The one that made them shiver…
By RONALD S. LIM
October 29, 2010, 5:04pmThrough the years, writers have been able to make chills run down our spines with tales of tell-tale hearts and voices in the dark. But even the hardiest of authors will readily admit that even they have read or heard one particular story that has made them quiver with fear.
With Halloween upon us, the Students and Campuses Bulletin sought out several writers and asked them this: What’s the scariest story that you’ve ever read or heard?
BUDJETTE TAN, writer of the graphic novel ‘Trese.’ – “When I was growing up my dad would tell me stories about aswangs, and our maids would tell of scary creatures from their province. But the scariest story I’ve heard happened to my mother and me.
I was just a five month-old baby and we supposedly moved into a haunted house in Merville. Strange things were seen by my relatives, the maids, and the driver. They talked about lights being switched on and off, about hearing angry voices being in the hallways at three in the morning, and slippers moving on the floor on their own. One time, as the driver was backing the car out of the driveway, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw a young lady seated in the backseat. When he turned around to look, there was nobody there. My mom and dad didn’t believe in all these so-called ghost stories.
One afternoon, after my mom gave me a bath, she noticed that the right side of my face wrinkled up like that of an old man. My right eye stared at her. Angry. Defiant.
She slapped my right cheek and commanded the spirit to leave me. Even though she slapped me hard, I did not cry but just stared back at her. She ended up praying the entire rosary before my face returned to normal.
A séance was held in the house and the medium discovered there were two spirits, a father and a daughter, who died and still believed the house belonged to them. The medium explained that they were already dead and that they needed to move on. The father got angry and didn’t want to leave the house. He took over the body of one of the psychics and tried to make everyone leave. After the struggle, he and his daughter were convinced about their state and were asked to finally depart. Supposedly, after the séance, the weirdness stopped.’’
G. M. CORONEL, author of “Tragic Theater’’ – “It was the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” since exorcism is the subject of my book. What made it scary was the fact that the victim was possessed by not just one but several demons all at the same time.’’
KARL DE MESA, author of “News of the Shaman’’ – “Right now it’s a toss-up between the old Clive Barker short “In The Hills, The Cities” and Joe Hill’s novel “Heart-Shaped Box”.
For “In the Hills. . .” it’s mostly because I know exactly how people in the hinterlands, especially in the mountain boondocks like the Czech location depicted in the story, get up to some very bizarre things that somehow make perfect sense in the context of frontier life, but also since this is the only story I know that has capsulated for me perfectly the horror creature metaphor of what a body politic truly is.
“Heart-Shaped Box” is a crystal clear evocation of a modern haunting that is also a critique of our vicious, media-saturated consumer culture. Somehow it both frees and enslaves us; and yet with all our gadgets and fancy attempts at a global community we still seem to be none the wiser or compassionate for it. Spooky sh*t right there. ’’
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