Scary Stories: Frightening Tales for Halloween

Here's a Halloween treat of historic proportions. Where else can you get Nelson Olmstead's manic voice tripping through Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum"? Or, better still, Boris Karloff reciting "The Vampire Sleeps" with just enough chill in his voice to tingle the spine? Relying on four Poe tales--all but "Shadow" read by Olmstead--Scary Stories is great for fright night, and ideal for bellowing out a window for the neighbors. It's also grand to play in a collage atmosphere, as background, say, for New Wave Halloween or a crazed sound-effects display like Halloween Horror: Scary Sounds from the Hex Files. Of course, it's also a good item for teachers of literature looking to drive home the eeriness of Poe to a seventh- or eighth-grade class. Sound effects occur with wide spaces between them, economical enough not to impede the enjoyment of these dark, gloomy texts. --Andrew Bartlett