GREAT SHORT STORIES FOR HALLOWEEN LIST by Matt Cowan

I have written a number of articles detailing short stories of several great horror writers over the past two years and have enjoyed nearly all of them. This year I thought I would assemble ten ghastly tales that seem tailor made for the Halloween month. The stories that made this list were included because they had great atmosphere, terrifying supernatural happenings and some malevolent entity at work. I limited my choices to one per author. The fact that most of them do not actually take place at Halloween is immaterial. The overall ambience and themes contained within them perfectly coincide with the most haunted of months. They are not listed in any order other than by their publishing date, as I love them all too much to rank them otherwise. All but two of those listed below (“Thurnley Abbey” and “The Other Side”) have been mentioned in previous articles that can be found by searching the archives here in the Matt’s Blog section of the site.

1. “Schalken the Painter” - by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1851) – A ghoulish set of events are set in motion when a peculiar, hideous man arrives offering a kings ransom to an artist for the rights to marry his daughters, despite their never having met.

2. “No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince” - by Ralph Adams Cram (1895) – A man inherits a house that was previously used as a meeting place for witches and warlocks. When he decides to spend a night there, he finds their influence still pervades its walls despite their absence.

3.“The Mezzotint” - by M.R. James (1904) – The printed image of a house and its grounds keeps changing to show a monstrous figure moving closer to the structure, eventually entering through a window.

4. “Thurnley Abbey” - by Perceval Landon (1908) – This classic haunted house story tells the tale of a soldier who boasts to friends about what he would do if he ever encountered a real ghost. Much to his dismay, his claims are soon put to a horrifying test.

5. “The Whistling Room” - by William Hope Hodgson (1909) - The great ghost-finder Carnacki investigates his most bizarre case. It involves a haunted room in a castle where a loud whistling can be heard even though no one is there.

6. “Caterpillars” - by E.F. Benson (1912) – One of the strangest stories I have ever read! A room seems to have a most peculiar curse upon it that causes a man to see a huge mass of unnatural caterpillars stacked like a pyramid on a bed.

7. “The Beast with Five Fingers” - by W.F. Harvey (1919) – A chilling story involving a man’s hand that seems to have acquired a dark intellect of its own, and what it does after its host bodies death.

8. “The Cotillon” - by L.P. Hartley (1948) – A masquerade ball gets an unexpected visitor with a grim secret.

9. "The Calamander Chest" - by Joseph Payne Brennan (1954) – A man keeps seeing a ghostly dead finger poking out of a chest he recently obtained scratching at its surface with a long black fingernail.

10. “The Other Side” - by Ramsey Campbell (1985) - A stern teacher watches the menacing actions of a mysterious, evil clown from the safety of his window. The clown is a malignant supernatural force that knows the teacher is watching it.