But even tamed, the creepy tale produces some tingles.

Jenette remembered creepy tales Colonel Halifax had told her when she was very young.

This spring, he'll appear on Broadway in Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman," the creepy tale of a writer whose violent stories keep coming true in the most disturbing ways.

Such banal ideas do not lend any real gravitas to the creepy tale of Katherine the cannibal.

Like the sketch in "Death Defying Acts," it uses the interview format to unspool a creepy tale that suggests a meeting of Rod Serling and Franz Kafka.

Julia's Eyes is a creepy and taut tale.

For The Independent, the novel presented a "hugely commendable debut, assured and memorable" and "a genuinely creepy, grisly little tale".

USA Today and Kirkus Reviews both praised the entry, with USA Today calling it "a creatively creepy gothic tale for grown-ups".

Unavoidably, Wilson's somber antihero pales in comparison with the unforgettable Humbert Humbert, making Gold's an effectively creepy but forgettable tale.

Sometimes, they can escape, as in "Louis the Fish," a downright creepy tale in which the flesh-fearing son of a butcher happily turns into a goldfish.