Favourite Horror writers - Page 6

MaxJoker · September 20th, 2013, 03:44 PM

Barbara Cartland.

Because every book of her`s that i`ve been unlucky enough to read a few sentences of (While waiting at the STD clinic for my results) has made me violently want to vomit up my own intestines.

Although that said compared to the woman herself my own intestines at least looked remotely attractive lying on the clinic floor.

No offense to the deceased Dame

**Jake Gittes** · July 27th, 2015, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Office Boy

For me I find it amazing that a lot of these great writers and novels stand the test of time. Still scary today. The success of these novels can be seen sometimes, on the big screen, and how they come over when adapted. My shortlist;

Edgar Allan Poe

I am also an avid fan of Edgar Allan Poe. His use of imagery and ability to create descriptive settings create a terrifying effect on me as a reader. I am also a huge fan of Gothic literature.

I also liked how all of his stories could be read in one sitting, although that is not to say that other writers who write longer stories are discredited (I also love Stephen King and Dean Koonz), but I found it a nice change of pace.

Some of my favorite Poe stories include "The Black Cat," "The Mask of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and the poem "The Raven."

One of my favorite Poe stories was made into a movie featuring the amazing Vince Price.

Personally, I thought he was brilliant at getting into the human mind and discovering the roots of paranoia and madness. He was kind of a literary psychologist (if that makes any sense

)

I'd be curious to know if anyone had any theories about any of Poe's stories.

**george anson** · July 28th, 2015, 08:09 PM

Anyone like Richard Laymon (no longer with us) ? Splatterpunk genre apparently. Perhaps because his horror writing was very visceral and disturbing themes even for a horror book his novels have not been adapted for the television or cinematic screen like King or Koontz.

I read his books avidly as a teenager. Night In The Lonesome October being a real favourite. It's descriptions of the night matching many of my own nocturnal excursions at the same age when the character of a town does change.

**Wendigo** · July 28th, 2015, 08:31 PM

I could never get into Poe, his stories were undoubtedly great but reading them was a real chore.
I remember starting to read A Descent into the Maelström a while back and I gave in.

I've recently got a stack of my favourite James Herbert books, including real classics like The Fog and The Survivor and I love the short hit and run 200 page horror novels of Guy N Smith like The Slime Beast

Also a guy called Paul Finch writes some brilliant horror short stories and I recommend his books to all horror fans.

**CARLTON BROWN** · July 28th, 2015, 10:58 PM

King and Lovecraft

**ubu55** · July 31st, 2015, 04:19 AM

Ambrose Bierce
Lovecraft
Richard Matheson
Robert Bloch
Shirley Jackson
Robert E. Howard
Henry Kuttner
Tanith Lee
Edgar Allan Poe

With the exception of Lee know most from short story collections/anthologies.

Bierce's twisted little tales, especially "Oil of Dog"; Howard's bleak, suicide-note(?) despair in the Soloman Kane stories; Shirley Jackson's terrifying, near perfect "Haunting", the evil source of which is, finally, not exactly clear.
Matheson & Bloch always a cut above their literary & screen writer colleagues, chilling, modern, hard-edged.
Lovecraft rises from the swamp of the subconscious (where it seems his characters have always lurked) like the monstrous shape of Cthulhu from the ocean depths. "Colour Out of Space" made the hair stand up on the back of my neck at first reading, & still makes me uncomfortable.
Early Tanith Lee a mix of grim fairy tale & gorgeous, sensual prose. Demons & men, sorcerers & maidens ...a blood-price demanded for every gift. "Volkhavaar," "Night's Master"

Poe the well spring of it all, horror from an indifferent universe, not quite Conrad's empty sky (that'll come soon enough), but but an inkling of that same darkness in the hearts & minds of men.

**Mal Hombre** · September 11th, 2015, 02:21 PM

A lesser known horror is Robert R.McCammon,He's long been a favourite of Mine,Especially His short story collection Blue World.Appropriately enough,The titular novella features a porn star as heroine/damsel in distress..

**Pinkpapercut** · September 12th, 2015, 02:48 PM

HP Lovecraft
Shirley Jackson
Ramsey Campbell
Caitlín R Kiernan

Lovecraft for the bleakness of his vision: the horror in his tales lies not in the tentacled god-like entities for which he is famous but in the the vision of individual humans and even the entire human race being a passing thing in an uncaring cosmos, unimportant even to those God-like entities who sometimes harm and kill them as a human might kill a beetle unseen underfoot.

Shirley Jackson for the atmosphere of queasy vertiginous wrongness that suffuses the lives of the protagonist-victims in her stories, particularly in "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived In The Castle".

Ramsey Campbell for his psychological realism and his ability to suffuse the urban English milieux he depicts with a constant tone of threat and dread.

Caitlín R. Kiernan because she's a Lovecraft for the modern day: unlike most writers who strive to emulate Lovecraft by creating variations of the aforementioned tentacled god-monsters, her horror comes from her vision of marginal young people slowly coming to understand how limited has been their comprehesion, how vanishingly minor their significance in our vast Cosmos and in Deep Time.

**thunderfly** · September 21st, 2015, 12:36 AM

M. R. James. A lot of his stories have the same 'feel' about them which may or may not be a good thing but I do like his work.

**trailmaster** · March 27th, 2016, 12:34 PM

My favorite horror writer was H.P. Lovecraft. The thing about him was that he was very articulate, and his horror was not about blood and guts as it so often is today. Lovecraft mostly wrote short stories. He wrote one novel: The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward which was only 135 pages. Most of his stories were between 6 pages and 80 pages long. By the way he did not make any money from his stories because he wrote them as a hobby. His main source of income was writing travel brochures, and in editing manuscripts from amateur writers. He was very sickly all his life and died at the young age of 46.

September 20th, 2013, 03:44 PM	#51
MaxJoker Beloved Brother Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Cemetery Gardens_Arterial Blood Lane_Rampton Secure Unit_Extra Violent F Wing_Cell 19 Posts: 69,106 Thanks: 372,713 Thanked 987,757 Times in 69,067 Posts	Barbara Cartland. Because every book of her`s that i`ve been unlucky enough to read a few sentences of (While waiting at the STD clinic for my results) has made me violently want to vomit up my own intestines. Although that said compared to the woman herself my own intestines at least looked remotely attractive lying on the clinic floor. No offense to the deceased Dame __________________ My hypocrisy only goes so To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

July 28th, 2015, 08:31 PM	#54
Wendigo Former Staff Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Blighty Posts: 113,811 Thanks: 259,918 Thanked 1,139,698 Times in 113,932 Posts	I could never get into Poe, his stories were undoubtedly great but reading them was a real chore. I remember starting to read A Descent into the Maelström a while back and I gave in. I've recently got a stack of my favourite James Herbert books, including real classics like The Fog and The Survivor and I love the short hit and run 200 page horror novels of Guy N Smith like The Slime Beast Also a guy called Paul Finch writes some brilliant horror short stories and I recommend his books to all horror fans. __________________ RIP Doctor Who To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 23 November 1963 to 25 December 2017, sacrificed on the altar of identity politics. The show is dead to me, but my DVD's live on If you can re-up dead links please consider adding this to your signature. It helps when looking at reports of dead posts. Please PM me re any dead images although it is likely if it is outside Celebs I may no longer have the content

September 11th, 2015, 02:21 PM	#57
Mal Hombre El Super Moderador Join Date: May 2009 Location: Adoptive Monkey Hanger Posts: 58,148 Thanks: 772,820 Thanked 855,917 Times in 57,577 Posts	A lesser known horror is Robert R.McCammon,He's long been a favourite of Mine,Especially His short story collection Blue World.Appropriately enough,The titular novella features a porn star as heroine/damsel in distress.. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. If in doubt, Just ask Yourself What Would Max Do ? It is a porn site,But its a Classy porn site. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

September 12th, 2015, 02:48 PM	#58
Pinkpapercut Rust Never Sleeps Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: North of the Channel, west of the hills, south of the mountains Posts: 984 Thanks: 31,846 Thanked 20,519 Times in 986 Posts	HP Lovecraft Shirley Jackson Ramsey Campbell Caitlín R Kiernan Lovecraft for the bleakness of his vision: the horror in his tales lies not in the tentacled god-like entities for which he is famous but in the the vision of individual humans and even the entire human race being a passing thing in an uncaring cosmos, unimportant even to those God-like entities who sometimes harm and kill them as a human might kill a beetle unseen underfoot. Shirley Jackson for the atmosphere of queasy vertiginous wrongness that suffuses the lives of the protagonist-victims in her stories, particularly in "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived In The Castle". Ramsey Campbell for his psychological realism and his ability to suffuse the urban English milieux he depicts with a constant tone of threat and dread. Caitlín R. Kiernan because she's a Lovecraft for the modern day: unlike most writers who strive to emulate Lovecraft by creating variations of the aforementioned tentacled god-monsters, her horror comes from her vision of marginal young people slowly coming to understand how limited has been their comprehesion, how vanishingly minor their significance in our vast Cosmos and in Deep Time. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. That's To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. 's bottom and I'd love it for a pillow

July 28th, 2015, 08:09 PM	#53
george anson Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Watford Posts: 8,749 Thanks: 21,772 Thanked 293,437 Times in 8,926 Posts	Anyone like Richard Laymon (no longer with us) ? Splatterpunk genre apparently. Perhaps because his horror writing was very visceral and disturbing themes even for a horror book his novels have not been adapted for the television or cinematic screen like King or Koontz. I read his books avidly as a teenager. Night In The Lonesome October being a real favourite. It's descriptions of the night matching many of my own nocturnal excursions at the same age when the character of a town does change.

July 28th, 2015, 10:58 PM	#55
CARLTON BROWN Grand Vizier Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Ruraltania Posts: 3,219 Thanks: 35,687 Thanked 35,626 Times in 3,211 Posts	King and Lovecraft

July 31st, 2015, 04:19 AM	#56
ubu55 Former Staff Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain Posts: 2,800 Thanks: 122,910 Thanked 51,109 Times in 2,795 Posts	Ambrose Bierce Lovecraft Richard Matheson Robert Bloch Shirley Jackson Robert E. Howard Henry Kuttner Tanith Lee Edgar Allan Poe With the exception of Lee know most from short story collections/anthologies. Bierce's twisted little tales, especially "Oil of Dog"; Howard's bleak, suicide-note(?) despair in the Soloman Kane stories; Shirley Jackson's terrifying, near perfect "Haunting", the evil source of which is, finally, not exactly clear. Matheson & Bloch always a cut above their literary & screen writer colleagues, chilling, modern, hard-edged. Lovecraft rises from the swamp of the subconscious (where it seems his characters have always lurked) like the monstrous shape of Cthulhu from the ocean depths. "Colour Out of Space" made the hair stand up on the back of my neck at first reading, & still makes me uncomfortable. Early Tanith Lee a mix of grim fairy tale & gorgeous, sensual prose. Demons & men, sorcerers & maidens ...a blood-price demanded for every gift. "Volkhavaar," "Night's Master" Poe the well spring of it all, horror from an indifferent universe, not quite Conrad's empty sky (that'll come soon enough), but but an inkling of that same darkness in the hearts & minds of men.

September 21st, 2015, 12:36 AM	#59
thunderfly Vintage Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 896 Thanks: 6,620 Thanked 11,387 Times in 896 Posts	M. R. James. A lot of his stories have the same 'feel' about them which may or may not be a good thing but I do like his work.

March 27th, 2016, 12:34 PM	#60
trailmaster Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA Posts: 59,905 Thanks: 1,329,115 Thanked 707,323 Times in 60,079 Posts	My favorite horror writer was H.P. Lovecraft. The thing about him was that he was very articulate, and his horror was not about blood and guts as it so often is today. Lovecraft mostly wrote short stories. He wrote one novel: The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward which was only 135 pages. Most of his stories were between 6 pages and 80 pages long. By the way he did not make any money from his stories because he wrote them as a hobby. His main source of income was writing travel brochures, and in editing manuscripts from amateur writers. He was very sickly all his life and died at the young age of 46.