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Opopanax posted:I like Tremblay a lot but I can absolutely see why he might not land for some people. He's definitely more a24 than straight horror I'm sorry, what? A24 horror is the Ari Aster stuff (Hereditary / Midsommar) and Talk To Me, and Tremblay's stuff is...not that, by any means.
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Sep 28, 2025 21:59
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icefisher posted:I'm sorry, what? I mean more that slow burn "smart" horror over like a slasher movie. It's a bad analogy I just couldn't think of a better example
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Sep 28, 2025 22:04
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I didn't even find the Tremblay I read that smart, tbh. Clearly drawing from a deep well of past horror classics, sure, but not really to his work's benefit.
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Sep 28, 2025 23:37
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icefisher posted:I'm sorry, what? A24 movies are more disturbing and thought provoking by a country mile
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Sep 29, 2025 00:13
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I'm also of the opinion that Tremblay's publicity outpaced his ability early on in his career and I'm not sure why. I did like Disappearance at Devils Rock but I'd be hard pressed to even call that horror honestly. I liked A Head Full of Ghosts when it came out but I could see it not holding up well today. Nothing else I've read from him has left a good impression, ranging from mostly boring (Survivor Song, Growing Things) to outright bad (Cabin at the End of the World, Horror Movie). He's someone who clearly has a love of horror, and has spent a lot of time reading and watching it, but is a good example of how that doesn't translate to being able to create good horror yourself.
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Sep 29, 2025 04:30
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I wouldn’t say Tremblay is “smart” so much as very oblique, often to the point where you have trouble finding the horror in his stories at all
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Sep 29, 2025 16:16
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I think about both headfull of ghosts and horror movie from time to time. They've stuck with me in weird ways. I don't think they are great by any means, but they're certainly not outright bad. Even if the themes aren't conceptually new or anything, they felt personal in a way I could relate to. I'm surprised to see this degree of Tremblay disdain. I agree the popularity outweighs the writing, but I think it is fairly accessible, digestible, horror entertainment. Idle Amalgam fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Sep 29, 2025 |
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Sep 29, 2025 17:18
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I really enjoyed Cabin in the Woods. Read it in one sitting. Actively hated everything else that I've read of his.
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Sep 29, 2025 20:49
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Paddyo posted:I loved Between Two Fires, so I picked up The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman after seeing a recommendation on Reddit. The setting and characters were all really engaging, and once the main plot developed and started taking off I couldn't put it down. It has this great feeling of desperation and momentum that really keeps you engaged and on the edge of your seat. The problem is the ending. You can see the set up coming for a really interesting endgame that builds upon themes and background characters that have been introduced earlier in the story. But once it gets to the point where you would expect the climax to fall together it totally fizzles out, and there is a coda that basically kicks you in the dick and laughs at you for getting invested. I love a good twist, but this one undermines the whole story. 95% of it is great, but the last 5% kind of ruined the experience for me. Not sure if it was recommended or discussed in here or in the SF&F book thread, but Buehlman's Blacktongue Thief is, while not a horror, a pretty neat little fantasy story, and the Daughter's War, which I'm reading now, is in the same universe. Unique worldbuilding, with an emphasis on language and magic systems and guilds. If anyone's into that sort of thing I think they're pretty strong. I'll check out Lesser Dead at some point too, thanks for mentioning it.
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Sep 30, 2025 01:03
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The Daughter's War is great, and could qualify as horror because of how grisly the goblins are. I really felt Buehlman's horror roots reading that book, whereas Blacktongue Thief felt much more like he was trying to channel Martin, Abercrombie, and (sigh) Rothfuss.
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Sep 30, 2025 01:42
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Yeah there's definitely some body horror in Blacktongue but it does read a little YA-ish, the main character's internal monologue is pretty glib and quippy.
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Sep 30, 2025 13:15
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escape artist posted:I really enjoyed Cabin in the Woods. Read it in one sitting. Actively hated everything else that I've read of his. That's interesting! I'm a big Tremblay apologist, and Cabin is my least favorite of any of his works. Loathed it. Even including the overly long poem in The Beast You Are. Tremblay's schtick, at least for most of the novels, is an ambiguity to whether or not something supernatural is occuring, but a low key gutwrenching regardless. If that's not your jam, yeah, pass on Tremblay's novels, but Cabin is very much firmly in that vein. I wish I had a better idea why it is that you and I both find it an exception. Even if you don't like Tremblay, if you've got a child in your life around 4-6, and access to a copy of Growing Things, do check out the story It's Against the Law to Feed the Ducks. Possibly my favorite of his works.
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Sep 30, 2025 14:00
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Book of the month poll for the spooky season now up! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=1&threadid=4097566&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post548729215
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Oct 1, 2025 02:47
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Spooky season! come vote and read with goons
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Oct 1, 2025 05:03
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This probably belongs in RGD cuz it's a podcast, but just started Knifepoint Horror and it seems pretty cool so far. Mentioning here bc it's practically an audiobook and only incidentally a podcast.
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Oct 1, 2025 16:12
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KPH is generally good but it's widely inconsistent. I'm pretty sure the narrator has a post it note with a spooky story and is winging it the entire time. Because some of those stories just ramble about weird asides and details that don't go anywhere. I'll have to jump back into it. It's the right season for it.
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Oct 1, 2025 16:18
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Ravus Ursus posted:Because some of those stories just ramble about weird asides and details that don't go anywhere. Also many details that clearly intend to build tension/atmosphere, which is kind of essential to horror, but listening I thought "if this were novel i would dnf so hard".
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Oct 1, 2025 16:38
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Hey General Horror thread posters! Would you like to be moved to the annual October spooky forums for the month, as is now traditional?
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Oct 1, 2025 20:46
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Bilirubin posted:Hey General Horror thread posters! yessss give us a month of the good style sheet
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Oct 1, 2025 20:51
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This is fine
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Oct 1, 2025 21:04
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SniperWoreConverse posted:This is fine Are you gonna post the dragon pic or what? Also, come back to Paradise Lost, Enkidel is getting busy! As to horror books, reading Stephen King's Dolores Clairborne. Feels more thriller/crime than horror for now to be honest. Next on my list is to go back and read "Cycle of the werewolf", a more straight forward spooky story.
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Oct 1, 2025 21:57
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Everything is in my bookmarks so I don't care where we go
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Oct 2, 2025 00:20
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caspergers posted:Also many details that clearly intend to build tension/atmosphere, which is kind of essential to horror, but listening I thought "if this were novel i would dnf so hard". I felt it was more akin to some bullshit story a friend tells you where they add I needed detail that doesn't matter just to make it seem more real. I distinctly remember one of them spending an inordinate amount of time in a gas station where it was wheel spinning and amounted to an event causing them to go back where they originally ran from. I remember nothing else but that gas station scene just being un ending.
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Oct 2, 2025 01:18
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Has anyone here read Mitchell Luthi's work (Pilgrim / His Black Tongue)? Feeling in the mood for some historical grimdark where people don't talk like they're in a CW show.
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Oct 2, 2025 17:27
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icefisher posted:Has anyone here read Mitchell Luthi's work (Pilgrim / His Black Tongue)? Feeling in the mood for some historical grimdark where people don't talk like they're in a CW show. I've read both! You'll probably enjoy Pilgrim more if CW-show-likeness is your sticking point (though I might be overfocusing on the sort of... modern/actiony feel that was iirc mostly just in the first story in His Black Tongue).
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Oct 2, 2025 21:10
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would pilgrim scratch the between two fires itch at least a little bit? it's been on my radar for a long time but i never started it out of fear of disappointment. writing style aside i'm more interested in the historical setting and religious themes
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Oct 2, 2025 21:37
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R.L. Stine posted:would pilgrim scratch the between two fires itch at least a little bit? it's been on my radar for a long time but i never started it out of fear of disappointment. writing style aside i'm more interested in the historical setting and religious themes I've been lurking in here for a while, and I might as well post since I read Pilgrim earlier this year. I liked it a lot, not quite as much as BTF, but it's a good companion piece that hits a lot of the same things I liked as that one. It has a somewhat different feel in that it's slower and more sprawling, but I found it very engaging once I gave it some time to get into it. I somehow never followed up on the author, I'm excited to find out he also wrote a plague times book, and I need to scrounge up a copy of that one asap.
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Oct 2, 2025 21:50
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R.L. Stine posted:would pilgrim scratch the between two fires itch at least a little bit? it's been on my radar for a long time but i never started it out of fear of disappointment. writing style aside i'm more interested in the historical setting and religious themes Pilgrim is kinda as close as it gets but it leans a bit more towards dark fantasy than bttf. The pacing was honestly my biggest complaint about it, especially as it starts out. Still a good read imo
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Oct 3, 2025 00:40
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Slower pacing is fine. I DNF'd pretty hard out of Between Two Fires because of how atrocious the dialogue was. Hard to get a feel for the world while people are snarking at each other during the end times.
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Oct 3, 2025 15:14
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I picked up VanderMeer's The Weird as my Halloween season audiobook after hearing good things about it, and holy poo poo it's huge  I definitely can't get through this whole thing during October, so I'm curious if there are any standouts I ought to prioritize?
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Oct 3, 2025 17:52
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Funny enough The Weird is what I am working through right now too. A few standouts if you haven't read them yet - “How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles” by Lord Dunsany "Smoke Ghost" by Fritz Lieber "The Hell Screen" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson
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Oct 3, 2025 18:16
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What books feel like lost 80s horror movies? Ideally ones written at the time, but I'm fine with modern ones that fit the bill, especially if they're period pieces. I'm currently enjoying The Bridge from John Skipp and Craig Spector, which definitely fits the bill. e: monsters and/or goop ideally being featured feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Oct 3, 2025 |
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Oct 3, 2025 18:27
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tower time posted:Funny enough The Weird is what I am working through right now too. A few standouts if you haven't read them yet - Agreed wholeheartedly on all of these, the latter three are three of my favorite short stories hands-down. I'd also add the following: "The Complete Gentleman" by Amos Tutuola "The Hospice" by Robert Aickman "Don't Look Now" by Daphne Du Maurier (more suspense than horror but still very good) "Sandkings" by George RR Martin (less horror than... weird fantasy something, but some of GRRM's best writing IMO) "The Man in the Black Suit" by Stephen King "The Forest" by Laird Barron "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby (there's a classic Twilight Zone episode based on this one, but the original story is much darker) "The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges isn't particularly horror-y but is also excellent if you haven't read it before (and better if you have, really) And the following are absolute bangers and very fitting for the season: "The Autopsy" by Michael Shea "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker "The Town Manager" by Thomas Ligotti Also "The Other Side of the Mountain" by Michel Bernanos may be my favorite entry in the collection, but it's also quite long, it's basically a long novella or a short novel depending on how you want to define such things There's a bunch more really good stories in there, and there's a bunch that I don't remember from looking at the titles alone but I'm sure were good to great, there were very few that I didn't care for. Really it's more that they cast a wide net regarding what kind of weird fiction they were including so a lot of it is kind of a far cry from traditional horror (which is a recommendation for the collection IMO, to be clear)
MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Oct 3, 2025 |
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Oct 3, 2025 18:32
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I tell you what, going from recent thread favorite Throne of Bones to Shirley Jackson has been a swerve but they are both quite horrifying in their own ways. Throne of Bone's way was ghoul loving and necromancers. Shirley Jackson's way is 'my neighbor came over for dinner and won't leave and I think this is her house now'. Terrifying.
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Oct 3, 2025 18:37
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feedmyleg posted:What books feel like lost 80s horror movies? Ideally ones written at the time, but I'm fine with modern ones that fit the bill, especially if they're period pieces. I'm currently enjoying The Bridge from John Skipp and Craig Spector, which definitely fits the bill. I just started Stinger by Robert McCammon and it seems like it might fit what you're looking for
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Oct 3, 2025 19:02
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feedmyleg posted:What books feel like lost 80s horror movies? Ideally ones written at the time, but I'm fine with modern ones that fit the bill, especially if they're period pieces. I'm currently enjoying The Bridge from John Skipp and Craig Spector, which definitely fits the bill. It took two guys to make a book feel like an 80s horror?
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Oct 3, 2025 19:39
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feedmyleg posted:What books feel like lost 80s horror movies? Ideally ones written at the time, but I'm fine with modern ones that fit the bill, especially if they're period pieces. I'm currently enjoying The Bridge from John Skipp and Craig Spector, which definitely fits the bill. everything originally published from like 1976 onward that Valancourt Books has reprinted as part of Paperbacks from Hell *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Oct 3, 2025 20:30
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"The Hospice" is excellent. In general, Robert Aickman is completely unique and fantastic, maybe the best writer I've ever read for stories of lingering dreamlike dread and psychological/social horror scenarios.
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Oct 3, 2025 22:15
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Anyone read the new Tingle, Lucky Day? The premise sounded cool, with around 8 million people getting final destinationed at once and then a group investigating the cause several years later. I started it but I’m starting to think Tingle’s horror writing is just too Young Adult fiction coded for me. They’re not bad or anything but they feel even more adult goosebumpsy than Grady Hendrix somehow
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Oct 3, 2025 23:10
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Good Citizen posted:more adult goosebumpsy than Grady Hendrix somehow impossible ----------------
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Oct 3, 2025 23:27
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