Can horror books be as thrilling as horror films?
“That horror movie was SO utterly frightening, it had me wrapped up in a blanket with my eyes and ears covered, yet unable to tear my gaze away!” is what you often hear when the topic of the horror genre arises, where people cannot stop buzzing over on the goosebumps-inducing qualities of horror movies, chilling you to the bone whether it is supernatural, psychological, slasher, gothic or any other type of horror. However, what if you could get the same pulse-racing horror film experience that comes with the inclusion of eerie visuals, graphic imageries, gruesome VFX, jumpscares, and bloodcurdling audio effects all while reading some top-tier
horror books instead? Hence, brace yourselves for some must-read horror picks from 2 categories for the die-hard horror geeks!
1.Supernatural Horror
“Hell House’’ by Richard Matheson where a group of people spends a week at a haunted house
in exchange for a huge financial reward by a millionaire to prove the existence of the afterlife is
full of raw terror which evokes the same fright a movie does. With clear psychological imagery,
terrific and grim language and the slow build-up of tension on every page it is the dream of every
horror lover. Another similar novel with the same attributes is “Rosemary’s Baby” by Ira Levin
which is about the protagonist, Rosemary, becoming pregnant with the child of the devil, the
antichrist after moving into a neighbourhood with mysterious neighbours. Filled with
unpredictable knowledge and details of the unseen in each phase, that doesn’t prepare you for the
next moment, this one is also surely meant to make your blood run cold.
2. Psychological Horror
The first one in this genre that will leave a mark on you for days to come, is “We Need to Talk
About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver. This is narrated by a mother through letters about her strained
bond with her disturbed son, Kevin, who goes on to commit heinous crimes which are assured to
make any reader feel unease as the story progresses further. Another notable mention is “House
of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski which is guaranteed to haunt your thoughts. It is a story
within a story where a man finds a manuscript of an eerie experience documented by a family
that had moved into a strange house, which is bigger inside and shifts dimensions to darker
unknown places but with a smaller exterior, where multiple disturbing incidents occur rewriting
the destiny of the man.
These horror novels surely take the lead before many popular films or at least come close to
giving the same level of nail-biting excitement and dread, as the readers are left to use their
imagination to summon the dread, unlike the overt nature of movies. Here, the readers are able to
subconsciously create unpredictable unforeseen visual images in their heads which can get even
more haunting and ghastly!
