Jenny Ashford is a horror, true crime, and paranormal writer, graphic designer, and podcaster. Her most recent books are a three-volume true crime compilation collectively known as The Faceless Villain: A Collection of the Eeriest Unsolved Murders of the Twentieth Century. Volume One was published in 2017, Volume Two in 2018, and Volume Three in 2019. Her other books include four paranormal nonfiction books: The Unseen Hand: A New Exploration of Poltergeist Phenomena, The Mammoth Mountain Poltergeist (with Tom Ross), House of Fire and Whispers: Investigating the Seattle Demon House, and The Rochdale Poltergeist (both with Steve Mera); as well as three horror novels, Red Menace, Bellwether, and The Five Poisons; two short story collections, Hopeful Monsters and The Associated Villainies; and a graphic novel, The Tenebrist. A second edition of The Associated Villainies was published in 2019, featuring four new stories, an enhanced print layout, and an audio book version. A second edition of The Five Poisons was published in 2020. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Nightmare Collective, History Is Dead, 2012AD, ChimeraWorld #3, and ChimeraWorld #4. Her horror blog, Goddess of Hellfire, contains writing news, short stories and articles, and her reviews and opinions on horror films and books. She also co-hosts a podcast with Tom Ross called 13 O'Clock, on which they discuss true crime, unexplained mysteries, paranormal weirdness, horror movies and books, food, and other fun, creepy topics. They recently collaborated on a 13 O'Clock cookbook. Jenny's graphic design work can be seen on everything from books and business cards to posters and packaging. She runs an online store called Gravecake selling products with her designs, and also has a board-and-card game concern called Giallo Games, which produces games based around the beloved Italian horror/crime genre, among many other themes.
Most horror fans with knowledge of the classics will have likely heard of the 1945 British anthology film Dead of Night, which was not only one of the very few horror films to come out of the UK in the 1940s, but was massively influential in the horror anthology subgenre going forward. In addition to … More Movies: Dead of Night (1945)
It’s getting toward the end of the year, and with a view to doing another “best horror of 2025” list like the one I did in 2024, I’ve been watching some new films that I’ve seen recommended here and there in the horror community. And that’s how I came upon the Norwegian film The Ugly … More Movies: The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou burst onto the horror scene back in 2022 with their excessively hyped (and admittedly pretty excellent) supernatural horror film Talk To Me, which had the community abuzz and seemingly heralded the arrival of some notable new talent in the horror genre. I actually really liked Talk To Me, though … More Movies: Bring Her Back (2025)
I know I did a book vs. movie comparison not terribly long ago (Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, in case you missed it), but the process of doing that one made me want to jump into another one as soon as possible. And for a long time, I’d been itching to … More Book vs Movie: Hell House / The Legend of Hell House
A while back, Tom and I did a 13 O’Clock episode about Hollywood legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis (and the infamous feud between them that spanned decades). While talking about Joan Crawford’s later career, I mentioned that I had seen a couple of her films from that era, such as the excellent What Ever … More Movies: Strait-Jacket (1964)
I had noticed the strikingly awesome cover for the 2021 novel This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno many times while scrolling through my Kindle, and I figured I’d get around to it eventually because the premise sounded pretty interesting. But then it so happened that I was on a subreddit the other day where … More Books: This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
Author Shirley Jackson should of course be no stranger to horror fans, as she’s responsible for what is arguably the greatest haunted house novel of the 20th century, 1959’s The Haunting of Hill House, which has been adapted into an excellent 1963 film directed by Robert Wise, a shitty 1999 film directed by Jan de … More Book vs Movie: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Jumping back into season two of Thriller, we’ve come to episode nine, “A Third for Pinochle,” directed once again by Herschel Daugherty and written by Mark Hanna and Boris Sobelman. This installment, another one based around a murder plot, is far more comedic than most of the episodes so far, recalling both Arsenic and Old … More Revisiting Thriller with Boris Karloff: Season 2, Episode 9 – “A Third for Pinochle”
Y’all should know by now how much I love Dario Argento, right? Suspiria and Deep Red are two of my favorite horror films of all time, and pretty much all of his early work is brilliant. But as I’ve also mentioned a time or two (or fifty), his output after the 1980s is a mixed … More Movies: Sleepless (aka Non ho sonno) (2001)
I thought it was about time that I got around to talking about legendary French filmmaker Jean Rollin, who I don’t think I’ve ever covered in this series, much to my eternal shame. Rollin began his directing career in the early 1960s, and over the decades, became known in the horror community for his dreamlike, … More Movies: Fascination (1979)
The Scare Salon 