[Blarg]

Horror is at least half atmosphere. The monsters themselves can be almost arbitrary, and sometimes you don't even need a monster.

I enjoyed King's earlier works, but then they started losing a lot of punch, and I eventually just got fed up. I think he still has some power when doing short stories, though. His first collection, Night Shift, had some really great stories, and even the lesser ones, some of which were pretty silly, were done very well. I've read a rare short story here and there which was more recent, and he seemed to be okay.

I'd recommend picking up some of the yearly collection of horror short stories. I've come across a whole lot of gems in those. The Mammoth Collection of New Horror is one of them. Also, if you've never read the first Clive Barker stuff, he did a series of story collections called The Books of Blood, and a lot of the stories were quite inventive and pretty good. Two well-regarded anthologies are Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, and The Dark Descent. Both are available on Amazon. And of course, read plenty of H.P. Lovecraft if you haven't already. And Dennis Etchison can hit or miss, but is a very talented writer and is a stunner when he's at his best. Some of the stories in Red Dreams were fantastic, and sometimes very melancholy and lonely. They're worth reading despite the variety of the quality between stories, just to see someone trying to do something really excellent, and occasionally knocking one out of the park.