"The Shining" by Stephen King

I know, I know. I just watched the movie, and I did all of this because I saw the Stanley hotel on Ghost Hunters. Don't really care what you think, but what I do care is that this story seems to be scary not just because of the ghostly happenings.
I think King's idea that a father could go crazy and try to kill his family (and yikes! it really does happen from time to time...) is one of the scariest things that could possibly happen. As much as I have a serious fear of serial killers, the thought of someone close to me losing it and doing such things is far more terrifying.
This, for me, is about as terrifying as the concept illustrated in Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon" - this notion of one person being able to take out many, without any sort of superhuman strength. I know a lot of people didn't really care about Red Dragon, but the ideal of a serial killer being able to kill 5 people within a matter of minutes is definitely something to be afraid of - especially because there are so few defenses.
I don't want to get off subject, but I guess for me what really makes this book good is not the parts about the dead woman in the bathtub, or the hedge animals, but the mere fact that anyone at any time could go insane and kill their family - regardless of what drives them to do it. Ironically, I just saw an E! THS on Andrea Yates yesterday....
I will have to go ahead and give props to the movie, however, because it followed the storyline very closely. I enjoy that a lot, although it's better to read the book first if that kind of thing is going to happen..... needless to say, if you haven't read the book or seen the movie, go ahead and read the book and then see the movie. If you have seen the movie, don't worry about it.
Good stuff.