Yes, I love Grey Matter!

King based The Shining on Hill House; he even quotes that opening paragraph - which I recited, from memory, at my last booksigning - somewhere in the book. In my eyes, he doesn't come within spitting distance of Jackson. Then again, he likes shock; she preferred fear. Different beast entirely. There are, in fact, no modern ghost or horror writers I know of who are qualified to carry Shirley Jackson's luggage, although Peter Straub has come close.

I love Sheridan le Fanu. Erin, ever see the Vadim movie based on the lesbian vampire theme from Le Fanu? Blood and Roses? Gotta love it - the heroine's name is Millarca (as opposed to Carmilla) and the vampire? Wins.

First movie that ever scared me into being awake for a good long time still has the capacity to leave me shuddering and tight-spined. Carnival of Souls. Hoo, boy.

King based The Shining on Hill House; he even quotes that opening paragraph - which I recited, from memory, at my last booksigning - somewhere in the book. In my eyes, he doesn't come within spitting distance of Jackson. Then again, he likes shock; she preferred fear. Different beast entirely.

Yeah, and he totally admits that in Danse Macabre. If you read Ghost Story again, you can really see how Straub has influenced King. I like King's early works a lot for the most part. Later stuff, not so much. And The Tommyknockers was terrible.

The vamp WINS in the movie version?! Huh. Interesting. No, I've not seen it, and I should. I haven't watch the 60's version of Hill House in a long time either, and I want to.

Erin, interesting story about the effect Straub had on King. They sent him Ghost Story for a blurb for the cover. He opened it, apparently put it down nine hours later, and woke up his wife Tabitha, babbling something along the lines of "I'm not worthy I'm not worthy". Smart me - he wasn't. The blurb turned into a two-page review (beginning with, IIRC, "holy suffering CATFISH, what a book!") and was followed by a request to Straub to please work together on something?

Straub is monstrous for me, in the best sense. If he was a skosh more subtle and a skosh less graphic in his gore, he'd be up there on the same level as Jackson for me. As it is? He's close.

I"ve only read GS and the stuff he wrote with King, so I don't have all that much to base him on. I'll have to go to HalfPrice books and see what else.

One of the things I like about King is his honesty about his weaknesses as a writer and his utter unapologetic ways about writing what he does. I think his main stregths are characterization (for the most part) and his sheer love of story.

Straub's early stuff - Julia, and If You Could See Me Now - were about as terrifying as it gets. Julia broke my heart in seventeen places. Shadowland froze me in place.

I totally agree about King's love of the story. I find his early stuff very readable, but only if I take him as shock writer, rather than a ghost story writer. He had moments of blackout terror in The Shining, and a few places in Salem's Lot that just blew my mind. Carrie, eh. But then, neither the book nor the movie of The Exorcist spooked me even remotely, so I be weird.

Julia's kind of a Turn of the Screw-esque one, IIRC. I haven't read it, but I've read about it.

Shadowland?

And my all time fave is It. It grooves on the "the monster is what you fear the most" theme, and I think King is at his best when writing from a child's innocent/sophisticated POV.

Straub's early stuff - Julia, and If You Could See Me Now - were about as terrifying as it gets.

Loved, loved, looooved these. And Floating Dragon was one of the first books that truly kept me up at night, although he claims his horror fans didn't like it. I thought it was damn scary. I'm readin ghis newest now, In the Night Room, and it's not horror, but it is spooky and thought-provoking and fascinating.

But then, neither the book nor the movie of The Exorcist spooked me even remotely, so I be weird.

This is my husband's scared-to-go-to-sleep book. I read the book so long ago, I barely remember it.

Stephen King never scared me in the -what's-that-noise-oh-god-oh-god way, but he creeped me out very effectively quite often. The kids in It, Jack's slow decline into madness in The Shining. Actually, the story that really truly *scared* me was The Mist.

The devil freaks me out lots, and I don't know why, since I'm not Xian, but somehow, the personification of evil just weirds me. Spooks me.

Drains still weird me out, because of it. I think about it every time I wash my face...and I tie hair hair back so it doesn't dangle too close.

Drains still weird me out

From It? I loved the book, and read it voraciously, racing to the end with bitten nails and a nervous stomach...but the end was a massive disappointment to me. Maybe nothing would have worked, for me at least, since the whole "what you fear is the evil" theme was carried out so well (i.e. what one thing could encompass all that effectively), but the end felt like a huge copout.

Still love the characters, though. I had a girl in a day camp where I worked that summer who was completely Beverly to me, minus the abuse. She looked and spoke exactly the way I pictured the character.