Today is a spooky day!
It’s almost Halloween and today we’re twinning terrifying movies and frightening fiction!
Tawney:
My favorite horror movies are two I watch every year. It’s like a tradition that every week of Halloween I need to watch them. The first is the 1978 classic movie Halloween. What makes this movie so terrifying for me is the mask! It’s so creepy yet plain. And he never seems to die!
The second horror movie I love is American Werewolf in London. By far the best werewolf transformation in any movie. You never really get to see the beast until the end. With dead zombie friends haunting the main character and a transformation that leaves you breathless, this movie is horrifically awesome!
As a kid I loved reading R.L. Stine books from Goosebumps to Fear Street. He is the master of horror for children and teens! Goosebumps had scary tales of childhood toys coming to life or monsters that haunt our nightmares. There is one Goosebumps book I remember. Night of the Living Dummy was a wooden face of fear! Slappy the Dummy was the puppet that pulled the strings! I loved the murder and mayhem of Fear Street as a teen. The Halloween book special was about murder at a Halloween party. This got me into murder mysteries!
For adult books Stephen King’s It. That clown haunted my nightmares. Stephen King has a way with vivid description that leaves the imagination open to nightmares. It was a thick book but I turned each page because I loved the friendship between the characters as they try and defeat the clown Penny Wise.
Kelly:
My favorite horror movie of all time is Wes Craven’s 1984 version of Nightmare on Elm Street. What’s so great about this movie? Well.Two words. Johnny Depp. That and the fact that when I first saw this movie, I couldn’t sleep for weeks as I was convinced Freddy Krueger would suck me into my bed. I think this is still one of the best horror films of all time and perfect if you want some scary fun this Halloween.
For books, for me anyway, there’s still no beating R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House. It’s just so much fun for readers of any age. I loved rooting for Josh and Amanda Benson as they try to keep the zombies out of their house in Dark Falls. Their discovery, that sunlight will defeat the zombies, has become its own trope. Play the IOS game Plants Vs. Zombies to see this in action!
Speaking of Zombies, in adult fiction, I love Colson Whitehead’s Zone One. Whitehead is such an exceptional writer that he transforms the zombie novel, historically regarded as somewhat lowbrow, into incredible literary fiction. Get ready to be shocked and scared by the final few chapters of this book!
What about you? Tell us what gives you nightmares on Halloween!
Twinning for Books 