@emythos I've heard of them, but never got around to actually sitting down and watching. Everyman Hybrid especially seems...monolithic. But with your stamp of approval, I'll give it a shot!
@Ruevian The good thing about Everyman Hybrid is that pretty much everyone got fed up with hunting everything down, so now if you look you can find playlists of everything in perfect order. Tribe Twelve has some seriously badass effects, and is suprisingly funny at times. A lot of people hated the beginning episodes, but I didn't mind them. Granted, that's probably cause the interaction with the main character's cousin reminded me of hanging out with my cousin.
oookay here we go. i'll edit it as i remember stuff later probably, so it might get longer. i also haven't read or watched a lot of this since i was like...14 - 15 so it might be actually lame stuff sometimes. all i know is i thought it was awesome. Spoiler: list list lets start with the psychological thrillers. because i am all about those: 1. Homunculus - a manga based around the concept of trepanation, and the psychological effects it has on the main character. does a lot of delving into themes of feeling like you don't belong or are "other", and the supernatural aspect is played up in such a way there's no sure way to tell whether or not the technique actually worked or if the dude is just off his rocker. the deeper you go the more fucked up it gets. 2. Petshop of Horrors - technically more of a supernatural horror, and i personally never found it scary per se, i count it in the mindfuck category simply because of the nature of count d's contracts. plus the art is reeeally preeetty. 3. Gunslinger Girls, Jormugand, Black Lagoon - i went ahead and grouped these three together because they're not technically counted as horror most of the time, but the overall themes of the shows are pretty horrific. all three touch on the nature of war and death, and the moral implications. very gory, very sad. 4. Madoka - ffffff just watch it. honestly even if you're okay with spoilers it's not as fun if you haven't seen it to know what will happen, so i don't recommend clicking open the spoiler tag once you go to the link. Body Horror 1. Uzumaki - one of the most twisted (hehe puns) manga i've ever read. 2. Parasyte - oh man this manga is gory and chilling. if you like The Thing this manga is a must read. also counts as a mindfuck as the story progresses. watching the main character lose his sense of self and become a monster can be pretty creepy Supernatural 1. Highschool of the Dead - if you take it at face value, it's just another semi porny hack n slash zombies series. however, i actually found the characters themselves to be really intriguing in that "we're in a horrible situation, there's no choice but to show our true personalities" sort of way. 2. Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service - very surreal with a lot of body horror and hints of dark humor sprinkled generously throughout. 3. Baccano! - amazing story about a group of really suspicious people with seemingly no reason to have connections with each other. the music is really fun. lotsa neat mafia infighting Misc. 1. okay so this section is just an excuse to promo Hunter x Hunter i love this anime so much and i want to talk with someone about it. the anime itself can't be classified as anything more than a simple shonen type, but the characters themselves are so deliciously fucked up, and the amount of destruction done to people's bodies in some of the fights still makes me cringe. also Hisoka. i hate that guy. Spoiler: i legit have nightmares abt this asshole running at me like this. Hisoka is fucked up. http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...oodlust.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140214023234 there's more, and some i remember being better than what i have listed, but i can't remember any names. if i remember what they're called i'll add them!
Hey, we all have different tastes and that's cool! I've seen/read the majority of your list except for Hunter x Hunter, which I'll check out because I love me some fucked up characters. I wanted to like Highschool of the Dead just because I am so very hard up for new horror anime and for some reason I'm still not sick of zombies, but then this happened and I died from laughter too hard to continue. I am dead to this day. But yeah, thanks for the list! FUCK YEAH MADOKA.
yeah high school of the dead was pretty over the top, i just like zombies too much to have skipped it. for some reason apocalyptic society-crushers are just plain interesting. it's probably why i like Borderlands and Bioshock so much.
I'm a fan of I have No Mouth and I Must Scream. One of the things I don't like is that a lot of horror leaves everything to the imagination. And I Must Scream is horror with plenty of explanation. : D I also found the book The Island of Doctor Moreau way more horrifying than any of the horror I've read. I'm not generally a fan of happy endings in horror. It's way too common and I'm like "but it's horror! The point is to scare people, not to give them warm fuzzies about humanity triumphing!" Eternally fed up with Stephen King's The Monkey for that reason. Sorry if this rant is inappropriate but I read that story recently and I'm still mad at it. Though I do like his The Jaunt. As far as old-style horror goes there are some awesome Lovecraft stories. The Color Out of Space stands out. I also enjoy seeking out IRL tales of horrific deaths/torture but I'm not sure that would be welcome in this thread.
Hey there! Yeah, leaving things vague and up to imagination is a preference of mine too, because nothing in any media can compete with the monsters we make in our heads. I'm also not a fan of happy endings in horror, for the exact same reason! It's why I liked the Ju-On/Grudge series so much -- there is no grand triumph over evil, no true way to defeat the Big Bad. That stuff lingers with me in the most delicious ways. I'll check out your recs too next time I ooze my failing flesh vessel to the library! Stephen King is a lifelong hero of mine for various reasons, but I confess I prefer his short story compilations because some of them are just dark as hell. As for IRL tales, I think I'd personally like to keep this thread to fiction, or "this spooky possibly supernatural thing happened to me IRL" than real horror and torture. I'm totally up for there being a separate thread, or hell, even giving into demand if that's what others really want. Maybe put it behind spoilers so people could opt out if they wanted, IDK. Up to you guys!
Sorry to correct, but I don't generally enjoy horror that leaves it all up to the imagination -- I look to fiction to show me new things that I couldn't come up with. Since it's such a prevalent trope in the genre, there is some vague horror that I enjoy (Like the Ted the Caver creepypasta, which does atmosphere just right), but I prefer it explained.
Oh! Pft, sorry. I keep misreading stuff. I can understand where you're coming from. I guess it's a thing that can be done well or REALLY poorly, and when it's done really poorly, it's frustrating and takes you out of the story.
I don't enjoy either hack-n-slash gore or multiple jump scares, but I really like oppressive atmosphere and gothic horror, like del Toro's El Espinazo Del Diablo. Probably for the same reason that I enjoyed reading Frankenstein - much of the horror and menace comes from actual human behaviour. Exploring that makes me happy.
Caitlin Kiernan is probably my favorite author in general that isn't Tolkien. She is definitely my favorite weird shit and horror writer. A lot of her writing is either in the first person or is third person writing so deeply in one person's headspace it may as well be first person. Also she's an anthropologist and it shows. An anthropologist that knows about guro and seems to have some sort of fondness for it. And a lot of her characters are some stroke of LGBT person. Basically she is the weird fiction author I dreamed of but never knew actually existed until a year ago. The Drowning Girl is probably my favorite of her work and honestly the book I would recommend. It shows off her really great character and theme work very well. The way the book is written puts some people off, Imp is a rambling narrator (this is characteristic of Kiernan's work in general so yeah), and it shows off that plot is what Kiernan is worst at. But that character and theme. It's good shit and it's good shit about mermaids and werewolves, and who doesn't want those to be scary? Silly people. It is also a love story. The Red Tree is pretty great too and the difference in narration between it and The Drowning Girl is great. Which is lovely. Sarah is also one of the very few instances of an epileptic character in something that hasn't pissed me off. I find Sarah to be very relatable and realistic when it comes to what having epilepsy is like. Not all of us are the same. Not by a long shot. Her experience is quite similar to my own, and generally Sarah just actually feels like a person who happens to have epilepsy as opposed to some sort of walking plot element for some fucking parent (who is of course the main character) to worry about. The story is about a break up, depression, and also the weird folklore that springs up in New England. Also anthropology. It is also a love story. Away from Kiernan I'm also super fond of a short story called The Guinea Pig Girl. As some may be able to guess it is inspired by the Japanese Guinea Pig series which is renowned for its gore. Basically the plot follows a man who is exceptionally fond of a particular series of Guinea Pig knockoffs. It is also a love story. There is a running theme here and that running theme here is "The best love stories are horror stories". I love that shit. So much. And is why the leanan sidhe is my favorite kind of fae. Other running theme is that I really, really like psychological and emotional things. While the horror of a Kiernan story is partly the ghosty in question it's in large part how the ghosty is affecting the particular person and how it relates to their various neuroses.
@Deresto OMG you like HunterXHunter, you are my new favorite person, hello! Hisoka is legit creepy as fuck. Also, if anyone wants "oooo spooky, this totally happened to me ooo~' type stuff, I reccomend http://jezebel.com/tag/scary-stories I think you can find more if you go through the posts' tags.
@Aondeug I love Kiernan's work, have you read To Charles Fort, With Love? It has some of her best short stories, and it's probably my favorite after The Red Tree.
oh yeah i forgot. has everyone here seen the youtube series don't hug me i'm scared? here's the first one in the series:
Yes! It tickles me because it's creepy but also has that bizarre sense of humor that I'll sensibly chuckle over for hours.
I've not yet read that no, and I need to get right the fuck on it. Another thing she wrote that I really liked was The Madam of the Narrow Houses. A short story about a woman who can communicate with ghosts. Which sounds very standard and blah but it's Kiernan and she Kiernans the concept.
I love anything that lampshades nightmare fuel in media aimed towards children. It's almost as good as nightmare fuel in actual media aimed at children. Also it helps if it's quotable.
