What's the Scariest Story You've Ever Read?

[Droflet]

Hell house by Richard Matheson.

 

[elvet]

I don't like to read (or watch) horror stories now. But when I was young and reading voraciously, two stories terrified me enough to remember them from all those years ago. The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe and Rikki Tikki Tavi By Kipling.

 

[HanaBi]

A toss up between Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" and Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House"

 

[BAYLOR]

Midnight Sun by Ramsey Campbell.

The Mist by Stephen King

 

[HalaxyGigh]

I just posted this in another thread, but it's relevant here also.
Only story that really disturbed me I recall was a single instance in the stephen King short story The Jaunt. The story itself was a good horror use of a familiar sci-fi trope, as a family are taking a trip via teleportation to Mars, and the father tells the youngest son about the discovery of teleportation technology, omitting bits that he doesn't want him to hear. Without spoilers, the father recalls as he tells the story that at a midway point in development of the technology, a drunk and troubled scientist ties up his cheating ex-wife and forces her into the teleporter, screaming at what she knows is going to happen.
He then sabotages the device's process and teleports her. What happens to her is maybe not what you'd expect. The story is not exactly hard sci-fi in tone, and I have no idea as a layman in theoretical quantum physics whether something like the result is possible, but physics is a pretty abstract field, for all I know it could be. And the very idea of what happens I found pretty horrifying, not least as it is just a background detail in the story, and is not dwelled upon, but in the story would be continuously ongoing, indefinitely.
I don't generally find supernatural stuff scary, even in movies, but that really did it for me, and I thought of what H.P. Lovecraft apparently said in a letter, that he wrote intending to create fiction that would frighten people of scientific perspective (as opposed to traditional horror based upon superstition or the supernatural).

 

[Astro Pen]

Thinking back a long way James White's 1967 "All Judgement Fled" was pretty scary. It was a sort of Alien before Alien. A leave the bedroom light on job.

 

[Hugh]

There are two that stick out in my memory:

(1) "The Princess and the Goblin" George Macdonald
I remember being terrified of the goblin creatures coming out at night and playing on the lawn.

(2) "Little Grey Rabbit and the Weasels" Alison Uttley
This I'm afraid is the episode where Grey Rabbit is kidnapped by a gang of weasels.

 

[tobl]

dean koontz dragon tears i think

 

[paranoid marvin]

There are very few long stories that can keep me scared. Yes they may keep me interested, and be spooky in parts, but not for the full time. One is Domain , as there is really no let up in frights - whether they be nuclear, human or rodent variety. I do find Stephen King good to read, but most of his stuff I would put down to thrillers rather than outright horror; some of his short stories are quite scary though with The Sun Dog probably being the best. Other than this, pretty much all of M.R. James is good scary short stories.

For me a scary story is one that can be read in one sitting by the fireside at night or in bed, just the right time and length to get the imagination going!

 

[BAYLOR]

Thinking back a long way James White's 1967 "All Judgement Fled" was pretty scary. It was a sort of Alien before Alien. A leave the bedroom light on job.

View attachment 63524

He also wrote the Sector General novels .

 

[Derek Smith]

Thinking back a long way James White's 1967 "All Judgement Fled" was pretty scary. It was a sort of Alien before Alien. A leave the bedroom light on job.

View attachment 63524

H.R.Giger frightens me, his dark imagination is jet black, shiver:-

 

[Derek Smith]

I'll start a story myself soon which is a bit spooky (understatement).

 

[BAYLOR]

H.R.Giger frightens me, his dark imagination is jet black, shiver:-

Giger was an absolute genius.

The Movie alien has a very very Lovecraftain to which Giger brings out very nicely.. Interestingly there there a number of other things that influenced Alien's development as well . The 1958 film It the the Terror From Beyond Space 1958 written by Jerome Bixby follows a similar plotting to Alien . The 1965 Mario Brava film Planet of the Vampires is another film influenced Alien. In literature you have the Black destroyer in A E Van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle and there is Clark Ashton Smith's story The Vaults of Yoh -Vombus.

 

[Derek Smith]

Giger was an absolute genius.

The Movie alien has a very very Lovecraftain to which Giger brings out very nicely.. Interestingly there there a number of other things that influenced Alien's development as well . The 1958 film It the the Terror From Beyond Space 1958 written by Jerome Bixby follows a similar plotting to Alien . The 1965 Mario Brava film Planet of the Vampires is another film influenced Alien. In literature you have the Black destroyer in A E Van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle and there is Clark Ashton Smith's story The Vaults of Yoh -Vombus.

Hi Baylor
I have been disabled for a long time, having broken my spine only two years ago, but when i could get on my legs i was a member of a small astronomy club in North London, the reason i say this is the "Patron" was Sir Arthur C. Clarke and the President was Fred Clarke, his brother, it was called ASH, being Astronomical Society of Harringey, it is a small world in Science Fiction, which we also used to debate, they are both dead now.
I hope i'm not breaking any rules in adverts, i don't want a smack on the wrist from "The Judge:-

Astronomy Shed UK Astronomy Forum • View topic - Astronomical Society of Haringey

UK astronomy forum with an emphasis on diy astronomy projects and tutorials

www.astronomyshed.co.uk

 

[BAYLOR]

Hi Baylor
I have been disabled for a long time, having broken my spine only two years ago, but when i could get on my legs i was a member of a small astronomy club in North London, the reason i say this is the "Patron" was Sir Arthur C. Clarke and the President was Fred Clarke, his brother, it was called ASH, being Astronomical Society of Harringey, it is a small world in Science Fiction, which we also used to debate, they are both dead now.
I hope i'm not breaking any rules in adverts, i don't want a smack on the wrist from "The Judge:-

Astronomy Shed UK Astronomy Forum • View topic - Astronomical Society of Haringey

UK astronomy forum with an emphasis on diy astronomy projects and tutorials

www.astronomyshed.co.uk

I don't know the answer to this, I don't know how to advice you on this . I wish I could be more helpful here If you have question on such an issue . I would recommend talking to those running the forum. They're really nice peopleand they are fair. They can advise on this.

 

[SaulAHerman]

the monstrumologist by rick yancey, it's YA Horror Fantasy where cryptids and other monsters go bump in the night like wendigos, one such creature which horrified me was the anthropophagi, a being with no head, it's eyes were on it's shoulders, its mouth was in its chest, it fed on human flesh and they were prolific breeders. One such scary scene is about the wounded infant anthropophagi and the main character's interaction with it, the mewing of the beast and its pathetic nature, how it moans then attacks even when missing most of its right arm. The POV MC bites at the arm in defense and the riveting description of the revolting result is embroiled with suspense and kronenberg level eeriness.

 

[Pheagan]

The White People by Arthur Machen:
chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/the-white-people-by-arthur-machen.pdf

 

[biodroid]

Phantoms and Watchers by Dean Koontz.

 

[tobl]

Phantoms and Watchers by Dean Koontz.

try Dragon Tears by Dean

 

[BigBadBob141]

I don't know about scary but "The Face" by Dean Koontz is pretty good, one of his better ones plus "Intensity" and "Phantoms" are both quite good also.