Today begins October, my favorite month, and the countdown to Halloween, my favorite holiday. This year I will once again use my LJ for a daily celebration of all things spooky and frightful. I hope you will enjoy.
First, to set the mood with a little interactive fun:
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In 2005, The Edmonton Journal ranked different things, from film to poetry, in order to find the scariest. For my first posts of October, I will be sharing some of the texts The Edmonton Journal found to be most terrifying.
In the category of "Top Five Scariest Books," the following was ranked the fifth most frightening:
Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men's eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed; in the shriek of what followed, in fact, was forgotten and perhaps not connected to the horror at all.
The house was a rental. Brooding. Tight. A brick colonial ripped by ivy in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Across the street, was a fringe of campus belonging to Georgetown University; to the rear, a sheer embankment plummeting steep to busy M Street and, beyond, the muddy Potomac. Early on the morning of April 1, the house was quiet. Chris MacNeil was propped in bed, going over her lines for the next day's filming; Regan, her daughter, was sleeping down the hall; and asleep downstairs in a room off the pantry were the middle-aged housekeepers, Willie and Karl. At approximately 12:25 A.M., Chris glanced from her script with a frown of puzzlement. She heard rapping sounds. They were odd. Muffled. Profound. Rhythmically clustered. Alien code tapped out by a dead man.
- from The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty (1971)
First, to set the mood with a little interactive fun:
In 2005, The Edmonton Journal ranked different things, from film to poetry, in order to find the scariest. For my first posts of October, I will be sharing some of the texts The Edmonton Journal found to be most terrifying.
In the category of "Top Five Scariest Books," the following was ranked the fifth most frightening:
Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men's eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed; in the shriek of what followed, in fact, was forgotten and perhaps not connected to the horror at all.
The house was a rental. Brooding. Tight. A brick colonial ripped by ivy in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Across the street, was a fringe of campus belonging to Georgetown University; to the rear, a sheer embankment plummeting steep to busy M Street and, beyond, the muddy Potomac. Early on the morning of April 1, the house was quiet. Chris MacNeil was propped in bed, going over her lines for the next day's filming; Regan, her daughter, was sleeping down the hall; and asleep downstairs in a room off the pantry were the middle-aged housekeepers, Willie and Karl. At approximately 12:25 A.M., Chris glanced from her script with a frown of puzzlement. She heard rapping sounds. They were odd. Muffled. Profound. Rhythmically clustered. Alien code tapped out by a dead man.
- from The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty (1971)
- Current Music:"Wind and Rain," Gillian Welch
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eldritchhobbit- Amy H. Sturgis
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Comments
Happy October! Yaaayyy! I was out yesterday evening and there it was, the October twilight that I love so much. Maxfield Parrish must have only painted landscapes in the Autumn.
I love the October twilight. That's an excellent point about Maxfield Parrish: all those oranges and reds are right at home this time of year! :)
I have a mighty powerful imagination!
That you do! And a lucky thing it is, too, for those of us who read your writing. :)
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com</td>
Well, she took the first piece of advice, but not the second. She let her friends talk her into going to see The Exorcist when they released the new extended version to theatres. It did not bring her the happiness that it brought her friends. However, it did give her great grist for the mill about why she cannot stand horror.
It did not bring her the happiness that it brought her friends.
ROFLOL! Quite the understatement, I suspect. :) It's terrific that she had the chance to channel that into her writing, though. Great stuff.
I love your icon, by the way.
But speaking of good terror stories, have you ever read (or seen) The Uninvited? I can't remember the author, but it is an old out-of-print book that was made into a movie (pretty faithfully) in the 1930s or so, back when they didn't need splashy special effects to make a good suspenseful movie. My brother and I saw the movie and loved it (though I couldn't sleep for a week), then we found the book and read it and loved it even more. Here is a link to his review of it if you are interested:
http://sittingduck1313.livejournal.com/23629.html#cutid1
I know exactly what you mean!
I've never seen The Uninvited, but from the description, it seems I must! It sounds fantastic. Thank you so much for the recommendation and information. I really look forward to tracking it down and seeing it.