Edited by Daniel Link
This year, several Charlatan contributors named the scariest work they’ve watched, read, played or even heard.
Matt Handy
I have never seen the scariest thing that has happened to me. Actually, I should clarify: I read it. Stephen King's It had my skin crawling for months after I read it. Maybe it was because I read it when I was 12, but the 1,000 page book has resonated with me to this very day.
King can do something that no other writer can seem to do — literally pull you into a story so that even if you are paralyzed with fear, you can't help but turn to the next page. Sewer-dwelling clowns, blood-sucking bugs, and the notorious It that lives under the fictional Maine town of Derry are just some of the horrors that are unleashed upon readers.
For what it's worth, I haven't even bothered to see the movie adaptation — because honestly, I don't think even King himself could put into a movie what he manages to put into books.
Jill Simmonds
I’ve spent most of my life shying away from the horror genre, but I mustered up the guts to watch Paranormal Activity — though only after my 14-year-old sister told me it was “awesome!”
Paranormal Activity had me quivering in my seat the entire way through. The night after I couldn’t even have so much as my foot out from underneath the cover for fear that “the demon” would come and get me (and after all, who would try to save me if it did? My dog?). Every grunt made by my sleeping golden-retriever sounded more like the grunt of a creepy paranormal intruder.
The next night I was fine. If anything it just turned into a funny story to tell. I was not scarred for life, I had merely lost a few hours of sleep over it. That’s not to say that I’m a convert.
Brett Shuck
While these games aren’t supposed to be scary, per se, the atmosphere of the post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, as well as a supporting cast of mutated creatures and roaming enemies, makes it hard to play either of the modern Fallout games during the night.
Sudden noises and movements make these games a lesson in controlling your gaming trigger finger, as often the most ominous sounds and movements actually come from allies and new people you haven’t met before.
The gritty, flattened environment and crumbled buildings fit the bill for a perfect retro-futuristic wasteland, bringing up whole different fears, such as thinking that modern warfare might actually lead to the pain and suffering that a player sees in the Wasteland.
For games that were meant as a futuristic companion to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which were not supposed to be scary, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas make me jump because Bethesda Softworks and Obsidian Entertainment made such a surreal experience.
Arik Ligeti
Whether you want to call it scary or creepy, “Every Breath You Take” by The Police is definitely disturbing.
At face value it may come across as a swell and sweet love song, but every time I find myself singing along to it, I think, “Maybe that’s why Gordon Sumner adopted an alias.”
It tells the story of a man obsessed with a woman who has left him, and seems to be describing his relationship with this person as a stalker’s night on the town.
“Every move you make / Every step you take / I’ll be watching you.”
Try those words out on trick-or-treaters this Sunday. I guarantee they’ll be “lost without a trace.”
Courtney White
I hate scary movies. Paying to go see them is not worth my money because I spend most of the movie with my hands over my face.
The scariest movie I ever saw was The Shining. My younger brother and I made a deal while on a ski vacation that if he would watch The Breakfast Club then I would watch the movie of his choice — The Shining.
Even though I took my normal precautions, and made him tell me the entire plot synopsis from beginning to end in order to prevent anything from catching me off guard, I still can’t get Jack Nicholson’s creepy eyes out of my head.
Daniel Link
Three words: House of Leaves. I read Mark Z. Danielewski’s convoluted, labyrinth novel in three days and three nights and my doing so was probably the worst decision I’ve ever made.
From a literary standpoint, House of Leaves at times transcends the novel format it’s bound in — but not necessarily bound to. From a psychological and emotional standpoint, it’s the only work of fiction I’ve read, watched or played to leave me temporarily claustro-, agora- and nyctophobic for the days immediately following.
I can’t put a name to the sense of horror that pervades throughout this novel. I highly recommend it, but be sure to pace yourself — oh, and only read it during the day.