In this story by M. R. James, a colleague asks a young university professor to scope out some monastic ruins for a possible archaeological dig while away on a golfing holiday. As he investigates the area near what would have been the altar, he finds an artificial cavity in the masonry that contains an ancient bronze whistle with strange inscriptions. He was originally unhappy that the only available room in his hotel had two beds but this proves fortunate, providing the terrifying personage he “whistles up” a place to spend the night. Themes include fear, agnosticism, the supernatural. More…
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Heavy-Set
I once read a comment that this story by Ray Bradbury is the scariest ever written in which nothing happens. Lenny (Leonard) lives at home with his mother. He appears to have a lot going for him. He is young and fit, has a body-builder’s physique, secure job, nice car, and no shortage of girls wanting to go out with him. The story takes place on a Halloween night. Lenny is excited, but the party he goes to is a flop. When he comes home, we see the horror that his mother must face most days of her life. More…
The Man in the Black Suit
This story from Stephen King builds on a common legend in folklore in which an unsuspecting protagonist is tempted by the devil. King made two changes to the standard plot that result in a truly frightening the tale. First, the devil’s target is an innocent nine-year-old boy. Second, instead of the devil’s usual objective of offering an earthly reward in exchange for the boy’s soul, this devil is hungry and plans to give the poor lad a heavenly reward by eating him. Themes: isolation, innocence, the supernatural, deception, fear, religious belief, life-long trauma, aging and death. More…
The Easthound
This post-apocalyptic horror story by Nalo Hopkinson redefines the concept of puberty. A virus has swept the world, causing all who achieve adulthood to “sprout” into ravenous, werewolf-like beasts. To escape them, children hide in small groups. The story is told from the perspective of twin sisters, one of whom naively believes she caused the virus by inventing the word easthound. Their group are closely monitoring an older boy who is about to undergo the change and will soon have to leave them, when the unexpected occurs. Themes include violence, camaraderie, survival, childhood innocence, adult predation. More…
The Lottery
Shirley Jackson had no idea of the angry reaction The Lottery would receive when it first appeared in 1948. It tells how each year the otherwise ‘normal’ people in a small American farming town perform a gruesome ritual to ensure a favorable growing season. The major theme is how herd or mob mentality can drive people to do things they would never consider individually. Other themes include dystopia, gender roles, violence and cruelty (human sacrifice), acceptance (the blind following of tradition), and man’s inhumanity to man (the potential for evil in all of us). More…
The Imp of the Perverse
Like two of our earlier Edgar Allan Poe tales (The Back Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart), this story involves an unreliable, unhinged narrator facing execution for murder trying to account for his crime. He blames his actions on an agent he claims to be in all of us called the “Imp of the Perverse”. The Imp, he argues, is an urge that drives people to do things they shouldn’t for the simple reason that they know it to be wrong. Ironically, the Imp that drove him to murder also drove him to confess. Themes include perverseness, obsession, madness, self-destruction. More…
The Empty House
Algernon Blackwood’s most famous ghost story, The Empty House could best be described as a horror story without the horror (no blood, gore, demonic possession, attacks by spectral beings, etc.). The story’s power lies in Blackwood’s ability to inspire terror through atmosphere alone. Its major themes are fear and the interdependence of the two psychic sleuths in confronting their fears. Initially, the ghosts go about their nightly business seemingly indifferent to the visitors. The perceived threat from “IT” only emerges when one of them gives way to fear and they begin to flee. Other themes: curiosity, courage, the supernatural. More…
Who Will Greet You At Home
In this surreal horror story from Lesley Nneka Arimah, children are created in the form of craft dolls by their mother, blessed by their grandmother or an elderly substitute, and nurtured for a year until they “become flesh”. In the interim they feed, move and act like babies, but in their doll form. The dolls can be made from any material (straw, sticks, clay, etc.) that is strong enough to last a year. But there are rules. When Ogechi, the impoverished protagonist desperate to have a child breaks one, bad things happen. Themes: magic, poverty, exploitation, isolation, obsession, motherhood. More…
The End of the Party
Although the 9-year-old twins in this Graham Greene story look the same, they have very different psychological dispositions. The first-born (Peter) is self-confident and has a special connection with his brother. The younger (Francis) has an anxiety disorder that results in unreasoning fear, particularly of the dark. Peter feels what Francis feels, and is fiercely protective of him. Despite their best efforts to avoid it, the two attend a birthday party that will include a game of hide-and-seek in the dark. During the game, a thoughtless act by Peter has tragic results. Themes: innocence, brotherhood, connection, fear, adult insensitivity, death. More…
A Face in the Dark
The power of this very short horror story from Ruskin Bond is in the way the events described mirror what one might experience in a nightmare. As an alternative to supernatural forces, Bond cleverly presents a logical explanation for the night’s events: the way faces can appear ghostly by torchlight. Either way, the major theme of the story is fear when confronted with the unknown. A possible moral is that we shouldn’t judge people who look or dress differently due to their race, class, gender identity, religion, etc. Other themes include the supernatural and imagination vs. reality. More…
The Tell-Tale Heart
In this Gothic horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator describes how cleverly he or she has planned and carried out the murder of an old man. The only reason given is fear of what is described as the old man’s ‘vulture eye’. The narrator’s purpose in telling the story is to convince the audience that he or she is not mad. There are a number of ironic aspects to the story, perhaps the greatest being that in trying to prove his or her sanity, the narrator clearly demonstrates the opposite. Themes: mental illness, fear, time, guilt vs. innocence. More…
The Toll-House
Today we have another classic horror story from W. W. Jacobs. Four young travelers are drinking (tea of all things!) at an Inn. They are discussing the supernatural, and it soon becomes clear that three are believers to varying degrees and one is a total skeptic. One of them tells a story about a nearby haunted house that takes a “toll” of at least one life from every family or group that lives there—however short the time. Foolishly, they decide to put the story to the test. Themes: bravado, fear, the supernatural. More…
Strawberry Spring
In this story by Stephen King, a serial killer stalks women in a small college community. The murders, which always take place at night, become increasingly vicious. Set in a rare false (strawberry) spring, thick fog provides perfect cover for the killer. Panic sets in as students realize the killer could be anyone on campus. When the weather breaks, the murders stop. Eight years later, during the next strawberry spring, they begin anew and, in a memorable twist, the narrator thinks he knows the identity of the killer. Themes include violence, fear, rumor and paranoia, confusion, memory, dissociation. More…
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The central character of this story by Washington Irving is a greedy city schoolmaster who moves to a school in a sleepy country town and sets about getting rich by marrying the daughter of a wealthy landowner. The teacher’s proposal is rejected, and he disappears one night after being chased by the “ghost” of a headless horseman. Major themes include storytelling (tall-tales), superstition, greed (Ichabod), fickleness (Katrina), ambiguity (in relation to both the horseman’s identity and Ichabod’s fate), and city vs. country perceptions (conniving sophistication vs. integrity and practicality). More…
Born of Man and Woman
Many readers find this short horror story by Richard Matheson incredibly moving. One of its major themes is Beauty vs. Ugliness. The protagonist is an eight-year-old child who has been locked in a basement for most of its life because of his/her monstrous form and size. The child does not appear to be possessed by an evil or supernatural force. The child is inquisitive about the outside world, but is cruelly beaten every time he/she ventures upstairs. The horror aspect comes from the cruelty the child suffers and the threat of impending violence if it continues. More…
The Moonlit Road
In this famous gothic horror story by Ambrose Bierce, a rich man has a loving wife who he does not trust. He sets a trap that doesn’t go as planned, resulting in him accidentally killing her. The unfortunate woman’s ghost, which is unaware who killed her, tries to contact him. This sets off a chain of events that ruins the lives of both the rich man and their only son. We hear the story from three perspectives: those of the son, a man we assume to be the husband/killer, and the ghost herself as told through a medium. More…
In the Penal Colony
This Franz Kafka story is a study on what can happen when you put a psychopath in charge of a process (or country) in which they have unfettered power and can make decisions over life and death with impunity. The story deals with some heavy themes: justice, due process, capital punishment, torture, sadistic voyeurism, and the difficulty of institutional change (even if for the good!). Central to all this is the “machine”, which seems to know that its time has come and chooses to self-destruct along with the only person left who cares about it. More…
The Glamour of the Snow
In this story by Algernon Blackwood, a writer for whom the spell of Nature was greater than all other spells in the world combined takes an extended working holiday at a Swiss alpine resort. A spur of the moment decision to go ice-skating alone after midnight results in an encounter with a spectral woman who suddenly disappears and dominates his thoughts for days. At their next meeting, at her “home” high on a snow-covered mountain, she triess to make him hers. Themes include the beauty and menace of nature, religion vs. paganism, isolation, demonic seduction, the supernatural. More…
Click-Clack the Rattlebag
This short campfire-style horror story by Neil Gaiman sucks you in (no disrespect to Click-Clacks intended) and then at the very end surprises. A young man is spending time with his girlfriend’s much younger brother. The boy asks for a bed-time story that is “a little bit” scary. In describing what he means by this the boy tells the man about Click-Clacks, “the best monsters ever”, that come from the dark when you don’t pay attention. We are left wondering how the narrator is still around to tell the tale. Themes include fear, awareness, manipulation, the power of storytelling. More…
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
In this story by M. R. James, a British antiquary comes across an old book written in Latin that tells of a German monastery in which a fortune in gold is believed to have been hidden. He believes the key to the treasure lies on a stained-glass window removed from the Abby and returned to England when the monastery was closed. He finds the window, decodes the message hidden on it and, despite the warning contained in the message, finds the gold. His only problem… dealing with the treasure’s monstrous guardian. Themes include treasure hunting, cryptography, fear, the supernatural. More…