I need creepy...

Hmm...anything that plays on the fear of the unknown. I've never been scared by a book or a film - I mean, I know it's fiction and not real, but I do have a fondness for those that don't have an in-your-face dead scary (NOT!) monster.

Things that go bump in the night, something happening behind closed doors, a mystery, they all work for me.

I'll have a think about this.

That could be a tough one. I know I read true crimes books and do research a lot so that I can put my characters into the right "mind set" of whatever psychosis I want them to have. None of it is particularly scary until you put yourself in the place of the victim/s, regardless whether it's a true story, horror, thriller, etc. I haven't seen a horror movie that I couldn't go to sleep after watching, and often find myself laughing at them because they are just so unbelievable.
It really depends on a person's "scare" level.

So... I'm sitting here one morning trying to wake up. Over a period of about 4
weeks we had gotten about 1/3 of the trees around the house cut down; brush cleared; etc. I now have a view of an oak tree that seemingly stares back at me. Right at eye level and just over the top of my computer monitor there is this eye looking back at me. I was so curious about it that I walked outside to see if it had been painted onto the tree. Nope! Does it scare me? No, but when I took a picture of it and emailed it to some of my friends, it scared them. Scare factor has everything to do with the imagination. I could take that "all seeing tree" and write something scary about it, but unless the story was believable (to me) it would be more difficult to write it.
That tree is my avatar picture. I think it's neat, but not scary as my friends did.

I think that whatever you choose to write, you have to mentally put yourself in the scene long enough to get a feel for what you want your characters to feel. I also think that the horror genre is harder to write because those "monsters" are all straight from the imagination. Overall though, horror to one can be comedy to another, but those of us that read the genre enjoy it as much as those that read romance novels. For me, it doesn't matter if it scares me as long as it's written well and I can enjoy seeing how the characters in the book deal with it's "monster."

Not sure if any of that helps. Perhaps if you could think of what would actually scare you then write about it. Best of luck!

First, I love creepy stories, but few have had me spooked during or after I read them. I think I have become numb to many of the nuances of the genre due to reading so much Stephen King. While I’m not much or a Fantasy kind of guy, I loved reading The Hobbit and LOR Trilogy.

For me I read most anything I can get my hands on, so this is a very difficult question to answer. The fist book that comes to mind for me is Stephen King’s Bag of Bones. I read it several years ago, and it was a great book that had me checking the locks before going to bed, and hustling my way up the stairs after I turned out the lights. To me, that was one of the creepiest books I’ve read, and yet it wasn’t a story plagued with brutality, violence or blood.

Then I would have to say read The Talisman, by King and Straub. That was one of the best stories written by King and it certainly crossed the genre of Fantasy and Horror in a very unique way. While it may not be spooky or creepy, it had some moments.

Then look at Michael Crichton’s Timeline. The book crosses the genres of Sci-Fi and Fantasy in an interesting way and has several dark moments.

Dean Koontz and Stephen King are your best bets though for creepy. Koontz has a trilogy out right now call Odd Thomas which is superb. I recommend it to anyone wanting to write in First person. I typically hate first person, but Koontz did it so seamlessly that I was riveted by the MC and the world he lives in. Koontz was creepier in his early years though and I would look at his works prior to 1995. Also for a cross between Horror and Fantasy, check out Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series. It’s a unique take on vampires and he does a good job with the MC as well.

That should get you started. I hope they are helpful.

Can't reccommend any nonfiction to that effect, but Outlaw mentioned Straub, and that made me think of Houses without Doors. That one made my skin crawl.

hum

Just looking in the mirror each morning does it for me.

Inside each of us is a secret place that dwells our fear center. The unknown is not always the cause of it either. I know about snakes...but have fear even with a stupid garter snake. (Okay, just a tiny amount, but...)

Like sex stuff, what you don't see or read is sometimes better than what is there before your eyes. What is alluded to sometimes keeps me turning the page as my mind has its own little way of turning on the goose bumps when I let it have its way.

Just my 2 cents.

I think everyone nailed it. The creepiest stuff is the things that no one can see but they know that it's there. The unknown, the games your mind plays on you. The sound coming from outside your house when you're all alone. The light reflecting in the darkness that can't be eyes (wait! did they just move?) Or the face on that tree staring back at tlblack. Those things we can't see but know are there are the creepiest to me.

This is an interesting problem. In general, I think it's nigh-impossible to generate a horrified reaction in a reader who has not personally been horrified. The Catch-22 is that people who've been through legitimately horrifying experiences tend to avoid fiction that reminds them of their personal trauma. One guy I knew who had a capital-T Terrible childhood wouldn't even watch the relatively tame horror movies of the 1950s, and something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre was totally out of the question. Rape victims are easily identified; they're the ones who leave the room when Jodie Foster gets thrown onto the pinball machine in "The Accused."

I'm not aware of any particularly useful how-to essays on writing horror.

If you're looking for specific examples to study, I think the dental torture scenes in William Goldman's Marathon Man were pretty memorable.

At the risk of making everyone yawn, I'll reiterate the cliche that your readers will find it much easier to be horrified if they identify with the characters you create. Take Silence of the Lambs -- no one felt too bad when Lecter ate his oafish jailer in the closing sequence, but everyone was rooting for the plucky Senator's daughter who was trapped down the well.

Lovecraft was good at generating horror by letting the reader's imagination do the work for him. King is aware of this technique (he mentions it in Danse Macabre) but disagrees. He (King) believes that at some point the reader needs to actually see the monster, no matter how inadequate the reality may be in contrast to our imaginings.

Personally, I dunno. The scariest movie I ever saw was The Graduate. Creeps me out every...single...time.

Don't slap yourself too much, it'll leave a dent. Trust me; got oneof my own. I understand your not catching the obvious about horror. Until I started studying the genre having decided that it was the kind of stories I enjoyed enough to write them, I assumed that the more gore the greater the horror. Now I look for and appreciate those simple, subtle moments that make horror such much fun.

I don't know about books, Stephen King seems to be widly regarded as a Horror writer, but then I've never really found his work to be too gripping. If you want bowel-clenchingly creepy, you might try a film.

The Grudge is extremely creepy. It exploits entrapment, and fear of the unknown. You see the ghost, then you see the main character turn to run, and the ghost is once again in front of her. It even pops up briefly as a faint reflection in a 'safe', public place. Naturally, only the woman it's after can see or hear it.

Alien is another good example. You're given brief glimpses of the creature as it attacks the crew. You're not allowed time to study it, except to see that it is fast and strong, and you know it could be hiding anywhere.

This will horrify you:

'Witness:The Black Volume'

Yes its mine.

But check my review for it at Pretty Scary if you're not convinced:

http://www.pretty-scary.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=645&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Enjoy!

The classics are the best at 'creepy.' I recommend M.R. James' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, J. Sheridan LeFanu's Green Tea and his pre-Dracula vampire novella Carmilla. You may also want to try the expressionist author Gustav Meyrink: The Golem, the Green Face, and Walpurgisnacht. I also recommend the graveyard poets (cf. http://thesicklytaper.pagedepot.com/). I also think that Lewis' The Monk has some good scenes (like the Bleeding Nun) although his overall style is quite purple by today's standards.

These texts (except for Meyrink) are in the public domain and available online.

What about "Comanche Moon?" Some of the things described and done really freaked me out... but, I liked it...

You might look at H.P. Lovecraft’s long essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” available here

http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskat...rature/lovecraft/essays/supernat/supern00.htm

and elsewhere online. In it he explains his theory of horror-story writing.

Story-wise, I’ve found some very enjoyable and creepy fiction in The Mammoth Book of New Terror, Edited by Stephen Jones (2004).

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s “Andromeda Among the Stones” is excellent, as is “Unlocked” by Tanith Lee and John Kaine.

Peter Struab came up with some really great,haunting stuff. Floating Dragon, Mr X, Shadowland, Koko.
Clive Barker - though I really need to be in the mood for that, otherwise I get an instant headache.
Edgar Allen Poe still does it for sheer creepiness for me. King is brilliant, but I find his short stories are the ones that make me shiver; the books are more like settling down to a very interesting conversation.
Lord of the Flies is not technically a supernatural horror; but the pyschological horror is definitely there.
Gerald Durrell once wrote one of the best little horror stories I've ever read - can't for the life of me remember which of his books it's in, though - and as far as I know it was the only time he went to the dark side of things.
Ray Bradbury is up there with the best of them.

Hands, down, the scariest book I've ever read is The Shining by Stephen King, it's terrifying in some parts.

I'm much more of a SF fan than a horror fan, but this thread caught my eye (OUCH!)... I was a big fan of the original 1960's Twilight Zone and Outer Limits TV shows when I was an impressionable child. Thank goodness Lost In Space wasn't the only 'far-out' show back then...

Outlaw said:

First, I love creepy stories, but few have had me spooked during or after I read them.
...
Then look at Michael Crichton’s Timeline. The book crosses the genres of Sci-Fi and Fantasy in an interesting way and has several dark moments.

Click to expand...

I never thought of that one as being in any way fantasy (though I can see where others may define fantasy differently). Yes, it had castles and other things from many centuries ago, but there was no "magic" that I recall, or anything that would distinguish that part of the story from what I might consider "historical fiction." Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

I certainly agree the story has dark moments. There was a character caught as a 'spy' or invader from another castle/kingdom. There was some "rule" about there not being a mark on a body when returned (to insure the person hadn't been tortured), so they ... sorry, I won't describe it here, other than it's not pretty. It reminds me of that fictional "character" in Crichton's most recent book that happens to be the name of a reviewer. Crichton can be quite viscious when he wants to be.

Anything by Hideshi Hino

I seem to remember The Haunting of Hill House as being kinda creepy, and another ghost book that was a movie - The Amityville Horror. The book, not the movie, really made me get chills. Especially the pig eyes in the window... ooooh...

"Creepy," for me, is when you aren't impressed with it at the time -- but when you try to get to sleep that night, it's burrowed into the back of your neck like a tick.

Creepiest film: the 1925 Phantom of the Opera. (Not necessarily horror, and certainly not supernatural horror -- but the unmasking is such a great shock moment, even if you know what's coming.)
Creepiest novel: Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. (Second film adaptation, The Resurrected, captures a little of the same spirit.)
Creepiest short story: for now, "The Yellow Wall-Paper." (Unnerving, I think, because the narrator is so sympathetic in the beginning, and has such a legitimate grievance. You find yourself saying, "Whither thou goest . . ." -- and suddenly, she goeth.)

ETA: Have you read William F. Nolan's How to Write Horror Fiction? (It's out of print, but readily available used.) It's on the short side, and very, very basic, but for some reason I always find it inspirational.

I think the creepiest things are things that look chearfull but aren't like the movie the lottery, that was creepy. It makes people think that this could happen to them in the real world, where as fire and brimestone aren't something that people can get inside their head as easily.

The one element I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is atmosphere. This is far more important than any single scary, or creepy element. It is all about placing your audience within an atmosphere where anything you present to them will give the desired effect you want. Here is a case-in-point that may seem at first to be off subject, but I assure it's not. I worked on the movie Aliens. On the way to the cast and crew screening, I noticed that all the cast and crew were rather complacent, chit-chatting amongst themselves as any movie-goers would. All but James Cameron, who I walked beside. He was as nervous as a kid at his first horror film.

We, who work on these movies, who have seen it all, made it all, who know every nuance, thought and act that goes into these productions, we, would be the hardest nut to crack. I mean, how could we be scared since we made everything in the movie, and the actors sitting next me were playing the characters on the screen, plus we saw it all being filmed. And a double negative: this was a sequel. The truth is, we are all jaded. But even with all of that, the actuality of it is the exact opposite, because all of us love the genre and we really want everything to work beyond our collective offerings.

After the lights went down, it took about thirty seconds for the atmosphere created by story and the filmmaker to take over. By the time the truly scary parts arrived, an actor sitting next me was clutching my hand so hard, I chirped with pain and had to peel her fingers back. None of the actors were seeing themselves on the screen, none of the technicians were seeing their handicraft. We were all in every second of screen moments. This was all due to atmosphere before any scary event took place. When those events did take place, surprisingly enough (to me, at least), was that the actors were more frightened than anyone.

At least twenty seconds passed in total silence when the lights came on before anyone could make a sound or begin clapping. As we filed out of the theater to the lobby where a huge all-you-can-eat buffet was prepared, not one person even approached the food for a good fifteen minutes. Our stomachs were in a collective knot. The queue at the bar was quite long, however.

What I'm trying to point out is the importance of engaging your audience in the whole experience of your story first, then all those scary, creepy elements will take your reader over the top without too much of a push.