I've been getting pretty into horror lately. It's always something I've enjoyed conceptually, but I hadn't really sought out much of it until a few years back. I do read a fair bit of creepypasta. I like the ritual ones fine (the one about the diner is a favorite, although it's not especially scary), but I actually have a soft spot for some of the more maligned subgenres (lost episodes, game hacks, shit like that). Dead Bart in particular is a favorite lost episode one, probably because I love The Simpsons so much. I've also enjoyed what I've read of Happy Appy--it's a lot more slasher film-y than a lot of creepypastas and it does get super narmy in places, but I like it anyway (and kinda want to make my own Happy Appy puppet). Speaking of lost episodes, there's actually a pretty good pasta called Lost Episodes, working on the premise that they're edited tapes. Pastas dealing with people being fucked up are some of my favorites, honestly. Same reason I love character-focused stories in general--it's fun to get into people's heads and see what makes them tick. A few other favorites (the Pasta Of The Month selections on the wiki are generally pretty good, so you may have read some of them): Funnymouth is done in a chatroom/email correspondence format for the most part, and centers around a strange and creepy visitor to a small chatroom. Normal Porn For Normal People is pretty fucked up, and has some very disturbing sexual and violent content, so if you're not about that you should avoid it. What makes that one work is that it's disturbingly plausible, in a lot of ways--I've seen some horrifying videos online myself... The Cell Phone Game is also plausible in some ways, albeit more in terms of human behavior than in terms of content (since it's a supernatural story), and shows just how desperate people can get when their lives are on the line. The ending is particularly good, maybe even the best part--and given that a lot of creepypastas have mediocre endings, that's an accomplishment. While it's not really a creepypasta (it's supernatural and has some moments of horror, but overall it's more of a heartwarmer/tearjerker), I absolutely have to link you all to Love, which is one of the most amazing tales of devotion and, well, love that I've ever read. I only just found Anti-Vaccination, and while the writing feels a bit off in places, it made me shudder regardless. Again, it's the realism of this one that makes it horrifying--it's the kind of thing that might plausibly happen with someone truly deranged. I haven't read Penpal yet, admittedly, but I've heard it's pretty great. Seconding 1999 and Candle Cove as well. I also like some bizarro fiction. Not all of it is horror, but a fair bit of it at least has horror elements. Personally I'm quite fond of the stories in Baby's First Book Of Seriously Fucked Up Shit by Robert Devereaux. Also, a funny thing about me: I tend to find guro and body horror, at least in visual art, more pretty than scary. Dunno what that says about me. *shrug*
Your mentioning Love reminded me of one of my favourite Creepypastas that is more sad than scary (though it does have some slasher elements, and you can't really call it heartwarming) - Doors Also, as long as I'm mentioning favourites, it gets a little ridiculous near the end, but it starts off amazing, and the sprite work's great- The NES Godzilla Creepypasta
Oh, I'm a fan of Penpal. Slow build but it's not bad at all. Meanwhile I'm watching The Grudge 2 (american version) for like the 40th goddamn time because I am WEAK. The Grudge series remains one of my all time favorites, and my fear about tomorrow's dental appointment must be trumped for unease regarding Japanese ghosts who can't be defeated.
Grudge reminds me that one of my favorite horror films is the original Thai Shutter. It's just very, very, very nice to see a horror story where the morality and rules match up with what makes sense to me. Like the one girl gets haunted not for actively being an asshole to the dead girl, but for standing around and not doing a thing when she could have. She does however get it far less shittily than her boyfriend does because he is a huge fucking cocklord. And she does eventually go yeah no fuck you to him. As she should have a long time ago.
Love was so sweet. I adore the NES Godzilla Creepypasta. I even like the ending, just cause I really want more horror stuff with happy/happy-ish endings. I know that sounds stupid, but there's only so much depressing-ness I can take!
I WOULD SELL MY CHILDREN TO HAVE SOMEONE READ THRESHOLD TO ME. OR TO GET MORE COPIES OF THRESHOLD. OR HAVE SOMEONE TO TALK ABOUT THRESHOLD WITH. I am sorry Little Timmy. You just aren't a very good example of one of my favorite genres.
i have found my home. this thread is my home and i belong here. RIGHT OFF THE BAT: recs. i am a huuuuge stephen king fan, but i honestly think the only good SK movies are the green mile, the shining, shawshank. . .i've heard misery was good but i haven't seen that yet, but honestly for horror writing i will rec stephen king for almost anything, he's so good *____* love certain creepypastas! i love the rake stuff, and the whole slenderman aesthetic. candle cove is also a+, and ted's caving page continues to be one of the best creepypastas i've ever read. probably one of my favorite horror movies is the descent, it's about a group of 10-ish women who go caving, it's really visceral and gory but i love love LOVE the cinematography, also the fact that it's all badass women doing badass things, fuck yes that's another thing: i'm huuuuge on cinematography, which is probably why i've never really been able to get really involved with found footage films. i thought v/h/s was mediocre at best, for example. i was into literally all the slender vlogs at some point or another- marble hornets, EMH, tribe twelve, you name it- and i actually wanted to start my own for a while, it never panned out though. i haven't been keeping up with them bc, again, lost interest, not enough Cool Cinematography Stuff. . . recently i've been mostly reading my horror, i really wanted to see oculus and babadook while they were in theaters but i couldnt find anyone to go with me, so ill probably just force the boyfriend to sit through them with me (he hates horror lmaooo) but yeah p much i'm cheap af and don't want to spend money in theaters, whoops besides cinematography, i enjoy more psychological horror generally, i subscribe to stephen king's philosophy on horror (surprise) that gore is a cheap scare, fear is the next level up, and panic's where the real horror is. or something like that. i like the kinda horror that gives me an adrenaline rush :pp i'm also kinda.......i don't wanna say a horror snob, but i'm kinda a horror snob, lmao. . . i'm really picky, some stuff just isn't scary to me at allll, jump scares are weak and dumb and after the initial "what the fuck" i basically just get bored because that's such a cheap scare, honestly. recently ive been reading through /r/nosleep because occasionally there's a real gem on there so uh. . . give me all your recs, i will send back Many Many recs in return. . . also would anyone be interested if i held a stream for the descent? because not enough people have seen that horror film and i am totally game for another (fourth? fifth? who even knows) watching of it 8)
ok, i'm doing it, i'm linking some of my fav creepypastas and /r/nosleep stories, may update this more later if i remember more? russian sleep experiment, v. good, highly recommend (i dont think this link is the version i read, the version i read was better written and more like a case report, lemme see if i can find it) why i didn't shower for 21 years betsy the doll
Since you like Stephen King... Have you read Rose Madder? I know it's not to everyone's tastes because as King goes, it's kind of bizarre, but I really liked it. Other than that, I don't really have many recs, though a lot of things other people have recced in this thread are pretty good. Also, if you don't mind pretentious and surreal, I recommend House of Leaves for psychological horror. I'd be very interested in a stream of The Descent. I've seen it, but it'd be a lot of fun watching it with a group. And seconding your opinion of jumpscares. :/
OH MAN STEPHEN KING. My lifelong hero. The man who shares my birthday. The dude I must meet before one of us dies or I will weep forever. My favorite books from him are Needful Things and The Stand. Long, tense build, shows the darker side of the human psyche, and they were formative in my growing up. Read them over and over again, and if you haven't read them yet, I totally recommend doing so! I'll also always rec asian horror to people looking for something a little different. Something about japanese and korean horror just builds this feeling of unease and tension without the usual cliches, I think. In fact, there's been a lot of US remakes of asian horror movies for that very reason! Some of my favorites are Ju-on, One Missed Call, The Eye, Audition (warning: extremely disturbing!), A Tale of Two Sisters, Shutter....
I still haven't gotten to a lot of King's work yet, but my favorite so far is From A Buick 8, which feels underrepresented? Maybe not, but I don't see people mentioning it very often, and it's not in my dad's sizable King collection. (now that I say this, I worry that a reread would leave me disappointed, since it's been years since I first picked it up)
I had issues with Steven King (which don't actually have to do with him, just a sweet but misguided librarian), but I read summaries of From a Buick 8 and Rose Madder, so now I really want to read those.
i haven't read rose madder, but now it's on my list!! and i totally forgot to mention the stand, what a great great book, whoa i've also been meaning to read his dark tower trilogy for literal years, i should get around to that at some point. . . and same with house of leaves!! theres a lot of horror books that ive been meaning to read for aaaaaages, i def need to get around to those x___x in other news, i just bought doctor sleep not long ago so i've been re-reading the shining to prep myself, and man, i forgot how good it was?? there's just something about the way that he writes in that book that's just so. . . creepy, constantly, all the time, even when something not-very-creepy is happening
The hotel in The Shining is my favorite monster. Maybe. There are a lot of monsters I like like the Colours in Lovecraft or Eva Canning. The Overlook is up there with Eva and sentient doom colors though.
If you've read the summary, this probably goes without saying, but Rose Madder deals with some material that some people might want to avoid, particularly domestic abuse and misogynistic violence in general. The chapters from the husband's POV are both horrifying and so OTT they're hard to take seriously (at least imo). It's probably no worse than many of the things that have already been recced but I don't want anyone to read something that I recced if it will be upsetting.
This is an excellent browser game I just played. No jump scares, but take heed of trigger warnings supplied if you need them.
okay so i was googling images of the clickers from last of us for a new laptop background, and i found a bunch of photos of really rad clicker cosplayers. putting it here simply because it seemed relevent to the thread topic and i wanted to show people. Spoiler: body horror (duh)
