Stories and Films to Make You Scream (for Halloween)!

Halloween by Gaudencio Garcinuno

Halloween is almost upon us and a scary story or film is the perfect way to get into the spirit. Luckily, Armacost Library has you covered if you are seeking frightening literature or films for the evening hours. Here follows a small glimpse of what our long and winding stacks have to offer.

Classics and Masters of Horror
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: A carnival arrives in a sleepy town a week before Halloween, with many sinister secrets!

Nightmares and Dreamscapes as well as Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, both by Stephen King. These tomes are his first two collections of short stories, many of which are award winners. We have more books by Stephen King if you are a fan.

Tales by H. P. Lovecraft: This massive collection includes Lovecraft's famous "The Call of Cthulhu."

Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe: This collection has all of Poe's top stories, including "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." A must-read.

Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley: Mary began writing this classic when she was 18 years old. This volume includes the original draft of the novel, without her husband's (Percy Shelley) edits.

Dracula by Bram Stoker: Stoker's Gothic masterpiece which influenced the modern incarnation of vampire stories.

Restless Spirits: Ghost Stories by American Women, 1872-1926: Classics from women writers such as Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

The Haunted Looking Glass: Ghost Stories: These are Edward Gorey's favorite ghost stories, many of them classics by authors such as Charles Dickens, Algernon Blackwood, E. Nesbit, Bram Stoker, and others.

Modern Horror Fiction
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance--Now With Ultraviolet Zombie Mayhem by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: Austen's classic, but with zombies!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks: Read this epic on the conflict between humans and zombies.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: The story of a boy raised by ghosts in his graveyard home.

By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz: Artists, psychics and evil doctors...

Damned: Life is Short, Death is Forever by Chuck Palahniuk: Check out Palahniuk's take on eternal torment.

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice: A family saga of witchcraft in New Orleans from sinister story-spinner, Anne Rice.

Films
American Psycho (2000): A modern take on the classic.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: This is a 1919 horror classic that influenced many modern day horror filmmakers.
Bram Stoker's Dracula: This 1997 film follows Dracula as he moves to London to search for his lost love.
Häxan: A 1922 silent film which depicts witchcraft from the 15th - 17th centuries.
Psycho (1960): Hitchcock's terror classic at the Bates Motel.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): A Tim Burton classic starring Jack Skellington who brings Christmas to Halloweentown.
The Shining (1980): A Stanley Kubrick film featuring insanity in a Colorado hotel.
Sleepy Hollow (1999): A Tim Burton film. Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod and is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the Headless Horseman.
Vampyr: An early vampire classic from 1932.
Waxworks: A 1924 classic directed by Paul Leni.

Wishing you a safe, yet spine-tingling week,

Lua Gregory
First Year Experience and Humanities Librarian
Armacost Library