those of you who would knock King, please try “The Last Rung on the Ladder.” While it is not a horror story in the traditional sense, I can’t even begin to describe the effect it had on me. Maybe because I could identify with the sibling relationship (though not any of the specifics). I will never be able to forget this tale. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/22 "2000-11-12T22:59:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by divemaster \* > **I bet Ike and Pam have already guessed what my favorite anthology is** Hmmmmm…is it DYING OF FRIGHT, put together by Les Daniels? That’s the only one I have that has “The Graveyard Rats” in it. Good story. Nice call also on the Blackwood and the Machen. Yeah, I shouldn’t pick on poor old King. I like a lot of his stuff myself…“Crouch End” is damn spooky, and the one about the guy who gets shipwrecked with fifty pounds of heroin and uses it as a painkiller as he eats his own body to fight off starvation is…unique. Kuttner’s “funny” horror/fantasy stories are some of his best work. “Housing Problem” is a great example…a young married couple find themselves the custodians of a tiny household of fairies, who pay their rent in Luck. Has anyone else read Kuttner’s tales of the Hogben family, a kind of space-alien take on “Li’l Abner” ? And speaking of Richard Matheson, “Born of Man and Woman” is a VERY disturbing two-pager. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/23 "2000-11-12T23:44:03Z")
**divemaster** - my guess would have been The Dark Descent, for the HPL story, but that isn’t right either. Which brings up another possible poll-type question. Best horror anthology – best representation of the last 150 years or so. I go back to Kirby McCaulley’s Dark Forces more than any other, except maybe the Arbor House Treasury of Horror and Science Fiction – that one’s a winner too. As is Dark Descent. Ok fella, which anthology are you referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Felinecare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Felinecare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felinecare)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/24 "2000-11-13T00:25:30Z")
_You Can’t Be A Little Girl All Your Life_ - Harlan Ellison ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/25 "2000-11-13T01:03:43Z")
I think _I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream_ by Harlan Ellison qualifies. I also liked _What Was It?_ by Fitz-James O’Brien. Bradbury’s _Fever Dream_ is good, as are _Small Assassin_ and many others of his. And of course, Poe. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/26 "2000-11-13T01:06:04Z")
Oops, forgot to mention Bradbury’s _The Illustrated Man_ (the original short story). ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/27 "2000-11-13T01:08:42Z")
Ok **Pam** and **Ike** , I guess I threw you off with the horror. The clue was in my statement “Interesting that some of the best ‘horror’ is found in the Sci-fi genre.” I was referring to **Adventures in Time and Space** edited by Healy and McComas. So many classics from the “Golden Age” of Sci-Fi! One look at the table of contents of this collection, and your jaw will drop. I don’t think a better collection exists. Maybe that is because this anthology was my first exposure to science fiction. It should be everybody’s. I’ve cleaned out many an antiquarian bookstore (especially A. Amitin’s in downtown St. Louis) for golden age sci-fi anthologies. Looking at my shelf, I think I have them _all_. 🙂 Back to horror. **The Dark Descent** is on my shelf, well read. Three other Hartwell collections ( **Shadows of Fear** , **Worlds of Fear** , and **Visions of Fear** ) are also on my shelf. I’ve read the first one. As far as the poll question goes, if **The Dark Descent** isn’t the _best_, I think it at least has the best representative samples of horror from the past 150 years. It’s not geared just to one era, which makes it more comprehensive and interesting to me. **Dark Forces** is also really good, though a modern collection rather than trying to be representative of genre classics. As a collector of Stephen King first editions, I have this one because of the first appearance of King’s “The Mist.” I have “The Graveyard Rats” collected in **The Horror Hall of Fame** , edited by Robert Silverberg and Matin Greenberg. This is a very good collection, with many stories already mentioned on this thread (“It,” “The Small Assassin,” “The Willows,”), and some other classics of the genre, such as “Smoke Ghost,” “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” “Pigeons from Hell,” and “The Monkey’s Paw.” I also have 2 _Weird Tales_ Collections, each with about 50 stories. “The Graveyard Rats” is in one of these as well. I think “Born of Man and Woman” was R. Campbell’s first published story. Believe it or not, I first read that in junior high in _Read_ Magazine, put out by some scholastic service for classroom distribution. That journal was my first introduction to King (“Battleground” with the guy attacked by the toy soldiers), although it was several years later before I knew who King was. Hmmm, now that I think of it, there were two other stories I recall from _Read_ that I will need a little help with identifying. One was about a man chased by some futuristic killing device called a “Ruum.” Nothing special, but a nice little adventure. The other struck me as a Bradbury(?) and was about a national examination day. The kicker was that if you did too well, you were deemed “too smart,” and, well, you didn’t want that to happen. The chilling part was the kid asking his parents the answers to very simple questions, and though they gave him the wrong information, they could see he was a bright kid and were very, very worried. A chilling look at how a future government could keep its citizens subjugated. Holy cow, I remember another one! “The Imp”(?) which was a variation on the old sell-your-soul to the devil motif. Do these ring any bells with anyone? Bueller? Bueller? I can’t even begin to imagine the outcry if today’s seventh graders brought stories home from school like these that the teachers passed out in class. I mean, you can’t even hardly say the word “gun” without getting suspended. I’m not familiar with **Dying of Fright** , but I will be before too long. > [@](#): > > I think **I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream** by Harlan Ellison qualifies I agree with that. Even though I’m not a big Ellison fan, I did like that one quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/28 "2000-11-13T01:39:27Z")
Of course I meant R. Matheson, _not_ R. Campbell above. I’ve got Campbell on the brain from the reading I’ve been doing lately. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/29 "2000-11-13T01:45:26Z")
Ike, I have read two Hogben stories, are there more? That would be something to look forward to! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/30 "2000-11-13T01:52:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*I used to have an anthology of Gothic tales with a wonderful story about Elizabeth Bathory – I think it was called “Blood Countess.” The author was, IIRC, a South American woman who died young; I haven’t been able to track down any of her other works, in Spanish or in English, and now that I’ve lost the book I can’t remember her name either. Pity. \*\* Wow, so many stories, so little time. Ah, I feel like a moron but- What does IIRC mean? ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/31 "2000-11-13T02:03:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\* What does IIRC mean? \*\* If I recall (or remember) correctly. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/32 "2000-11-13T02:40:03Z")
Divemaster: “Adventures in Time and Space” was the first major sf anthology, and a hardcover one at that (It wasn’t available i paperback until 1975, when I bought my copy, although there were pasperback excerpts). A masure of its importance is that THRE mvies based on stories appearing in that nthology appeared in the 1950s (“The Thing”, based on John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”; “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, based on Harry Bates’ “Farewell to he Master”, and “The Twonky”, based on Henry Kuttner’s – yep, he same Henry Kuttner – “The Twonky”. The last one wasn’t a really good flick – they cast Hans Conreid and played it for laughs – bt the first two are classics.) I’d recommend the Groff Conklin anthology “Scence Fiction Terror Tales” , and “The Best of Robert Bloch” (to remind everyone that he’s done other things besides “Psycho” and “Yours Truly, Jack he Ripper.” I strngly believe that the movie “Brain Damage” owes a lot to Bloch’s story “Enoch”.) ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/33 "2000-11-13T03:01:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baker \* > \*\*Ike, I’m glad to hear someone else besides myself remembers Kuttner. “Mimsy” was a great story wasn’t it? But I LOVED “The Proud Robot” and why he was created. Makes you wonder about scientists. \*\* Yeah, what a great twist! Have you read “The Twonky,” “Time Locker,” or “Piggy Bank”? These are in the same vein as “The Proud Robot.” Quirky technology with interesting results. I haven’t read any Hogben stories, nor “Mimsy.” I’ll have to get on it. No thread that contains Theodore Sturgeon can be complete without the mention of “Killdozer!” I bet I am the only person on the SDMB who referenced Killdozer! in an AP English essay on Dickens’ **Hard Times**. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/34 "2000-11-13T03:18:05Z")
Hey **CalMeacham** , I missed your post (have to stop leaving the submit window open and pending when going off to watch the football game). I have three G. Conklin SF anthologies ( **Omnibus of…** , **Treasury of…** , and **The Best of Science Fiction** ). I don’t have the collection you mentioned, though. Bloch is peppered liberally throughout what I have, although I don’t have a volume just of his work. (_originally posted by divemaster_) > [@](#): > > **The other struck me as a Bradbury(?) and was about a national examination day.** ## Well, I perused all my Bradbury and didn’t see the title “Examination Day” or similar. Still in the dark here and looking for help. “All Hail the Tripod” ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/35 "2000-11-13T03:32:31Z")
My favorite horror story is **“A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner**. I read it for the first time in tenth grade, and it gave me nightmares (I kept thinking I would wake up next to a corpse). I re-read it in my Amer.Lit. Class and it gave me even more heebie-jeebies. Faulkner is, IMHO, one of the best American authors ever, and this story perfectly captures his flawless narrative (which is also present in the characters of Yoknapatawpha County) and his beautiful prose. Sorry if I am hijacking a little, but I adore Faulkner! As far as the entire short story-horror genre, I am not that familiar with it as I prefer full-length novels - more satisfying, IMHO. But I am definitely looking up some of the writers mentioned here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/36 "2000-11-13T03:53:40Z")
I remember something like “Examination Day” too, but as a TV program, maybe a Twilight Zone or Hitchcock. It’s Bradbury-esque, but maybe not Bradbury. (?) The ISFDB didn’t have any Bradbury titles that seemed to fit. My gosh, that man is prolific! P.S. Barry Hoffman’s Gauntlet Press is taking orders for a nice reprint of Dark Carnival, set for publication late next year. He’ll be doing reprints of other horror classics as well. ---
**Author:** ![projecttwilight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dbc845/32.png) [@projecttwilight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/projecttwilight)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/37 "2000-11-13T08:06:56Z")
Hmm…well, there are quite a few… “It’s a Good Life”-I forget the original author, but it was adapted for a “Twilight Zone” episode [“It’s a GOOD thing you did that Anthony. And tomorrows gonna be a real good day!”] King, of course, has written some unpleasant tales. “The Boogeyman” comes to mind, as does “Graveyard Shift” Bradbury=Hmm…i prefer his sci-fi tales, but I remeber a morbid little gem called “The October Game”, a twisted variant on the old “These are the witch’s eyeballs” game. Great payoff line in this story. H.G. Wells- Although best known for his novels, Wells wrote several short stories- One called “The Moth” which is very spooky. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/38 "2000-11-13T10:58:43Z")
divemaster, I did read “The Twonky”, it is in the collection I referenced before. To me it is as much sad as scary, and if they played it for laughs, as CalMeachem said, in a video version they did it an injustice. ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/39 "2000-11-13T15:36:21Z")
I couldn’t begin to pick a favorite, although several on my list have been mentioned in the thread already. I’ll settle for “The Cask of Amontillado” because it had such a profound influence on my later reading choices. I had a great substitute teacher in third grade who read us Poe during the week she was subbing - “The Tale-Tell Heart”, Masque of the Red Death", “The Raven”. “Cask” was the one that gave me chills, maybe because being walled up alive was easier for me to imagine than plague or murder back then. Lots of the kids went home & had nightmares. Lots of parents complained. I went out and found a complete works of Poe and never looked back. The story still turns me into a third-grader whenever I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829/40 "2000-11-13T15:57:49Z")
**AuntiePam:** Details! DETAILS! A reprint of _Dark Carnival?_ I wannit I wannit I WANNIT! What’s the difference between the original 1947 _Dark Carnival_ and the subsequent 1950s Bradbury collection _The October Country,_ besides that they added “The Dwarf” and SUBTRACTED about six other stories? Anything? \*\*Baker: \*\* To tell you the truth, the ONLY Hogben story I’ve read is “See You Later,” which appeared in the _Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories_…no, wait, there was one in the _Best of Kuttner_ volume, right? I’m not sure how many there are, but I’d like to read more myself. **divemaster:** _Dying of Fright_ is a big oversized anthology published by Scribner’s in the 1970s; it has a lot of familiar material in it…but the BIG appeal of it is that it’s the last volume illustrated by Lee Brown Coye before he died. Coye is my favorite of the old WEIRD TALES artists. Cal: What’s your opinion of the Anthony Boucher-edited two-volume anthology, Treasury of Great Science Fiction? I have a copy of it (them?) right here by my elbow as I speak…I’ve heard it’s the best Golden Age anthology, but I’m wondering how it stacks up compared to \*Adventures in Time and Space. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-favorite-horror-story/40829.md?page=3)