As a disclaimer, since we're talking the horror genre here, assume that there's some graphic content in a lot of the works I'm linking to. Approach at your own risk.
Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe
A famed resident of my favorite cities and a former drinking buddy of the Jesuits, Poe was also known for writing a scary story from time to time. Fortunately, you can find pretty much everything he's ever written online, but here are a few of my favorites:
- "The Cask of Amontillado"
- "The Pit and the Pendulum"
- "The Tell-Tale Heart"
- "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"
Short Stories by Neil Gaiman
The offerings here are pretty limited, since most of his short stories (including some of his very best) are only available in book form. So take it as a sidebar suggestion that, if you like this sort of thing and good writing in general, you should pick up all three of his short story collections ASAP. But that would require possibly leaving your house and definitely spending money, so I'm just gonna modulate my expectations and recommend some that you can read (or hear!) RIGHT THIS MINUTE:
- "Snow, Glass, Apples"
- "A Study in Emerald" (Sherlock Holmes + Cthulhu + AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH)
- "How to Talk to Girls At Parties"
- "Click Clack the Rattlebag" (video)
- "My Last Landlady" (video -- you can also find audio of him reading it on Spotify!)
Children's Stories Made Horrific, by Mallory Ortberg
Mallory Ortberg writes an occasional series on The Toast, the website she co-edits, where she takes famous children stories and does horrible things to them and robs you of your ability to sleep for a while. The link above will take you to the full series (so far), but listed below are some of my favorites:
- "The Gifts of the Giving Tree"
- "The Beauty and The Beast"
- "The Little Mermaid"
- "Thousandfurs, or The King Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter"
- "Amelia Bedelia's First Day"
"The Other Place," by Mary Gaitskill
This one kind of sticks out because I don't know any of Gaitskill's other work, but I found this story (published by The New Yorker in 2011) on another list of scary stories you could read online for free, and DEAR GOD. Nothing supernatural here but, as the friend who sent me that list likes to say, humans are the scariest monsters.
Comics by Emily Carroll
Emily Carroll's comics will make you feel extremely untalented which is too bad because they'll also make you never want to go outside again, and in that case it would have been nice to have some hobbies to fall back on. And as if her art and writing weren't frightening enough, Carroll is diabolically innovative with the format and possibilities of web-based comics, leading to some scares that are only possible in this medium. Her whole website is linked above, but the stories below are the ones that still freak me out just thinking about them.
As a caveat, because this is a visual medium, graphic content warnings apply double. Her stories are usually more creepy than gory, but just so you know...
- "The Groom"
- "When the Darkness Presses"
- "The Hole the Fox Did Make"
- "Margot's Room"
- "His Face All Red"
- "Out the Door"
"State Trooper," by Bruce Springsteen
One of the bleakest tracks from Springsteen's bleakest album, "State Trooper" is the perfect song to listen to if you're driving alone at night and like making yourself miserable. For a fun double feature, follow it up with the even-more-horrifying song that inspired this one, Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop" (not officially recommended because I still haven't convinced myself to listen to it).
Random (not free) Recommendations:
There's no Stephen King on that list, and that's pretty much entirely because I can't find any of my favorite shorts online anywhere, but I'm a big fan of "Children of the Corn," "Quitters, Inc.," (both from Night Shift) "Dedication," (Nightmares & Dreamscapes) and "1408" (Everything's Eventual). And IT is by far my favorite of his novels (though I'll always have a soft spot for Carrie). All three of Neil Gaiman's short story collections (Smoke & Mirrors, Fragile Things, Trigger Warning) are phenomenal and I can't recommend them enough. Emily Carroll has a book, Out of the Woods, which is just as chilling as her online work (although you don't get any animation, unfortunately).
If you're into comics, check out Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing (particularly Volume 3: The Curse and Volume 4: A Murder of Crows) and his sprawling From Hell (arguably his best work), and Mike Carey's Lucifer.
I'm actually not well-versed in horror movies (I'm not a big fan of gore/awfulness for its own sake, so you can imagine that the glut of slasher movies, torture porn, and zombie flicks over the last few decades has put me off the genre at large), but The Shining is great and I really liked The Cabin in the Woods, for what that's worth. Pan's Labyrinth gets horror-ish. People I respect really liked The Babadook and It Follows, but I haven't seen them yet myself. And, uh, Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas? Sure. Let's go with those.
I was a big fan of NBC's short-lived Constantine, which I think you can still watch online. And if you can dig up the episodes anywhere, my favorite TV show as a pre-teen (and for a while after) was a Disney Channel series called So Weird, which was essentially a kid-friendly X-Files. Despite that qualifier, it had some pretty solid horror stories, the best of which were laced with a surprisingly-mature sadness and sense of loss. All of the best episodes are in the first two seasons, before the network stepped in: "Family Reunion," "Tulpa," "Mutiny," "Destiny," "Blues," "Transplant," "Twin," "Strange Geometry," Medium," and "Banshee."
If you have any recommendations of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments. Happy Halloween!
