Dark Sentiments – Day 29
Guest Post by Mrs. LFM
Posted By Diana on October 29, 2010
A picture from one of my favourite children’s books that regularly gave me nightmares.
Mrs. LFM here this evening. My Mate has granted me the honour of doing a guest post to share my love of dark entertainment.
I was introduced to dark stories at a very early age. I thrived on them. Happy endings were for wussies, I liked ’em bleak and dreary. My initiation into that world was with stories like The Little Mermaid, The Brave Tin Soldier, The Little Match Girl. Many of the original tales of Hans Christian Anderson, Grimm’s brothers and contemporaries are surprisingly dark for today’s sensibilities. If you don’t know what I mean, you must have been fed a Disney childhood where life is all roses and rainbows. The Little Mermaid did not marry the beloved prince that she gave up so much for. She was unable to communicate her feelings to him and was turned into foam on the sea. I won’t ruin the endings of the others if you aren’t familiar with them, but I will provide some links at the end of this post. I invite you all to go out and introduce yourselves to the proper endings of those great fairy tales, and share them with your children.
I firmly believe that those early stories were in part responsible for sowing the seeds of a very fertile imagination, one that has always had an appreciation for dark stories.
With that in mind I present a list of enjoyable dark reading and watching material. It’s incomplete at best but a good start nonetheless. You will notice that I don’t just include the horror/thriller genre. There are many complexions to Darkness. Feel free to share your favourites in the comments section!
Dark Children’s Tales:
By Hans Christian Anderson:
The Brave Tin Soldier
The Little Match Girl
The Tinder-Box
The Little Mermaid
The Snow Queen
In A Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
The Complete Wreck (Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Dark Children’s Movies:
The Wizard of Oz and especially Return to Oz
The Neverending Story
Gremlins
Labyrinth
The Witches
The Brave Little Toaster
The Last Unicorn
Coraline
Dark Adult Tales:
The Season of Passage by Christopher Pike
The Mayfair Witches series by Anne Rice
The Green Mile by Stephen King
The Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong (a fantastic Canadian writer; if you haven’t read anything of hers yet I highly recommend you rectify that at your earliest opportunity!)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Dark Adult Movies
The Others
The Game
Apocalypse Now
The Usual Suspects
Kill Bill
Edward Scissorhands
Legends of the Fall
Se7en
The Last Samurai
Hard Candy
Event Horizon
The Grudge (original Japanese version preferably)
No my Love, It was an honour having you write here for the first time. I live in hope of more!
My favourite “dark” kids’ movie was always The Secret of NIMH.
Hi Diana,
Wow ! I’d say that this comprehensive article confirms your expertise with the darker side. I could feel your enthusiasm jumping off the pages. I’m now reading a book called Silent Battle, about the sufferings / treatment of Canadian P.O.W.’s in Germany during WW1. I would guess it may fall somewhere under the dark umbrella although it isn’t fiction. Good job. LeRoy.
The Secret of NIMH is definitely a keeper!
Leroy, I would say that the book you’re reading certainly qualifies for the dark sentiments seal of approval. I have a huge interest in military history, Canadian military history in particular, so I’ll be looking that title up.
Hi Randy,
I think then that you would enjoy it. I picked it up from the library and the author is Desmond Morton, who is, according to the jacket, “one of Canada’s most widely read historians.” thanks, Leroy
Rebecca, I can’t believe I forgot that one! Thanks for the reminder.
Leroy, yes I was definitely enthusiastic about this post! Thanks for the book recommendation, we will definitely check it out.
And on the subject of non-fiction dark stories – I think that deserves a post of its own!
[…] were nothing like the cutesy stuff now read in nurseries, something Mrs. LFM touched on in her Dark Sentiments – Day 29 article. Similarly, that jolly old elf modern children know, love, and lay out snacks for on […]