[yurisverdlov]

I'm an author working on my second novel, and need your opinions.

What is there that makes a great "horror moment" in a book? What are some of the great horror moments in your favorite books, and why were they so great? Was the horror strictly a function of the scene, or of all the events leading up to the scene?

-- John Morrison

[Rob B]

One scene I can remember is from Summer of Night by Dan Simmons.

The story is about a group of kids trying to figure out the cause of town hauntings and deaths.

Well in the one scene one of the kids was in his bedroom and he thought he could hear something outside his window. Something was scraping against his screen. I think it worked because of the buildup and one of the killings took place near the kid. Simmons is just a great writer period.

It freaked me out, one of the few times a book gave me a nightmare.

The only other book that did that was Stephen King's masterpiece The Shining.

[yurisverdlov]

One of the elements in both cases you mention is the transition from ordinary to extraordinary--from a world or environment in which the rules are known, to one in which the rules are not known; from a world that is safe to one that is inherently unsafe.

Another element is the "bogeyman" archetype drawn from childhood. It's interesting that these thought patterns are common among children: The monster under the bed; the inanimate object that comes to life in the darkness; etc.

-- John Morrison*

[Cadfael]

Maybe not true horror, but one chapter in Stephen King's Gerald's Game really made me squirm....
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#############Spoiler##########

In order to escape from the handcuffs, the heroine slits her wrist with a broken glass, and used her own blood to lubricate her had to pass through the handcuff.

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This kind of thing really sets me on edge, and I had to keep putting the book down, and get some fresh air before carrying on... I shall repeat for I have said before... King gets in my head, and pushes my 'freek out' button, maybe why I like him so much.

[AuntiePam]

yurisverdlov (did I spell that right?) nailed it.

The scariest scene in The Shining was the one with the fire hose. The topiary animals were cool, and the woman in the bathtub, but that common, ordinary fire hose slithering down the aisle after the boy -- chilling.

[AJ_]

For me, it's anything that builds up the suspense. The Shining has so many moments like that, the worse for me though was with room 217. :eek:

[Randy M.]

I'm an author working on my second novel, and need your opinions.

What is there that makes a great "horror moment" in a book? What are some of the great horror moments in your favorite books, and why were they so great? Was the horror strictly a function of the scene, or of all the events leading up to the scene?

-- John Morrison

When Eleanor holds Theo's hand in THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.

The scene in which the narrator discusses the truck rushing by in PET SEMETARY.

Also, reading it shortly after becoming the father of a daughter, the closing images of Thomas Ligotti's "The Frolic" disturbed the hell out of me.

As a teen, the opening of DRACULA worked very well on me, in particular the scene with the Count crawling down the outside wall. Also as a teen, the closing moments of HPL's "At the Mountain of Madness," the run through the caves below the house in "The Rats in the Walls" and the final few lines in what is a much lesser story, "The Statement of Randolph Carter."

Randy M.

[Banger]

...the run through the caves below the house in "The Rats in the Walls"...

I second this. It's not so much BOO! scary as just really, really unsettling.

...the woman in the bathtub...

Hands down the scariest part of The Shining.

[Gildor]

The winged creatures from Perdido Street Station always gave me the creeps. Mieville wrote any scene the were in with a certain air of nausea, impending death and all that.

One such scene was ...

When they were holed up in that womans house, and well it was kind of the first time you saw an up close and personnel sucking, YUCK!

[SuicideRin]

i have to momnts realy, the first is in stephen kings "It" when


theres a flashback of one of the characters hears vioces of dead people comming from a drain...


i dont know if it was my age, or the fact that i was in a reading marathon but it sunk a pit in my stomach. only thing that did that to me, in a book. it happens in moivies sometimes

The next didnt scare me, it just ruined my world. GRRM who has written some horrer, and is known for killing his characters capricously. Oh Dismay



When he wasted King Robb Start at the Red Wedding in Strom of Swords (i think it was, maybe clash of kings.)