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.
Arkansas author Robert Campbell was nice enough to contact me several weeks back and ask if I’d like to receive a signed copy of his first novel for review, and of course I readily agreed, so thank you, Robert, for going to great personal expense to send me the print book by one-day shipping. The … More Books: The Legend of the Cove Witch by Robert Campbell
The Australian psychological horror film The Babadook made an enormous splash with critics and horror fans when it came out back in 2014, and to this day it still ends up on many “best horror movies of the century so far” lists. Because of the hype surrounding it, there was also a pretty predictable backlash, … More Movies: The Babadook (2014)
Though I mostly read and review horror fiction, every now and then, I decide to go with something that’s not quite horror, but more horror-adjacent. So I heard about this book from 2016 called Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, which is a whodunnit with a twist that was a massive bestseller and turned up on … More Books: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Dario Argento is of course no stranger to horror fans, being the mastermind behind such seminal giallo films as Deep Red and Tenebrae, as well as more lurid supernatural fantasias like Suspiria and Inferno. 1971’s The Cat O’Nine Tails (aka Il Gatto a Nove Code), only Argento’s second film, shows many trademarks of the director’s … More Movies: The Cat O’Nine Tails (1971)
In the case of Anne River Siddons’s 1978 novel The House Next Door, I was actually first turned on to it through Stephen King’s nonfiction classic Danse Macabre, in which he chose it as one of his ten best “modern” horror novels (as of 1980) and devoted an entire chapter to discussing its themes. I’ve … More Book vs Movie: The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
In the mood for some Italian? Excellent; let’s mangia. Our movie we’re discussing is one I actually thought I hadn’t seen before, though when I got to one of the later scenes, I felt a definite tingle of recollection. See, when I was a kid, I saw a movie with this one scene that really … More Movies: The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
In my previous review of the 2015 neo-giallo Francesca, I emphasized that although the film did have a fairly standard murder-mystery plot common to films of the genre, its main attractions were the visuals, the sound design, and the painstaking care that had been taken to recreate the exact look and feel of an Italian … More Movies: The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013)
Grady Hendrix is an author who gets recommended a lot by reviewers on YouTube, and it’s really easy to see why: his books are not only immensely winning and heartfelt horror stories laced heavily with comedy, but he also usually has the books designed in such a way that there’s a whole gestalt going on … More Books: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
You know how sometimes when you’re bored and kinda hung over on a Sunday, and you go poking around YouTube looking for some comforting 1970s horror to watch while you inhale your hearty lunch of homemade Swedish meatballs? And you know how every now and then, you fortuitously stumble across a made-for-TV movie from 1977 … More Movies: The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977)
Welcome back for another random spin of the horror wheel…round and round she goes, coughing up two spooky flicks for my viewing pleasure. Well, I don’t know if pleasure is exactly the right word in this particular situation. Viewing adequacy? Something like that. First up is the ghost story/psychological thriller The Disappointments Room. Directed by D.J. … More Double Feature: The Disappointments Room (2016) and Haunter (2013)
