[Reviews]

Resurrection Review

From the producers of Midsommar, Hereditary, and The Witch, comes Resurrection, an afflicted psychological thriller that wrestles with the theme of motherhood and past traumas in chilling ways. It’s an A24-style movie through and through and a return to directing by Andrew Semans (Nancy, Please). Semans wrote the script while he was battling with himself

[Fiction]

The Labyrinth of the Mystics

A nebula of gnarled coast live oak trees hunched over the scene like fallen sons of God. The Escondido police dropship spotted the body near the side of the road on the way to a regular city water ration run. The body was wrapped in an unknown plasticine substance that stuck to the fingers like

[Reviews]

SMILE Review

SMILE recently passed the $200 million milestone worldwide to become the highest-grossing horror film of 2022 so far. Beyond its solid opening weekend, SMILE‘s week two drop was only 22%, the best second-week retention for a horror film since Jordan Peele’s Get Out way back in 2017. SMILE‘s surprising box office run sets it up

[Fiction]

A Paper King Needs a Palace

Papers of all kinds are what my mother collected. I say “collected,” but the reality show doctors on my TV call it “compulsive hoarding.” I often lay awake at night looking at my stack of unread books and wonder if I will transform into the same person in my old age; this action would be

[Fiction]

The Shadows of Shebna

Shebna’s feeble voice reverberated like a drunken piano chord in the damp seven-foot square room. He thudded against the wall, all skinny wrists flailing and wrenching in volcanic blasts of weakened bone, muscle, and sinew. His home is a mosquito farm. A choked whisper of a man that knew nothing of his captors beyond scattered

[Reviews]

Mad Love Review

Mad Love (1935) originally opened on a black screen with an audience warning very similar to Edward van Sloan’s Frankenstein (1931) opening (also written by John L. Balderston). But it was edited out prior to release. The released intro for the film is far better as the opening credits appear over a window before a

[Fiction]

The Gate

Monday November 1, 1926 My dearest Anna, …I’m so delighted we can connect each evening with these electric dispatches. Your photo of our sweet baby Margaret was kindling for my hearth this morning. Today I have heartening news and another spark for that intense conflagration inside me—we finally broke through into the Hadal Zone this

[Movies]

A Cold Breeze in the Dark Wood: Three Folk Horror Flicks for Autumn

Once the air starts to chill and the leaves change color, there’s only one sub-genre of scary movies on my mind: folk horror. Few film genres are more autumnal than those dedicated to the natural world’s dark side, full of woods with supernatural secrets and nearby towns trying to hide them. While the genre became

[Reviews]

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Review

“Open your mind to fear,” states the tagline for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. We should be grateful for a solid new anthology series that is worthy of attention as we patiently wait for the return of Netflix’s Black Mirror. This new collection of frightful tales shows a great deal of respect for the