I started reading It last week- the movie version helped restart my interest in the horror genre. Unsurprisingly like most of the King books I’ve read from that era I can’t put it down.
And reading it while awaiting the final chapter and thinking on some of the other scary movies I’ve watched or am interested in made me wonder about the age old question: What’s scarier in the horror genre: books or films?
Teeth in the Mist
By: Dawn Kurtagich
I read ‘inspired by the legend of Faust’ and was like sign me up!
I enjoyed both Kurtagich’s previous books The Dead House & And the Trees Crept In so when I saw this one and read witches and deals with the devils along with a suitably creepy cover I jumped at buying and for once it was an immediate read for me.
Bird Box
By: Josh Malerman
Grade: B+
Horror for me often falls into two categories. The stuff that’s fun when you’re reading/watching it. That does scare you and leave you going oh gross, no, no. Run away! But doesn’t really leave an impact. And the stuff that gets under your skin leaves you unsettled and checking under your bed.
For me Bird Box is the first category. Fun and effective with what might be the most crazy horrible birth scene ever. But there was no checking for monsters.
The Anomaly
By: Michael Rutger
Grade: B
This book is full of things I would never do. Explore a cavern high in the walls on the Grand Canyon… nope. Especially a cavern that I believe the government concealed discovery of the first time around… nope. And maybe if I did one day strangely get that far the rest of it would go like this:
Oh, it’s just a cavern! Kind of a disappointment.
Wait, look is that stairs over there?
We should follow them and see where they go!
Me: Nope. I’m out. Sunshine please!
The Tommyknockers
By: Stephen King
Grade: B+
Trip over a piece of metal in the woods.
Realize it’s larger than you could have imagined. Give into compulsion to dig it up.
Doom everyone.
I read The Tommyknockers for the first time when I was a kid (probably 12 or so) and it’s stayed with me as one of my favorites. Or maybe it just scared me? I’m going with the first. Anyway I reread it for the first time and it’s interesting the things you pick up on the second time around…
And somethings that Google tells you.
Into the Drowning Deep
By: Mira Grant
Grade: C
Well, my holiday reading turned out to be about killer mermaids/sirens. When I first heard about this book I just had to read it. A group of scientists head out into the depths to try to prove that it was the mythological creatures that killed everyone on a previous crew years before including the sister of one of them.
Life
Directed by: Daniel Espinosa
Grade: B+
Life is about a group of scientists on the International Space Station that discover an alien life form. Unfortunately not E.T. I should say first off that I have certainly heard the Alien comparisons, and understand them, but my Alien experience is only the one that had Michael Fassbender in it. (And you bet I’m gonna see Covenant.)
But that’s a whole other movie.
