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.
So here we are with the second installment of this ongoing series; if you missed the first post, where I gave a bit of background on the short-lived Thriller TV program and discussed the first six episodes of season one, you can get caught up here. Otherwise, let’s dive right in with the next half-dozen! … More Revisiting Thriller with Boris Karloff: Season 1, Episodes 7-12
This 1971 film appears on several lists around the internet as one of the classic giallo movies, though I feel like it doesn’t get as much attention as some of the other, more beloved works of the subgenre. That’s really a shame, because this is a brilliant giallo, and even though I loved it the … More Movies: Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)
The haunted house subgenre, as I believe I’ve mentioned before, is usually my favorite type of horror to read, and although I love a good classic haunted house tale, I also like when an author tries to do something of a fresh take on it. J.W. Ocker’s 2019 novel Twelve Nights at Rotter House is … More Books: Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker
As should be apparent from some of my other posts and videos, I’m a big fan of slow-burn, psychological horror, so when I started hearing that this particular film—which premiered at Sundance in January of this year and drew a bit of buzz—had arrived on Shudder, I brewed myself a cup of peppermint tea and … More Movies: Watcher (2022)
I have to admit that, as a rule, I’ve kinda been over vampires for a really long time. Like all self-respecting darklings, of course, I was all about Anne Rice back in the day (that day being the 80s), and my first (terrible, unpublished) novel was actually a painfully angsty vampire love story along those … More Movies: An Appreciation of The Hunger (1983)
I can’t remember exactly where I first heard of A Cure for Wellness; I didn’t see it back in 2016 when it hit theaters, and for whatever reason it flew under my radar for several years afterward. But then, over the past eighteen months or so, it seems like I kept spotting discussions of it … More Movies: A Cure for Wellness (2016)
Back in 2020, it seemed like Samantha Kolesnik’s debut novella True Crime was everywhere; it got a massive amount of buzz in the horror community, and even though I successfully avoided any synopses or reviews of it prior to reading it for myself, it was hard to miss seeing its (awesome) cover popping up in … More Books: True Crime by Samantha Kolesnik
British author Ross Jeffery’s harrowing novella Only the Stains Remain was published in 2021, and immediately caused something of a buzz in the reviewer community. It is an excellent book (though I have a couple of minor quibbles, which I’ll get into later), but it is most assuredly NOT for everyone, as it deals with … More Books: Only the Stains Remain by Ross Jeffery
On today’s installment, at the excellent recommendation of a listener, I’m going to discuss ten of the horror movie scenes that I personally found the scariest, or made the biggest impact on me the first time I saw them, lingering uncomfortably in my memory for years afterwards. Some of these choices may be idiosyncratic, to … More Ten of My Favorite Terrifying Horror Movie Scenes
Sergio Martino, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is a name that anyone with a passing interest in giallo films should know. He made movies in many different genres, but in the two years between 1971 and 1973, he directed five iconic examples of the genre, all of which are fantastic: The Strange Vice of … More Movies: The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (1971)
