Six Scary Stories

I have a book recommendation for you guys! Six Scary Stories is just what it sounds like. Stephen King selected the stories in this book and also wrote the introduction. King judged a scary story competition and out of the over 800 entries, he especially liked these six. The first story in this book was the winner of the competition, but he thought that another five were also so great that they should be published along with the winning story in one book. And they are all great! I'm actually still haunted by a few of these weeks after reading them.

I found this book while wandering around the library. I was hoping something fun and spooky would pop out. I happened to look up to the top of a shelf and there was Six Scary Stories. The Frankenstein sticker was a good sign.

What little sticker does your library use to identify the Horror books? We used to have a skull, but evidently we have Frankenstein now. I think he looks pretty good with this cover.

What a bunch of fancy scrolly stuff going on there! And I see the book was put out by "Cemetery Dance Publications". 

Here are the six story titles:

I'll give you a quick overview of each, without spoiling much of anything.

1) Wild Swimming: Stephen King's favorite. This one is told entirely through printed emails. I don't believe I've ever read a story in that form. The email format added some urgency to the story. I also wasn't familiar with "wild swimming" as an activity before reading this. Turns out it's a thing! (A thing I will never be doing, but I'm sure it's quite the experience)

2) Eau-de-Eric: This story is creepy in so many ways. There are some familiar themes in the plot that usually scare people, but when those themes are put together the story is new. It might be up for debate what some of those themes even are. But loosely I'd say, kids, toys, and possession for sure. Possibly some form of sorcery and a haunting. A not so familiar theme is the power of scent memory. I might be thinking about cologne differently after reading this.

3) The Spots: I think it's fair to say this one is a little political, definitely in a historical way. This is one of those deep thinkers. You'll think about dictators, delusion, and brainwashing. It's still traditional Horror, though.

4) The Unpicking: This one is hands down the most disturbing. Just yikes. I had to stop reading this a few times and just say "What!? No." It's like Toy Story, but with no sentimentality! That's putting it lightly, but I don't want to give away the plot.

5) La Mort de L'Amant: This is a clever one. If you're into true crime, you'll see it through that lens. I was kept on edge while reading it. It's probably very true to some real life close call situations.

6) The Bear Trap: I liked this one a lot. It's probably my favorite story of the six. Very apocalyptic, but somehow there's a little humor sprinkled in. 

Three of the stories include stuffed animals. That could be a coincidence. I have a theory that people are afraid of things that are usually seen as small and harmless turning on them. Children, stuffed animals, dolls, etc. It's probably a feeling of "If even this innocent looking person or item could turn on me, nothing is safe!" 

If you're interested, the three that have kept haunting me are Eau-de-Eric, The Unpicking, and The Bear Trap. I just realized after seeing those titles typed out in a row that those are the three involving children and stuffed animals!

The woman on the cover goes with the first story, as you could probably guess!

This is one of my favorite bookmarks and the one I used while reading this. It's one of those fun freebies from the library. I picked a particularly creepy page from the book to photograph it on.

If any of you have read this book, I would love to discuss it with you! 👻

My Children of the Corn movie night

A few nights ago, I watched Children of the Corn for the first time. My friend Stacey came over and we had a whole Children of the Corn themed night! We even made snacks to represent the movie's title.

Here are the children...

...and here's the corn:

The sugar cookies turned out to be amazing, even unfrosted. Stacey brought over some coffee and beer. We poured ourselves some drinks and got ready to be scared.

Before watching the movie, I had thought we were going to be watching these kids:

Nope. Those kids are evidently from Children of the Damned. I wasn't the only confused person, though. I found the above picture labeled Children of the Corn on several web sites! It was important that I watch this movie, because I am always making references to it. This is funny, considering I was referencing a movie I'd never seen and was thinking of different children.

The reason I am often referencing Children of the Corn is that many of the kids in my town act strange and standoffish. If you pass a group of them on the street, they'll look down and not say hello. Or just run away. I understand that kids have a lot to be scared of nowadays, and are trained to be scared. Still, it's weird. Every time this happens, I say something like "There go the Children of the Corn." Well, it turns out that I have it pretty good, because if I really lived in a town with the Children of the Corn, well... I wouldn't exactly be living anymore. This is because I'm over the age of 18, and the kids in this movie kill off anyone that old.

I don't want to give much away about this movie's plot, because I really think you should all see it for yourselves. I'll just give you the very basics. In the movie, there's a town in Nebraska, called Gatlin. Only children live there, because all the adults were killed after a child "prophet" arrived. After the death of the adults, the town is a mess. Well, you can imagine how messed up and dirty a town would look with kids running things. Somehow they manage to stay fed and not blow everything up. Still, it's plenty dusty and there's corn stuffed in every building.

The prophet leads the kids into a cult-like lifestyle. At first, it seems Christian based, but as the movie goes on, it's looking more like Satanism. A running theme of this movie is false prophets, and questioning any religion that doesn't involve love.

One child tries to run away from Gatlin, but is killed. When a couple who are driving down the road run over his body, they're left with a problem. This is before the days of cell phones (1984) and there's no pay phone nearby. I wondered as I watched the movie, what I would do in their position. What I probably wouldn't do is load the dead kid's body into my trunk. This is what they choose to do. The movie had a few moments where I was saying "don't do that" but I guess every horror movie has those. I mean, if the characters had common sense, there would be no plot!

Anyway, the couple drive off with the boy's body, in search of a nearby town. After driving through never ending corn fields, guess where they end up? Gatlin! Since they're adults, they aren't exactly welcomed with open arms. I just summed up maybe the first 20 minutes of the film, and I'll leave it there.

I really recommend Children of the Corn. I found the couple to be likeable, and you will care about their fates throughout the movie. Watching this left me with a few questions, and I can see how it could fuel a good discussion. Also, I appreciated how it was filmed. Sometimes the view is through the corn, or a window. I like when the viewer sees a movie through multiple visual perspectives and levels. I thought it was pretty artistically filmed, and the special effects were good for 1984.

As you watch the movie, you might recognize one of the villains, Malachai.

Malachai is played by Courtney Gains, who also played the memorable "Hans" in The 'Burbs. He can definitely play creepy roles, but he has also done some non-creepy work over the years. I was looking at his acting portfolio on his web site today, and was pretty entertained!

Just to take a poll, who here thinks Courtney Gains was scarier as Hans, and who thinks he was scarier as Malachai? If you haven't seen either movie, here are a few samples:

Hans



Malachai



I know that last one was taped off someone's TV, but you get the idea. I think something could be said for either character's creep factor. It's clear that Malachai is a threat, but it's hard to tell what someone like Hans is capable of. Sometimes the quiet weirdo is scarier. I could really go either way on this.

The other villain in Children of the Corn is Isaac (the prophet) who is played by John Franklin. 

He went on to play a character you're all familiar with. You wouldn't have recognized him under all that hair, though...

I thought of posting a trailer of the film in this post, but I wasn't too fond of the one I watched. So, instead I'm going to leave you with a fun video I found on YouTube. It's amazing how music can set the tone for a film. Substituting the Benny Hill theme song in place of spooky music adds a whole new flavor to the chase scenes!