33 Halloween Books That May Scare The Bejeezus Out Of You

The perfect books to get you in the Halloween spirit

1. Ralph Eugene Meatyard

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What's more creepy, children wearing old people masks or a guy named Ralph Meatyard photographing children wearing old people masks?

2. Philippe Parreno & Johan Olander: Parade, A Book for Children

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Frank from Donnie Darko has nothing on this bunny. Probably not for children unless you would like to thoroughly traumatize them for life.

3. Gottfried Helnwein

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How about hyperrealistic horror paintings of children? They will eat your soul.

4. Dr. Lakra

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Dr. Acula? No, "Mexican artist Dr. Lakra superimposes mystical, ancient or funerary symbolism--gang tattoos, bones and skulls, Aztec warrior heads, spider webs, serpents and demons--onto vintage advertisements, girlie pinups, Japanese prints, baby dolls, cast skulls and the like."

5. Weimar Cinema 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares

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The early horror films Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari came out of the Weimar era of German cinema and are essentially responsible for influencing all horror films. And these German women are probably all dead now too.

6. David Lynch: Dark Splendor

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“Black has depth.. you can go into it.. And you start seeing what you're afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.”

― David Lynch

7. Glenn Brown

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Doesn't this remind you of the the rotting zombie lady in The Shining? Sweet dreams.

8. Craftydermy

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Craftydermy, you know, like taxidermy, but for vegans. Vegans can have creepy hobbies too, you know.

9. Cindy Sherman: Untitled Horrors

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"This immersion in the uncertain, conflictual zones where individual identity struggles with the collective imaginary, stereotypes and issues of symbolic power, can be either playful or—when it touches on horror and repulsion, on the decay and dismembering of the body—very dark." - Cindy Sherman

10. Ed Wood's Sleaze Paperbacks

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Ed Wood is notorious for making some of the campiest horror films of all time such as Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls, and Orgy of the Dead and apparently also a bunch of sleazy paperbacks.

11. The Grotesque Factor

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"As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer." - Victor Hugo

12. To Die No More

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"Alcoholism, decay, demons, disappearance, disease, crows, ghosts, loss, maggots, nothingness, orphans, silence, the void and worms are some of the topics offered in this singular artist's book." What else could you want?

13. The Art of Team Macho: The Merlin Years

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The Cat in the Hat and the Chamber of Secrets

14. Conjunctions: 51, The Death Issue

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Essays on death, you know, casual travel reading.

15. Dressing for Pleasure in Rubber, Vinyl & Leather

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It doesn't have to be Halloween to have fun dressing up.

16. Return of the Repressed: Destroy All Monsters 1974-1977

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Creature obsessed punk rock zine art by the anti-rock art gods Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Niagara, and Jim Shaw.

17. Marcel Dzama: The Never Known into the Forgotten

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The sort of surreal horror show you might pour over during tea and crumpets.

18. Jake & Dinos Chapman: Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights

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If you should die before you wake...mmmwwwahahahahahaha!

19. Maldoror & The Complete Works of The Comte De Lautréamont

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"As beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella." - Comte De Lautréamont

20. Images of Death in Mexican Prints

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"Images of Death is a colorful and lively deterrent against our habitual inclination to take the Grim Reaper too seriously. For enthusiasts of Mexican folk art, underground comics, tattoo art, the occult and more."

21. I Spit On Your Graves

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I spit on your gravy! This classic crime noir novel was actually banned because it became a how-to-guide for a copycat killers. Yikes!

22. Donald Baechler & Wes Lang: Skulls and Shit

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pretty self-explanatory

23. Tim Burton

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"I am the shadow on the moon at night

Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!" -The Nightmare Before Christmas

24. Tomás Casademunt: Death on the Altar

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"There is the Day of the Dead that tourists see, and there is the Day of the Dead that is a lived ritual and a fact of life in Mexico--and it is the latter that the Spanish photojournalist Tomás Casademunt sets out to document in Death on the Altar."

25. MYTHTYM

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i haz purridge thaz 2 cold

26. On Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures

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Described by its maker as "a comedy set in a haunted music studio."

27. Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume I

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There are few things scarier than a Russian prison. Trust me, I don't know.

28. Toilet Paper: Issue 2

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From the twisted minds of Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, this art magazine does its best to creep you out at every turn.

29. Francesca Woodman

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Francesca Woodman's self-portraits are beautiful vignettes of ghostly surrealism.

30. Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph

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All work and no play makes Jack something something...

31. Posada & Manilla: Illustrations for Mexican Fairy Tales

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The macabre fairytale engravings of José Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla.

32. Mark Ryden: The Tree Show

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"Ryden's series includes depictions of oak trees consuming children," nuff said.

33. Urs Fischer

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Why hello, beautiful.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!