Salem's Lot had me keeping a close eye on the closet in my bedroom for quite a while.
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
King novels tend to be so overblown and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink that I don't find them scary. I think From a Buick 8 was the last long-form work of his that made me feel creeped out, and only in brief stretches. His short stories are a lot more powerful, though. "1408," "The Man in the Black Suit," and "The Monkey" all made my skin crawl.
I don't usually read super scary novels, but sometimes like the Bones type stuff...but the first time I read a book in that particular series (many many years ago) was in Montreal, alone, in a creepy hotel room. Serial killer stalking the city I was in? Not a good plan. Much easier when he's stalking more fictional-seeming places!!
What's everyone's "worst(best?) book to read alone in the house late at night?"
"The Haunting of Hill House". It will creep me out even if I read it in bright daylight.
Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan used to be that way for me, but I haven't reread it in forever, so I don't know if it would still creep me out as badly. Well, okay, I don't know if the non-spider parts would creep me out as badly; I'm certain that my phobia would keep me jittering for a huge part of the book.
I've mentioned that The Night Flyer was the first story in a book I bought from an airport newsstand before discovering that I'd be flying a 12-seater into Peoria through what turned out to be a tornado cell, right? Who cares about vampires, it has a small plane crashing during a storm!
Scary books like Silence of the Lambs tend to freak me out more than scary books with a supernatural element.
You know, I would say that someone should make this move, exactly as described, in order to really fuck with reality, but I don't know that anyone would trust the creeptasticness of books falling off a shelf.
What do you mean someone? The Navidson Record is available on Netflix. It was on Instant for a while, but they took it down last month.
With a blurb on the cover from Morgenstern, right?
That was the original cover; I prefer the Criterion Collection cover.