The Book of Lists: Horror

by Wallace, Amy

6. Force of Evil (directed by Richard Lang, 1977): This film was originally shown as the Quinn Martin–produced Tales of the Unexpected. It was narrated with typical solemnity by William “Cannon” Conrad, and it starred Lloyd Bridges, Pat Crowley, and Eve Plumb (only a few years after she was Jan Brady). The plot was lifted from Cape Fear, but this version is much scarier, and it predated the “killer who won’t stay dead” premises of Halloween and Friday the 13th by a few years.

  7. ’Salem’s Lot (directed by Tobe Hooper, 1979): One of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel was made for television. Tobe Hooper, five years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed this mini-series. It starred Starsky & Hutch’s David Soul and James at 15’s Lance Kerwin. The movie contains some truly unforgettable images, namely the grinning, floating, gray-faced child knock-knocking at the bedroom window, and bald, razorfanged Reggie Nalder as the lead vampire.

  8. Dark Night of the Scarecrow (directed by Frank De Felitta, 1981): Bubba, a mentally retarded man, is wrongly accused of attacking a girl. A town’s vigilante mob (including Charles Durning) searches him out, ultimately finding him disguised as a scarecrow in a field. The vigilantes torture and kill the innocent Bubba. But soon after, one by one, they are terrorized by a scarecrow that mysteriously appears in their pastures and fields . . .

  9. Twin Peaks (Season 2, Episode 7: “Lonely Souls,” directed by David Lynch, 1990): Twin Peaks had many eerie or downright terrifying moments, especially in its first season. But the last seven minutes of this episode, wherein “Killer Bob” is finally revealed, are among the most horrifying and disturbing ever shown on primetime TV. And Sheryl Lee screams better than anyone else.

  10. The X-Files (Season 4, Episode 2: “Home,” directed by Kim Manners, 1996): Agents Mulder and Scully investigate tiny Home, Pennsylvania, where the remains of a deformed infant have been found partially buried. They soon discover a very creepy house, an even creepier inbred family, and something unspeakable under the bed. Fox gave this episode a parental warning when it was aired, and looking back, it’s easy to see why.

  FIVE THINGS BANNED BY THE

  COMICS CODE AUTHORITY

  The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was instituted by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954 due to public concern (fueled by Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent) about graphically violent and sexually suggestive material in comic books, particularly the popular EC horror comics of the day. Although the CCA had no legal authority over publishers, most distributors would not carry publications that did not come with the CCA seal of approval. The following are some of the restrictions initially imposed by the CCA on comic book publishers.

  1. The words “horror” and “terror” were not permitted in comic book titles.

  2. No “scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism or masochism” were allowed.

  3. Sympathy for criminals, “unique details” of a crime, or any treatment that tends to “create disrespect for established authority” were banned.

  4. “Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, ridicule of racial or religious groups” were not allowed.

  5. “All characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably acceptable to society, [with] females drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.”

  — S.B. (Source: Time magazine, November 8, 1954)

  NINE AMAZING HORROR BOARD GAMES

  1. Ouija—“Mystifying Oracle” Talking Board Set

  “Explore the mysteries of mental telepathy and the subconscious with this time tested favorite.”

  The granddaddy of spooky board games is said to date back to the late 1800s and was popularized by Parker Brothers. Its famous (and trademarked) 1901 William Fuld design has become iconic as has its elongated heart-shaped “message indicator” with its transparent dial through which numbers and letters are revealed. Users rest their fingertips lightly on the indicator which then moves from symbol to symbol spelling out words and answering “yes” or “no” to questions. The fact that the board proudly states it’s been manufactured in Salem, Massachusetts (home of the infamous witch hunts), just adds to the creepiness. Regan McNeil communicates with Ol’ Scratch, aka Captain Howdy, using the Ouija board in The Exorcist, and the talking board also inspired the underwhelming Witchboard films.

  2. Green Ghost

  “The exciting game of mystery that glows in the dark.”

  The first glow-in-the-dark game by Transogram Toys used both dice and a rotund ghost spinner, whose thumb pointed players (using game pieces of a cat, rat, bat, or vulture) the way around a board decorated with a plastic shipwreck, haunted house, and gnarled tree. The board rested on stilts so players’ pieces could fall through traps. Keys to mysterious doors yielded prizes of bat feathers (huh?), bones, and snakes. Players also collected little baby ghosts. Awwww . . .

  3. Voice of the Mummy

  “Listen to my voice! Contains built in record player with changing messages that tell you your next move.”

  Milton Bradley’s multitiered pyramid game board, elaborately decorated with Egyptian symbols around a fake-gold mummy, was a knockout of design. Playing pieces were male and female “Explorers” (archeologists, sporting pith helmets, of course) seeking to collect the most jewels and ultimately achieve a crown jewel without encountering the cobra shaped “spell.” Though the game itself wasn’t quite as interesting, the brittle voice emanating from a tiny record player was suitably creepy, with pronouncements such as, “The Sun God Ra stirs the wind into a sandstorm! Save yourself!” or “The unholy snakes of Amon reach from below. Move up one level.”

  4. Ka-bala

  “The mysterious game that tells the future. Glows in the Dark. Fortune telling with tarot cards. Read what your astrological scope predicts. Ask Questions. The eye of Zohar has the answers.”

  In this glow-in-the-dark game from Transogram, after players rest their fingertips Ouija-style on the edge of the board, a huge glowing eyeball in the center of the luminous plastic game surface follows a black marble, rolled roulette style on a circular track, until the black orb stops on a “tarot” card, symbol, or astrological sign. The game’s kitchen-sink hocus pocus made no sense, but the experience, particularly in the pitch-black closet under the staircase, was always a trip. It was, of course, impossible to read the cards drawn from the luminous board because they, alas, did not glow in the dark. The instructions were in the form of an EC-style comic strip!

  5. Séance

  “The Voice from the Great Beyond.”

  A Milton Bradley follow-up to “Voice of the Mummy” (though visually less impressive), this game substitutes a talking table (record player concealed within) and the 3-D setting of an old drawing room. Deceased Uncle Everett assigns possessions from beyond the grave to players (the greedy relatives named in the will) and once the goods are handed out, the record is flipped and value is assigned to the objects. The player with the most valuable total wins. There may be more skullduggery in Clue, but Colonel Mustard never had to deal with voices from beyond the grave!

  6. Creature Features

  “The Game of Horror. Starring the Greatest Movie Monsters in Film History.”

  Admittedly, this Athol Research Company game is a shameless rip-off of Monopoly, but if Famous Monsters of Filmland had ever designed a board game, this is probably what it would be like. Players roll and circle a board buying “Classic Movie Titles” ranging from actual classics like King Kong and The Phantom of the Opera, to disputable ones like Willard, Dr. Phibes, and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (sadly, the black-and-white images rob us of seeing Christopher Lee’s bloodshot red eyes). Houses and hotels are replaced by “Ghoul Star” thespian cards, adding value to productions. “Ghoul Agency,” “Dead or Alive,” and “Tombstone Award” help or hinder properties as players compete to be the ultimate Monster Movie producer. This midseventies game was made in a simpler time, when images and titles from studios were easier (and cheaper) to ac
quire. This game would probably cost a fortune to license these days!

  7. Which Witch

  “Who’s going to be first to get through the haunted house and break the witch’s spell?”

  Milton Bradley repackaged this game as Ghost Castle and Haunted House, all using the 3-D, four-roomed board with variations on characters and design. The European versions were even more macabre, but the American version boasted rooms with names like the Bats Ballroom and Spell Cell. Players passing from room to room drew cards that turned the tide of the game. Wanda the Wicked would transform you into a mouse—freezing you on the spot. A Glenda the Good card could release you, and Ghoulish Gerty would signal a “whammy ball” dropped down the center of the game-board structure that could erupt into any room and cause damage. That was much more fun and less predictable that that silly steel ball in Mouse Trap.

  8. 1313 Dead End Drive

  “Can You Survive My Traps and Inherit My Millions?”

  This Parker Brothers game plays like one of those Night Gallery episodes about greedy heirs trying to do each other in and become the surviving heir. Players conceal their identities and brave threats such as a loose boar’s head, dangerous stairs, and a revolving fireplace as they try and eliminate each other in Aunt Agatha’s mansion. Best of all is the suit of armor that can be toppled onto a competing player. The greedy character types hoping for a pay off include a maid, chef, doctor, tennis pro, lothario, and butler (of course). The game was repackaged as 13 Dead End Drive, but no explanation for the mysterious dropping of the second “13” can be found.

  9. Vampire Hunter

  “The game that transforms right before your very eyes!! What you see in the day turns frightful at night!”

  In this 2002 Milton Bradley game, male and female vampire hunter game pieces (looking more like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft than Van Helsing!) gather weapons before a ghost ship patterned after the ill-fated Demeter (from Dracula) reaches the “master’s tower.” When the lights are doused, the glowing vampire’s tower illuminating the game board transforms playing pieces: numbers change on the dice, villagers turn into werewolves, traps are revealed, and vampires appear. It ain’t Green Ghost, but these days, when it comes to glow-in-the-dark games, you takes what you can gets.

  —M.B.

  STEVE NILES’S TOP TWENTY HORROR COMIC COVERS

  Named by Fangoria magazine as one of the “13 talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years,” Steve Niles wrote the groundbreaking graphic novel 30 Days of Night, and cowrote the screenplay for the 2007 film version. He has written comic-book adaptations of works by Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, and Richard Matheson, and his short fiction has appeared in many anthologies. He lives in Southern California.

  1. Black Cat Mystery #50—This cover really set the world on fire. This cover depicting a man’s face being melted off by radium is one of the most memorable and graphic from the fifties. The art is by Lee Elias, who will make more than one appearance on this list.

  Black Cat Mystery #50 (Lee Elias)

  2. Tales to Astonish #34—An almost-perfect Jack Kirby monster looms outside a man’s window lulling the man to confess “Heaven Help Me it’s true! There IS a Monster at my window!” Yeah, like, duh. Love that one.

  3. Creepy #86—Come on, a robot strangling Santa Claus?! What’s not to love? Cover art by Ken Kelly.

  4. Horrific #3—Known simply as the bullet-through-the-head cover, this jarring image was illustrated by Don Heck, who went on to become one of Iron Man’s greatest artists.

  5. Tales to Astonish #13—This cover, featuring “GROOT, the LIVING ROOT” is one of my all-time faves, more for its humor than its horror, but if we can’t laugh at our monsters, what can we laugh at? Art by Jack Kirby.

  Tales to Astonish #13 (Jack Kirby)

  6. Creepy #32—Frank Frazetta paints the perfect looming monster for this legendary issue. With one image, the monster looking down over an unsuspecting village, Frazetta tells an entire story, and a terrifying one at that.

  7. The Goon #16—Of the modern horror artists, Eric Powell stands alone as one of the greats, and the cover for Goon #16, while not his most complex work, offers a simple poked, bleeding eye image that one will never forget.

  8. Creepy #1—Jack Davis provided the first cover for the magazine/comic series and it’s still one of the best. The art shows a group of monsters crowded around the storyteller waiting to hear another creepy tale. Great, just great.

  Creepy #1 (Jack Davis)

  9. Saga of the Swamp Thing #28— With art by Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, both at the top of their game, this image of the Swamp Thing rising from the swamp with the bones of Alex Holland is one of the best.

  10. Chamber of Chills #24—EC who? I always loved these pre-hero horror covers. This one is pure classic, with a dead hand rising from the ground. Lee Elias at it again!

  11. The Goon #8—Modern horror master Eric Powell hits the list again with this classic vampire image, calling to mind Morticia and Vampira. Great stuff. It’s also worth noting that Powell did a run of Swamp Thing covers that rank among the best ever for that series.

  12. Crime Suspenstories #22—Rendered by Johnny Craig, this image of a man holding an axe and a woman’s head not only gave readers a heart attack, it gave Dr. Fredrick Wertham ammunition in going after horror comics as offensive material. When will they learn? In horror, offensive can be a good thing!

  13. Tales of Terror—Thomas Ott is just plain creepy. His art is dark and moody in a way we rarely see in comics, and Tales of Terror is one of his creepiest. That face haunts my nightmares. Seriously.

  14. Tomb of Terror #15—Lee Elias strikes again with this explosive cover. Too bad it’s a dude’s face that’s exploding. In the fifties, readers found this image disturbing, and even today it holds its own as one of the best horror comic covers of all time.

  15. Skin Deep—This list wouldn’t be complete, in my mind, without an entry from Charles Burns. No artist makes your skin crawl like he does, with his thick ink lines and bizarre characters. Skin Deep features what can only be described as a heartbroken homunculus, drawn as only Burns can do it.

  16. Twisted Tales #3—Richard Corben is one of the most twisted minds in comic art, and this cover from Twisted Tales proves it. Again we have an artist that can tell an entire story in a single image. In this one, a terrified night watchman walks in on a T. rex after his night-night meal. It’s a bloody mess, and a great horror cover!

  17. Seduction of the Innocent #1—Not usually associated with horror comics, artist Dave Stevens knocks this one out of the park with a simple and sexy image of a witch in front of a pile of evil jack-o’-lanterns.

  Seduction of the Innocent #1 (Dave Stevens)

  18. Dracula Lives #3—This classic image of Dracula holding a woman over the edge of a gargoyle-decorated ledge was an instant classic! It was illustrated by Neal Adams, who managed to give a sinister touch to everything he did, including an amazing run on Batman.

  19. Doomed #4—Ashley Wood returned to his Creepy magazine roots and created this beautiful cover depicting a woman with a gun and knife standing at a grave. At once thought-provoking and horrifying, this cover deserves a place in horror comics history.

  20. Tales of the Zombie #2—When not painting muscle-bound men and women, Boris Vallejo would occasionally take on a gig for one of the horror comic mags, and this cover for Tales of the Zombie, well, rocks. A beautiful woman lies unconscious on the ground of a cemetery while the zombie battles (presumably) the men who harmed her. Another story in a single image. Classic.

  SIX WORKS OF FICTIONAL HORROR

  THAT FOOLED THE AUDIENCE

  1. “The Bowmen” (1914 short story by Arthur Machen): In 1914, British and German armies fought at Mons, Belgium; shortly after, Welsh author Arthur Machen wrote and published a short story titled “The Bowmen,” in which ghostly archers from the Battle of Agincourt appeared at Mons to aid British troops. In the wake of its publication
in London’s Evening News—and despite the author’s protestations that the story was only a product of his imagination—numerous people came to believe that “the Angels of Mons” (as the phantoms were dubbed) had indeed participated in the battle on the side of the British. To this day, the Angels of Mons remain part of World War I’s Fortean lore.

  2. The War of the Worlds (1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles): October 30, 1938, is now known as “the night that panicked America,” thanks to a radio broadcast presented by wunderkind writer/director/producer Orson Welles (three years before his groundbreaking film Citizen Kane). His adaptation of the classic H. G. Wells novel, presented to the radio audience as a live news broadcast, launched a wave of hysterical panic throughout the U.S. as an entirely fictitious Martian invasion commenced in the small town of Grover’s Mill, New Jersey.

  3. Snuff (1976 film by Michael and Roberta Findlay): Promoted with the immortal tagline, “A film that could only be made in South America . . . where life is CHEAP,” this grindhouse classic concludes with a scene featuring the simulated murder of a film crew member (added to the movie for shock value by the film’s distributor, Alan Shackleton). Upon Snuff’s release, fake protesters were hired to picket theaters showing the movie; shortly after, the activist group Women Against Pornography began protesting for real, helping the film to fuel countless urban legends about the existence of actual “snuff” movies.