The Cold Visitor – Jonathan Butcher
Cosmic horror
All her life, Sally Washington has kept a dark secret: every half-century, her family is summoned by a disturbing entity known as the Visitor and forced to endure a cruel ritual. Two decades since her last encounter and contentedly married in her twilight years, Sally believed she would never experience such horrors again, until, unannounced, a new ritual begins.
Herbert, Sally’s devoted husband, knows nothing of the rite that has been passed down like a curse through his wife’s bloodline, but must now face the grim truth.
As the ritual intensifies, malign influences transform the couple’s home into a frozen nightmare, fraught with danger and dreadful revelations.
Terrified but united by the love they share, time ticks closer to the ritual’s crescendo, when Sally and Herbert will finally confront the Visitor, and face the most hideous decision imaginable.
“When Sally Washington saw her husband wearing that damn sweater, the world constricted around her throat. Time hesitated. Her heart clenched. She had hoped she would be dead before it all happened again.”
Gallows Hill – Darcy Coates
Family curse horror
The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations. Their wine wins awards. Their business prospers. Their family thrives. People whisper that the curse has awakened once more.
The sprawling old house has long been perched on top of a hill overlooking the nearby town, jealously guarding the estate’s secrets.
It’s been more than a decade since Margot Hull last saw her childhood home. She was young enough when she was sent away that she barely remembers its dark passageways and secret corners. But now she’s returned to bury her parents and reconnect with the winery that is her family’s legacy, and the bloody truth of exactly what lies buried beneath the crumbling estate.
Alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, Margot is forced to come face to face with the horrors of the past, and realize that she may be the next victim of a house that never rests.
“The casket lids remained closed for the funeral. Margot had seen beneath them. Just once, that morning, four hours before the guests were expected to arrive.”
The Onryō’s Curse – Adam Polk
Curse horror
Four college students celebrate their graduation from medical school by taking a trip to Japan.
A hike goes wrong, leaving one of them injured. In an attempt to rescue her, the whole group ends up stuck in the forest. A storm forces them to seek shelter in an abandoned schoolhouse, which unleashes a curse upon the group.
One by one, they start to die off in strange and unexplained ways; some places are best left undisturbed.
“Serene silence filled the halls of a three-story pagoda-style schoolhouse; darkness abounded but for a single beam of moonlight piercing through the windows. Its serenity was shattered by a scream that echoed through the structure.”
The Cursed Among Us – John Durgin
Serial killer horror
It has been twenty years since the serial killer known as The Black Heart Killer terrorized the town of Newport in 1979. Life mostly returned to normal after the killer was captured. All the townspeople have to do is stay out of the woods where the bodies were abandoned with their chests ripped open, and their hearts torn out…
Howie Burke and his friends decide rules are meant to be broken. That’s what fifteen-year-old kids do. On a beautiful fall day, they go out into the woods to film a horror movie and they stumble across a mysterious grave. What they don’t know is that they are about to release an evil on the town unlike anything in their home-made movies.
They will soon uncover the secrets of the Black Heart Killer, and what it truly means to be cursed.
“Henry Black trekked through the dense forest as Dawn approached, dragging the girl’s body behind him … He needed to hurry – there was no telling how long she would remain unconscious.”
Golf Curse – Cameron Roubique
Revenge horror
Ronnie has the perfect summer job at the Indian Hill Golf Course. All day he gets to ride around on mowers and golf carts, check out the beautiful drink cart girls, joke around with his best friend Mark, and get plenty of fresh air and sunlight.
That all changes when a huge late spring hailstorm blows in one night, leaving the golf course in shambles. As they clean up all the limbs and downed trees, Ronnie and Mark learn about the Native American Kikawa tribe that was brutally massacred at the top of the hill near the seventeenth green, and the evil medicine man known as Chief Tomahawk who supposedly put a curse on the land.
It seems that the curse may prove to be real as the golf course is dogged with bad luck, and a dark figure wearing a wooden Chief’s mask and a black-feathered headdress is watching them from the shadows.
Now, in preparation for the biggest golf tournament of the year, Ronnie and the maintenance crew have to come in and work through the night. They are about to find out that Chief Tomahawk has returned, and he wants revenge for his slaughtered people.
“Long before the golf course was built, the high slope on the western edge of town – now known as Hackberry Hill – had been called Indian Hill, and terrible things happened there.”
The Curse of Rosie Stone – Amy Cross
Ghost horror
Rosie Stone lives in a quiet English village and dreams of bigger things. She wants to get out into the world, but she’s held back by a lack of money, and by the fact that her parents constantly beg for her help. She needs a miracle.
When Rosie discovers a strange set of bones on the moor, she realizes that her miracle might have arrived. The bones start talking to her, promising to help her achieve her dreams. Two archaeologists are searching for these bones, which belong to a long-dead warrior king whose ghostly presence prefers to stay hidden. If Rosie protects his body, this king will do anything she wants. But can Rosie stick to the terms of this deal, and what will happen if she doesn’t?
Rosie soon discovers that miracles come with strings attached. She thinks she’s cursed to spend her entire life in the village, but the real curse might be something far worse, and far harder to escape.
“The great king stood tall and proud, refusing to drop to his knees even as more blood gushed from a wound in his neck. Reaching up, he placed a hand over the wound in one last attempt to stem the flow, but he already knew that he was too late … But he wasn’t finished. Not yet.”
Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Witch horror
Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves.
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children’s beds for nights on end. The townsfolk have become so accustomed to her that they often forget she’s there. Or what a threat she poses. Because the story says that if the stitches are ever cut open, the whole town will die.
The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiralling into a dark nightmare.
“Steve Grant rounded the corner of the parking lot behind Black Spring Market & Deli just in time to see Katherine van Wyler get run over by an antique Dutch barrel organ. For a minute he thought it was an optical illusion, because instead of being thrown back onto the street the woman melted into the wooden curlicues, feathered angel wings, and chrome-colored organ pipes.”
The Picture Frame – Iain Rob Wright
Cursed object horror
Blake Price is a celebrated mystery writer, but a violent tragedy from his past sends him running from his life and into a secluded cottage in the countryside. Selfishly, he drags his family with him.
Trying to connect with his melancholy son and grieving wife is difficult, but Blake tries his best to hold the strands of his life together while kidding himself that everything is okay. One day, while out looking for treasure in the field outside their new home, Blake and his 10-year-old son, Ricky, find something buried in the dirt – an antique picture frame. That picture frame changes everything.
What Blake first considers a lucky find, soon reveals itself to be something far more sinister. An ancient evil has been released, and it will stop at nothing to complete its mission.
“Ricky lay the sack on the ground carefully, brushing its surface and delicately removing any dirt and debris … Blake suddenly felt a wave of nausea, like he needed to eat.”
The Lords of Salem – Rob Zombie with B. K. Evenson
Witch horror
Heidi Hawthorne is a thirty-seven-year-old FM radio DJ and a recovering drug addict. Struggling with her newfound sobriety and creeping depression, Heidi suddenly receives an anonymous gift at the station: a mysteriously shaped wooden box branded with a strange symbol. Inside the box is a promotional record for a band that identifies themselves only as The Lords. There is no other information.
She decides to play it on the radio show as a joke, and the moment she does, horrible things begin to happen. The strange music awakens something evil in the town. Soon enough, terrifying murders begin to happen all around Heidi. Who are The Lords? What do they want?
As old bloodlines are awakened and the bodies start to pile up, only one thing seems certain: all hell is about to break loose.
“Take joy in my momentary pain,” she said. “For the blood of my death shall be the ocean by which we sail and you, my dear Reverend Hawthorne…your lineage shall be the vessel by which the Master completes his journey!”
The Amityville Curse – Hans Holzer
Haunted house horror
The house in Amityville does not lie empty. Its eternal resident is evil, an age-old horror that waits anxiously with an unspeakable hunger.
Now, three young couples are looking over the property, the house. With ignorant confidence, they move in, but cannot get out.
The evil springs from centuries of sacred earth to twist their thoughts, abuse their deepest fears, and introduce them to the terrifying powers of blood.
“The realtor had given them the key to the house, but had declined to come along.”
Cursed – Leigh Kenny
Psychological horror
Have you ever agreed to something without understanding the consequences?
What would you do if a cursed object came into your possession?
Burn it? Seek spiritual help? Pass it on?
This is the impossible choice Curtis must face as a sinister entity is thrust upon him. As the walls close in and the evil takes hold, he must act before his life is forever altered.
Curtis is haunted.
Curtis is afraid.
Curtis is… cursed
“When she opened her eyes, the apparition was gone, but the tiny cracks remained. Proof that what she was experiencing was undeniably real.”
Cursed Collectibles: An Anthology – Angela Eschler (editor)
Horror anthology
Spend an afternoon antiquing and it’s not hard to figure out why picking has become one of America’s fondest pastimes. It’s treasure hunting while connecting with history. But what if those treasures hunt us back?
From old books to vinyl records, antique mirrors, vintage figurines, or a Bob’s Big Boy piggy bank, curses have no limits.
Featuring stories from D.J. Butler, Joy Auburn, Martin L. Shoemaker, Jessica Guernsey, John D. Payne, Jen Bair, Karen Pellett, Steve Ruskin, Tanya Hales, Lauren Lang, Frank Morin, Mike Jack Stoumbos, Kelly Lynn Colby, Jace Killan, Jo Schneider, Gama Ray Martinez, Martin Greening, Chris Abela, A.J. Mayall, Heidi A. Wilde, Shannon Fox, Lauryn Christopher, and Mark Leslie.
“After Gary leaves, I close the store and clutch the cylinder with both hands. Touching the wax, feeling the grooves cut by that madman Shachar all those years ago warms me. It’s the only thing that makes me feel warm these days…It’s my soul, dammit.”
Cursed: An Anthology – Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane (editors)
Horror anthology
Twenty tales from bestselling fantasy authors, including Christina Henry, Neil Gaiman, and Catriona Ward.
It’s a prick of blood, the bite of an apple, the evil eye, a wedding ring, or a pair of red shoes. Curses come in all shapes and sizes, and they can happen to anyone, not just those of us with unpopular stepparents…
This anthology includes unique twists on curses, from fairy tale classics to brand-new hexes of the modern world. Expect new monsters and mythologies as well as twists on well-loved fables. Stories to shock and stories of warning, stories of monsters and stories of magic.
“The curse crawled silent as a serpent
Through the roots of the hedge
Wallflowers wilted, though the garden
Remained as if painted onto the ground.”
