The film adaptation of The Shining and the well-publicized blood feud between Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick has been the subject of nearly endless internet debate, but for some reason it’s a subject I’m obsessively fascinated by and often get into long, rambling conversations about, which is why I decided to unburden myself in written … More A Tale of Two Shinings
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)
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
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)
I first got interested in reading this book after seeing NUMEROUS recommendations for it on various horror book review channels on YouTube, and the fact that it was described as a Southern gothic further piqued my interest. The funny thing is, when I ordered my paperback copy off Amazon, I didn’t realize that the novel … More Books: The Elementals by Michael McDowell
I chose today to focus on childhood books I loved and that helped to shape my writing identity, books that I still remember fondly decades later. These ten books, among the hundreds I read growing up, have stuck with me for various reasons over the years, and I would recommend any of them unreservedly to … More Favorite Creepy Books from My 70s Childhood
After seeing the 2022 reboot of Firestarter not too long ago, I remembered that it was only the second feature film from director Keith Thomas, and I also remembered that Thomas’s feature film debut, The Vigil, caused a slight buzz when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival back in 2019. I was curious to … More Movies: The Vigil (2019)
Although I had encountered and enjoyed the work of director David Bruckner several times before—he directed segments in the great horror anthology films The Signal, V/H/S, and Southbound, and helmed the excellent 2017 film The Ritual, which was based on the novel by Adam Nevill—I hadn’t actually heard about his movie The Night House until … More Movies: The Night House (2020)
While author Dean Koontz sells nearly as many books as Stephen King, and has actually been writing for longer than King has, there have been significantly fewer film adaptations of Koontz’s works, and none that have garnered all that much recognition or critical praise. 1977’s Demon Seed is pretty fantastic, and Watchers from 1988 is … More Movies: Odd Thomas (2011)
The Haunting of Julia was released in 1981 in the US, but came out in the UK in 1977 under the confusingly generic title Full Circle. It was based on the novel Julia by the phenomenal Peter Straub, who needs more film adaptations of his work, goddammit. It’s a low-key, atmospheric ghost story of the … More Movies: The Haunting of Julia (aka Full Circle) (1977)
The Scare Salon 