As Halloween approaches Brian gives us his favourites.

From Clive Barker to Dracula, from James Herbert to Frankenstein, the list is endless as we, the devoted followers of horror, read and get our fill of the darker side. What makes us read such chilling tales? Is it night time and its shadowy silhouettes or are we just children who grew up in a few shadowy rooms?

I know my parents grew up in rooms with nothing more than a religious picture in the corner with the bleeding heart of Christ or Mary the virgin mother looking down. These rooms were grim definitely.

I myself have walked on many a dark night and felt the chill of the wind and seen shadows play on the imagination. The mountains where I grew up are steeped in stories of a horrific kind that have never seen print.

I started reading horror books while on holiday in Waterford at about 13 years of age. The book entitled ‘Bats’ was by James Herbert and the more I got into it the more I gazed out the window at night time when I should have been asleep.

Bats seem also to have spawned the great ‘Dracula’, a book written by our own Bram Stoker. I wonder was this story based on any real-life character from Mr Stoker’s times.

Also readily available is the great ‘Frankenstein’, written by Mary Shelley, wife of the great poet Percy Shelley, who tragically died at age 30. Edgar Allen Poe is another gothic/ horror writer with such classics as ‘The Black Cat’ which inspired a film starring the kings of horror Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. To see this film is to step back in time to a black and white era when tension made the film.

Other favourites of the horror era are ‘Nosferatu’ the great monster with two fanged front teeth which also reminds me of ‘Salems Lot’ by Stephen King when the same monster was used– a very frightening beast he is too. Nowadays, horror films are two to a penny and Hollywood seems to think that the more evil and bloody, the better the film. I have to disagree with this.

The last Horror book I read was ‘Creed’ by James Herbert and I can only say that at my age it’s a comical journey from cover to cover. I have read all of Clive Barker’s books, so if you want a short journey to the other side of reality I can recommend them. From ‘Cabal’ to ‘Hellraiser’ they always work their magic.

Now the witching hour is here, this Halloween be sure to read a good horror book or even see a film and marvel at the characters of the dark side.