Looking for something to read for Halloween? Here are my three favorite horror stories:

“Call of Cthulhu,” by H. P. Lovecraft. This is probably the most influential horror story of the 20th century. It changed the way Lovecraft wrote and thereby shifted the entire genre. Some Lovecraft fans prefer other stories, but this one has it all, from a voodoo cult to, well, that thing in the ocean.

“Behind the Stumps,” by Russell Kirk. A deeply conservative ghost story about the arrogance of government and the importance of local knowledge. “So far as they let the law alone, don’t meddle, Mr. Cribben, don’t meddle.”

“The Events at Poroth Farm,” by T. E. D. Klein. Whatever happened to this guy? In the 1980s, he wrote a handful of horror stories that rank as modern classics. This one was eventually turned into a novel called The Ceremonies. Since then, he hasn’t produced much of anything. His Wikipedia entry says he has suffered from “writer’s block,” which I’ve always considered a phony affliction. (Do candlestick makers ever suffer from candlestick-maker’s block?) Anyway, he leaves us with a small amount of top-shelf horror fiction, including this one, which is both a tribute to predecessors in the genre and a good tale in its own right.