Ray Bradbury Forums
Scariest Story?

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21 November 2008, 09:59 PM
djmonolith
Scariest Story?
The Crowd is creepy. I think Mr. Bradbury wrote wonderful creepy stories.

But for "scary" - I would have to go with Interim.
26 April 2010, 02:16 PM
William Halloway
Bradbury has shown himself to be a master of any genre , horror included. i'd have to list these as some of his most frightening stories..

1) The Small Assassin
2) The Whole Town's Sleeping
3) The October Game . what a horribly brilliant twist at the end!
4) The next in line
5) The Illustrated Man ( the story ) " It showed a crowd of freaks bending over a dying fat man on a dark and lonely road , looking at a tatoo on his back which illustrated a crowd of freaks bending over a dying fat man on a ..."
fantastic ending!
6) The Witch Door - eerie...
7) The Smiling People
8) Trapdoor
9) Gotcha!

all of them great and scary.
29 September 2010, 04:51 PM
Doug Spaulding
The new title Dawn to Dusk looks like it'll have some pretty dark stuff - looking forryward!


"Live Forever!"
30 September 2010, 04:48 AM
fjp451
Usher II is creepy in its warning of things now coming. Also, The Skeleton is a hair-raising tale, also.

What is the story on this cover? I have no recollection in DW of this scene!?
I really don't enjoy the interpretation, whatever its place:
http://www.silverlocusts.com/G...elion_book_cover.jpg

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,
30 September 2010, 07:16 AM
Doug Spaulding
quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:
What is the story on this cover? I have no recollection in DW of this scene!?

It looks like a boy walking on air.


"Live Forever!"
30 September 2010, 08:03 AM
fjp451
Really!? Who walked on air? My sons saw this and, knowing the story, were bothed by the image!!? Other possibilities!?

RE: "bothed" short for "both bothered"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,
30 September 2010, 11:51 AM
philnic
It's someone hanging (hanged) from a tree. I don't recall such a scene, either!

It's from the late 70s UK paperback edition, and the art is by one of the best cover artists, Peter Goodfellow. (Browse my website and you'll find his beautiful F451 cover, with the book itself starting to burn; and his wonderful Illustrated Man, where the man is a window into another world). I think he tends to go with the feel of a book rather than with its plot, and I can only assume he was picking up on themes of mortality and the awareness of mortality that DW deals with - and maybe (this is pure guesswork) the hanged figure is the Lonely One either in guilt-ridden suicide or as victim of frontier justice.

Although I think it's a long way off the plot of DW, I do prefer it to some of the more insipid, fairytale-like covers sometimes attached to DW, and it is a reminder of the often forgotten darker themes that are at the heart of the book.


- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
30 September 2010, 05:40 PM
Doug Spaulding
quote:
Originally posted by philnic:
I do prefer it to some of the more insipid, fairytale-like covers sometimes attached to DW...

This gives me an idea for a new thread.


"Live Forever!"
30 September 2010, 05:59 PM
fjp451
Phil, that is the feeling I got from it, very "darker!" The image is troublesome, because I can not recall anywhere in an RB story where he delved into this portion of the psyche. (?)

The Lonely One was guilty. (I at first thought the L.O. but had to really stretch to keep it as a possibility.) Spender in MC had a purpose. Mr. Dark in SW was evil. Beatty in 451 deserved it. And all of those devices done in by Albert Brock, that's an entirely different Murdering. RB twists his departures: Kaleidoscope, The City, Long Rain, The Jar (long ago), Rocket Man ... Also, his poetry goes far into the metaphors of life, not empty loss. So, the artist must have had his own interpretation going on.

These, Phil?:
http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~in5...fullsize/ill_man.jpg
(Ironically, I have always liked this one but did not know the artist!)

http://www.silverlocusts.com/G...s/451_book_cover.jpg
30 September 2010, 06:06 PM
Linnl
quote:
fjp451 said
I can not recall anywhere in an RB story where he delved into this portion of the psyche. (?)


Maybe "Long After Midnight", the next to the last story in the collection of same name.
01 October 2010, 05:27 AM
philnic
quote:
Originally posted by fjp451:
...These, Phil?


Yes, those!


- Phil

Deputy Moderator | Visit my Bradbury website: www.bradburymedia.co.uk | Visit the Center for RB Studies: www.tinyurl.com/RBCenter
20 January 2011, 01:31 PM
Blind Henry
I'd have to say that The Emissary and The Small Assassin and The Veldt were all scary and suspenseful.
26 January 2011, 10:30 PM
djmonolith
Zero Hour
27 January 2011, 11:16 AM
fjp451
Similarities haunt this reader in The Dragon and (TZ) One Hundred Yards Over the Rim!?
21 September 2011, 07:40 PM
fjp451
http://news.yahoo.com/french-b...s-jar-151201174.html

Are you sure? Take a closer look!