Classic Horror Fiction in the Spotlight

Written by Jon Williams

There were no new episodes of Stranger Things this year, with Season 3 of the popular show not coming until 2019. Television lovers looking for their fix of a creepy show to binge watch to get them in the Halloween spirit, however, are in luck anyway. The latest sensation is The Haunting of Hill House, a loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 horror novel, bringing it into the modern day and spreading it across ten episodes exploring the lives of a family who spent a fateful summer in the titular house and the rest of their lives dealing with the aftermath. Show creator Mike Flanagan is well known to horror fans, with movies like Oculus and Ouija: Origin of Evil to his credit. He also recently adapted the Stephen King novel Gerald’s Game, and is working on the author’s Doctor Sleep (coming in 2020) as well.

The show is certain to spur new interest in Shirley Jackson’s novel, and the author’s other works are great for this time of year as well. One such novel is We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a gothic murder mystery from 1962. She also wrote a non-fiction exploration of the Salem Witch Trials, The Witchcraft of Salem Village, in 1956. All of these titles are available in the audio format on hoopla as well, as is a collection of short stories that includes “The Lottery,” perhaps her most famous and chilling work.

This is also a great time to promote other classic horror fiction to your patrons. That begins, of course, with Mary Shelley’s 1823 novel Frankenstein. This story of a creature cobbled together and animated by a young scientist has been adapted any number of times over the years, perhaps most famously in 1931 with Boris Karloff as the monster. The most recent, 2015’s Victor Frankenstein, starred James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant Igor. Starting in 2005, bestselling novelist Dean Koontz (an author whose work horror fans would do well to explore) put out a five-book series bringing Frankenstein and his monster into modern times.

And of course, it’s impossible to mention Frankenstein without also mentioning Dracula, the seminal vampire novel published in 1897 by Bram Stoker. Like Frankenstein, Dracula too received a 1931 adaptation, with Bela Lugosi in the starring role, although an earlier, unlicensed adaptation, Nosferatu, rivals that version as the most famous. The vampire novel is one of the most enduring horror traditions, with iconic tales like Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire just two examples. More recently, Canadian author Dacre Stoker has taken up the tale originated by his ancestor, co-authoring 2009’s Dracula, the Un-Dead, a direct sequel to the original, and the just-released Dracul, a prequel written in part from documents Bram Stoker left behind.

And this is just scratching the surface of classic horror. Other works include the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irvine,  At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, and The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, to name just a few. And although they’re perhaps more well known for their terrifying movie adaptations, Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist bear mention as well. There’s a lot to choose from for those who love things that go bump in the night. What are some of your and/or your patrons’ favourites? Let us know!

Celebrate 15 Years of The Walking Dead

Written by Jon Williams

On October 8, 2003, The Walking Dead issue #1 hit comic shops everywhere. Coming right on the heels of the acclaimed movie 28 Days Later, it helped start a snowball effect to begin the zombie craze that is still building to this day. Now, The Walking Dead is still going strong as a comic series, with issue #184 coming out earlier this week, and creator Robert Kirkman saying the end is still “far away off.” In conjunction with the fifteenth anniversary of the first issue’s release, October 13 has been designated as Walking Dead Day. To help your library celebrate with your patrons, here’s a look at the pop culture phenomenon that The Walking Dead has become.

The namesake television series The Walking Dead premiered, fittingly enough, on Halloween, October 31, 2010. Like the comic, it centered on Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a small-town sheriff who awakes from a coma to find the hospital he is in, as well as the world outside, overrun by zombies. His life becomes a fight for survival as he struggles to figure out what’s going on and search for other survivors, particularly his family. The show has been a sensation, breaking viewership records for a cable series, and has gone on through its various seasons to explore the threat posed by other human survivors, personified by such memorable villains as the Governor (David Morrissey) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), as well as the ever-present zombie menace. This Sunday, October 7, the ninth season debuts, with this being notable as Andrew Lincoln’s last, as the show will shift its focus to Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) as they attempt to lead the survivors.

With the show’s success, it’s no surprise that it has spawned a spinoff of its own. Unlike The Walking Dead, which began more or less with the zombie apocalypse already underway, Fear the Walking Dead explores what it was like to experience the world descending into chaos. Debuting in August of 2015, it follows Madison (Kim Dickens) and Travis (Cliff Curtis) as they try desperately to keep their family alive and together. The fourth season, which just concluded on September 30, brought the two shows together with the introduction of Morgan, a character originated by Lennie James in the first season of The Walking Dead and brought back in season 5. Fear the Walking Dead has been picked up for its own fifth season, as it and the original show seem poised to continue far into the future.

The Walking Dead began its life in the comic format, but it has expanded into other areas of publishing as well. In 2011, the novel Rise of the Governor brought the backstory of that intriguing villain to life, and it was followed by The Road to Woodbury and The Fall of the Governor Parts 1 and 2 to round out the story arc. Series creator Robert Kirkman teamed up with writer Jay Bonansinga to tell the Governor’s story, and then Bonansinga continued on with four more novels: Descent, Invasion, Search and Destroy, and Return to Woodbury. Fans of the comic series and the show won’t want to miss these stories that delve into the niches of beloved characters and settings.

With so much content available, and plenty more on the way, fans of The Walking Dead are everywhere, and they’ll be looking for ways to celebrate on October 13. Make sure you have plenty of zombie-related media on your shelves for them to check out. And for those who just can’t wait, point them toward hoopla, where they can find Jay Bonansinga’s audiobooks, as well as the entire comic series, available with no holds and no waiting.