Bestselling Horror Story Anthologies

Looking for horror stories and horror story collections? The 10 horror anthologies below are the best current collections of horror stories available on Amazon, and they're bound to please.

  1. The New Dead: A Zombie AnthologyThe New Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Christopher Golden - If horror stories about the living dead tickle your fancy, then this collection from Christopher Golden would be a great purchase. 19 stories are included, from authors as diverse as Joe Hill, Rick Hautala, and Joe Lansdale.
  2. The Best of HP LovecraftThe Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre by H.P. Lovecraft - An affordable introduction to H.P. Lovecraft, who is considered by most people to be Poe's successor as master of the horror story. Lovecraft has been a huge influence on every horror writer since.
  3. The Empty House and Other Ghost StoriesThe Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood - This is one of only two single-author anthologies of horror stories included on this list. Blackwood is a master of the craft, and his stories were a huge influence on H.P. Lovecraft.
  4. Poe's ChildrenPoe's Children: The New Horror by Peter Straub - Over 600 pages of horror stories selected by one of the master horror novelists writing today, Peter Straub. Authors included in the collection include John Crowley, Thomas Tessier, and Thomas Ligotti.
  5. Darkness: Two Decades of Modern HorrorDarkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror by Ellen Datlow - Darkness presents 25 horror stories from a diverse group of writers including Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Stephen King.
  6. Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of HorrorVile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror by Cheryl Mullenax - British horror writers Graham Masterton and Ramsey Campbell both have stories included in this anthology of horror stories, and other authors include Tim Curran and Randy Chandler.
  7. Hellbound HeartsHellbound Hearts by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan - This is an anthology of stories set in the same universe as Clive Barker's novel The Hellbound Heart. (That book was the source material for the Hellraiser movies.) Includes stories from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
  8. Dark Delicacies III: HauntedDark Delicacies III: Haunted by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb - The editor, Del Howison, owns and operates one of only two all-horror bookstores in the USA, Dark Delicacies. This anthology includes a novella from Chuck Palahniuk, as well as short stories from notable horror authors like David Morrell and Clive Barker.
  9. The Mammoth Book of the Best New HorrorThe Mammoth Book of the Best New Horror by Stephen Jones - Presents short horror stories from 1989 to 2008 from authors like Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Tim Lebbon, Joe Hill, Clive Barker, and Stephen King.
  10. Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry DeadZombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead by John Skipp - Features 32 zombie stories from notable horror authors like Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Robert R. McCammon, and Joe Lansdale.

HP Lovecraft Stories

HP Lovecraft stories have inspired authors, horror artists, heavy metal musicians, and movie makers for 80 years. Those unfamiliar with the Cthulhu Mythos envisioned by Herbert Philip Lovecraft may not be aware of his influences, but his ideas have found their way into the work of a wide range of artists, including John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, H.R. Giger, Neil Gaiman, Jorge Luis Borges, Black Sabbath, and Metallica.

HP Lovecraft StoriesFor instance, the giant squid at the end of the first Hellboy film was a direct homage to the H.P. Lovecraft mythos. Movies that invoke The Necronomicon, like the Evil Dead movies, were inspired by Lovecraft. The name of Batman's "Arkham Asylum" is taken from a fictional town in Lovecraftian horror. All the "brain-in-a-jar" villains in comic books were influenced by Lovecraft's alien Mi-Go race, who placed human brains in cannisters. Even Southpark episodes have been influenced by Lovecraft, as Yog-Sothoth (or something much like it) has appeared in at least one episode.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some of the best HP Lovecraft short stories.

The Call of Cthulhu

If you want one story from Lovecraft to introduce you to his world, the most-invoked Lovecraft story is the best place to start. You get all the elements common to Lovecraftian horror--an overwrought investigator, notes left by the deceased, an antiquated disgust with non-Caucasian cultures, an invocation of the modern physics. Finally, you see what happens when unwary humans wander too far off the beaten path and run into Cthulhu himself.

You must remember these stories were written mainly in the 1920s, so you must place yourself into the mind of a reader of that time, when awe and wonder at world explorers was still a common thing. This is the story which introduces The Necronomicon into literature, and contains that book's first hint of Cthulhu: "That is not dead which can eternal lie/And with strange aeons even death may die."

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Another great introduction to Cthulhu, this is a little longer short story. In this tale, we meet Innsmouth, Massachusetts, a coastal town known by the locals for the strangeness of its inhabitants. Once again, we have a man investigating this, only to learn a horrible truth. I won't give away the ending, but I'll say you get to meet the race known as the Deep Ones.

The Dunwich Horror

The Dunwich Horror isn't the first place Miskatonic University was seen, but this short story gives us the most complete look at the school and its faculty. Wilbur Whately, a crazed farmer and cultist of the Old Ones, drives the plot of this story. When his imperfect copy of The Necronomicon won't suffice, he tries to steal the copy held in Miskatonic University's library. Interestingly, the library has its own guard dog, which proves most useful.

The action eventually shifts to the town of Dunwich, where the creature Wilbur was cultivating gets loose. Three Miskatonic scholars rush to the countryside to fight this monster. Once again, I won't give away the ending, but I'll say the ending is among the most novel in Lovecraft's stories, for one particular reason.

The Whisperer in Darkness

In "The Whisperer in Darkness", you get science fiction blended into your horror. This is the introduction to the alien life form known as the Mi-Go. The interview between the narrator and this strange creature towards the end of this tale gives a real sense of the creepiness and eeriness it would be to meet a truly alien creature.

At the Mountains of Madness

We once again see explorers braving the distant stretches of the globe, along with M.U.'s scholars coming face-to-face with the elder horrors. "Mountains of Madness" is one of the longest of Lovecraft's short stories, and it details a good part of the history of his strange world. This tale fills in a lot of the details of the Cthulhu Mythos, and represents a radical shift away from dark magics to the realm of strange science, which often distinguishes Lovecraft's stories from much of horror fiction.

More HP Lovecraft Stories

There's a whole lot of other HP Lovecraft stories, but these five are a good introduction to his lore. Stories like the The Colour OUt of Space, The Shadow Out of Time, and The Haunter of the Dark are all wonderful tales of horror. There are also Lovecraft stories that don't directly invoke Cthulhu, but which are part of a wider world, such as the Dreamlands tales of Randolph Carter, most of which were written before the Cthulhu stories.

If you want more good Lovecraftian fiction, here's a short list.

There are other Lovecraftian tales written by men like August Derleth, Brian Lumley, Ramsey Campbell, Gary Myers, and even Robert E. Howard. But I suggest you read the entire litany of HP Lovecraft stories before you touch one of those books, since many of them diverge radically from the vision of Herbert Philip Lovecraft.