Bedtime Stories for the Deranged

One, two, Freddy's coming for you....

The October frights fests are in full swing.  Blood is spraying the walls and bodies are being dismembered  for enjoyment on your television.  For whatever reason, people love to be scared.  From AMC's The Walking Dead to Night of the Living Dead to World War Z, zombies are receiving top billing these days.  But aside from a fear of infection or aversion to being eaten alive, are they really that frightening? How many children lay awake at night fearful that the zombie apocalypse is nigh?  On the other hand, how many children are terrified of the monsters inhabiting their dreams, unexplained things, dogs, being lost or forgotten, vanishing without a trace, strangers, clowns?  The list of childhood fears is endless. A good author will use these fears to prey upon their readers.

In Cujo, Stephen King takes a St. Bernard and transforms him into a delirious killing machine.  The fact that there is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why the dog has gone mad contributes to the story's fear factor.  For The Shining, the author depicts a man who is struggling to overcome his personal demons and attempting to rebuild his life with his family.  (This is a character that initially invokes empathy on the part of the reader.)  The story then follows what should be the perfect situation to achieve that goal and turns it into a murderous, haunting nightmare.  The book Psycho, uses madness as the device that leads to murder, mayhem, and terror. Viewing an ordinary videotape leads to imminent death in the chilling tale of The Ring.  It is the normal transforming into the abnormal that sends chills down your spine when reading these novels.
This is not to dismiss tales such as The Amityville Horror which terrify because they claim to be based on actual experiences with supernatural forces. Sometimes a title like The

Uninvited:  the true story of the Union screaming house is all it takes to get a reader hooked on a book. Stories about haunted houses with malevolent ghosts or demons continue to hold appeal for believers of the supernatural and thrill seekers. Haunted Heartland is a favorite in the Midwest since readers may have the opportunity to visit the locales mentioned and possibly witness the phenomena mentioned in the book.  Many readers who savor the thrill of haunted house stories find books about possessed people equally intriguing.  Titles such as The Rite take readers through the training and experiences of a priest training to be a modern day exorcist.  The classic novel of demon possession, The Exorcist is over forty years old yet it continues to terrify.
From Frankenstein to Dracula to Interview with a Vampire, readers love the fear and suspense that is horror.  Next time you are looking for a scare, remember that there is a plethora of books both old and new waiting to keep you up all night.  (Remember, when vampires wanted to drain your lifeblood instead of bonding with you for life?)  As can be found in the suspenseful writing of Edgar Allen Poe or in the pages of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the loss of body parts and massive blood spray are not the only ways to achieve maximum scare. However, the readers of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted might argue that "maximum scare achievement" is a matter of reader preference.