With The Pit and the Pendulum opening on 6 November, and Halloween around the corner, now’s the time for a scary story. Originally written by Edgar Allan Poe back in 1842, The Pit and the Pendulum is one of Poe’s finest short stories (he wrote around 70 in total). As a format, short stories are perfect for horror fiction; not only does it showcase an author’s skill at creating an atmosphere in a limited word count, the short story allows for the suspension of disbelief long enough to get scared.
Whether you’re after a scary story to read in the dark, or you’re looking for a place to start reading more horror, the following five short stories are a pretty good place to start.
The Jaunt
Stephen King
Set far in the future, humanity has created a form of teleportation, called jaunting.
It makes sense to start with Stephen King. One of the most prolific horror writers, King’s catalogue of short stories and novellas are full of tales, some great, some not so. The Jaunt is probably his best. If we take terror as the growing dread which precedes an experience and horror as the revulsion felt after a fright, The Jaunt uses both perfectly. King documents the creation of teleportation in the 20th century as if it were fact, introducing you to ethical and psychological implications which linger long after you finish the story.
See also: If you want more Stephen King, but don’t know where to start, then check out the compilations Skeleton Crew and Night Shift, and his novella The Long Walk (published under Richard Bachman).
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Joyce Carol Oates
Connie, a fifteen year old girl, quarrels with her mother, breaks curfew, and lives a 1960s teen life. She meets a man, and things go bad.
Oates drew inspiration from both Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue and a Life article about serial killer Charles Schmid for this 1966 short story. Since it was first published, critics have debated Oates’ meaning; is it allegorical, is it about the Bible, was it all a dream. To me, it’s scariest if you take it as it is; the story of a woman who has realised the man in front of her is dangerous. The growing unease within the story is unshakeable; an unease that any woman who has grabbed her keys on the walk home, who has asked her friends to let her know that they got home safe, who has avoided making eye contact, knows.
See also: The Daemon Lover by Shirley Jackson and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
The Landlady
Roald Dahl
A young man checks into a quiet and unassuming bed and breakfast.
If you want to ease into the horror genre, Dahl’s short stories are a good place to start. Within his bibliography, there’s a nice mix of dark comedy, clever twists and flat-out repulsion, yet he doesn’t involve supernatural elements. The Landlady is one of the most famous of his collection; it’s brief but incredibly well-paced, with Dahl’s skill at description making our protagonist’s surroundings seem so real, as if it were a bed and breakfast you walk past each day.
See also: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the rest of Dahl’s short fiction.
There Will Come Soft Rains
Ray Bradbury
An automated house stands empty in the year 2024; its inhabitants are dead, yet the house still runs.
Like The Jaunt, There Will Come Soft Rains perfectly marries science-fiction and horror. Written in the 1950s, Bradbury’s vision of the future is one which we can picture easily; a mid-century mix of Stepford Wives and labour-saving tech, combined with the very real threat of nuclear war. Bradbury’s story takes inspiration and its title from a 1920 poem by Sarah Teasdale, which images the indifference of a world where humanity has died in war. Bradbury’s writing style is poetic and unsettling; he manages to scare you not through terror or horror, but through a morose sense of what humanity can lose.
See also: The Velt, also by Bradbury (which works well as a companion piece to There Will Come Soft Rains, providing a glimpse of the world where this house would have been lived in). I would also suggest getting your hands on Richard Matheson’s short stories, as they provide the basis of a lot of great mid-century horror.
Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book
RM James
In rural France, an English tourist buys an unusual manuscript.
Although MR James’ Whistle and I’ll Come to You is more famous, there’s something about Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book which I find more unsettling. James’ writing, which can seem longwinded and old-fashioned in his other stories, works well in his descriptions of a sleepy French town and lends itself to the religious element of the story. Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book plays on old fears of faith and Evil, and the scary things that you can find in books.
See also: The Signal Man by Charles Dickens, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs.
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM opens at Omnibus Theatre on 6 Nov, running until 24 Nov – get your tickets HERE→
