Best of
Horror

1985

Books of Blood, Volumes 4-6


Clive Barker - 1985
    They are a map of that dark highway that leads out of life towards unknown destinations. Few will have to take it. Most will go peacefully along lamplit streets, ushered out of living with prayers and caresses. But for a few, the horrors will come, skipping, to fetch them off to the highway of the damned ...From the brilliant World Fantasy Award winner Clive Barker come fourteen spine-chilling stories of darkness unleashed, gathered together in one volume for the first time. These are visionary tales of terror which will curdle the very marrow in your bones ...

The Bachman Books


Richard Bachman - 1985
    Omnibus collection of four early Bachman novels (Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man) and the essay "Why I Was Bachman"

Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural


Marvin KayeJ. Sheridan Le Fanu - 1985
    A gripping, chilling collection of 47 stories and six poems, dating back to Shelley and Stevenson, but also including modern masters.

The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories


Richard MathesonCharles Beaumont - 1985
    Serling was a serious admirer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and he scoured every magazine and collection available to find stories suitable for his series. This anthology showcases almost every original story that had been adapted into an episode. The result is a masterful collection of 30 classic tales by Richard Matheson (who also wrote the warmly nostalgic introduction), Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Lewis Padgett, Jerome Bixby, and Manly Wade Wellman, among others. Fans of The Twilight Zone will enjoy revisiting their favorite episodes in literary form, but even if you've never seen the show, you'll enjoy this fine anthology. --Stanley WiaterCONTENTSPreface · Carol Serling · prIntroduction · Richard Matheson · inOne for the Angels · Anne Serling-Sutton·Perchance to Dream Charles BeaumontDisappearing Act · Richard Matheson Time Enough at Last · Lynn A. Venable · What You Need · Lewis Padgett · Third from the Sun · Richard Matheson · Elegy · Charles Beaumont · Brothers Beyond the Void · Paul W. Fairman · The Howling Man [as by C. B. Lovehill] · Charles Beaumont · It’s a Good Life · Jerome Bixby · The Valley Was Still · Manly Wade Wellman · The Jungle · Charles Beaumont ·To Serve Man · Damon Knight ·Little Girl Lost · Richard Matheson · Four O’Clock · Price Day · I Sing the Body Electric! [“The Beautiful One Is Here”] · Ray Bradbury · The Changing of the Guard · Anne Serling-Sutton · In His Image [“The Man Who Made Himself”] · Charles BeaumontMute · Richard Matheson ·Death Ship · Richard Matheson · The Devil, You Say? · Charles Beaumont ·Blind Alley · Malcolm Jameson · Song for a Lady · Charles Beaumont ·Steel · Richard Matheson · Nightmare at 20,000 Feet · Richard Matheson ·The Old Man · Henry Slesar · The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross · Henry Slesar · The Beautiful People · Charles Beaumont · Long Distance Call [“Sorry, Right Number”] · Richard Matheson · An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge · Ambrose Bierce

Haunted Castles


Ray Russell - 1985
    Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story 'Sardonicus', considered by Stephen King to be 'perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written', to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and stories by Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, Ted Klein, and Robert E. Howard. These stunningly creepy deluxe hardcovers will be perfect additions to the shelves of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal aficionados everywhere.Haunted CastlesHaunted Castles is the definitive, complete collection of Ray Russell's masterful Gothic horror stories, including the famously terrifying novella trio of 'Sardonicus', 'Sanguinarius', and 'Sagittarius'. The characters that sprawl through Haunted Castles are frightful to the core: the heartless monster holding two lovers in limbo; the beautiful dame journeying down a damned road toward depravity (with the help of an evil gypsy); the man who must wear his fatal crimes on his face in the form of an awful smile. Engrossing, grotesque, perverted, and completely entrancing, Russell's Gothic tales are the best kind of dreadful.RAY RUSSELL was born in 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, and served in the United States Air Force during World War II in the South Pacific. After the war, he attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music and eventually joined the editorial staff at Playboy, where he published such writers as Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, Robert Bloch, and Charles Beaumont. His best-known work, 'Sardonicus', was called by Stephen King 'perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written'. He died in Los Angeles in 1999.GUILLERMO DEL TORO is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, and designer, most famous for his Academy Award-winning film,Pan's Labyrinth, and the Hellboy film franchise. He has received the Nebula, Hugo, and Bram Stoker awards and is an avid collector and student of arcane memorabilia and weird fiction.

Skeleton Crew


Stephen King - 1985
    In the tradition of Poe and Stevenson, of Lovecraft and The Twilight Zone, Stephen King has fused images of fear as old as time with the iconography of contemporary American life to create his own special brand of horror--one that has kept millions of readers turning the pages even as they gasp.In the book-length story "The Mist," a supermarket becomes the last bastion of humanity as a peril beyond dimension invades the earth. . .Touch "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands," and say your prayers . . .There are some things in attics which are better left alone, things like "The Monkey" . . .The most sublime woman driver on earth offers a man "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" to paradise . . .A boy's sanity is pushed to the edge when he's left alone with the odious corpse of "Gramma" . . .If you were stunned by Gremlins, the Fornits of "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" will knock your socks off . . .Trucks that punish and beautiful teen demons who seduce a young man to massacre; curses whose malevolence grows through the years; obscene presences and angels of grace--here, indeed, is a night-blooming bouquet of chills and thrills.

When Darkness Loves Us


Elizabeth Engstrom - 1985
    When a careless exploration leaves her trapped underground, she learns to live again in the absence of everything she once knew. Even driven by love and light, Sally Ann finds the deepest darkness within herself in When Darkness Loves Us.Beauty Is... - Old Martha Mannes has been a part of Morgan, Illinois since her birth. The whole town knows her as the dim-witted woman who was born without a nose, but Martha's mind wasn't always a blank slate. Unlocking the monster buried deep in her memories may bring back the sparkling child she once was... or it may send those around her crashing down into the nightmares of a little girl gone wrong.

The Door to December


Richard Paige - 1985
    What happened to nine-year-old Melanie during the six years she was subjected to terrifying experiments? And what is the unstoppable power that she can unleash from behind the "Door to December"?

Fright Night


John Skipp - 1985
    He knows he will be the vampire's next victim. But no one will believe him: not the police, not his girlfriend Amy, not even the school weirdo, Evil Ed. Charley's last chance is to enlist the help of Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer, star of a hundred horror movies and host of TV's Fright Night.Nobody thinks he's telling the truth—until Evil Ed becomes a vampire and Amy is dragged into his next-door neighbour's evil, foul-smelling house of death!

The Jaunt, & Beachworld


Stephen King - 1985
    Read by Frank Muller.

Cold Print


Ramsey Campbell - 1985
    A collection of Ramsey campbell's horror stories, including The Church in the High Street, The Room in the Castle, The Horrors from the Bridge, The Insects from Shaggai, The Render of the Veils, The Inhabitant of the Lake, The Will of Stanley Brooke, The Moon-Lens, Before the Storm, Cold Print, Among These Pictures Are, The Tugging, The Faces at Pine Dunes, Blacked Out, and The Voice of the Beach.

Mine to Kill


David St. Clair - 1985
    Storm clouds lowered on the horizon; later there was lighting and torrential rain. Esther returned at nightfall, soaked through and too distraught to speak to her family: her innocent trip had turned into the beginning of a personal nightmare. At first there were rustlings in her bedroom at night, then unseen hands gouged a terrible message on her wall: ESTHER COX, YOU ARE MINE TO KILL!On the third night, Esther leapt from her bed. 'Oh, my God', she screamed, 'I'm dying! Please dear God! I'm dying!'This is the chilling story of a girl's possession by malevolent spirits. Like CHILD POSSESSED , everything in this book actually happened.

Faces Of Fear: Encounters With the Creators of Modern Horror


Douglas E. Winter - 1985
    Interviews with writers of modern horror, including Richard Matheson, script writer of "The Twilight Zone" and authors William Peter Blatly ("The Exorcist"), Robert Bloch ("Psycho"), James Herbert ("The Rats" and "The Fog") and Stephen King ("Carrie" and "Salem's Lot").

Twilight Eyes


Dean Koontz - 1985
    With eyes the color of twilight, he's been blessed with a psychic gift: premonitions. He's also been cursed, for Slim can see the monsters hiding among us, feeding on our suffering.And when Slim joins a traveling carnival seeking sanctuary, what he'll find is a hunting ground -- with humanity as the prey.

Chamber of Horrors: Great Tales of Terror and The Supernatural


Roald Dahl - 1985
    Aickman --The bird / T. Burke --A thing about machines / R. Serling --A woman seldom found / W. Sansom --The squaw / B. Stoker --The cloth of madness / S. Quinn --The sea raiders / H.G. Wells --The Dunwich horror / H.P. Lovecraft --Dad / J. Blackburn --The cold embrace / Miss Braddon --Royal jelly / R. Dahl --The boarded window / A. Bierce. Earth to earth / R. Graves --A warning to the curious / M.R. James --The night of the tiger / S. King --The interruption / W.W. Jacobs --Back from the grave / R. Silverberg --The derelict / W.H. Hodgson --Vendetta / G. de Maupassant --Edifice complex / R. Bloch --The red lodge / H.R. Wakefield --Mary Postgate / R. Kipling --The cradle demon / R. Chetwynd-Hayes --The horror of Abbot's Grange / F. Cowles. Sredni Vashtar / Saki --The wall / R. Haining --An account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street / J.S. Le Fanu --The whining / R. Campbell --Verenice / E.A. Poe --The finless death / R.E. Vernede --And the dead spake / E.F. Benson.

The Complete Haunt of Fear


John Benson - 1985
    5 volume hardcover set of the complete run of The Haunt of Fear from EC Comics

Realms of Darkness


Mary Danby - 1985
    Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Bloch, Anthony Boucher, Elizabeth Bowen, Majorie Bowen, Chistiana Brand, John Dickson Carr, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Agatha Christie, Roger Clarke, Adrian Cole, Frederick Cowles, F. Marion Crawford, Roald Dahl, Mary Danby, August Derleth, William Croft Dickinson, Amelia B. Edwards, A.E. Ellis, J. Sheridan le Fanu, John Galt, Winston Graham, Davis Grubb, Willis Hall, L.P.Hartley, Dorothy K. Haynes, C.D.Heriot, Patricia Highsmith, George Hitchcock, Geoffrey Household, Washington Irving, Margaret Irwin, W.W. Jacobs, Michael Joseph, Stephen King, Sterling E. Lanier, Kay Leith, V.A. Lewis, Frank Belknap Long, F.G.Loring, Agnes Macleod, W. Somerset Maugham, Guy de Maupassant, Edmund Mitchell, Arthur Morrison, Edgar Allen Poe, J. B. Priestly, Bill Pronzini, Tony Richards, Flavia Richardson, Agnes Short, Henry Slesar, Barnard Stacey, Bram Stoker, Terry Tapp, Alan Temperley, Paul Theroux, Christine Campbell Thompson, Rosemary Timperley, H.R. Wakefield, Hugh Walpole, Elizabeth Walter, H.G. Wells, Simon West, Dennis Wheatley

Home Sweet Home


Ruby Jean Jensen - 1985
    Two weeks in the mountains with nice Mr. Walker. A perfect vacation for a little boy. But Timmy didn't think it was fun. The closer they got to the cabin, the less friendly Mr. Walker's smile became. The scarier the sound of his voice. The more evil the light in the depths of his eyes. Timmy was surprised to find other children at the cabin. He sensed their dread, heard their nightmarish screams, felt their unspoken terror. But then he peeked through the keyhole of the forbidden locked door and saw the bloodcurling horror that awaited him. And he knew there was no escape from the deadly welcome of home sweet home.

New Terrors Omnibus A Bumper Collection of 37 Terrifying Tales


Ramsey Campbell - 1985
    37 Horror Stories

Haunted Women: The Best Supernatural Tales by American Women Writers


Alfred BendixenMary E. Wilkins Freeman - 1985
    The 11 authors (Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Edith Wharton are both represented twice) are all American women writers. "The Yellow Wallpaper," "Luella Miller," and "The Bell in the Fog" are some of the best-known selections.