The intersection of a religious text and the horror genre is one that I felt I should have realized sooner. For anyone interested in religious horror, this text is an essential read. You can also find our interview with author Dr Brandon Grafius in the culture section.

In lieu of any scary villains or boogeymen, The Last Wave allows a primal awareness to roll in like a storm cloud.  Peter Weir is content to provide a framework of a story and allow Indigenous voices to drive the substance of the film.

Like the specters that have been known to haunt the Gothic fiction genre, Gothic modes have a tendency of cropping up where they might be least expected. For Dr. Julia Round, this means investigating comics and children’s literature.

Nature and creating the horror of being lost.

And though I would first consider A Ghost Story (David Lowery) an unblinking, compassionate look at grief, there are also beautiful moments of introspection through the lens of memory.

A timely & thoughtful look at the 2019 Pet Sematary.

The Transfiguration stitches together a new vision of what it means to be a vampire in modern cinema. A lovechild between Let the Right One In, and the hidden ’70s gem, George A. Romero’s Martin, it effectively builds on the rich history of vampire films in the U.S. and maintains a sense of relevancy, without sacrificing its unique point of view.

A deep dive into the visuals of The Exorcism of Emily Rose reveals a haunting foreshadowing of the economic recession.

Driven by a passion to bridge the gap between academia and fandom in horror, Dr. Aalya Ahmad has spent much of her career teaching students from a variety of backgrounds about what the genre has to offer, as well as diving into the intersection of feminist theory and horror.

Looking back on this beloved film in the wake of Covid-19, I didn’t know what holding a job, providing for myself, or living alone was like. I had no idea about life’s greatest fears or the fragility of human life itself.

The cracks might be obvious, but in a film so obviously tongue-in-cheek, where every character is a caricature and no one is safe, it’s difficult to seriously suggest anyone will actually be offended.

My only real issue with The Lodge is how it sticks the landing.

There is something both viscerally compelling and haunting about religious horror, whether it simply be flavored with something like Catholic iconography or saturated with a terrifying belief system baked into the very writing.

The team working on Color successfully adapted a Lovecraft story for the modern world. The “indescribable” horror is translated to screen via brilliant practical effects and images largely only seen through a reflection—out of the proverbial corner of the viewer’s eye, if you will. What we see otherwise is nothing short of stomach-droppingly beautiful—a visual feast reminiscent of Mandy.

If Ginger’s transformation is a manifestation of her blossoming womanhood, then both Brigitte and their mother express a desire to prevent Ginger’s growing up.

On one side, I feel like Rob Zombie successfully created a movie that was indeed to his style, but on the other, at what cost? Or an even bigger question, for what reason?

If you’re like me at all, Halloween is your favorite holiday, and by the time Christmas rolls around, you’re more than a little tired of what feels like the same 10 holiday songs on repeat.

Both Halloween and Veteran’s Day have come and gone, but around the end of October, I found myself thinking about the role of war in horror.

Though I initially anticipated something of a challenging read—by the end of my day, my brain is usually a bit soupy so I need to push myself to really engage with material that ventures more into theory—Scared Sacred immediately seized me with the engaging and approachable writing quality I found in its essays. 

No matter what you prefer on your Thanksgiving plate, we’ve got five films filled with cannibals who prefer the human flesh during their holiday feast––and probably all the time! Why have a stuffed bird when you can have brains?