Horrors! Will you be seeing IT?

Some of you early risers saw this post on Monday... then Las Vegas happened, its own kind of horror and we pulled it. 

HALLIE EPHRON: The big movie this fall is "IT," an adaptation of Stephen King's 1986 novel with a terrifying clown with red balloons as the bogeyman. The reviews are raves, with comparisons to one of my all-time favorite, "Stand by Me." But the trailer (which is all that I have the courage to watch) is terrifying. 

It ends with the question: What are you afraid of? 

Which got me thinking about the scary movies I've seen and the fears they embedded in me. 

"Repulsion" (1965) I'll never forget the scene in this Roman Polanski film with Catherine Deneuve in her nightgown, terrorized by arms breaking through the walls and trying to molest her. Hold the dark hallways with no exit and disembodied limbs. 

"Rosemary's Baby" (1967) I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when I saw Rosemary's Baby, filmed at the nearby Dakota. I still remember poor pregnant Mia Farrow eating raw meat, growing more and more hollow-eyed, and falling into the demented hands of Ruth Gordon. Yes, babies can be scary

"Les Diaboliques" (1955) I probably saw it at the Thalia in New York where they ran classic films. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, it's the story of a man's wife and mistress who drown him in the bathtub and dump the body in a murky swimming pool. Then the corpse disappears and strange things start happening. Best surprise ending ever and it stars the sublime Simon Signoret. Good for decades of murky water and bathtub nightmares.

What are the horror films that are, for better or for worse, embedded in your memory, and will you be seeing "IT"? 

JENN McKINLAY: Not only did I see "IT," but IT has turned into an epic prank war in my house. 

After my people dragged me to IT, I thought it would be hilarious to hide red balloons all over the house. I did not expect the joke to turn on me and now life-size cutouts of Pennywise (Stephen King's terrifying clown in IT) are randomly hidden all over my house by the Hub, the Hooligans and me. There are a lot of jump scares and profanity happening here! 

Truthfully, we're all having a grand time scaring ourselves and while IT the movie was terrifying, it was also funny, and the young actors were all brilliant. I highly recommend IT! 

As for what scares me, the scariest movie I've seen by far was Disturbia (2007) with Shia LaBeouf, playing a teen under house arrest who starts spying on his neighbors and thinks one of them is a serial killer. It was brilliant and almost excruciating (the suspense!) to watch.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I adore Stephen King, but there's no way on the planet I'm going to see IT.  Adore "Rosemary's Baby," one of my all-time favorite movies.

Three horror things. I did see "Scream," which was silly of me and I hardly remember it. BUT the guy who played the crazed psycho killer (Matt Lillard) is one of my stepson's best friends and was the best man at his wedding. That was disturbing.

Also. Years ago, Jonathan and I saw "The Game." It's one of those nothing-is-what-it-seems-some-things-are-tricks-but-what-if-they-aren't movies. We came home, and thought we were alone--when the living room curtains began to twitch. From inside, BEHIND the curtains.  I almost fainted, seriously. (A squirrel had gotten in, and it turned out to be hilarious.)

But my most un-favorite horror movie, so unfavorite that I truly wish I could un-see it, is "The Vanishing." (Not the Keifer Sutherland version, the real one, it's Dutch). You all, it is awful. AWFUL. SO disturbing that it haunts me to this day, and when one of us can't find each other in the grocery for instance, when we see each other we say--oh, I thought you had vanished. And then we shake our heads and shiver. 

Have you seen it? Do  NOT see it.

INGRID THOFT:  Chief Fraidy Cat reporting for duty!  I have no capacity for watching scary movies.  None.  I was recently subjected to the “IT” preview in the movie theater, and it scared the daylights out of me.  

I think it all begin during a fifth-grade sleepover during which, “Poltergeist” was shown.  Between the creepy little girl, maggots in the face, the creepy older lady, and tombstones bobbing in the swimming pool, I didn’t stand a chance.  I remember sleeping on the floor of my parent’s bedroom that night.

There’s an ongoing joke in my house about my inability to watch “Alien,” which is one of my husband’s favorite movies.  I’ve made it five minutes in on two occasions, but as soon as I hear the theme music of the Queen, I chicken out.  Keep in mind, I’ve never made it as far as seeing the Queen (the revolting character who terrorizes Sigourney Weaver), I’ve just heard her theme music and fled from the room.

So, no.  I won’t be going to see “IT.”

RHYS BOWEN: I am Ingrid's equal when it comes to fraidy-cats. I cannot take horror movies, apart from the ones where giant ants/ tomatoes swallow New York. But anything demonic, possessed.... count me out. 

I would never allow the light to be turned off at night again. I'm still a teeny bit afraid of the dark. When I go downstairs to our bottom floor and I have to switch on the light across the hall I always sprint to do it. Silly but true. 

Too much imagination, and maybe growing up in a house that my brother and I swear was haunted. Windows opened by themselves at night. Rugs flapped on the floor and I had this recurring dream of a hooded procession coming up the stairs to my room. So I think that's a good excuse. 

I have read some Stephen King novels but no movies. A publisher once offered me a very tempting sum to write some teenage horror novels. Uh, no thank you, I said.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I can watch old-fashioned horror movies from the days before they were filled with gushing blood and eyeballs popping off the screen into your lap (in glorious 3-D.) Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, ("Look, Damien! It's all for you!"), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the 1970s version with Donald Sutherland was so subtly creepy.) 

One that has always lingered is the TV miniseries "Salem's Lot," from the Stephen King novel of the same name. It was, as I recall, shown on two nights. I can remember sitting between my mother and my sister, all of us clutching each other as one after another of the residents in the small Maine town disappear...and then come back. 

The scene with the teenage hero's friend tapping on his bedroom window, two stories up, gives me shivers to this day. I think it still stands as one of the best adaptations of a King novel ever. 

Oh, and another wonderful one from those days: "The Fog." Again, no gore or violence; just the creeping sense of characters being closed in and trapped. Plus it has Adrienne Barbeau, who makes everything better.

LUCY BURDETTE: No, no, no on horror for me! I'm with Ingrid and Rhys--I can't bear to be scared! 

My family was trained early on to vet scary movies and TV and steer me away. I still have nightmares about a few Ray Bradbury short stories that will not leave my head. And I did see "The Exorcist" when it came out, but that's it! 

Give me a romantic comedy any day...


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Can you believe I've never seen Psycho? Never WANTED to see it--couldn't imagine why anyone would. Nor have I seen The Shining. Rosemary's Baby gave me nightmares for years. So I'd say you can count me in the "no horror" group, except that I have seen Alien (and liked it). Maybe alien monsters are not as scary as human ones? Rick and I watched parts of Invasion of the Body Snatchers not too long ago. Hysterical! But still creepy. And he's made me watch John Carptenter's The Thing, which is really really scary, but good. Still, I won't be lining up to watch IT. Maybe once it comes out on video and I can leave the room if it gets too scary!

HALLIE: What are the horrors that revisit you from the movies, and are you going to see "IT"? I confess, after hearing Jenn's comments, I'm going! But not alone...

What Scares You? Reds Confess.

RHYS BOWEN:

Well, I've managed to survive another Halloween! I have survived weeks of all the old movies on TV being horror, of everyone else saying what fun they have had in haunted houses and even walking through a drug store and having a coffin suddenly open beside me and a hand coming out! Confession: I'm a wimp. I do not like to be scared. The only horror movies I've ever tolerated were the "Giant killer tomatoes swallow New York" variety. Anything to do with noises in the cellar or possessed dolls and I'm out of there. If I saw something like that I'd wake at every creak of my house for weeks.

So I guess I'm a scaredy cat. I was even trying to come up with a Halloween costume that didn't require a lot of work and thought of draping a fake spider's web over my hair with a fuzzy spider clinging to it. Tried it in the store and couldn't do. I knew the spider was fake. I could hold it in my hand and see it was fake. But the thought of a big black spider on my head was simply too much for me.

Another confession: I'm scared of spiders. I know they are good for our environment. If I find one in the bathtub I put a glass over it, slide a piece of paper under the spider and carry it out to be released in nature. So you see I'm good and humane. But my hand is shaking all the time. I did this rescue once when my friends and I rented a house in Sedona, AZ. Big spider on the ceiling. I tipped him into a glass, carried him out and released him into the creek. Then a friend showed his picture to our jeep tour guide. "Oh my God. That was a brown recluse," he exclaimed. I had had one piece of paper between me and the most venomous spider in the US!  And I was once in the Outback in Australia and went to the loo. As I shut the door and sat on the seat I watched a HUGE huntsman spider come and sit on top of the door. You know, the kind of spider that kills mice? And I knew if I tried to open that door it would drop onto my hand. I contemplated spending the rest of my life in that loo. Waiting for the spider to die of old age or get hungry and go hunting elsewhere. In the end I moved my hand oh so cautiously toward the latch, lifted it, moved the door inch by inch and then ran like hell, all the time imagining that the spider was now sitting on my back!

So good reason to be scared of spiders. But I'm also scared of moths. I don't like the way they flutter about. I met a black moth with a twelve inch wing span in Mexico once. We had seen it flying around the gardens and then the kids announced it had flown into our condo and into my bedroom. I laughed. "Nice try." Then I pulled back the drapes and....... it flew into my face. So good reason to be scared of moths too.

And I'm scared of the dark. Too vivid an imagination, I suppose, and growing up in a big old house that was definitely haunted. But I'm not scared of snakes, or heights, or even clowns. Bad reviews? Maybe. People hating my next book? Definitely.

So now it's your turn, Reds. What are you scared of?

HALLIE EPHRON: The dark. Seriously. Going into a cave with no flashlight, or even with one freaks me out. Walking in a forest in the dark. No thank you.

Spiders? Not so much. We have so many, and the ones in the house are usually smaller than a nickel and as far as I know they're not poisonous. I just scoop them up and take them outside where they can feast on mosquitos and flies. Love their webs. Except when I walk into one in the morning. Ick.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Huh.. That is such a good question. Crazy drivers, driving at night on highways.. I can imagine all kinds of horribleness. I can kind of handle spiders, though I really hate walking through a spider web.  I am not fond of centipede and millipedes,  either of which send me screaming from the room. Oh, and those waterbug things.  Dark streets, sure. But that's..just common sense.

The thing I am most afraid of is being surprised. If someone leaps out at me, I freak.

And I always think the garbage disposal is going to grab my hand somehow.

I am also inordinately afraid of food poisoning. If food is slightly off, or even might be, I toss it. Does that count?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm with you on the horror movies, Rhys. I've never understood why people like them. Can you believe I've never even seen Psycho??? Not afraid of spiders, or snakes (except sensibly.) Or bats. I don't get clowns, either, but I'm not afraid of them. I am, however, more than a bit claustrophobic. I don't like being packed in with bunch of people, and I don't like being underground. So you can see why I take the bus whenever possible in London. Rush hour on a packed tube train in a deep tunnel is not my idea of fun! And I always think, "What if the train stops and we're stuck here????" Which happens often enough that it's not pure paranoia...

LUCY BURDETTE: No, no I don't like to be scared either! When talking about movies they enjoyed, my family will often add "but not for you, too violent, or scary, or pick your adjective..." Rhys, when we were preparing for our trip to Australia, I started reading Bill Bryson's IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY. I had to stop partway through because of all the poisonous creatures he was describing. Did you read BLIND DESCENT by Nevada Barr? Her character had to go into deep, narrow caves, and so Barr did this to prepare for writing. Not for me--I'd have to switch to a different plot.

Debs, I don't like being in a crowded elevator either--I think being short is a disadvantage here because all you can see are the bodies pressed in around you. And I don't like highway driving either--too many crazies going way too fast and not leaving nearly enough room.

RHYS: Oh yes, Lucy. I agree about Australia. When I took my kids there for the first time my daughter Anne read out loud on the plane about every kind of lethal creature so that her siblings were freaked out when we went for a walk in the Bush. And I'm not really claustrophobic but like Hallie can't watch movies where divers have to squeeze through submerged caves.

But I don't have a fear of the garbage disposal. Pfew. However I now realize I am scared of the shower. I always worry about turning off the cold first and getting scalded or turning off the hot and getting frozen. What a bunch of neurotics we are. OR ON THE OTHER HAND, we are simply gifted with overactive imaginations, which is what we are such stellar writers!

So now it's your turn. What are you scared of?

Summer Thrills and Chills

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: It’s been hot here in New York City — probably where you are, too. (We know it is in Texas for Debs, but at least she has her inflatable tub!) August generally is a long, hot, sticky month and, for some reason, I associate it with the thrills and chills of horror novels.

Well, maybe the association isn’t so random. I remember staying at a friend’s cottage one summer when I was twelve or so and discovering a shelf of well-thumbed paperbacks, mostly Stephen King — Cujo (why I was afraid of dogs for so long), Christine, Pet Cemetery, etc. You know, old-school Stephen King. I remember reading on the porch at night, cooled by breezes from Lake Erie and a glass of iced tea, scared out of my pre-teen mind.

This summer, as I work on THE QUEEN’S CONSPIRATOR, about a 1942 Blackout Jack the Ripper, I’ve been rereading a lot of classic horror for inspiration — Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It’s been all kinds of creepy shivery fun.

I don’t think of myself as a horror fan per se, but as I look through books that I’ve absolutely loved — Donna Tart’s The Secret History, Sarah Water’s The Little Stranger, Alice Hoffman’s The River King — there’s often a supernatural element.

And then there are the TV shows. I’m a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, True Blood, Hannibal (will Hulu pretty please pick it up for season four?), and, most recently — and thanks to Kristopher of Bolo Books —Penny Dreadful. Love Penny Dreadful.


Reds and lovely readers, do you think horror chills help beat the summer heat. Is it a genre you read or watch? And, if so, what are your favorites?


HALLIE EPHRON: I do like a dab of supernatural, anything that makes that Twilight Zone music go off in my head (love Alice Hoffman and Jennifer McMahon).  

But horror, not so much. Stephen King is another category entirely. He's just a great writer and I'll read anything (or almost anything) he writes.


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Oh well, Stephen King. Of course. I stayed home from work in 1980 — I mean, called in sick when I wasn't sick! — to read The Stand. (At the Edgars, I told that story to Stephen King — I was quivering with starstruckness the entire time. He said: Good for you!)  I am a huge Twilight Zone fan--it's all about the writing, right? And as for the X-Files, well, I just wrote an X-Files short story that'll be included in Jonathan Maberry's coming authorized anthology! SO that's cool.... 
I guess... I don't like gruesome. Just suspense. (And we are watching The Whispers, I'll admit. But no more Strain. 

I have to say, we read Dracula when I was in college. I clearly remember thinking--how scary can anything like this be? It's just a BOOK. Wrongo. I slept with my arms crossed across my chest--figuring the vampire would be put off by the "cross"--for weeks. I was beyond terrified.


JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I can't watch viscerally graphic films and I hate what my family calls "pop-ups" - the sudden jolt when the bad guy/innocent person/dead body jumps into view, so I prefer subtle movie scariness. I adored CONTAGION, and went around for a week afterwards with a gallon of Purell in my purse! Loved the X Files, and the first season of THE WALKING DEAD. I haven't seen anything in the past couple of years and would love some recommendations! Anything with that creeping sense of something wrong will capture me as an audience member. 

Books: THE STAND, of course, which I read as a college freshman while my roommate and I both had bad colds (we were sure it was Captain Trips.) SALEM'S LOT - good think I met Ross many years after reading this, or I never would have agreed to move to Maine! THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE  and WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE, two delicately creepy masterpieces by Shirley Jackson. Oh, and the horrifying/funny/scathing/haunting WORLD WAR Z (which has nothing in common with the movie except for the name.) It's been nine years, and I don't think he's really published anything since then, but Max Brooks will be a horror giant based on that one work alone.

LUCY BURDETTE: I can't do horror--too easily scared! though I really must read THE STAND, and I too love Jennifer McMahon's books — they're a little creepy, but not enough to keep me up nights...

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Yes, Stephen King's The Stand!  I remember working for King's editor at Viking/Penguin in the early 90s when the miniseries came out and he treated us all to a screening — soda, popcorn, candy and everything. No work! We all that that was pretty darned terrific. (I once fetched him a BLT sandwich, too....)

Of course, Hubby would say: "Oh right, the book where all of humanity is wiped out except a few straight white people — and two 'mystical negroes' who are too old to reproduce?" (He kinda has a point there...)

And in recently rereading Dracula I find myself laughing at unexpected places — for instance: "Note to self: must get chicken paprika recipe for Mina."

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am loathe to admit this, but I've never read a Stephen King novel. I have tried, really, I have. But I just couldn't get going on them. I have promised my self that I will read The Stand, since everyone I know loves it.

There's a very fine line between horror and supernatural, isn't there? And is there a distinction between supernatural and paranormal? I could never watch straight "horror" movies. The only one I can think of that I not only sat through but liked was John Carpenter's The Thing. And not the remake--the 1982 original with Kurt Russell. And absolutely no slasher movies for me. Ugh. 

But, like Susan, I loved Buffy and Angel (will watch anything written by Joss Whedon--can we talk about Firefly sometime?) I liked True Blood but didn't keep up, I'm afraid. I was a HUGE X-Files fan (Hank, so cool!!!) I loved an odd UK series called Being Human (starring Aidan Turner who you now see galloping across your screens as Poldark). Now I'm going to look up Penny Dreadful.

Books. I LOVE Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels. LOVE Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, and have just read a terrific YA series called The Shades of London by Maureen Johnson. The first book is called The Name of Star, and Susan, it's a very interesting contemporary take on the Ripper. You should read it! 

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: I will! And, Debs, I'd love to talk Firefly with you any time — and please let me know what you think of Penny Dreadful (it took me a few episodes to get into it). Lovely readers, do you cross genres to read horror? If no, why not? And if so, what are your favorites? Please tell us in the comments!

The Only Thing We Have to Fear...

RHYS: Halloween is almost upon us. How could we forget? All the stores are full of creepy things—fake blood dripping from severed fingers, zombies rising from tombstones, the grim reaper waiting to grab the unwary.  And worst of all, fake hairy spiders in webs.  I have to confess that I’ve never been to keen on  Halloween.  I don’t mind the candy (and yes, I do buy about three packets too many of Snickers and Kit Kat) but I don’t like being scared.  I guess that’s why I don’t read or watch horror. It’s all too real to me. I can tolerate the type of horror movie in which giant tomatoes swallow Manhattan, but movies like the current Annabelle in which a doll is possessed by a demon and a baby is in grave danger…. There  is no way I’d ever want to watch.

Okay, I’m a wimp, I know. Or I am blessed with too vivid an imagination. I can tell myself they are only actors, but it’s no good. I’m actually not at all scared of snakes. I killed four copperheads when we lived in Texas.  I guess we all have silly, irrational things that we are scared of. Some people are scared of clowns. I’ll confess to being scared of the dark, of spiders AND of moths. I don’t like the way they flutter at me. And once my family rented a condo in Mazatlan, Mexico and we saw a black moth with a wing span of about eight inches (I’m not kidding). It was fluttering in the palm trees outside our condo.  I went out and when I came back the kids said, “Hey mom, that moth went into your bedroom.”
“Ha ha,” I said. “Very funny.”
“No, really,” they said.
I didn’t believe them. I went into the bedroom and started pulling back the blinds around each window. “You see” I said “You can’t scare me with your silly….” And then it flew out in my face.  My scream could be heard by passing cruise ships.
But as well as moths my other irrational fear is of showers. I’m always afraid I’ll turn it on and get a blast of cold water coming at me, Or I’ll turn it the wrong way and be scalded to death. So  I have to turn on the tap very carefully while still outside the shower, then ease myself inside. Silly, huh?
So Reds, do confess. Do you have any silly or irrational fears? Do you like being scared?

LUCY BURDETTE: wow, Rhys, I would have screamed too! Here's one of the things I hate most: house centipedes. The worst moment came two weekends ago. I'd brought my fancy black dress with feathers all around the knees. When I went to take it out of the closet, one of those creatures burst out of my feathers. I screamed and screamed and John had to go in there and hunt it down. I worried all night that there were more hiding in my finery!

I'm scared of other things, like crazy maniac drivers on highways, but that seems reasonable to me...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: No. I do not like being scared. I do not like being surprised. And I do not like crawly things. If I saw a centipede? I would completely disapparate.  I recently posted a photo of a HUGE spider on Facebook, it was in our back yard and I was incredibly proud of myself for taking the photo without flinching. .Too much. If I see a spider in the house? Forget about it.  Why is that so scary? They are small, and not particularly fast. Once i had a BAT in my condo. I was by myself, so I knew I could either freak out or handle it. And I was alone. I mean--a BAT! It's a long story, but I prevailed. I am loathe to admit it, but if I see any kind of bug, I call Jonathan. Is that--awful?

Maniac drivers--they are ridiculously everywhere. And pedestrians who SAUNTER, or LEAP out, and are on the phone.. And I am the most scared of something bad happening to someone I love. But that's not silly.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I admit to getting creeped out when I'm alone at night in an old house or the library. I KNOW there's no one lurking in the dark and I don't believe in ghosts or other Hallowe'en-type phenomena, but it sets me on edge just the same. And of course, whenever my kids are traveling or driving or (and this is a BIG bugaboo) swimming in the river, I'm afraid Something Bad will happen to them. But like Hank, I can't really say that's silly.

I do have one that it genuinely silly. Ever since I read a scene in one of Lee Child's books where someone looks through the peephole in a hotel room and gets shot in the eye, I've been afraid to look through peepholes. Since I'm not a Russian mobster or corrupt military officer (frequent victims in Lee's books), I can rationally state my chances of getting shot in the eye are extremely low. But still.

HALLIE EPHRON: Lucy's house centipedes terrify me, too. They're like creatures from another planet. And they slither up from the drains. And... AAAAAGGGH!

And oh thanks, Julia. Now I'll be afraid to look through peepholes in doorways.

I get really creeped out by portraits where the eyes "follow" you. Walking through a spider's web and feeling it stuck to my face, wondering if the spider was in it... Not so much of things that go bump in the night -- it never occurred to me it could be ghosts when we had squirrels move into our attic. And I do love a good ghost story.