Spider Horror

America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst this destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still, they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world of utter devastation.

A winter storm has buried North Dakota in snow and ice. With accidents being reported across the region, Deputy Ron Weller must patrol along the main road through a normally tranquil forest in Beeman County. The night grows menacing as he discovers vehicles that have been run off the road, their drivers mysteriously missing. Strange tracks lead through a region of thick forest known as Devil's Rock. There, Weller makes a horrifying discovery. A monster has awakened. Its hunger is insatiable, and its ferocity has no limits.

Jaunty the Clown just wants to entertain families with lighthearted slapstick antics, but people think of clowns as terrifying, nightmarish creatures who hide in closets or under beds. When Jaunty, along with his fellow performers, are fired from the circus, they're told that the world just doesn't like clowns anymore. Still, clowns have to eat. And since these clowns don't eat children, to make ends meet they're eventually forced to take a job in a popular haunted attraction, the Mountain of Terror. But millions of oversized spiders are about to invade....

A classic H. G. Wells short story about two men that wander into a valley of giant spiders.

When Arkham Advertiser reporter Andy van Nortwick receives a mysterious film reel in the mail, with a simple note: "Maude Brion is very much alive!", he steps onto a path which will lead him to the brink of madness. Brion, the famous actress and film director, vanished a year ago on an ill-fated expedition into the Amazon rainforest, delving into the legend of the Spider Queen. Thrilled by the prospect of his big break, Nortwick swings the funds to launch a rescue mission. He gathers a team of explorers and a keen folklorist to bring back Brion and cement his reputation.

Frances Barnett and Abby Bernacki are two haunted young mothers living in the same house in two different centuries. In 1885, Frances Barnett is in the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, telling her story to a visitor. She has come to distrust her own memories and believes that her pregnancy, birth, and early days of motherhood may have impaired her sanity.

Spider Season is the debut collection by Billy Hanson. Deeply haunting and immensely enjoyable, these stories are sure to leave you wide-eyed and breathing heavily.

It is the morning hours in the small town of Hammond and, as the town wakes up it finds that there is something spreading. Something that is not seen until it is too late because by then, you are already infected. At that point, they are already... Hatched.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and macabre Can Such Things Be? was first published in 1893 and republished in a revised edition in 1910. This selection contains two of his most famous tales: "The Moonlit Road" and "The Death of Halpin Frayser" together with 10 others.

For many years, the Witherby family has been most cruel to animals and insects. But one day Mother Nature says "enough is enough," and unleashes vengeance upon the Witherby family in the form of a giant, man-eating spider. Will any of the Witherbys get out of this tale alive?

Warning: You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. This is not a metaphor. You will dismiss this as ridiculous fearmongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fearmongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection - the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That’s just as well, since the “cure” involves learning what a chain saw tastes like. You can’t feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated as a master of the gothic tale of the macabre and the supernatural, but he also wrote a number of humorous and satirical tales, seven of which are presented here.

As the last female of her kind, Silvia knows that her freedom could bring the resurgence of her race. Her captivity ensures extinction. To her the answer is clear. Freedom at any cost. Loose in the universe, her kiss will spread genetic contamination—altering her victims into her spider brethren. Humanity's best interests are served if that never happens.

Isla Perdida has been untouched by humans for hundreds of years. Until now. A team of researchers has landed on the rocky shores of this dangerous landscape and discover that a horrific predator is waiting for them. It doesn't take long for this deadly arachnid to make its way from the humid island jungle to the American mainland. As this new threat terrorizes Southern Florida, a murderous infection begins to spread. Victims are piling up, and death is not the worst of it.

They call him Spider. And people come to him when they have a problem. So when teenager Parker Cole approaches Spider at night school, he figures she's just another problem waiting to happen. But then she tells him about her father, who runs a cult called Cloudland based at the foot of mystical Mount Shasta, California. And then she tells Spider about her best friend, who is now dead, her body completely drained of blood.

While things only seem to get stranger in Packwood, Dan gets to know Molly on a more personal level. Could she have some insight regarding the mystery of what lurks in the woods? Spider Apes is book two in this thrilling series, co-written by Tom Lyons.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of 10 stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales.

Dr. Silas Muffet devoted his life to arachnology along side his daughter, Eleanor Muffet, discovering cures to the most lethal venom these creatures could produce. When a new specimen is presented to him, they began studying it with vigor. They had the protocols. They had the protection. But specimen 9958 had a defense that would put their minds and bodies to the ultimate test. It takes one mistake to lose everything. Can they beat the clock and solve the mystery of specimen 9958? Or will they be out witted by the deadliest spider known to mankind?

She is humanity's last hope. Sasha lives in a world destroyed by giant spiders - big as semitrucks and venomous enough to kill. What remains of humanity won't last much longer. Not unless someone can save them. This 5,000-word short story the perfect Halloween listen!

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer, born in Italy and educated in the USA. He also studied at the universities of Cambridge and Heidelberg. He was a prolific writer in many fields, but it was his novels that were most popular, commanding a large following. His stories of the macabre and supernatural are very highly regarded. Roy Macready reads five of them from Uncanny Tales.