When October rolls around, most people think about cooler weather, bonfires, the leaves changing colors, warm spiced drinks, pumpkins and all the trappings of Halloween.
For me, this is the time of year when I like to curl up with a good, spooky book or movie. I love mysteries, suspense and yes, the paranormal.
My favorite scary movies include both old and new. Anything by Alfred Hitchcock is for me – “Psycho”, “Rear Window” and “The Birds” top the list. When I was a kid, I loved watching movies that began with a “dark and stormy night” and perhaps included an escaped murderer.
I really like M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” with Mel Gibson. It goes along with my firm belief that all things happen for a reason and if you pay close attention, there are always signs pointing to every outcome. It’s unrealistic to think that aliens could really try to take over Earth. But with the way things are in the world today, you have to wonder: could this be next?
I also like psychological thrillers involving split personalities, or to be more politically correct, dissociative identity disorder. There is something very bone-chilling about watching someone morph into a completely different person, of any age and gender, right before your eyes. The movie “Split” (also Shyamalan) portrays that quite well.
This summer, I watched all the “Final Destination” movies. Each is about a young person who envisions a tragic incident before it happens and is able to save themselves and many others before the tragedy actually happens. Then, it happens. What occurs after that is a frightening series of deaths among the survivors, in order of when they were meant to die in the first incident. Chilling!
As for scary books, I love anything by Stephen King and Dean Koontz. The Taking by Koontz was so riveting that I forced my late husband, who never got into books, to read it years ago. And he liked it as much as I did! My adult son is reading it right now. I’m currently exploring more recent titles and just finished The Girl in Cabin 13. Good stuff!
My favorite, though, is the Krewe of Hunters Series by Heather Graham. The “Krewe” is a group of agents in an FBI unit who each have “special” skills. One of them can see and speak to the dead. Another can hear the voices of murder victims and others are psychic in some way. All of these skills help them to solve homicides. And some of the dead characters always point them in the right direction. There are 38 books in this series, and I have read all but one. They are truly all-nighters!
