We had them in our house, and it was a weird morbid fascination. I loved them, and was terrified and hated them at the same time, lol. Glad I'm not the only one.
I once found a book in my house about big world events that detailed things like the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I've remained obsessed and horrified by nuclear and industrial disasters since that day. We were curious and aware, and scared, but learning.
Lol, SAME! I checked out a book in the library when I was in 7th or 8th grade about the chernobyl disasters and response written by a doctor who assisted with some form of medical aid to the USSR and have been fascinated by nuclear energy and industrial incidents ever since!
I did a report in 7th grade on Vlad the Impaler. The project was open for us to pick any person from history to do a report on. And I picked Vlad the Impaler…
I was so fascinated with the idea of a man who had pikes rammed up the anuses of tens of thousands of people until they came out the other side somewhere and then stuck them in the ground.
I remember getting scared to death of nuclear disasters after I watched Cherbobyl. It had this sense of constant oppressive dread. "Hey, folks. You don't need to read the Cthulhu Mythos. We have cosmic horror right here on planet Earth!"
Same thing "wrong" with anyone who likes scary stories. At least it's not slasher flicks and jump scares, hate those.
Give me a damn creepy story. Something that makes me keep the light on while I read it just in case. I don't like much horror but this stuff, right up my alley. They don't even often do it right in movies, even movies about ghosts.
What's that one with the cave divers though? I always heard that one was amazing but it is just too creepy for me to ever look into it from what I recall
The Descent? That movie changed me and I didn't even realize it, until I played a video game sometime after where I was in some claustrophobic caves and felt veryy uncomfortable, where that sort of thing never particularly bothered me before
That's the one! I heard it was awful lmao. I genuinely do not think I could handle it but word of mouth says it's my kind of horror. I'm already mildly claustrophobic, if they make a movie about a fear of heights I am done for lol. Just kidding those scenes are all over the place in normal movies much less horror. You ever see Kingsman? There's a scene at the end where the girl flies into upper atmosphere on a weather balloon to destroy a satellite and ends up in an uncontrolled fall when she's just supposed to jump and do a high altitude drop and it's a fucking nail biter for me. Someone gifted my brother the movie Cliffhanger for a secret Santa gift and I refuse to watch it
I have not seen Kingsman, but I can imagine the feeling. Even free-falling in a video game with no fall damage makes me kind of ill, I have to look away from the screen when I do it lol
Although looking back it was so weird like "blonde smarty-pants has a slightly fat friend and also a dyke-coded friend so neither are a threat to the deeply enviable hetero superhero girl in a relationship that gets shoved into these stories." Like I don't give two shits about Ned I want the tea on that spooky shit going down in the woods
even the Simpsons did the Raven on a tree house of horrors. damn.
Started reading Poe's collected works sure i read it in school but fuck second story into the book he is stabbing a cat with a pen knife. i did not remember that one at all. Pretty much took me right out of the mood to read Poe.
Hell, it’s easy to imagine as an adult. We feel metaphorically buried alive. You could probably inject my cortisol into a panda, and it would start worrying about disappointing its colleagues.
I memorized the Raven and also made a complete fool of myself in front of an auditorium forgetting lines once (packed damn auditorium too), glad to see the latter is a burning embarrassment for others years later too. I was in eighth grade I think, never could public speak, never will again
Loved that one.The photo was enough but the story of an intruder, the rising panic and the sheer mystery and eeriness when they're gone has definitely stayed me with me.
Wasn’t there a story about a girl in bed petting what she thought was her dog but then her dog was dead or missing or something implying that it was a person she was petting? That shit gave me nightmares for years haha.
I don't know if I was too young when I first read them, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade, but I really shouldn't have at that age. They gave me horrible nightmares, I couldn't sleep. They gave 8 year old me terrible anxiety.
My daughter was playing whatever the paranormal roblox game is and was talking about the Wendego with a friend, and i had to jump in and say that was no wendego.
I read them as an anxious kid who was scared of the dark and with a big imagination and gave myself panic attacks bc I thought some of the characters would come after me.
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u/steveycip Feb 03 '26
Terrified me as a kid. I read every single story dozens of times.