To be clear, it doesn't bother me if the authors themselves are liberals, as long as the book/story doesn't have woke nonsense. In that sense, I guess older novels would be the best bet.
EDIT - Holy moly, thanks for all of the suggestions. I have my work cut out for me, looking into all these authors this summer.
I know it's a cliche but I really enjoyed them: all of lovecrafts stories. He's just put the right amount of fascinating, creepy and scary in them.
Other than that I enjoyed Shining by King but everyone also knows that one.
If you're not opposed: there's great manga in that regard, mostly Junji Ito. I've recently gotten more of them in a collection. It's the master of the page turn and I love that especially. Some of the stories might be hit or miss with some but I feel like he's got everyone covered with his stories.
Lovecraft is a must.
These have to be read, they can't be told as movies.
The woke mob wants to erase him because of his 'black' cat so kids these days might have missed out. Lovecraft created a whole new genre and is still the king of it.
What? They have a problem with his cat, Niggerman? Why do they have a problem with Niggerman?
Richard Matheson’s stories still hold up pretty well.
Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International is action/horror.
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman is a good medieval horror story that isn’t woke.
Thanks, I will definitely be looking into those.
I'm presently reading The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson.
Written in 1912. Source of inspiration for Lovecraft, himself.
Did my post in Smith1980's thread get you interested or just coincidence?
Not coincidental at all. Basically went straight to the library
Awesome, glad it hit home. It's a fascinating read.
Elementals, cold moon over Babylon, gilded needles- Micheal McDowell. Infected- Scott siegler. Watchers, Phantoms- dean koontz. Ghost story- Peter straub. Lesser dead- Christopher buehlman. Hell house- Richard matheson. Metro 2033 dmitry glukhovsky. Hex- Thomas olde heuvelt. Kings older novels hold up.
I can second Richard Matheson (Steven King’s favorite author). Any older Steven King like IT, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, or the Shining. Lovecraft or Koontz
I was going to say Lovecraft as well. He's the definition of non-woke - he even wrote a poem about black people
I might suggest looking for short-story collections that multiple authors have contributed to, then checking to see if the people you enjoyed have further works in the genre. I don’t read much pure horror, but an author I do read (Larry Correia) skirts the genre line sometimes, and has contributed to one or two anthologies you might find interesting:
Space Eldritch 2: The Haunted Stars (apparently, this one is the better of the two Space Eldritch anthologies)
Shared Nightmares
V-Wars: Night Terrors (I believe V-Wars has multiple anthologies and comic books, but I didn’t like the setting enough to look for more).
S.T. Joshi and Thomas Ligotti probably fit that criteria well.
The Collector by John Fowles, is an amazing look at what is probably a budding killer (ironically, it directly inspired 3 separate serial killers, 2 of which based their crimes directly on it) as he meanders pathetically through life. Unlike most murderer type books, Clegg is an utterly pathetic man who is so beta he cannot even fathom social functioning. So instead he kidnaps a girl to hopefully "convince her to love him."
Which makes it so horrifying is that despite his sad, weak willed nature, he is still able to commit atrocities in pursuit of something almost beautiful. There are dozens of erotic romance novels with the same premise, but instead of Clegg its an alpha chad so its so hot, but because its him its got this layer of creep and uncomfortable horror about his every action. Including how easy it is to feel bad for him.
He was also discovered long after his death to have hated Jews, gays, and Muslims if that makes it better for you. I don't think it shows in his work.
Not all horror but the horror stories in here are really good https://www.amazon.com/Toynbee-Convector-Ray-Bradbury
The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers
I haven't really been a fan of horror since I came of age, but I read most of James Herbert's output when I was younger. If you've somehow missed him, then you have to go back and check, although be prepared for graphic sexual descriptions as well as horror.
He wrote The Fog , The Dark, Moon and many others. It's been too long to remember specific favourites, but just be aware of reading order in case you're jumping in on a book that's part of a series (eg. there's a Rats trilogy, a David Ash trilogy, maybe more). He also wrote some non-horror curiosities like Fluke (man reborn as dog; sounded so odd that I never bothered to read it, but it got a bad movie adaptation) and '48 (post apoc London setting where Hitler won WW2 using a bioweapon - more of an action thriller novel, somewhat un-based to the extent that nazi types are the bad guys but I have vague fond memories).
Lovecraft's Monsters is a short story collection of fan fiction for Lovecraft's world. I enjoyed most of them.
Clockwork Elf by Alfred Haus. It's a horror adventure mix set in Victorian England while an elf and an engineer hunt monsters.
The original Dracula by Bram Stoker and Frakenstein by Mary Shelly are both still great.
The John Dies at the End series (David Wong) was suitably fucked up and fun to read. I'll add the disclaimer that I haven't picked up the 4th and most recent yet but the other 3 were all original, at least.
Do not watch the movie if you haven't already. The budget simply wasn't enough to cover the breadth of the book and it doesn't hold up well.