31 Days of Halloween #1

Happy October, everyone!  Welcome to 2015's first of 31 Days of Halloween!

When I was a kid, I always wanted to prove that I was brave...by reading scary books.  I wasn't brave enough to sleep without a night light, or to kill a spider by myself (I still can't do that), but I really wanted to show that I could read scary things and not get all worked up about it.  Goosebumps?  Sure!  I could do that (they were pretty unsettling, and gave me some freaky dreams, but I wouldn't say the ones I read were scary per se).

Reading scary things meant that one time, I tried to read Poe's The Black Cat.  It scared the crap out of me!  And even now, I hate reading that story.  This post isn't about The Black Cat, though.  It's about another Poe story that is near and dear to my heart (Oh my!  Was that a pun?)  You guessed it, folks!  The Tell Tale Heart!

Day 1: The Tell-Tale Heart

This is what I like to describe as your classic chiller.  A man goes mad over the image of his elderly roommate's hideous eye.  What happens next (for those of you who haven't seen it) is a tale of psychological terrors.

First, the story itself.  I'm including two video versions here, and have linked the full text under "Day 1".  First is an animated version, and one of my personal favorites.  It is perfectly creepy and unsettling, but with some moments of humor (but not too much!).

Now, we've heard versions of classic Poe tales told by Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, but this was the first time I found one by Bela Lugosi.  So, the second version I have (included below) is his reading of it (and it is actually quite good, although I'm not sure why I expected anything else!)

Now, this final video is from Thug Notes.  This is a great series on YouTube that provides summaries for classic stories and novels (in the vein of SparkNotes and CliffNotes), but with a "thug" twist.  To see what I mean, take a look :)

What is your favorite Poe story?  Is there anything else you would like featured during this series?  Let me know in the comments :)