Upon reading the synopsis of Gemma Files’s 2015 novel Experimental Film, I became immediately intrigued, as the premise deals with a mystery surrounding a supposedly cursed movie, and the “cursed movie” trope is one of my favorites in all of horror. I was thinking that maybe this would be something along the lines of John … More Books: Experimental Film by Gemma Files
Time for another double dose of horror, and damn, I got two good ones today, though they’re definitely not for all tastes (but then again, what is?). The first is 2016’s The Wailing, a massive hit in its native South Korea and an exceptionally reviewed flick on American shores as well. I’d been hearing recommendations for … More Double Feature: The Wailing (2016) and A Dark Song (2017)
Several weeks back, an independent author named Cristina Mîrzoi contacted me and asked if I would review her book The Headsman, which was published early in 2022 and was available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited. Doing a little background research into Cristina Mîrzoi led me to discover that she’s a very new, emerging … More Books: The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi
Kealan Patrick Burke is an Irish author who won a Bram Stoker award for his novel The Turtle Boy, which came out in 2004; I’ve seen a few of his novellas—including Sour Candy and Blanky—being widely recommended as well. But the first book of his that I got around to reading was a 2011 novel … More Books: Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke
I decided to do something of a Middle Eastern theme for today’s double feature, consisting of two films I had heard a great deal of positive press about and had been wanting to see for ages. The first is a surreal torture-fest from Turkey, the second a more traditional metaphorical ghost story with an Iranian-born … More Middle Eastern Double Feature: Baskin (2015) and Under the Shadow (2016)
Victor LaValle was yet another author that I had been sadly remiss in hearing about it until his work was recommended on several book review channels I watch. Other than being a novelist, LaValle is also a writing professor at Columbia, as is his wife. They have a son named Geronimo, which I thought was … More Books: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
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)
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
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
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
The Scare Salon 