Horror Aficionados discussion

I've read quite a lot of horror books and many of them are creepy and cool but very few ever really SCARE me. I have read every Stephen King for example and every book is amazing but they do not necessarily scare me. Tommyknockers and "N" did for example but very few. Koontz, Straub, etc are amazing but not scary. The only person who can creep me out is Lansdale. Any suggestions to what you found extremely scary?

Cordyceps

Really, really consider this premise. Because somebody thought that using cordyceps as a genetically-engineered pesticide was a good idea.

Wow so I didn't know what cordyceps were so I looked them up on Wikipedia. Creepy creation. Then the plot summary even creepier. I'll give it a read. Thank you.

Nothing is scary anymore!!!

Paraphrasing here... but when fans tell Stephen King that his newer books are not as scary as his older stuff, he says "Yeah, but when you read my older stuff you were 13yo and away at summer camp in the middle of the night." Not trying to be simplistic here, but stands to reason that the older and more experienced we get, the more desensitized we become. I don't necessarily want to go back to 13yo, except when I'm reading or watching horror. Then I desperately want to go back to 13yo.

Heather wrote: "Cordyceps

Really, really consider this premise. Because somebody thought that using cordyceps as a genetically-engineered pesticide was a good idea."

Was this before or after it came to Playstation? :\

From the Wikipedia page...

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3. It was officially revealed on December 10, 2011, during the Spike TV Video Game Awards and released worldwide on June 14, 2013. It was released in Japan on June 20, 2013.

The player takes control of Joel (voiced and motion captured by Troy Baker), who is trekking across a post-apocalyptic United States in 2033, in order to escort the young Ellie (voiced and motion captured by Ashley Johnson) to a resistance group, the Fireflies, who believe Ellie may be the key to curing an infection that has ravaged the world. The player defends the characters against zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus, as well as hostile humans such as bandits and cannibals, employing the use of firearms and stealth aided by capabilities such as a visual representation of sound in order to listen for locations of enemies. The player can also craft weapons or medical items by combining items scavenged in the world.


Disclaimer: Alas, I only own an XBox. And a recently bricked Wii.

Nothing has ever scared me, except a few films when I was younger... I want to be scared again!

Megatherium wrote: "Heather wrote: "Cordyceps

Really, really consider this premise. Because somebody thought that using cordyceps as a genetically-engineered pesticide was a good idea."

Was this bef..."

I don't know where Cordyceps falls in the timeline to The Last of Us. All I know is, some fungi actually do that to insects. The idea, whether in a game or a book, of such a thing making a species jump is nothing short of horrifying.

It is an interesting premise. As an avid fan of documentaries, I've come across them before. I don't find them terrifying so much as quietly unsettling.

Rakasha by Robert Davis
Crawlspace by Evans Light, though I didn't care for it I gotta say it was quite frightening.

Yes, naturally as we get older, things tend not to be a scary to us. Actually, most things tend to dull or can get much better but much shorter. For instance, we may not have sex as much but for some people it is better when they do have it. Being scared is a different thing though because there are things that we expect after a certain period of time. What you simply have to do is try to get something to read or watch that is going to totally be something unexpected.

As I've gotten older, I've found myself leaning toward psychological horror more - the kind of horror that has ordinary people going mad and doing horrible things because it is something I can imagine.

Yeah, that is something I have noticed too L.G. That is one of the reasons why I try not to limit my horror writing to just one genre. I remember as my mother got older she too, enjoyed more psychological horror than a slasher flick mentality. And I think I read a study on this somewhere, but I can also say from personal experience with my grandfather quite a while back that as we get older, for many there is that unstated fear of everything slowing down, mentally and physically not being as sharp (or at least being told that). And I think that for my mother having taken care of her father who had alzheimer's, to look at a film where someone was slowly losing their mind was horrifying because it was so real.

Michael, I think one of the other strengths of psychological horror is that losing your mind or falling apart is a somewhat universal fear. Other fears (e.g., gore and vampires) are a bit more culture or individual specific. For instance, the country where I was born (in Asia) has very different views of what a vampire is, so traditional Western vampires don't have quite the same impact.

It's funny isn't it - children fear everyday things that they don't understand (e.g., the dark, bogeymen, etc.). Older people fear things because they understand them.

Ross wrote: "I've read quite a lot of horror books and many of them are creepy and cool but very few ever really SCARE me. I have read every Stephen King for example and every book is amazing but they do not ne..."

Not horror but if you want a 'white-knuckle' read that will have your heart racing,don't think there is any book more terrifying than...

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone-Richar...

The Ruins by Scott Smith. Really really good. Couldn't put it down.

The Cabin & The Cabin II: Asylum from Matt Shaw.

I got spooked while reading & a loud noise from outside almost put me on the ceiling :)
If you prefer Serial Killers to Ghosts, the Happy Ever After series is outstanding.
Whatever your preference - Matt has a book for you.

Fun for the holidays - A Christmas to Remember, an extreme Choose Your Path story w/various endings.

Ross wrote: "I've read quite a lot of horror books and many of them are creepy and cool but very few ever really SCARE me. I have read every Stephen King for example and every book is amazing but they do not ne..."

Have you ever read Adam by Ted Dekker? I thought it was pretty creepy. I get that creepy isn't scary, but hey, I tried!