Six Scary Stories is a short story horror collection which features six works from six different authors. The selected works are introduced by Stephen King. At the beginning of each short story, a mini-biography about the author details his or her career, how the story came about, and the influence Stephen King has on the author's works, life, and/or reading habits.
Each story takes on a different aspect of horror. Some stories are a mix of psychological and supernatural horror, but some are slight tweaks of everyday scenarios that become horrifying once one sat and thought about it more.
Wild Swimming is about a woman who likes to go swimming in lake, rivers, and reservoirs. She gets more than she bargained for while visiting a Lithuanian village. The story is told in a series of emails that effectively show the protagonist’s escalating fear and terror, right to the end.
Eau de Eric is ultimately about a mother’s relationship with her daughter, and how the shadow of a dead relative can linger. In the story, Kathy is trying to raise Ellie after the death of Ellie’s father. Kathy does not want to taint Ellie’s love for her dad, but Kathy’s history with Ellie’s father colors how Kathy responds to Ellie’s coping mechanism.
The Spots is about a dictator and his citizens’ unwavering loyalty to said dictator. What makes this horrifying is the leaps and bounds the protagonist makes to make his Leader’s acts perfect and correct. One gets the feeling the Leader is just an idiot with an absurd amount of power, but every excuse is given why this leader-guy is supreme in all things.
The Unpicking is like Toy Story, except the toys are not so nice. Think of the horror movie Puppet Master, except with fluffy bunnies, Raggedy Ann, and Barbie dolls instead of ventriloquist dummies.
La Mort de L’amant is about a man on a bridge who may or may not have something vicious to hide. The short story is set on a Texas winter day. A man stands alone on a bridge near a waterfall, thinking about the day and his wife, and then a cop pulls up.
The Bear Trap is the scariest story to me, because it deals with Calvin, a 12-year-old boy who is left alone in a farmhouse after the apocalypse. The only things the audience knows for sure is that the boy is alone, the world has rained ash for weeks before the sky turned black with cloud cover, and there is a man with a gun.
None of the stories are jump-out-of-your-seat scary, but they are all interesting to read. Each story presents its author's take on what is scary by offering up mundane scenarios with a twist.