Novels about art works, and novels about archaeology, have something of the ghost story in them. The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, by Ellery Lloyd, and Nephthys, by Rachel Louise Driscoll revive the long-standing trope of the mummy’s curse. 

Think of weird fiction and, probably without even realizing it, you will think of one thing: men. Whether it’s H. P. Lovecraft’s tentacled monstrosities, the decadent necromancies of Clark Ashton Smith or Algernon Blackwood’s eerie eco-horror, the canon of weird fiction, like many human endeavors, is dominated by male practitioners.

Vigilance Theater, the immersive theater group that recently brought Mac Beth to local theatergoers, is already back in time for the thinning veil of autumn—the perfect time for telling Campfire Stories. This time, Vigilance takes us to Camp Guyasuta, a Scouting America camp in Sharpsburg, PA, where the counselors at Camp Moonside are preparing for their annual Scary Story Competition.

If you’re someone who frequents oddities or metaphysical shops (hell, even antique shops in some instances), you start to get pretty good at sensing the authenticity of not just the items around you but the people, too. You’re able to distinguish whether or not those standing behind the counter love the stuff as much as you or if they’re in it for some other reason, be it money, fad, or something else. 

I honestly couldn’t handle another demonic unborn baby movie or ridiculous pregnancy horror film that left me utterly disturbed. The more I explored this subgenre, the more I realized I wasn’t really going to find something that scared me about the state I was in, just that I would be more scared by the ways filmmakers were incorporating additional elements that tied to pregnant people…. [Instead] I thought it might be fun to explore scary children in horror movies, because hey, why not?

Films with a running time of fifteen minutes or less have racked up millions of views since premiering on YouTube through channels like ALTER, a channel exclusively for horror short films. This (often) low-budget filmmaking mirrors the immediacy of urban legends that play on fears of stranger danger or uncanny worries that something terrible can happen to an ordinary person like you.

Weapons stars Julia Garner (Apartment 7A, Wolfman) as Justine, a 3rd grade teacher whose entire class suddenly goes missing in the night—each student, of their own accord, having woken at 2:17 a.m., walked out their front doors, and ran off into the dark, arms spread like an eerie “Naruto run.”

Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in Together, a body-horror-tinged warning against codependent relationships and a PSA to always bring water purification tablets on your hikes.

“You’re going to need a bigger boat,” Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) trembles, having seen the great white shark Quint (Robert Shaw) and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) have been collectively searching for—hunting for—for the first time since the people of Amity Island started being consumed by the eating machine.

As a masked figure called the “Sweet Angel” goes viral in a social media challenge, three teens play the game as a joke, each nominating someone they’d like to see die. But when they are unexpectedly chosen by the Angel, they’re forced to follow through on their nominations, or risk death themselves.

[…] with Weird Sisters, Ashley once again delves into that class of weird tale which, despite their narrative power, have often been unfairly overlooked purely because their authors happened to be women. Overlooked, it has to be clarified, especially in the sense of being writers of weird fiction.

A kick, a push, a hiccup—all strange and new and wild—and admittedly pretty freaky. But what I’m finding in pregnancy horror is that directors rarely explore those natural phenomena. No, there always has to be a sinister monster baby to test our faith and sanity. If only they knew…

Continuing our discussion with filmmaker Adrian Țofei, we look at his upcoming feature, We Put the World to Sleep and the toll it takes to live in character, even only partially, for years.

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, I sat down with the director and star of Be My Cat: A Film for Anne, Adrian Țofei, to talk about his approach to filmmaking, what makes found footage work, and misconceptions people sometimes have about the genre.

It’s hard to imagine that Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey could be any further from the vision A.A. Milne had for his characters in the Hundred Acre Wood when he created them in 1926. Now that the characters are in the public domain, however, it didn’t take long for writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield to bring the children’s tale to its inevitable, horrifying conclusion. 

In Bring Her Back, Andy and his visually impaired stepsister Piper are thrust into the foster care system following the unexpected death of their father. After Andy convinces their social worker not to split the pair up until he turns 18 when he can file for guardianship, Andy and Piper find themselves at the door of Laura, an ex-counselor who became a foster parent after her own daughter’s drowning, and Oliver, her eerily mute ward.

Vigilance Theater Group presents Mac Beth, adapted by Erica Schmidt and directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen in a modern, immersive Shakespeare experience.

Recently, I was able to get my hands on a bottle of Macabre Spirits, a new limited release sotol (we will discuss this soon) sourced by Matthew Lillard and Mike Flanagan. Included with the bottle of sotol is a novella, written by Mike Flanagan. The book details the consequences of greed, all for the sake of enjoying the finest beverage one’s hands (and money) can get ahold of. 

Directed by Eli Craig and based on the novel by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield stars Katie Douglas as Quinn, a teen forced to move to Kettle Springs with her father Glenn played by Aaron Abrams following the death of her mother. After finding herself in detention on her first day of school, Quinn falls in with the local gang of amateur YouTubers who’ve built their following on a web series that turns the town’s de facto mascot into a crazed masked killer.

This Mother’s Day, honor the moms who haunt your nightmares. From Carrie’s fanatical matriarch to the chilling mothers of Pearl, Run Rabbit Run, Orphan, and more, these films dive deep into the horrors of maternal control, neglect, and obsession. Because sometimes, the scariest place to be is in your own family.