So I’ve been writing about horror for a while now, rabbiting on the way I do, reminiscing about some of my favorite books and movies from my youth and trying to figure out what made certain things stick with me over the years. But in all that time, it never occurred to me to write … More Movies: April Fool’s Day (1986)
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
No one would ever accuse notorious Italian gore master Lucio Fulci of being a particularly subtle filmmaker, but even in the wide Fulcian seas of splinter eye gougings, coughed-up intestines, and little braided girls getting their heads half blown off by shotguns, his 1982 giallo thriller The New York Ripper gives even his ardent fans … More Movies: The New York Ripper (1982)
Ti West began his directorial career in 2005 with the killer-bat film The Roost, but it wasn’t until his 2009 Satanic Panic throwback House of the Devil that the horror community really sat up and took notice. He followed up with the excellent paranormal horror The Innkeepers in 2011, and then in 2013 released his … More Movies: X (2022)
Most people, especially those into horror, are aware of the concept known as the “uncanny valley,” how things that look almost like humans—but not quite—are intensely disturbing to most of us. I think this aspect of human psychology is one reason why horror films featuring dolls, dummies, realistic robots and the like are so common, … More Movies: Tourist Trap (1979)
The Scare Salon 