The Ginger Nuts of Horror website is honoured to welcome R.L. Boyle to the site with an article to celebrate the release of their new novel The Book of the Baku, published by Titan Books. THE Most Nightmarish Creatures in HorrorHorror fiction is populated by some of the most complex, intriguing characters ever created, and it’s difficult to know where to begin when deciding which are the most terrifying. I love them all, from The Phantom of The Opera to Bruce the Shark, Pennywise to The Pale Man. Each offer their own specific brand of horror, and as other characters fade to black, the best antagonists linger in our minds long after we turn the last page of the book or watch the final credits roll. Here are just a few of my personal favourites: The Bowler Hat Man from The Haunting of Hill House  Whilst in Shirley Jackson’s timeless novel, where the house does all the haunting, the Netflix series introduced us to a new set of dark entities, and for me, the Bowler Hat Man was the scariest incarnation. His disturbing backstory, his Slenderman height, his relentless pursual of Luke, all these things are disturbing. But most chilling of all is the uncanny way his cane tap-tap-taps against the ground, even as his feet float a few inches above it. The way he glides calls to mind the mythical ferryman, Charon, using an oar to steer his boat across the River Styx. The Bowler Hat Man is otherworldly, floating eerily through the living realm, in which he clearly does not belong. Samara from The Ring  The dark, water-soaked hair, falling in dripping hanks across her face, the mouldering nightgown, the cadaverous tinge to her skin, and that energy of almost feral violence that radiates from her. Oh, and the fact she can kill you with just one look. If any kid deserves a spot in a list of nightmarish creatures, Samara qualifies. Samara was murdered by her own mother when she was twelve years old, yet there is nothing childlike about her vengeful spirit. Her stillness and composure are deeply unsettling, as are the two words she speaks into the phone after someone has watched her cursed tape. ‘Seven days.’ The voice is unmistakably that of a child, yet the measured tone belongs to someone far older. We never see Samara dispatch of her victims, only the ruins of their bodies, but with her ability to psychically imprint images on the minds of others, we know their last moments will have been spent in unendurable pain. It is an undeniable fact; kids can be damn scary. Annie Wilkes from Misery  From the moment we meet Annie Wilkes, giving mouth to mouth to Paul Sheldon, we are left in no doubt that something about her is very wrong. … her lips were clamped over his again, lips as dry and dead as strips of salted leather, and she raped him full of her air again. Terrifying, unhinged, pathetic, sometimes funny, occasionally tender, and perhaps, even worthy of our sympathy. An axe-wielding Christian with a cockadoodie turn of phrase and a soft spot for trashy romantic fiction, able to flip from school-girl sycophancy to dead-eyed psychopathy. Annie Wilkes unsettles us, she entertains us, but above all else, she terrifies us. The phrase, ‘I’m your number one fan,’ will never sound innocent again. The Thing from The Thing  John Carpenter’s The Thing, based on a short story by John W. Campbell, is a parasitic extra-terrestrial life-form that assimilates and imitates organic life. There is good reason The Thing has a cult following today. Thanks to Rob Bottin, who headed up the special make-up effects, the ‘Chest Chomp’ scene has taken on an iconic status and can still make audiences shudder to this day… The doctor setting the paddles on Norris’s chest, his stomach splitting, exposing a jagged-toothed maw which snaps closed around the doctor’s wrists, severing his hands; the doctor, screaming as he lifts the spurting stumps of his wrists while slimy tentacles explode from the dead man’s chest cavity in a fountain of green gore; The Thing rearing upwards, Norris’s twisted visage speared on a cord of sinewy flesh, while on the table, his neck stretches like over-proved dough, and his original head breaks off, sprouts arachnid legs and scuttles away. Nauseating and mesmerising in equal measure, you don’t know whether to cover your eyes or applaud. Room 1408  There are those who would argue against Room 1408’s inclusion on this list; after all, it’s a room not a creature, right? But when I read this short story, it seemed obvious to me that Room 1408 was sentient, that it possessed its own will and consciousness, that it was alive. Mike Enslin is an author who writes about haunted locations. He rents Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, which is purportedly possessed by a dark force. Early on, we discover that even though Mike writes about the paranormal, he does not actually believe such things are real. Whatever it is that exists inside Room 1408 does not manifest in a physical way, but the very fact the danger remains faceless serves only to intensify the story’s dread. The walls shift and change, the ceiling bends. Mike’s thoughts become muddled, confused, and a voice – the voice of the room, perhaps – screams at him down the phone. There is something deeply unsettling about watching Mike, a hardened sceptic, descend so rapidly into abject horror, a horror so profound, he sets himself on fire in an attempt to free himself of it. THE BOOK OF the BAKU BY R.L. BOYLE A Monster Calls meets The Shining in this haunting YA dark fantasy about a monster that breaks free from a story into the real world. Sean hasn’t spoken a word since he was put into care. When he is sent to live with his grandad, a retired author and total stranger, Sean suddenly finds himself living an affluent life, nothing like the estate he grew up in, where gangs run the streets and violence is around every corner. Sean embraces a new world of drawing, sculpting and reading his grandad’s stories. But his grandad has secrets in his past. As his grandad retreats to the shed, buried at the end of his treasured garden, The Baku emerges. The Baku is ancient, a creature that feeds on our fears, and it corrupts everything it touches. Plagued by nightmares, with darkness spreading through the house, Sean must confront his fears to free himself and his grandad from the grip of the Baku. "The Book of the Baku was one of the bravest and most impressive YA horror novels I have read in a good while. RL Boyle should now be on the radar of anybody with an interest in YA horror." - Tony Jones GNoH (read the full review here) R.L. BOYLE Rosanna Boyle studied Classical Civilisation at the University of Leeds, after which she worked in a variety of jobs – none of which had anything to do with her degree. Rosanna lives in Leeds with her husband and three sons. The Book of the Baku is her debut novel. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITEBENEATH A PALE SKY BY PHILIP FRACASSI - BOOK REVIEW THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR FEATURESComments are closed.
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