Tome-ridden Tuesday

[holdouttrout]

First of all, to my good friend Lady T: read this article about XKCD. Don't forget to click through the slideshow!

Then, I just want to say that while I thought I wasn't a vampire groupie, I was apparently wrong. I got to thinking about all the vampire-laden books, movies, and TV shows I like, and there are a LOT. This revelation was spurred on by this link found in cleolinda's journal: I Vant to Suck Your Broccoli. I feel very in tune with cleolinda, considering we both automatically thought of Bunnicula when we read that title.

And THAT got me thinking about how many other awesome takes on vampires there are. Like Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, which I loved. And I also thought about how many bizarre children's books there are. AND it's almost Halloween, so.... my question today is:

What are some "spooky" books that you read as a kid that you loved?

What are your favorite "spooky" monsters/stories/movies?

'Cause y'all know I have some weird thing for zombie stories.

I also read this vampire book once--it was highly disturbing to my teenaged mind--about a guy who arrives at a new school and falls in love with this girl who is bitten by a vampire and they try to figure out how to keep her from becoming one but she just ends up dead at the end.

If anyone knows which book I'm talking about, I'll write you fic. Perhaps even spooky Halloween fic.

Comments

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Bunnicula! With Chester the Cat! And Harold the Dog! I loved that series as a kid. (Looking back on it, Chester reminds me of Fox Mulder for some reason.)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Hee. That would be an excellent crossover.

"Mulder, it's a bunny."

"An evil, vegetable-draining bunny."

*Scully sighs*

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

My brain is just full of the crack these days, isn't it?

Must be that time of term again. :P

[poetressforgod.livejournal.com]

The Night World series by LJ Smith. The second book (Daughters of darkness) and the 6th (Soulmate) were my favorite. In it there are made vampires and lamia (born vampires), and witches, warewolfs, shapeshifters, and of course humans. I found the vampires in them to be far more attractive than edward cullen. Also of note, many of the vampires in this series only drank animal blood or donated blood, wether from willing people or blood banks.

[poetressforgod.livejournal.com]

oh, and um, I too totally thought about bunnicula immediatly. and that XKCD article is made of win. My favorite is Munroe's version of 1999, although I think the other cartoonist might win in every other category for me.

And I really like the movie Hocus Pocus.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Hocus Pocus...yet. :-)

I find it interesting that XKCD didn't pwn all in that article...but I actually agree with you. The 1999 one was pretty awesome.

[ravynnightstorm.livejournal.com]

I've always had this weird thing for vampire stuff myself - I'll bashfully admit that I started out my on-line days role-playing Vampire the Masquerade (back in the day)- but I really can't think of books as a child that I read as such that would be "spooky".

I don't know if this would fall into the category of "spooky" in this sense, but it is a story that did "spook" me as a kid, The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs. I guess I was too busy 'running, jumping, climbing trees'(I <3 Eddie Izzard) to have read much other than what we had to read for school?? Sad, huh?

I'll have to think about a fav "spooky" movie.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Not sad! I loved jumping and climbing trees. Running? Not so much. :-)

[ravynnightstorm.livejournal.com]

Hahaha...I admit, I'm the same...I dislike running - yet I played Basketball and Softball for 10 years in school...go figure. I'm a biker at heart.

The "running, jumping, climbing trees" is from Eddie Izzard's 'Dressed to Kill' tour. :]

[sexyfemalealien.livejournal.com]

I was never into vampires until Buffy came along, and I still find them lacking compared to aliens or robots, but I really liked A Question of Guilt by Hal Clement. Weirdest vampire story ever.

My Halloween festivities this year will focus on bad monster movies from the sci-fi channel. I've got five of them, and am determined to make my friends suffer.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Bad movie suffering!!! We do that for Christmas in July, and it can be quite fun.

[havocthecat]

But…doesn't everyone think of Bunnicula at a title like that? (I mean, come on, The Celery Stalks at Midnight. *loves*)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

*loves Bunnicula*

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I like the classics of Poe. I would read some Hitchcock tales (the ones geared more for kids). I like the classic, creepy ghost stories more than zombies or vampires.

Like I like that story of the travelers at the inn, and the next day they find out the place they stayed at burned down years ago or some such.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I really like those kind told well, but usually we told them around campfires and they just ended up being silly. :-)

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nice XKCD link!

Never been a big fan of "spooky", though I love dressing up and trick or treating. :)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed the link...I love XKCD.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I'm not particularly a vampire person, but that link cracked me up, particular #18, "hopping vampires" -- OMFGWTFBBQ? I had to look that up on Youtube, and I found this. (The hopping vampires show up about halfway through.) SO AWFUL, CANNOT STOP WATCHING. :D How sad is it that I want to see the rest of this movie now? (My circle of friends in college went through a period where we were watching a ton of horribly dubbed Hong Kong films -- so cheesy, so awful, so fun!)

I blame "The Ring" for turning me off spooky movies. I used to really love gently-creepy films (Sixth Sense, The Others), and even not-so-gently-creepy (Blair Witch Project) until watching Ring ... it took me probably a YEAR before I could walk past a television set in the dark without looking over my shoulder and trying not to turn my back to it. I still have a major fondness for Stephen King, though.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

The Ring *was* very, very creepy. Can't say I enjoyed that one much.

The awful hopping vampires! Fantastic.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I loved The Little Vampire, by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg. The film of it was kind of rubbish, IMO, but the books were fun. And - oh! The Little Ghost, by Otfried Preußler, about a ghost who longs to be able to go out in the daylight - he manages, but it all goes horribly wrong, he turns into a negative of himself, and it's adorable, and sort of melancholy. I must dig it out and read it again, for Hallowe'en. It's a bit like Casper, but more European. :)

And The Reluctant Vampire by Eric Morecambe, which was very funny, but probably moreso because I was familiar with him as a comedian first.

Oh, and the Green Knowe books by Lucy M. Boston, which were very spooky. I never did entirely understand what was happening in them.

I've never heard of Bunnicula. :(

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Oooh. *bookmarks all to look at later*

Bunnicula was a vampiric bunny! The humans would find veggies that had been drained of all their color and taste...only no one figured it out except for the cat, who was scared he'd move on to things other than veggies. *g*

If I recall correctly, there was rather a lot of punning, which I'm more than usually fond of. :-)

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Hah! Sounds cute. Ever seen the animation film Curse of the Were-Rabbit? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312004/ It's very funny. :)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! I actually believe I have. I like those films quite a bit, although I'm not obsessed like *some* of my friends were. :-)