Can books really give you nightmares?

Okay so even though im only 14 years old, i have always loved scary movies and things of that nature. But recently, i was told by my english teacher that some books scare him more than any horror movie. So i decided to do a study to see if someone can acctually be scared by reading a book. I loove to read but havent really read any "Scary" books. So if you would like to contribute to my study, please post a comment below reccomending a book that you have been scared by and/or a past experience with a scary book. Really exited to do this!


Thanks!

I don't know if i can recommend any books, but I agree with your teacher. I read fear and loathing in las vegas years before I saw the movie and all I can say is reading it was way better. It lets you imagine what is being described, rather than it being showed to you. I imagined way cooler things than the movie showed :D

In the same way that a book describes scary scenes, it leaves it up to you to imagine what is being explained. A ten second 'scary' scene in a movie could easily take a page or two of detailed writing to fully describe in a book, and for me that leads to a greater reaction. Instead of seeing a mangled body for a few seconds in a movie, you're left imagining it for how ever long it takes you to read.

I hope that made sense haha.

Yes, books are windows into other worlds, and sometimes other worlds can be scary.

Books can be way more disturbing than movies, to me. I guess it's a personal preference. I don't really watch movies but I'm a bookworm..

Some of the scenes in Steven King's "Dark Tower" series come to mind:weirdface

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Originally Posted by coldblooded

Some of the scenes in Steven King's "Dark Tower" series come to mind:weirdface

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Yea i just got back from the book store and got Cujo by Steven King. Im gona read it this weekend and see how i like it. And my freinds mom has a ton of steven king books so ill check em out :gj:

I'm pretty much immune to fear due to over-saturation from books and films by this point, but the following are pretty nice and spooky:

The Elementals, by Michael McDowell
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Psychlone, by Greg Bear
Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King (gross)
The Color Out of Space, by HP Lovecraft (more a short story or novelette).

Several of these have been made into films. Dreamcatcher the movie is probably at least as disturbing as the book. Neither the old nor the new version of the Haunting of Hill House properly captures it, though the old film does a much better job than the new.

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Originally Posted by bamf64

Yea i just got back from the book store and got Cujo by Steven King. Im gona read it this weekend and see how i like it. And my freinds mom has a ton of steven king books so ill check em out :gj:

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This is a great book. Most of the Stephen King are great books, much better than the movies! There's one book of his called "Salems Lot" there's one part in it that scared the ___ out of me!

Hmm, coincidence? My answers are also Stephan King books. :) Namely 'The Stand' and 'Salem's Lot'. Those are some intense stories! The movie of the Lot, however, was crud crud crud. Oh well, can't win em all.

Any medium can frighten, if the recipient is using their mind in the way the author/creator intended them to. :) I have had nightmares after watching my dear BF play certain video games! Books have had me jumpy for days (see the above titles). Even some artwork can invoke fear. :D

if you like the type of scary, omg this could actually happen scary, michael crichton has some. timeline, next, and rising sun are some of his i found disturbing to say the least:weirdface

I like books so much better than movies...the detail in them is wildly beyond anything that a movie could come up with. Try "Meg" by Steve Alten. It was made into a movie, and damn, the movie was a JOKE...

I agree with your teacher. The reason that I think one would be more scared of a book is due to the fact that when you read you use your imagination to make the book come alive where as when you watch a movie it is just immages that are shown to you and your imagination does not work at all.

There are books that I have read before going to sleep that end up in my dream and seem real.:2cent:

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Originally Posted by mykaija

if you like the type of scary, omg this could actually happen scary, michael crichton has some. timeline, next, and rising sun are some of his i found disturbing to say the least:weirdface

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IMO Jurassic Park is scarier than those, especially the scenes where the velociraptors are hunting the humans; way, way, way scarier than the movie. (Of course, the fact that I first read it alone in a house with the lights on only in my room may have added to the tension.) Sphere is also a really good, suspenseful read if you like Crichton.

I have to agree on SK books, to name two especially "It" and "The Stand" frightend me that much that i preferred to read over sleeping, because my dreams would be so screwed up. I was 14 or 15 back then but I have been awake 72 hours until I finished each book and slept for a day afterwards, school had to be school and to happen without me....:D
Another frightening book (but on an whole other level) for me was and is "American Psycho", but this is literature (it is!) that you should be prepared and old enough for, I read it around 8 times and I am still shocked.

I actually have the whole SK collection, except for the screenplays and things like that. The Dark Tower series is my favorite. The Talisman has some moments. as far as being scary, It was the one that kept me up at night while I was reading it. The movie is no where close to the book. The way the villain used the characters weaknesses against them is what got me.

LOL I'm 14 and I get scared really easily! If anything pops out suddenly, anything that looks scary, anything that is described in a disturbing-scary way, will freak me out. I've gotten nightmares by seeing scary things, and creepy thoughts of scary books I've read (Scary Stories series LOL, those books mess around with my head).

So, I would say yes, they can give you nightmares. I get such horrible images in my head when I think of something scary I read. Usually when I read things or someone/something is describing something, I always get a mental picture of how it would look and I would put all the description into my head and create an image. I learn best by having someone show me how to do something, you can't just talk it out to me LOL.

So far the best author I've found for scares and brutality would have to be Jack Ketchum. Off Season and Offspring are really good, as is Cover. Cover isn't really a horror, more of a psychological thriller but done REALLY well. The Girl Next Door was hard to take knowing that it was based on a true story.

Other than Jack's book, the Exorcist novel absolutely blows the movie away. Not a big fan of the movie but LOVED the book. Amityville Horror is another great book, don't let the remake movie fool ya ;) Also books that were written based on movies I've found to be better than the movie themselves, including Child's Play 2 and Predator 2. HATED the Predator movies but the book for the sequel was a real page turner.

Poltergeist by Steven King was the most CHILLING book i have EVER read. and yes, it gave me nightmares. i recommend it highly.

I was just a youngin', about 12 I think, when I read Cujo the first time. It sure kept me up at least a night or two.

The scariest scene from a book for me is the Lincoln Tunnel scene in the Stand. Eek, I get willies just thinking about it.

And there is no movie in existence that scares me at all!

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Originally Posted by bamf64

Okay so even though im only 14 years old, i have always loved scary movies and things of that nature. But recently, i was told by my english teacher that some books scare him more than any horror movie. So i decided to do a study to see if someone can acctually be scared by reading a book. I loove to read but havent really read any "Scary" books. So if you would like to contribute to my study, please post a comment below reccomending a book that you have been scared by and/or a past experience with a scary book. Really exited to do this!


Thanks!

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depending on your mind a book can be worse than a movie, in a movie your limited to what you see in the movie but when you read a book in your mind you can add anything that you want you mind can run wild.

Books give you more room for mental imagination and imagery.

Go read the Shining and come back and tell me you still don't think books can scare you.