Suggestions for Good Horror Short Stories

[The Neoclassic]

I've been rereading some Lovecraft, but I'm curious what other authors have written some good short stories of the horror-type genre. Ones which are public domain (and hence I can read on wikisource) are ideal; either general author or specific story recommendations would be great. Thanks in advance for suggestions! :smallsmile:

[Roukon]

I'm a big horror fan (both books and film) and so far, only H.P. Lovecraft has written a story scary enough that at 29 years old, I had to sleep with my light on. He really is the master of horror. Granted, a few of his stories are cliche, but it really isn't since he started most of the cliches.

On topic, another good place to look would be Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page). It is also public domain, and has the added benefit of having works not only from the United States, but all over the world.

Roukon

Edit: Forgot to put the link in...oops.

[Finn Solomon]

Can't go wrong with Mr. Stephen King.

[Roukon]

Can't go wrong with Mr. Stephen King.

True, but even Mr. King says Mr. Lovecraft is a master of horror.

[Southern Cross]

I'd also recommend Clark Ashton Smith,a contempoary of Lovecraft's.

[WalkingTarget]

Uhh... How about Poe?

Oh, and not public domain but Richard Matheson has some decent ones. Neil "Scary Pants" Gaiman has some rather creepy ones out there too.

[Myshlaevsky]

My favourite Lovecraft has always been The Colour Out of Space.

Two other horror stories I always particularly liked are The Black Wedding by Isaac Bashevis Singer and Euminedes in the Fourth Floor Lavatory by Orson Scott Card. They share a number of similarities.

Having recently read a book of Elizabeth Gaskell's short horror stories I'd also recommend them.

[chiasaur11]

Uhh... How about Poe?

Oh, and not public domain but Richard Matheson has some decent ones. Neil "Scary Pants" Gaiman has some rather creepy ones out there too.

Seconded on Matheson.

He wrote half the Twilight Zones everyone remembers, the short story behind Duel, AND I am Legend (The book).

Excellent Fi-Sci and horror work.

[Myshlaevsky]

Seconded on Matheson.

He wrote half the Twilight Zones everyone remembers, the short story behind Duel, AND I am Legend (The book).

Excellent Fi-Sci and horror work.

I refuse to admit there is a film. With I Am Legend he also inspired Romero so that's even more to add to his horror pedigree.

I remembered another thing I would always recommend - the novel The Night Land. It's a strange horror book that I found rewarding.

[SurlySeraph]

If you want public domain, this site (http://www.creepypasta.com/) sometimes has good stuff.
Sometimes.

[Mewtarthio]

Second Neil Gaiman. Granted, he's not pure horror, but he's got a number of short stories that fit the bill.

If you get an anthology of his, by the way, I'd recommend Smoke and Mirrors. That's got a pretty high percentage of horror stories. Plus is has "Snow, Glass, Apples" in it.

[thegurullamen]

How are we defining horror? If it's "that which instills terror or intense dread", Google that list of the 10 Most Disturbing Books of All Time that keeps popping up everywhere. I've read two of the lower ones and have ABSOLUTELY NO FRIGGING INTENTION of ever reading the higher ones.

[Rutskarn]

Read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's available free online.

Thank me later.

[Fri]

My favourite horror short story is a novella by L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, he's used to be a decent writer.

It's titled fear.

Basically, the story goes like this.

The main character lost his memory for a couple of hours, and with that, his hat. He want to find his hat.

But if he found his hat, the world will end.

[Gorgondantess]

Read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's available free online.

Thank me later.

That one is awesome.:smallbiggrin:
But in the end, I'm a Lovecraft fan. And that's why I'm contractually obligated to show you this. (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:H._P._Lovecraft)
Start with The Outsider and The Music of Erich Zann, try Shadow Over Innsmouth (longer) and just go from there.:smallbiggrin:

[thegurullamen]

Read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's available free online.

Thank me later.

Thirded. Also, check for Palahniuk's Guts.

[pita]

If you don't mind comic books, Neil Gaiman has a short story in Sandman: Volume 1 called 24 Hours. One of the freakiest things I've read.

[Lord Seth]

Can't go wrong with Mr. Stephen King.Well, his short stories are pretty hit-and-miss. Best to get a collection of his short stories. That way, you have a better chance of not getting stuck with just one of the weaker stories.

[The Neoclassic]

Thanks for all the great suggestions! I read one of that Clark dude's short stories, and it was pretty good (though less scary than I expected). I will certainly check out the other authors and stories in the near future. Also: Someone mentioned "The Music of Erich Zann" which I was actually reading while I posted this thread. :smalltongue: One of Lovecraft's best stories, in my opinion.


If it's "that which instills terror or intense dread", Google that list of the 10 Most Disturbing Books of All Time that keeps popping up everywhere. I've read two of the lower ones and have ABSOLUTELY NO FRIGGING INTENTION of ever reading the higher ones.

I'm reading the summary of this list now... Pretty crazy. Doubt I'll read any of them, honestly. I never read Requiem for a Dream, but that movie made me absolutely sob. I've also heard of Naked Lunch, which one of my friends described as the most disturbing thing she's ever read. And that's only #8... Ugh, that book by Marquis de Sade. The wikipedia article on that was horrific enough... The last book... I don't even know what to say.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, but I think the summaries there are by themselves enough horror for the day...

[Athaniar]

Speaking of Lovecraft and the Twilight Zone, some episodes of the latter had a good Lovecrafty feel to them. One of them even was about the Necronomicon.

[pita]

Speaking of Lovecraft and the Twilight Zone, some episodes of the latter had a good Lovecrafty feel to them. One of them even was about the Necronomicon.

I have on tape an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which a man hates other people, and enjoys sitting down and reading. He hears that a nuclear war is coming, so he gets a bunker, fills it up with enough food to last him a lifetime, as well as enough books, and goes in once the bombs start flying. He's the last man on earth, he's with all of the books he could ever read, he's happy. And then his glasses fall and break.

[Lord Seth]

I have on tape an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which a man hates other people, and enjoys sitting down and reading. He hears that a nuclear war is coming, so he gets a bunker, fills it up with enough food to last him a lifetime, as well as enough books, and goes in once the bombs start flying. He's the last man on earth, he's with all of the books he could ever read, he's happy. And then his glasses fall and break.Um, when did he hate other people? Sure, other people were annoying to him, but that wasn't his fault, it was that everyone including his wife was obnoxious as all heck to him. And he was in a bank vault, not a bunker, and was only there by coincidence. Finally, he didn't save up food or books, he just happened to find them after he came out of the vault. I think you might be misremembering things.

[WalkingTarget]

Um, when did he hate other people? Sure, other people were annoying to him, but that wasn't his fault, it was that everyone including his wife was obnoxious as all heck to him. And he was in a bank vault, not a bunker, and was only there by coincidence. Finally, he didn't save up food or books, he just happened to find them after he came out of the vault. I think you might be misremembering things.

The episode in question is Time Enough at Last (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_At_Last). It starred Burgess Meredith and is one of the classic episodes.

[chiasaur11]

The episode in question is Time Enough at Last (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_At_Last). It starred Burgess Meredith and is one of the classic episodes.

Two versions, by the way.

One where the guy is a decent enough fellow, just bookish and henpecked.

The other where the guy is a jerk.

But there's a third version behind... "The Scary Door".

[Lord Seth]

Two versions, by the way.

One where the guy is a decent enough fellow, just bookish and henpecked.

The other where the guy is a jerk.

But there's a third version behind... "The Scary Door". The Scary Door parody from Futurama was great. It was pretty much the only good thing that came out of that episode. I haven't seen the other version so I can't comment on it, but the original was one of the worst episodes of the series.

[Athaniar]

We really should create a separate Twilight Zone thread.

[Tiktakkat]

Read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's available free online.

Thank me later.

THAT is transcendantlly disturbing.
(Which is four votes for the bit by Harlan Ellison.)

Beyond that, if you pick up most any short story collection of Lovecraft it will give a list of people who cite him as inspiration. The hardest part is finding short stories by those people. Here is a partial list:

Robert Bloch
Robert E. Howard
Fritz Leiber
Stephen King
August Derleth
Clark Ashton Smith
Robert W. Chambers
Ramsey Campbell
Mike Mignola (though he is more the inspiring force behind those who write Hellboy stories)

If you want short stories that are simply horrifying, read the Civil War short stories of Ambrose Bierce. His horror stories are more what we would consider campfire tales these days, but his Civil War stories are as unsettling as I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Any of M.R. James' short stories. Along with Poe, Lovecraft cited him as a major influence (he said that he was 'gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst of prosaic daily life'), and, while James is a bit more conventional than Lovecraft, he's a far far better writer.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Montague_Rhodes_James

[chiasaur11]

Any of M.R. James' short stories. Along with Poe, Lovecraft cited him as a major influence (he said that he was 'gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst of prosaic daily life'), and, while James is a bit more conventional than Lovecraft, he's a far far better writer.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Montague_Rhodes_James

And he still had an amazing gift for a punchline.

[Jorkens]

I've also heard of Naked Lunch, which one of my friends described as the most disturbing thing she's ever read.
Naked Lunch is brilliant. You need to have a fairly high tolerance for druggy-surrealist sex and violence, but it's not just a cheap gross-out parade: it's a complex, deep, scabrously funny satire, a view of the modern world from the paranoid junky sidelines.

It's also kind of off topic, sorry.

On topic, I'd second MR James very strongly - he's kind of the opposite of Lovecraft in that he never really has a grand vision or a great mind bending idea but he has a writing style that's effortless and elegant and really quite spooky. The greatest book never written would be MR James Rewrites Lovecraft's Cthuhlu Mythos Stories With 90% Fewer Uses Of The Word 'Indescribable'.

JS Lefanu is also worth a look.

[Mordokai]

1408, by mister King. Worked wonders for me and I consider myself pretty reliable when it comes to fear. It's a short story of 40 or so pages, but damn!

[JonestheSpy]

Manly Wade Wellman was a wonderful writer who's sadly unknown outside of hardcore SF circles. He wrote some amazing short stories and novels set in the Appalaichans, the "Silver John" stories, named after the wandering protagonist. The collection of stories "Who Fears the Devil?" is a classic of fantastic horror - part Southern folklore, part Lovecraft.

He died in the 1980's and was old enough to have stories in Weird Tales. His story "Where Angel Fear" (1939) is one of the scariest motherfrickin' stories EVER.

[The Neoclassic]

Read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's available free online.

Thank me later.

Not only was it a good story, but I just ran into someone who alluded to it in a template they put up on the homebrew forum. :smalleek: Consider yourself thanked!