A Home for Horror

What Sleeps Beneath is an online magazine that explores the horror genre as one of the most important cultural vehicles of our time. It is a home for all horror-loving nerds, and a space to investigate what the genre tells us about ourselves.

Founding Contributors

We write book and movie reviews, interviews, and conduct original academic research. We are a collective of freaks, writers, and friends. What was supposed to be a simple movie night devolved into a heavy debate regarding the relationship of script and film, the church as a driving force in horror, the history of monsters, and the cinematography of sickness and blood on screen, and thus What Sleeps Beneath was born.

A young man with short dark hair, glasses, and a wide smile sitting at a table in a cafe or restaurant with a brick wall background. He's wearing a star-patterned shirt and holding a smartphone.
A young woman standing in front of a historic stone monument with a door that has a cross and decorative elements. The monument has the inscription 'FAMILLE SEGUIN' above the door. The woman is dressed in a denim shirt, black leather jacket, black skirt, and black ankle boots, with her hair in a bun, smiling and looking down.
A woman with long hair wearing a striped yellow and brown sweater, holding two dogs outdoors on a grassy area. One dog is black with a white patch on its chest, sitting beside her. The other dog is white with brown patches and standing on her lap. In the background, there are trees, houses, and a pathway under a partly cloudy sky.

Guest Writers

In addition to original articles from founding members, we are lucky enough to publish a small cohort of excellent guest writers. What Sleeps Beneath is a horror site that encourages and thrives off of the conversation in our community, and we are so happy that you are here.

write for us

  • Christina Brennan is writer and reviewer whose work has appeared in various places, including Little White Lies, Flux Magazine, and Horror Homeroom. She’s been a reviewer for the Salem Horror Film Festival and Glasgow FrightFest Film Festival. She’s also writing a book on George Sluizer's The Vanishing, a film that Stanley Kubrick called the most terrifying film he'd ever seen. Read more: https://www.drchristinabrennan.com/ Twitter: @bigloudscreams

  • Alyssa Waldron is an avid film lover and artist. When she’s not traipsing around the city or laughing at a silly joke, she's probably lying on the floor crafting miniature furniture (with Shudder streaming in the background). You can find her work @faintlygrainy.

  • Born in late 1979, Brian is a proud member of the VHS generation of horror fandom. He developed a taste for zombie movies and slashers from USA Up All Night and TNT Monstervision in the 90s. Favorites include Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Return of the Living Dead and All the Nightmare and Friday Series. Brian is a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a Speech Communication degree and works as a client success and implementation manager. Brian is also a diehard fan of music and a proud dad to Clara, 8.

  • Nelson W. Pyles is an author, musician, podcast creator and voice actor living in Pittsburgh. He has written two novels and is currently working on his third. His second collection of short stories, essays and articles All These Steps Lead Down will be released in March, 2024 from Cold War Radio Press. He is a member of the HWA. You can find Nelson at https://whatnelsonwrites.com/

  • Daniel Pietersen is the editor of I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist, part of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. He is also a recurring guest lecturer for the Romancing the Gothic project and a regular contributor to publications like Dead Reckonings, Revenant and Horror Homeroom. Daniel lives in a very old house in a very old town and is slowly becoming very old himself. You can find more of his work at pietersender.wordpress.com and pietersender.substack.com and follow him on Twitter, @pietersender.

meet the team

  • Born in late 1979, Brian is a proud member of the VHS generation of horror fandom. He developed a taste for zombie movies and slashers from USA Up All Night and TNT Monstervision in the 90s. Favorites include Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Return of the Living Dead and All the Nightmare and Friday Series. Brian is a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a Speech Communication degree and works as a client success and implementation manager. Brian is also a diehard fan of music and a proud dad to Clara, 8.

  • Nelson W. Pyles is an author, musician, podcast creator and voice actor living in Pittsburgh. He has written two novels and is currently working on his third. His second collection of short stories, essays and articles All These Steps Lead Down will be released in March, 2024 from Cold War Radio Press. He is a member of the HWA. You can find Nelson at https://whatnelsonwrites.com/

  • Daniel Pietersen is the editor of I Am Stone: The Gothic Weird Tales of R. Murray Gilchrist, part of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. He is also a recurring guest lecturer for the Romancing the Gothic project and a regular contributor to publications like Dead Reckonings, Revenant and Horror Homeroom. Daniel lives in a very old house in a very old town and is slowly becoming very old himself. You can find more of his work at pietersender.wordpress.com and pietersender.substack.com and follow him on Twitter, @pietersender.

  • Arran Crawley currently has two ghost story screenplays on the Film Festival circuit, so far, they have won 4 awards and placed in several finals. These include wins at ‘Best Short Screenplay’ at the Ethereal Horror Fest 2022 and ‘Best Dark Drama Feature Screenplay’ at Austin After Dark – Fall 2022. Ever since he relocated to Canada in 2015, Arran has worked with emerging filmmakers, several film festivals (including Vancouver Asian Film Festival) and is the former Program Coordinator at the Calgary Film Centre. You can follow his progress on Instagram - arrancrawley

  • Laura tuned into horror with an interest in what these movies and books can tell us about ourselves and what societies fear. She is most interested in horror focused around the supernatural, folklore, the occult, Gothic themes, haunted media, landscape as a character, and hauntology (focusing on lost or broken futures).