Horror Aficionados discussion

In another thread Danielle mentioned examples of insect horror stories/books. Anyone have any good examples? I'm not freaked out by insects per se, but I am freaked out by man-sized insects.

What is the name of that book/movie about the giant New York sewer roaches? Mimic? That was scary.

That was a book, too? Cool, just saw the movie. Ok, I thought of 'Yellowjacket Summer' by Robert McCammon and Shelob in Return of the King, and that was it for me, in terms of writing.
I guess with man-sized insects maybe you're moving out of horror and into sci-fi, or am I just having bad B-movie flashbacks!?

The Incredible Shrinking Man had that big, ugly black widow spider the tiny man had to fight off with a needle. That scared me when I was a kid. All those hairy legs. *shudder*

I think Mimic was a book. Maybe I'm getting that confused with Relic.

Oh, remember that Nightmare on Elm Street (maybe 2nd or 3rd) when that female body builder turned into a roach and was stuck in a roach motel. She fell on her face in that sticky stuff.

I think man-sized insects could be horror and science fiction.

Relic's definitely a book - in fact I really enjoyed a couple of the later books in the series, The Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life with Crows. Pretty grisly at times but the authors did a great job cranking up the pacing and suspense.
And now, back to the insects...

I just finished "Slither" by Edward Lee. Are worms insects? These ones are pretty creepy anyway. Laying eggs in warm moist openings of your body until you change into a zombie-like creature that hatches 30 foot worms is always disturbing.
I know I've read others but I'm drawing a blank. I hate bugs so much, I've probably blocked it all out.

Renee wrote: "I just finished "Slither" by Edward Lee. Are worms insects? These ones are pretty creepy anyway. Laying eggs in warm moist openings of your body until you change into a zombie-like creature that ha..."

This sounds good! (Yeah, I know. I'm wierd) Do you have any idea if the movie Slither that came out a few years ago with Nathan Filian is based on the book?

Tressa wrote: "The Incredible Shrinking Man had that big, ugly black widow spider the tiny man had to fight off with a needle. That scared me when I was a kid. All those hairy legs. *shudder*

I think Mimic was a..."

That scene grosses me out everytime! I hate bugs so I try to stay away from movies and books with them. Well, bugs aren't bad. It's the thought of bugs eating people or inside of people.

Mimic was a great creature feature!

I thought so too. Don't think it's very popular, but it's a good flick. Atmospheric and spooky, especially the scene where the big roach flies down and grabs someone. (If I'm remembering that correctly.)

Yeah the bit where it transforms in the subway station is fabulous.

I liked Mimic, bugs creep me out, but that is why I like them in movies. Hell the whole Temple Of Doom scene to pull the handle really got me squirming.

Jerrod, that scene when Indy had to stick his hand and squash God knows how many creepy crawlers to pull that handle gives me goosebumps.

Any movie with roaches makes me nauseated. There's the Creepshow segment where that man afraid of insects has holed himself up in a vacuum-sealed room but the roaches still manage to get in and kill him. They're shown running in and out of his mouth.

And I hated that Joe's Apartment movie. Blech.

Oh yeah, that Indy scene was awful. Far worse than the snakes. What about the terrible bug-things on 'Wrath of Khan' that went INTO YOUR EAR. Eee-yuk.

Aw, in our house we all love Joe's apartment! mostly just to watch the cockroaches sing "stroke me"

yes, Wrath of Khan, the ear drilling bud, that was pretty icky, luckily it wasn't a long scene.

How about the Mummy movies with the Scarab beetles? Especially when they pick that guy clean in seconds.

Anna, whatever floats your boat. :P You can have a crummy apartment overtaken by NY roaches.

Oh, I love that Mummy scene, too. I don't remember much about the Wrath of Khan.

There was also a great Alfred Hitchcock type show where something burrows through someone's ear into the brain, who has to be tied down to the bed as the insect makes its slow progress through his brain... only to learn when it comes out that it was female and pregnant and is now no longer pregnant...
Not sure I'm remembering this right - may have read about it rather than watched it. Insects + ears = NOT GOOD.

That was an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. The title of the story escapes me at the moment.

I remember seeing an episode of a some emergency show and a lady had a cockroach crawl into her ear canal while sleeping and died, poor lady was in excruciating pain.

We had a woman who moved into the neighborhood from some apartments that had a bad roach problem. She started getting horrible ear aches and the doctors discovered a roach had crawled into her ear. They had to pull it out and she was in so much pain because the roach clung on to her eardrum. That is nasty.

I worked with a woman whose mother all her life slept with something wrapped around her ears.

MT may not be the ideal place for most but we don't have cockroaches!

After these stories, I may well join her!
Cheers, Scott, thanks to that I tracked it down - it was called 'Caterpillar':
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects...
(also a good summary of insect-ear-phobia in general).

Edit: and look! it's on YouTube

I remember a story I read when I was younger (Maybe it was an Urban legend), about a girl who has a spider lay it's egg in her forehead. She thinks it's a big zit until it hatches...and the baby spiders ultimately end up eating her I think. Kind of like those nasty wasps who lay their eggs in the caterpillars, and the larvae eat their host, leaving the heart alone until the end, to keep the meal fresh. (Actually, I think I learned that from either Infected or Contagious).

Ooh, LinBee, not good. From a quick google looks like it might be an urban myth as you say, like the story about spider eggs in chewing gum. I found a really interesting website while hunting this story, Tv Tropes, which describes itself: "This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction." Started off as a wiki of tropes from television, and got bigger. There's some interesting body horror stuff there, including spider stories.

i visited the tv tropes site, pretty cool! easy to get in there for a few hours

True, there goes a couple hours of my time!

Blech! I lived in an apartment complex in Huntsville, Alabama called Waterford Square, where I laid eyes on flying cockroaches and Bermuda bugs for the first time ever in my life, extremely roach-infested. One time, I was slow cooking some chili, and a bunch of baby roaches were crawling all around in the kitchen. Needless to say, I didn't eat the chili and I hardly ever cooked when I lived there. We called an exterminator and were told we had 5 different species of roaches. Ever since I saw a movie where a roach crawled in a woman's ear, causing an infection, I am extremely paranoid about things crawling up my ear. Sleeping with my ears covered sounds like a great idea. I have never before or since lived anywhere with such a bad roach problem.

I like the statistics you can find on the internet.

1. No human on earth is further than three feet from a spider at any given moment.

2. Everyone eats on average 5 spiders in their sleep throughout their lifetime.

Icky.

Blech! Don't get me started on spiders!

I once ate a spider as a child. Tasted like grapes.

is a book about a man with a spider in his head controlling him. It's a lot crazier than that actually but it'd definitely fit the bug thing.

My favorite bug movie was http://horrorfanzine.com/bug-movie-re...

It's just absolutely nuts but also very fun. My mom was the one who loved bug movies.

Hey guys, if you're looking to read a horror based novel about man-eating insects from outer space then take a look at my novel - BEDBUGS (can you see them?) is based on my idea aimed at the old saying - "Night, night, sleep tight & don't let the bedbugs bite." Available from amazon in kindle/paperback or cheaper from my website. www.morgueofthedead.webs.com - There's links to cheaper copies in paperback on the main page.
Thanks for reading this,
LEe

Oh, that reminds me. I had an ARC of Bedbugs and was really impressed by how good it is. I really enjoyed it.

I would be remiss if I did not mention my own contributions to this particular sub-genre: Cockroad Suckers - this edition also includes the novelette Deep Blue



Also - in my collection Defining Moments is my short story "The Gentle Brush of Wings," pretty quiet horror, but it DID win the Bram Stoker Award for short fiction... and Cockroach Suckers is also included in that collection: Defining Moments



And there is also my story SWARM - which you'll find in my collection Etched Deep & Other Dark Impressions



Both collections are only $2.99 and Cockroach Suckers is only .99... and both collections are Whispersync for voice ready, so if you get the eBook you can add the audio for only $1.99...

Cordyceps

It's not about insects, but I do associate it as such because of what cordyceps IS. And then someone thought it would be a good idea to use it as a pesticide, which couldn't backfire in any meaningful way whatsoever. -_-



A Rustle In The Grass and Empire of the Ants are from the perspective of ants, but not really horror. Or so TV tropes suggest under Humans are Cthulhu, I've not read them yet.

Tressa, my novel isn't that bedbugs book, but mine is gory & fast paced action....

Mandibles by Jeff Strand about giant ants was pretty good. A bit hokey but fun nonetheless.

Just finished reading Violet Eyes by John Everson. A freaky spider/flies horror novel. A fun, gory, quick read that creeped me out! Genetically modified insects that eat everything and lay their eggs in you.

Also Squelch by John Halkin about yicky caterpillars who eat people. Good stuff! :)