Hereditary. Honest to god the best horror film I've ever seen in 20+ years of loving the genre. Unparalleled horror AND rock-solid filmmaking. Go in as blind as possible, don't look anything up.
I just remembered one more: when character is lookin in the mirror, turns around, looks in the mirror again and the reflection is still the same (the same character) but with some creepy smile or something 😨 (just so you know, I'm trying to fall asleep right now and I need to go to pee and wash my hands but there's mirror so decisions decisions 😂 may the odds be in my favour 😂
This House Possessed. I had to Google the few facts I could actually remember about the movie in order to find the title, and I also ended up finding out why I watched this as a kid in the first place -- like you, I've never been a big horror movie fan. LoL It turns out the main character was played by none other than Parker Stevenson (Frank from the Hardy Boys), so that mystery was answered . . . pun completely intended. 😜 Anyway, I don't know if it holds up nowadays, and I was a kid when I watched it so this movie could be totally lame, but it was 20+ years before I was able to wash my hair in the shower with my eyes closed again! So, there's that. 😶🌫🤣
I find it scary when characters turn around for just a moment and something about the room has changed, either so big it is obvious or small enough they try to reason it away. And actually that's another thing I find scary ... when characters are dismissing things and not believing their senses even though the reader knows it's happening for real. I think the main character in the shining did a lot of that. Thanks for the vid. I like your title, but maybe consider "House of Four Shadows"? Just a bit tighter. I have a fantasy novel that would be a debut sitting at 180,000 words and I sooo want it to be smaller but not sure how to do it! I'm in revisions right now and it is ... overwhelming.
Characters dismissing the little things can really make your skin crawl! The Haunting of Hill House (the novel, not the show) does such a great job of that with the narrator. And thanks re: the title! I hear you - trimming words is so hard. I'd much rather have a too-short draft that I need to flesh out, but alas!
Hi Michelle :) I'm so happy to hear that you feel like coming back to Sandstorm (the real title is AMAZING! I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH) and I complitely understand the need to see things on paper. Right now I'm brainstorming my world (urban fantasy with multiverse potential and fairytale weirdness :D), characters, plot etc and I just need to have it on paper (with colors and everything) even if it would be so so so much easier to dump all the info into Scrivener. But it somehow does'nt click for me then, the feeling of words on paper is somehow different and I need it to be able to think about it. And the most scary thing for me is Sadako from "Ring". I watched it 20? years ago (I was afraid to close my eyes then so sleeping was tricky) and to this day I sometimes go faster from bathroom to bedroom at night when Sadako will pop up in my mind ;) There is no particular scene, just character as a whole: her movement when she was going out of well/tv, face covered with creepy hair, the inevitability of her (so even when she was just standing in the corner with those hair and everything i was terryfied). There is also a scene in "Shining" (book), with lady in bathtub that seemed similiar enough to scare me too. Not as much but still. I'm so happy that we can help you with your new book :) Good luck with your projects and everything else too :)
Thank you so much!! And yes, Sadako - absolutely terrifying, could not agree more. The movement is what did it for me. Humans moving/acting not like humans = YIKES. The description of the bathtub lady in The Shining is incredible, too.
Reading "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" really stands out to me! It doesn't rely on gore or jumpscares or anything, just builds the most intense sense of unease and dread. I ended up reading it all in one sitting and when I finished it I flipped straight back to the first page. I think it's a great example of atmosphere and has one of my favorite reveals ever.
ahhh that's the second comment with this rec, which I think means I need to check it out! I hadn't even heard of it (the book or the film). Thank you!!!
I’ve got two! The moment in When a Stranger Calls when the cops say, “The calls are coming from inside the house.” Like NOPE absolutely not! And a scary story I heard as a kid when this girl goes back to her room for something she forgot before going out and doesn’t turn on the light. When she returns home her roommate is murdered and a message is left for her on the bathroom mirror that reads: Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light. Also I’m reading Other Birds by Sara Addison Allen right now and it made me think of your project because it’s a multi POV with a lot of POV characters. I’m not sure you really need examples or anything, but I thought she did a really great job head hopping and making all the characters interesting. And I also just wanted to say I love your channel! This is literally my comfort RU-vid channel lol and I’m super excited you’ve started posting again and hope you’re feeling better!
That line!! It's funny today, but back then that was seriously terrifying, right?? Also omg, I heard that scary story when I was a kid too....thanks for the memories. o.o That sounds like a great rec, thank you! And another thank you for the kind words. I'm so happy you enjoy the videos, and I appreciate you watching!! :)
oooooo horror moments! The radio playing the same song by itself and not turning off even when unplugged. I grew up pre-wi-fi and pre-Mac-batteries, so this really scared me. The TV on legs coming to life in an early Twilight Zone (I think). Scariest book scene: victim waiting for the water in an enclosed tank to drown him/her. And boarding up the house in the Night of the Living Dead.
I don't watch or read horror at all usually, but I was convinced to watch A Quiet Place a few years ago. I scariest part was the nail sticking up out of the floorboard. I think it was the anticipation that made me more scared than the actual moment someone stepped on it. As soon as it showed the nail sticking out, I knew someone would step on it and would have to avoid screaming. I was thinking about it even when it wasn't on screen.
I had to listen to a cassette tape (yup) about one "Duchess Dracula" when I was ten or so. For YEARS I couldn't be outside in the dark without my collar up to my ears.
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor it was in the eighties. And it was in Germany. (If there ever was an English version it'd probably be Countess Dracula. I mixed them up.)
Recently just watched a RU-vid short that was only 7 minutes long but literally one of the scariest things I've ever seen, and I'm an avid horror fan! Called Portrait of God 😱
Hey Michelle 🤗 I love horror hahah, but tend to watch more than read the genre. Scariest scenes... Let me think. Several moments in the Conjuring 1 and 2, especially the "hide and clap" and "Nun painting" scenes (shivers). When I was little, I was terrified of The Sixth Sense, and in particular I kept dreaming about the scene where the boy hides in his tent and the dead girl slowly approaches and enters. The Haunting of Hill House is also very good and so is Bly Manor, definitely recommend both if you're looking for ideas! One thing that always gets me if done well is the use of sleep paralysis, especially when you KNOW something is happening... or coming. I know it's sort of a given, but highly recommend Stephen King as well: the books I've read have stuck with me not because there was something truly terrifying, rather for the way he builds anguish and a general continuous state of foreboding. A similar feeling is given by Hereditary; it's not scary per se, imho, just a well-managed angst (and one disturbing scene... if you know, you know 🙃). Another movie that isn't extremely scary but has stayed with me for years---I still think about it sometimes---is the Skeleton Key. Other tropes that can be pretty darn scary if used well: mirrors, house in the middle of nowhere (especially deep in the woods or surrounded by water), basements (sometimes attics too), darkness with meager light (flashlight, lighter, cellular, etc) flickering, bedroom door open into dark hallway (especially if asleep or trying to fall asleep), doors opening of their own volition, abandoned building, children. Yes, children. They can be absolutely petrifying in horror 🤣 Honorable mentions include: A Quiet Place, Case 39, Rec, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, The Others, American Horror Story, The Orphanage.
Absolutely loved Hill House, and it stuck with me for so long that I haven't worked up the nerve to watch Bly Manor yet! I'm an Stephen King superfan for sure, and The Sixth Sense definitely freaked me out. Those are all such great recs (I've seen the trailers for almost all of them, even if I'm not brave enough for the full film haha). I love that list of horror elements - could NOT agree more about children. I mean...the twins in The Shining? Children of the Corn? Any movie about dolls?? eek
I'm so not good at dealing with horror. 😂I can watch some horror but reading it feels too in-your-face intimate which feels more horrifying. Btw, thank you for your outlining videos. They've really helped me break through figuring out the 6 POV/3 timeline story. I admire the heck out of ya for working on 4 different book projects. I'm usually a one-project-at-a-time person but this year I'm also taking on ghostwriting for freelance (got my first client this week) editing one manuscript and drafting another. I'm working on my time management for all that.
For me it has to be spider granny in the movie Legion. It was a spectacular, eyes wide jaw dropped moment. At the time is was scary. To me it was the best scene of the movie.
Two scenes come in mind: The wall of boxes with hundreds of Chuckys in it on Child’s Play. Forever creep out by dolls. When you see half of IT’s face in the sewer after the paper boat keeps going with the water current. Forever creep out by clowns and the sewer gaps. Granted… I saw parts of those movies when I was too young to see them.
Seems like when mundane things get a creepy edge I get spook or traumatized lol. I’m, of course, from the Final Destination trauma that prays to every god out there not to die when I drive behind a lumberjack truck.
I dont do horror because I have an overactive imagination (plus I'm a big chicken). BUT I do LOVE Asian media particularly horror. They get me to love their characters, then off them in heart-wrenching ways, leaving me absolutely gutted. Sweet Home and Alice in Borderland on Netflix comes to mind. Sweet Home has humans turning into monsters due to a curse. This lady lost her baby to a hit and run so now she roams the apartments with a stroller that has a baby doll in it. She ends up caring for 2 kids who lost their father to a monster. Found family trope. When she started turning, she fought it, made them lunches and knitted them scarves before turning into the most harmless thing against them: A fetus. I was bawling by the end of that scene. Everyone thought she was a horrible mother. That whole series perfectly encapsulates the horrors of humanity and begs the question: "What makes a monster?" Because the "monsters" were fighting their urges to savlage their humanity while the real monsters were humans who didnt turn. Still haunts me today... Have a great weekend, Michelle! Hi Rosa :-)
You might be making space for Tiago Forte’s Second Brain method. Although most of what is online is trying to herd people into notion & other apps, the principles (CODE: Capture, Organize, Distillation & Express) play AMAZINGLY well with Scrivener… or at least how you are resolving your way forward.
You know, I gave Notion a real shot - even paid for a template - and I just found it too overwhelming! I was spending way too much time organizing it and not enough time actually working. I'm envious of people like Tiago who use those methods and make it look so cool and effective! And I've never seen anyone use with with Scrivener - that's awesome.
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I realized over the holidays that most of the content about 2nd 🧠 was following the same format as the AG1 ad reads. I frequently see the intertextual connections since Betty Edwards asked her followers to work the toolbox one collects by using her drawing drills. I think Scrivener is better suited because of the point the Literature and Latte folks make in the primer video they posted this week, the platform (we need to stop thinking it’s just an app) is not Word, Pages nor Open Office. The binder has too many features play well in the diversity of Creative minds. If one makes an organizing a writer’s room or editorial calendar dogfooding the process on Scrivener.
I'm not good with horror so I don't watch many. I found The Omen very scary when I was younger - the whole Antichrist thing really stayed with me for ages. I can't even watch a clip of Stephen King's IT or I get nightmares! I also agree with another comment below that the Woman in Black was scary but my father laughed through the whole thing so I guess it's hard to find something that frightens everyone. One book I read which was a great ghost story was Dark Matter by Michelle Paver about an Arctic expedition where stuff starts going wrong. Well written and great build up of tension. The scariest thing for me was a dream I had about my mother just after she'd died. I was standing in a creepy old country house at the bottom of the stairs looking up at a portrait of my mother on the wall on the upstairs landing. She was dressed in a late 19th Century black gown, her mouth was black and gaping and her eyes bright white glowing slits with this weird roaring noise all around me. There was a rushing, howling wind blowing everything around and my brother as a kid, was standing on the upstairs landing laughing and pointing down at me. My husband woke me up because I was apparently making distressed noises in my sleep. God, that seriously freaked me out! The idea that my sweet mum could be evil was really horrible. I had quite a few bad ones after she died but that was the worst. Just to say my mum was lovely so there's nothing odd in our relationship 🙂but I just kept having weird dreams after her sudden death.
IT really stands the test of time, right?? So scary! Oh man, expeditions gone wrong are indeed terrifying - but if it has cannibalism, I'm out. I seriously cannot stomach that, pun totally intended. Holy hell, your description of that dream is amazing/horrifying - have you considered turning that into a short story?? It's so visceral! And also, I'm so very sorry for your loss. Weird dreams really get next level when we're grieving, don't they?!
I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a good psychological horror book. It was unsettling but nothing horror-y happens. It's all vibes. Skip the movie cuz it's bad, but the book (and thr audiobook in particular) is worth a look.
I domt do horror, I hate being scared! For me the scary moments that stand out are usually body horror but I remember this one scene from the scorch trials where they are hiding in a vent waiting for creatures like a zombie to walk away and when it's been a long time and they think they are all gone it turns out one was waiting and when it hears their voices it reaches in the vent to grab them. Also the monster from the ocean at the end of the lane scared me so bad when the kid couldn't get away from her
Body horror is one thing I really struggle with! I suppose it's effective in that it gets a very visceral reaction out of me, but I tend to avoid those stories for that exact reason.
I watched the old B&W Night of the Living Dead when I was alone and waaay too young (like 7 years old) and had zombie nightmares into adulthood. Despite that, it also triggered an obsession with zombie movies. Anyway, what troubled me most (at the time) was all the work the group of survivors went through to create a safe space but then all their effort coming to naught as the zombies broke through the barricades and they ended up locking themselves in the basement (they could have started with that!, I remember thinking). I was very distraught that despite all the struggle, nothing worked and everyone died at the end. I was definitely not prepared for the ending--maybe it was the first time my expectation the MC would at least survive was so severely subverted.
Ohhh that's a good one - and yeah, the stories where despite it all, the characters don't survive at the end are always such a gut punch. The Descent is one I remember having SUCH a rug pull of an ending, oof...
Hi Michelle, I think any scene where there is a face, or someone glimpsed at a dark window is terrifying. These scenes have always scared me much more than blood and violence. Other scenes that stand out as very scary are: The Woman in Black (film) the scene with old children's toys and a rocking chair moving on its own. Neil Gaiman's (book) Coraline has some very scary bits where people have buttons for eyes and mouths are being sewn shut, I seem to remember. Hideous! even though it's a children's book. I also find many scenes in the 1963 film The Haunting (based on Shirley Jackson's book) really scary, although you see very little in the way of ghosts or horror. Not sure if any of this is at all helpful! But your book sounds really intriguing. Can't wait to read it one day.
One horror moment that has stuck with me is from the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose. They’re in her dorm room, her and her boyfriend are sleeping, and he rolls over and opens his eyes and she’s on the floor in like a weird back bend contorting way and the way it followed his POV so you experience the shock of seeing her like that along with him definitely stuck.
QUESTION for Michelle and kind people in the comment section: do you know any friendly writing groups and/or communities (forums, discord, anything) for ppl who enjoy writing and to talk about writing process? :)
I'm going to be odd and say that the scariest movie I ever saw was Unbreakable with Bruce Willis. That final scene when Glass's backstory and evil deeds laied out.... it was too real. Too relatable in that way of glimsing the worst of humanityl But I'm not a horror fan and haven't seen many horror movies/tv etc
@Michelle Schusterman fair warning it's not technically a horror, more action adventure but M.Night Shamalan was just off the Sixth Sense. The movie itself is a bit bland but Glass's actions and motivations were horrifying and that final twist hit me hard. It was so ... human
The Deep. Just, all of it. Nick Cutter weaponizes his diction to give scenarios that are pretty creepy that extra umph. Its all body and eldritch horror. There is a horrible dog scene (read this as a warning as well) that was simultaneously the creepiest and saddest scene I've read, and it still sticks with me years later. I'm not affected by horror books. Nick broke that trend.
Well, you're the one who essentially recommended the Diviners, so I got nothing horror wise. Unless the YA Darkest Powers series and Darkness Rising series from Kelley Armstrong count....those I could recommend but while there's horror elements (to me) they aren't categorised under horror, at least in the library system. As for word counts and debuts, I'm really hoping word count doesn't work against me. Just over 109k with my queried story, kept under 110k because several writing blogs and agents referenced 110k as "too high for debut authors" but specified that, if the genre allows it, 109k is less daunting for agents/editors, etc. to consider. (Not quite sure why. But I'm running with that info) I'm hoping that I can go the way of Tracy Deonn and be allowed 160k words in edits for publishing......but that is a wickedly high and likely unrealistic goal. But I just love how high her word count was allowed to be because she was able to fully flesh out each novel. Anyway, enough rambling about myself. Sorta, because I gotta say your real title for Sandstorm and what you told us so far really has me wanting to read it even more! I really hope you get this story published, as well a Kith, because even though horror is more the genre I've stumbled into (very rarely) if the characters draw me in, I'm loving what you've told us about it so far and those details are drawing me in. Anyway, I hope your work is going well, and that your brainstorming/outlining of Kith goes fluidly, and that your work on Sandstorm fills you with excitement and joy. You deserve to work on your own stories without burn out, so I'm wishing you luck and happy writing! Hope you can enjoy the weekend!❤
I love the horror scenes in The Diviners so much. :) And hey, if you're writing speculative fiction, you really can push that word count limit a bit! And it's really common to see a debut novel come out that falls under that 110k mark, but all of the author's future books are much longer. It's almost like they just want you to prove yourself with that first book. And thank you re: the title and all the kind words! I'm feeling positive about both projects at the moment, which (as you know) is rare so I'm going to savor it, haha. Hope you have a great weekend too!
The worst horror (and /or thriller) scenes for me are those when people realize they are buried alive. Especially when they are in a very small "room" and cannot move. (Worst one is the ending of the original dutch movie "Spoorloos" from 1988, NOT the Remake from 1993 called "the Vanishing" and there is a short story by Stephen King that has the same theme that was bad for me to read as well. And several TV Crime Series like CSI and Bones had episodes dealing with someone being buried alive.) And the beginning of the German horro movie Anatomy from the early 2000s when someone wakes up during a surgery and the scene is filmed from his perspective gave me nightmares as well.
