Article Written By: Phil Guye
When individuals think of authors that have published horror classics throughout the years, they quite often think of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, McCammon, and possibly several others. Most of these authors are certainly the best selling of the bunch but in no way the whole spectrum. The horror genre has become much more famous through the years since Stephen King 1st wrote his best-selling novel "Carrie", the one book that did greater than any other to push the boundaries of scary literature in the 20th century. After that came a multitude of copycat authors, Koontz included, and even Stephen King himself became relatively trapped in the genre, in spite of his recurring attempts later on in life to break out.Horror classics could be the hardest kind of books to publish because of the proliferation of horror movies, a lot of people believe they're experienced. Since most individuals nowadays don't read but instead wait around for the movie (which is often a big mistake since just one book out of many gets made into a motion picture) they do not know all of the electrifying chills they're missing. Wonderful horror classics in literature form are a lot more frightening than their celluloid (or digital) knock-offs. A small number of very good horror motion pictures have been made from fantastic horror books but the best of the gang are "The Exorcist" (original book by William Peter Blatty), "Carrie" (Stephen King), and "The Shining" (King again).One of the best books ever published and of the real contemporary horror classics is "Song of Kali" by Dan Simmons. Published in 1985, Song of Kali shows the tale of a poetry editor who visits Calcutta together with his better half and newborn baby girl in order to find some poetry left behind by a allegedly deceased poet. What he finds is a dirty, disgusting, criminally insane city that holds serious mysteries, crazed cults, and supernatural terrors far beyond anything he could ever have imagined. Read this one with the light on."Carrie" by Stephen King is still widely regarded as the author's finest and 1 of the everlasting horror classics of the last hundred years. King's power to change the mundane, in this case the story of a nerdy, introverted lady being bullied in high school, into a fascinating story of the supernatural is incredible and sheer genius. The wonderful characters that populate Carrie, including her religion crazed mom, are very unforgettable and you'll never forget the ending. Even though motion picture was great, the book is actually way better, as they often are.Other scary classics include "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by the late, excellent Ray Bradbury who's also known for his science fiction than his startling horror, and "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub. Both of them are fantastic books and you must not miss them. One more fantastic author of horror classics is Ramsay Campbell and his wonderful book "The Hungry Moon" will leave you howling. "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson was converted into a hit Hollywood movie but once more the book is a lot better.
This Article Has Been Published on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 and Read 188 Times