History NightmareFuel / ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark

* "The Man In The Middle," which by itself is not that scary, but its horror comes from the simple fact that, like "Sounds," it could [[RealismInducedHorror easily happen in real life]]. Two guys get on the subway assisting what appears to be a drunk friend, get off at different stops, then it's revealed at the end that the third man was DeadAllAlong.

-->''When she looked down at him, she saw a trickle of blood on the side of his head and, just above it, a bullet hole.''

* "The Man In The Middle," which by itself is not that scary, but its horror comes from the simple fact that like "Sounds" it could [[RealismInducedHorror easily happen in real life]]. Two guys get on the subway assisting what appears to be a drunk friend, get off at different stops, then it's revealed at the end that the third man was DeadAllAlong.

''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'' packs a good amount of scary stuff into the literary content, but some of its stories are overall fairly tame. The original illustrations by Stephen Gammell, however, are much more terrifying than they have any right to be and turn the most cliché urban legends into absolute horror shows. These are children's books by the way; they may as well have just called them ''Scary Illustrations to Traumatize Your Child''.

* "The Big Toe" in this story, a boy finds a disembodied toe, his mother cuts into three pieces, and the boy and his parents eat it for dinner. The ghost awakens him in the night searching for its toe, in a haunting voice. The boy is of course scared and does not know where the voice is coming from. The voice makes its way slowly creeping into his house, up the stairs, and into his room. The way it all plays out, spooky, and in a somewhat similar ending to "Just Delicious" from the third book. The alternative ending is also creepy.
^ 'The boy sees the creature climb down his chimney. He asks what his big eyes are for and the creature answers "So I can see through you!" Then he asks what his big mouth is for and the creature answers "To swallow you!". Then he asks what his sharp teeth are for and the creature answers "To chomp your bones!"'

** And god forbid you listen to the audiobook. The way the scream at the end of the story sounded was horrifying, making me want to avoid it like the plague! And that same scream is repeated in "Woman of Skin and Bones" and "Man who Lived in Leeds"

** Oddly, the horror of the illustration comes not so much from the spiders as from the girl's extremely pained face, namely how Gammell draws it. Her screaming face is stretched into a ''[[UncannyValley horrible]]'' [[UncannyValley caricature]] of terror and agony, staring ''directly'' [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou at the viewer]].

* "Room for One More". The main character has a dream about a hearse filled with people appearing outside of the house where he's staying. The driver calls out the title line, then drives away. The next day, the dream turns out to be real all along. The protagonist was about to step into a crowded elevator when a passenger, with the same face as the driver, says "There is room for one more." The man wisely declines, and the elevator crashes, killing everyone on board.

''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', oddly enough, has stories that are overall fairly tame. The original illustrations by Stephen Gammell, however, are much more terrifying than they have any right to be and turn the most cliché urban legends into absolute horror shows. These are children's books by the way; they should have just called them ''Scary Illustrations to Traumatize Your Child''.

That said, they still manage to pack some scary stuff into the literary content as well. Here is but a sampling:

* "Oh, Susannah!" Not only is the [[https://i.imgur.com/Hu0Mwhl.jpg original illustration]] terrifying, it has little, if anything, to do with the story it accompanies. The story is the classic "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" urban legend, while the illustration depicts... [[MindScrew a withered head with a single arm, glaring down at a man in a rocking chair being pulled through the sky by some sort of flying eyeball?]] (The [[https://i.imgur.com/I5qBODW.jpg new illustration]], depicting an irritated young woman lying in bed, is more literal.) As for the story itself, it's intended to play on AdultFear, namely, the fear of the predatory SerialKiller lurking around preying on women.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheHudsuckerProxy You know,]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for kids!]]]]

''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', oddly enough, has stories that are overall fairly tame. The original illustrations by Stephen Gammell, however, are totally horrifying and turn the most cliché urban legends into something terrifying. These are children's books by the way; they should have just called them ''Scary Illustrations to Traumatize Your Child''.

''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', oddly enough, has stories that are overall fairly tame. The original illustrations however are totally horrifying and turn the most cliché urban legends into something terrifying. These are children's books by the way; they should have just called them ''Scary Illustrations to Traumatize Your Child''.

* "The Dream"'s illustration. The story very simply describes the mysterious woman of the eponymous dream as having "a pale face, black eyes, and long black hair". Unfortunately, Stephen Gammell took the already present eeriness of the situation and [[http://68.media.tumblr.com/54f45dcfa1b8e4510e1a114ffd3dd05c/tumblr_inline_o1hpfqOFqw1rb54cq_500.jpg cranked it]] UpToEleven by giving the woman beady eyes, a jaw like an orangutan, and an alien-esque slit-like mouth. Plus, the expression she's wearing is vague, but can't quite be called a smile. Or if it is, then it's like ComicBook/TheJoker's smile; you can't tell if it's happy or sinister.

* "The Window". A young girl, Margaret, is attacked by a vampire. And not a ClassicalMovieVampire- a hideous creature with "a shrunken face like that of a mummy, its yellow-green eyes gleaming like a cat's eyes." She survives the attack, and her brothers manage to kill the vampire, but it'll still make you move any beds near a window far, far away.

* "Just Delicious" is one of the select few examples from all three volumes where the story outdoes the illustration. An abusive husband is unknowingly fed liver taken from a dead old woman, and the bad news is that dead woman's spirit wants her liver back. And unfortunately for him, she's willing to settle for ''his''...

* One of the most boring stories in the book gets one of the most terrifying and iconic illustrations: "The Haunted House". House is haunted. PreacherMan is called in to exorcise. He meets the ghost. The ghost tells him where some treasure is and leaves her finger bone with him. Preacher Man digs up the treasure and uses the ghost's finger bone to out the guy who killed her. The ghost's killer is punished and she is put at peace. They all lived happily ever after. Now, the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jUnjDDao20Q/T423CnjcIMI/AAAAAAAAHyU/2YFum7tYjcQ/s1600/001.gif illustration]], on the other hand, shows the heavily detailed face of a rotting corpse woman with empty eye sockets and a decaying mouth that weakly hangs open. Even worse, one collection put the offending illustation '''RIGHT. ON. THE COVER.'''

* "The Wolf Girl" is a supposedly true account of a feral child raised by wolves near the Rio Grande. The last anyone saw of her was when she was a young adult, feeding two wolf cubs. The story is tame, but the accompanying illustration is plain freaky. You can't tell if it's a picture of a girl turning into a werewolf or a picture of a wolf with a girl's head.

* "The Window". A young girl, Margaret, is attacked by a vampire. And not a ClassicalMovieVampire- a hideous creature with "a shrunken face like that of a mummy." She survives the attack, and her brothers manage to kill the vampire, but it'll still make you move any beds near a window far, far away.

* "The Bed By The Window". It's one of the more mundane stories, and that to some makes it even more disturbing. In the story, two bed-bound old men, Richard and George, live in a nursing home. George has a bed near the window, and he constantly describes in detail what he sees to Richard. [[HumansAreBastards Eventually, Richard gets jealous and secretly hides George's heart medication, with the intent to have him die of a heart attack. All for the bed by the window!]] [[KarmicTwistEnding It works, and he finally gets the bed in front of the window]], only to look out and see the blank brick wall of a building next door. He killed his best friend for ''nothing''. And now he has nobody left to keep him company, so he's going to spend the rest of his life alone, living with the guilt. It gets worse when you read the original story's ending: George is later revealed to have been ''blind'' and he told Richard the things he saw outside the window to ''cheer him up''. Ouch! It says a lot when in a book full of ghosts and monsters, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters one of the more profoundly disturbing stories has no supernatural elements at all.]]

* "One Sunday Morning". A young girl attends a different church than she usually does, only to find that it is a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EtcCbYrkpmo/UXnT730y_LI/AAAAAAAAAV8/CBtttcn8KRg/s1600/One+Sunday+Morning.jpg service of the dead]]...and they are ''furious'' at her for being there. The later discovery of the girl's shredded jacket proves that both her supernatural encounter was real and that the undead had savage intentions.
* One of the most boring stories in the book gets one of the most terrifying and iconic illustrations: "The Haunted House". Building is haunted. PreacherMan is called in to exorcise. He meets the ghost. The ghost tells him where some treasure is and leaves her finger bone with him. Preacher Man digs up the treasure and uses the ghost's finger bone to out the guy who killed her. The ghost's killer is punished and she is put at peace. They all lived happily ever after. Now, the [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jUnjDDao20Q/T423CnjcIMI/AAAAAAAAHyU/2YFum7tYjcQ/s1600/001.gif illustration]], on the other hand, shows the heavily detailed face of a rotting corpse woman with empty eye sockets and a decaying mouth that weakly hangs open. Even worse, one collection put the offending illustation '''RIGHT. ON. THE COVER.'''

* "Oh, Susannah!" Not only is the [[https://i.imgur.com/Hu0Mwhl.jpg original illustration]] terrifying, it has little, if anything, to do with the story it accompanies. The story is the classic "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" urban legend, while the illustration depicts... [[MindScrew a withered head with a single arm, glaring down at a man in a rocking chair being pulled through the sky by a flying root?]] (The [[https://i.imgur.com/I5qBODW.jpg new illustration]], depicting an irritated young woman lying in bed, is more literal.) As for the story itself, it's intended to play on AdultFear, namely, the fear of the predatory SerialKiller lurking around preying on women.

* "Wonderful Sausage" is a terrifying example. A butcher goes completely AxCrazy and then starts to [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies kill people to make sausage.]] "People" [[WouldHurtAChild includes little kids]], and he later eats kittens and puppies. [[http://hello-zombie.tumblr.com/post/1341092299/wonderful-sausage-one-dark-rainy-saturday Just read it.]]

* See that illustration up there? That's 'The Thing'. It's fairly tame (ha!) by Gammell's standards, but the story is one of the bad ones. Two best friends, Ted and Sam, are sitting on a fence by a field on a hot summer night when they see something in the field. Its silhouette is described as only ''vaguely'' human, and slips eerily in and out of perception. Sam decides to get a closer look at the entity. Realizing it was corpse like, the friends run away to Ted's house. A year after this ordeal, Ted gets sick and dies. The night that Ted dies,''[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie he looks exactly like the zombie]]''.

* "The Dream"'s illustration. The story very simply describes the mysterious woman of the eponymous dream as having "a pale face, black eyes, and long black hair". Unfortunately, Stephen Gammell took the already present eeriness of the situation and [[http://68.media.tumblr.com/54f45dcfa1b8e4510e1a114ffd3dd05c/tumblr_inline_o1hpfqOFqw1rb54cq_500.jpg cranked it]] UpToEleven by giving the woman beady eyes, a jaw like an orangutan, and an alien-esque slit-like mouth. Plus, the expression she's wearing is vague, but can't quite be called a smile. Or if it is, then it's like SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker's smile; you can't tell if it's happy or sinister.