Five Vacation Stories
by H.J. Dutton
A staple source of dread in horror stems from the invasion/corruption of a Status Quo or the removal of a character from the Status Quo where they feel comfortable. In vacation stories, the departure from the Status Quo is, more often than not, voluntary. The horrors of comfortable normality invaded and corrupted apply to vacation horror as well, however, when frequented getaway spots–such as the beach bloodied by a shark invader in book and movie Jaws (1974/1975) and every cabin in the woods getaway from every story that inspired the movie Cabin in the Woods (2011)–is twisted into an unfamiliar frontier.
Vacations, despite their intent, are inherently stressful. The logistical and financial stress of travel compounds the interpersonal tension created when people are taken out of their daily routines. These stress factors–bolstered by the need for last-minute troubleshooting and the lack of personal space in hotel rooms–combine to create pressure cooker environments. I have witnessed multiple screaming matches between family members on such trips.
The best of vacation horror often strikes a balance between external threats (robbery, trafficking, etc.) and the aforementioned tension that affects group dynamics. The Dafdrup brothers’ 2022 film Speak No Evil exemplifies this balance. A Danish family on vacation befriends another family of three and finds their boundaries repeatedly tested by the other family through both subtle and not-so-subtle acts of disrespect. The social torture culminates in a devastating climax, the details of which I will not spoil here. They’re missing from the American remake (2024).
Below I’ve compiled some of the best examples of vacation horror in short story form.
“Crouch End” – Stephen King (1980)
One night in August, an American woman staggers into a London police station screaming about her missing husband. Two officers, Vetter and Farnham, proceed to record the woman’s story. This tale is perhaps Stephen King’s most famous contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.
“In the Hills, the Cities” – Clive Barker (1984)
Lovers Mick and Judd travel through the Yugoslavian countryside in an attempt to rekindle their fraying relationship. Unbeknownst to them, the surrounding villages are about to engage in an age-old, horrific tradition. Arguably one of the best pieces of fiction Barker has ever produced.
“Seaside Town” – Brian Evenson (2015)
In a coastal European village, a man named Hovell is left alone in a hotel room by his girlfriend. To ease his boredom, he explores the town outside and finds himself trapped inside an increasingly Lynchian hell.
“Good Times in the Bad Lands” – Laura Keating (2020)
An already disastrous road trip takes a worse turn when a dysfunctional family loses their map. Things get even worse when the father’s aimless driving takes them out of reality altogether.
“Paradise Retouched” – Marc Laidlaw (2021)
nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/paradise-retouched/
Confined to his family’s beach house after a surfing accident, father Jeff Caldwell edits the house’s family portraits to pass the time. This harmless prank results in nightmarish consequences.
For more tales of travel troubles, check out the following in the Horrific Scribes archive:
Read Prince Kumar‘s short story “What the Hollow Keeps” in Horrific Scribes May 2026.
Description: “What the Hollow Keeps” is a haunting descent into silence, memory, and the things we try to bury. As the past begins to surface, something far more unsettling emerges—something that was never truly gone.
Read J. M. J. Brewer‘s short story “Saint Jackal” in Horrific Scribes March 2026.
Description: When nomads Ana and Matty meet Jackal, a fellow vagabond obsessed with old airplanes, they find themselves on the hunt for the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Jackal swears was in the sky during several assassinations. Roaming the interstate in Jackal’s RV, they are forced to contend with Jackal’s increasingly erratic behavior and, eventually, make a discovery even stranger than they could have imagined.
Read Joseph Hirsch‘s short story “Teufelsrad” in Horrific Scribes, February 2026.
Description: Two young women from America are deep in Bavaria, seeking out the origin of the “Teufelsrad” (“Devil’s Wheel”), a ride popular on modern fairgrounds but with much deeper roots. The girls are about to find out just how deep those roots go.
Read Jason Frederick Myers‘s short story “Death is a Local Term” in Horrific Scribes October 2025.
Description: After eyewitness accounts of something strange spotted over Lake Superior, a local salvage diver with a knack for finding things learns that some things are best left undiscovered and that death isn’t always the end.
Read Nick Porisch‘s short story “The Rivers Styx” in Horrific Scribes October 2025.
Description: An engineer with a sketchy past discovers the true meaning of Hell after he boards a steamboat carrying three other passengers, who may have more in common with him than he ever thought possible.