Top 10 Best Classic Horror Stories for Halloween

[@TheBookThing]

Don’t forget to tell me what your favourite classic horror is 😁

[@literarylove123]

Love everything you mentioned in this video! If I have to pick favorites, I can narrow it down to three: The Fall of the House of Usher, Frankenstein, & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

[@TheBookThing]

@@literarylove123 great choices. I love The Fall of the House of Usher, but I wanted to recommend one of Poe’s that maybe folks aren’t as familiar with.

[@literarylove123]

As someone who will turn 50 next year, I am totally on board with defining classics as books that are 70+ years old.

[@TheBookThing]

@@literarylove123 agreed. If I hadn’t wanted Lovecraft and Matheson on there I’d have said 100 🤣

[@Maeve_Ever_Books]

Thank you for mentioning a less popular Poe work!! I love Poe!

[@TheBookThing]

@@Maeve_Ever_Books Thanks me too! I didn’t want to just go with House of Usher or Telltale Heart, and The Black Cat is SOOOO dark.

[@genteelblackhole]

Ooh, I hadn't heard of that Doyle story. I've only ever read his Holmes stories (and I've read all of them). I'm definitely adding that to my wishlist. Carmilla sounds intriguing too. Thanks for this spooktacular list!

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks man, Holmes does tend to overshadow Doyle’s other stuff, which is a shame because Lot No 249 is a great novella. If you want another non-Holmes Doyle story, The Lost World is great. It’s basically Victorian Jurassic Park.

[@OoLaLaFrenchGirl]

One of my favorite horror novels is The House on the Borderland, written in 1908 by William Hope Hodgson. I believe it may have loosely inspired the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, as both books are about a strange house, a found journal, a bottomless pit, a humanoid/animal creature, and a descent into madness. I noticed many similarities between the two books. While only a short story, I would also include Eight O'Clock in the Morning (1963) by Ray Faraday Nelson. This story was the inspiration behind the film They Live by John Carpenter. It's listed as sci-fi but, I would argue that it could also fall under the horror category. Waking up to realize that you are the only person on earth to find out about a great secret being kept from the world sounds pretty terrifying to me.

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks so much, I haven’t come across either of those and will definitely check them out.

[@TheBookThing]

@@OoLaLaFrenchGirl just read Eight O’Clock In The Morning at 8.00am 😁, great suggestion, thanks

[@OoLaLaFrenchGirl]

@@TheBookThing I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! 👍🏻

[@onceuponabookishsteph]

Such a great list, I will be back to this video when I need to read some classics. I feel like I’ve only read Frankenstein for highschool, which was many many years ago so I don’t remember it.

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks so much Steph, I hope you get some reads you enjoy from this 😁

[@AaronReadABook]

That intro really cracked me up 😂I love The Thing, I keep meaning to read the book. I could not get through the I Am Legend film, I liked the book though and have a soft spot for The Omega Man. Not heard of Lot no 249, sounds interesting! I would chuck in The Haunting of Hill House, but I;m fairly new to horror.

[@TheBookThing]

@@AaronReadABook when in doubt, go for the Mel Smith in The Princess Bride gag 😂 The Will Smith ‘I Am Legend’ is dire, thanks in large part to the infamous Akiva Goldsman, a screenwriter renowned for taking beloved source material and butchering it. Y’know I’m going to have to reread The Haunting of Hill House at so some point, because it never really clicked with me

[@DisquietandDragons-lh3zm]

Hey Mark, really enjoyed the video and there are some wonderful novels in your list. I think my favourite classic horror is The Signalman by Charles Dickens, it's so creepy and atmospheric and I like to read or listen to it on Christmas Eve. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a very close second though.

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks man, I haven’t read The Signalman, I’ll definitely have to check that out. Dorian Gray I like, but it didn’t make the cut. An honourable mention for me.

[@thegkbc4510]

that intro!!!!! vincent price made a decent adaptation too, loved this book i actually also love the beast in the cave by hp ooooo, lot 249, adding i didnt mind Drak, i just wasnt enamored of the endless letters between the ladies my favorite, hmmmmm, psycho maybe? ill put some thought into this

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks 😁 I’ve seen a lot of the Vincent Price Poe adaptations (Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death etc.) but I didn’t know there was a Black Cat, I’ll have to check it out. I’ve never read The Beast in the Cave or Psycho so I’ve added them to the TBR

[@thegkbc4510]

@@TheBookThing for price my apologies i meant i am legend

[@TheBookThing]

Ah! Last Man on Earth of course! Yeah that I’ve seen years ago, but thanks to that misunderstanding I now know that in Tales of Terror there’s an adaptation of The Black Cat with Vincent Price, so I’m still grateful 🤣

[@thegkbc4510]

@@TheBookThing hey, a happy accident and now i also have something new to watch

[@BonnieNicoleWrites]

Haha when you said classics could be 30 years old, I was thinking...ooh...don't like that! And then you said much the same. 🤣 Much more comfortable with classics being 70 years or more! 😂 I have only read two of these. I read Dracula a couple years ago and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde last year. I wasn't a fan of Dracula, but I think it's because it wasn't what I was expecting. I kind of want to try it again at some point, though, and read it with fresh eyes to appreciate various aspects of it instead of just being surprised that it wasn't what I thought. I really enjoyed Jekyll and Hyde last year! And after your video, I'm quite intrigued by Lot No 249 and Carmilla!

[@TheBookThing]

@@BonnieNicoleWrites honestly, if I hadn’t wanted to put Lovecraft and Matheson in there I’d have said a classic needs to be 100 years old 😂 I don’t know how I’d feel about Dracula if I read it for the first time now. As I’ve said, it’s very flawed. Lot No. 249 is a bit of a hidden gem though. And it’s pretty short, you can breeze through it in an afternoon. And Carmilla is fantastic.

[@CliffsDarkGems]

Great video! Classic horror is indeed a difficult thing to define. I would include up until the end of the 70s but it is really so subjective. HP Lovecraft is great and The Shadow over Innsmouth is my favorite Lovecraft story. The ending to I Am Legend is wild. I did not enjoy Frankenstein, I found him to be a whiney arsehole, which took me out of the story. Dracula is not a controversial choice, a true classic.

[@TheBookThing]

Thanks man. I refuse to accept that I am old enough that something from my lifetime can be considered a classic 😂

[@HBADGERBRAD]

These reviewers always lose me because of their constant refusal to video games. Not everyone is a gamer. I’ve never played a video game! and have zero desire to do so. 😊

[@TheBookThing]

@@HBADGERBRAD I appreciate you watching man. After 50 videos making a single game reference is hardly constant but sorry that reference didn’t gel with you. If you’re interested in story and writing, you might be surprised at how well crafted and immersive some games can be, but each to his own. 😁