Scare Me!!! (A Blogfest)

So the boys over at Sci-Fi Media are having a scary blogfest today and here is what they have to say about it: The purpose of the Scare Me Blogfest is to write about the scariest book that you have read, Movie you have watched, Ghosts you have encountered, and/or to share your own scary story.

I really love to be a little scared... my tolerance for being REALLY scared is lower than when I was younger, but I still like a fright. So being me... I thought I'd throw together a little hodgepodge of my favorite scares in a couple categories:

*shivers*  This is the sandman

Scariest SONG (who woulda thunk?)

Enter Sandman by Metallica—I was a metal head teen, but honestly, Metallica is a little after my time (I was onto alternative by their time and went to grunge next), but seriously... this song is the stuff of nightmares... and I LOVE IT!

Here is just a bit of it... (Or if you'd prefer to listen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD-E-LDc384

Hush little baby don't say a word
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet in your head

Exit light
Enter night
Grain of sand

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to never never-land

Scariest CD
 
Definitely has to be Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting.

The whole thing is about loss and sadness, but much of it is about vampires, death or (scariest to me) losing someone to someTHING (addiction or personal demons) instead of a person or something you did.

Scariest TV Show

I think Twin Peaks gets my vote here, but it only edges out American Horror Story because I don't really feel like 6 episodes was quite enough to really entrench me as a viewer in the 'holy crap, what was that?' thing. There are also a couple episodes of Buffy that get nods—most notably, Hush. Where those creepy dead looking things steal all the voices because they can only be killed by a scream.

Scariest Movie(s)

Okay, now here I am going to cheat a little... Instead of the scariest movie I've ever seen, I am going to give you favorite scare movie. Because some of that crap is too realistic and scares me, but I don't enjoy it. And I really LOVE a good scare... so I am going with a few scary movies I love here...

The Thing (original)
Alien
Blair Witch Project

All of these the 'monster' is mostly (or completely) off screen. I LOVE scary tension. I usually think monsters on screen are cheesy and monsters who are people (meaning criminals) are too realistic. I can live with possessed, the sight, shapeshifty stuff... But it isn't quite as scary to me.


Scariest Experience: There is a haunted coffin factory in Niagara Falls (Canadian side) that almost made me pee myself. Seriously. TERRIFYING.

And best for last... Books and authors...

I was a serious spooky book reader from about junior high to college and I still love to dive in every once in a while. I have a few favorites on books and then a serious case of author love...

Amityville Horror (1st scary book I read and it hooked me)
The Shining (pulled me into Stephen King)
The Talisman, Steven King WITH... (warning: segue here) Peter Straub

But my real and true scary book love is for Peter Straub. I fell in love with him with Ghost Story, but my favorite is probably Mr. X. He admits to heavy influence from HP Lovecraft

TANGENT: I love HP Lovecraft for short stories, but haven't been thrilled with the full books because of writing style--he is sort of clinical. Okay... really clinical. He writes as if he is an academic studying these findings, and for a short story (or 10) it totally works, but it is too detached for novels.

Back to Peter Straub: He is at his best when he is being a generation time jumper—person influenced by evil ancestors and fighting it, or having ooky powers that run in the family.

So there you have it!  How I like to scare myself!  Don't forget to check out the other entries, too (link up at the top)