I know quite a few people who consider "A Prayer for Owen Meany" one of their favorite books, although I've avoided it because I thought it sounded too "Tin Drum"-y. I need to give it a go, along with Irving's work in general.

I think "Interview with the Vampire" is a good book. It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember loving the part where Louis confesses his wickedness to an indignant priest, and then transgressively surrenders to his vampire nature and kills the priest. And, yes, Lestat was a great character.

I know I've got a lame-ass first name, but, "O'Dare" notwithstanding, nobody should be named Toby, unless you're a Jewish girl or a dog. There's a reason it was used as a demeaning slave name, and there's no way to get around sounding stupid by avoiding the diminutive and going by, what, Tobias, Tobin — Tobit, for…

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
was a pretty good book, I thought. It has a similar theme, and I'd recommend it over this one for its lack of time travel, angels, and a character named Toby O'Dare.

I'm throwing my hat in with Big Jerk too. I thought "District 9" was ridiculously overrated, and much of the viewing experience was like watching a video game.

"May" really bothered me for exactly those reasons. And, yes, I hate contact lenses. I'm just not gonna put something on my eyeballs. I don't even like wearing goggles when I swim — I've got to have a scuba mask.

I don't know, I think there's something sort of intriguing about a woman completely covered with horselike black hair. Maybe all the Blair Witch really needed … was love.

Otto, thanks for mentioning Algernon Blackwood and "Wendigo." I've been reading a lot of Blackwood lately (a mixed bag, but when he was good, he was great), and I've been on an even bigger Arthur Machen jag. "The Great God Pan," "The Three Imposters," and "The White People": all incredibly good.

The barely alive people embedded in the alien-tissue wall, serving as human incubators, begging to be killed: That's what got to me most, watching "Aliens."

The original "Wicker Man" is one of my favorite movies of any genre. And Edward Woodward's character *is* an annoying, preachy twit, but a strangely likeable one, in my opinion, thanks to Woodward's performance. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times he peevishly knocks something out of frame with…

My stepson used to make blinders with his hands whenever he had to walk through the horror section of a video store.

When I saw "The Descent," at the outset of the movie I wondered if "descent" had a double meaning and Juno was a descendent of the cave monsters, luring her friends down to them. Not so, but it was an intriguing thought.

God, I used to love those Three Investigators books when I was little. So much fucking better than the Hardy Boys.

I read "Gramma" a few years after I had seen the "Twilight Zone" episode, but they both unnerved me on a dread-inducing Freudian level. I haven't seen the episode since it first aired when I was eight years old, but I remember how frightened I was by "Gramma"'s hulking shape under the covers and the idea that the boy…

I don't even remember any "Darkside" episodes — that intro was enough to make me stay up nights with the lights on when I was a kid. So creepy.

It may not be as well-crafted a film overall, but I think most of the special effects in "The Gate" hold up better than comparable ones in "Poltergeist." The little demons are impressively rendered, as are the monstrous hands emerging from under a bed, the revived dead man falling to the floor and breaking into…

I'm not sure it falls under the "creepy kid" category you have in mind, since the children in it are not individually defined characters, but "Who Can Kill a Child?" is one of the scariest movies I've seen, and one of my all-around favorite horror films.

It's a very underrated movie, definitely, but it doesn't hold a candle to the book. Except, unfortunately, when it comes to Bradbury's propensity for cornball colloquialisms. Jeezum crow!

That's because there's no such thing as ghosts, or God, etc.

"The Brood" is creepy as fuck.