8. Danse Macabre (1981)
"Nothing is so frightening as what's behind the closed door. The audience holds its breath along with the protagonist as she/he (more often she) approaches that door. The protagonist throws it open, and there is a ten-foot-tall bug. The audience screams, but this particular scream has an oddly relieved sound to it. 'A bug ten feet tall is pretty horrible', the audience thinks, 'but I can deal with a ten-foot-tall bug. I was afraid it might be a hundred feet tall'. Ive chosen a particularly long quote to illustrate this book but its one of my favourites and I think it exemplifies Danse Macabre well. As someone who is often described as the Master of Horror King is the ideal writer for a book on the genre and his speculation about what makes something scary are very interesting. I particularly like his theory Tales of the Tarot which posits that there are only 3 types of horror villain; the vampire, the werewolf and the thing. His commentary on many of the famous, and some not-so-famous books, films and radio plays of the genre is interesting and informative and it greatly added to my To read and To watch lists. I would say that anyone whos interested in horror in any of its incarnations or who wants to know what scares people and why should read this book.