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Watching ‘Nightborn’ After Having My Firstborn

After a traumatic labor, Saga wakes to the cries of her newborn son in his bassinet on the other side of the room. While most watching will likely pick up on baby Kuura’s negative reaction to sunlight—I couldn’t stop thinking about the pain it would have caused Saga to get up and gather her son herself. The irony of thinking about her struggles is further amplified by the cries and almost animalistic moans and later-described hairy body that are all chalked up as “normal” and that the couple has a perfectly healthy babe. After all, everyone insists that every baby and every pregnancy… is different.

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CONSTRAINT AND LICENSE IN ‘CAT PEOPLE’: 1942 and 1982

Never graphically violent, [Cat People] is nonetheless shocking, especially in the stalking and pool scenes. Never graphic sexually—not the barest inch of customarily hidden skin is exposed—it’s nonetheless erotic. The heart of the film is the fear of female sexuality, the sense that, if women were to give in to their carefully repressed urges, they would throw society itself into chaos.

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Cults & Religion, Classic Horror Films Jane Nightshade Cults & Religion, Classic Horror Films Jane Nightshade

The Omen (1976): 50 Years Old and Still Relevant

Author Jane Nightshade recounts seeing The Omen in theaters on its release in 1976: “In the summer of 1976, the Bicentennial Year, I was determined to see the upcoming new horror film, The Omen. I was sixteen, and it was rated R—no one under 17 admitted without an adult chaperone. Fortunately, I was able to convince my older sister to accompany me and my parents, reluctantly, allowed me to go….”

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“There is Still Time”: Self-Annihilation in ‘I Saw the TV Glow’

Glow, directed by Jane Schoenbrun, was released in 2024, and has built up a not-undeserved reputation as being the modern trans horror film. Its protagonist is Owen, a timid individual with no close relationships, cannot look other people in the eye, and doesn’t appear to be able to understand or articulate his emotions. Owen bonds with an older girl, Maddy (Jack Haven), over a shared love of the fictional TV series The Pink Opaque. The show is mocked and derided by Owen’s abusive, hyper-masculine father as being “for girls,” so Maddy supplies Owen with videotapes of the show to watch in secret.

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[Movie Review] Avalon Fast’s “CAMP” is the Latest in the New Wave of Transgressive Filmmaking

The knee-jerk synopsis you’re likely to hear most frequently for CAMP is a dreamy, mumblecore version of The Craft. And honestly, that’s a fair place to start. Like that ’90s classic, CAMP does center on a group of teen girls who form a coven, of sorts, and their magic does have real manifestation. Unlike The Craft, though, CAMP doesn’t really have a Fairuza Balk type character that drives a movie-defining wedge into the sisters, CAMP’s coven is one of empowerment and support—for better or worse.

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Guest Writer Guest Writer

Java Game Concepts Students Can Build Around Haunted Spaces

Java is a language for students who want to learn game programming. It teaches them about logic, object-oriented design, loops, events and user input in a way that feels real. Using places in games makes them more exciting because it sets a mood and creates a sense of mystery. For example a haunted mansion, an abandoned school, a cursed library or a deserted hospital can turn a coding task into a fascinating game idea.

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Books & Literature Nick Anderson Books & Literature Nick Anderson

[Book Review] “Lucky Day” by Chuck Tingle

Vera Norrie’s life is going swimmingly. She’s respected at work (where she’s the youngest statistics professor in school history), has a supportive group of friends, and is getting engaged to the love of her life—her girlfriend Annie.

Then, on May 23rd, a day that would come to be known as the Low Probability Event, or LPE, nearly eight million people are killed in a vast, worldwide series of improbable freak accidents. One of the victims is Vera’s mother.

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Guest Writer Guest Writer

Horror Franchises That Spread Beyond the Screen

There is no doubt that some horror films, although originally meant for the big screen, sometimes have a nasty tendency to cross over into other entertainment media. The greatest and most popular horror series have shown a strange tendency of breaking out of their box office confines and ending up in places such as video games, amusement parks, comic books, and more.

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Essays, Survival/Environmental Horror West Ambrose Essays, Survival/Environmental Horror West Ambrose

bunnydeath: Jiibayaabooz and the De-christing of Indigenous Horror Amidst Fascist Hellscapes in ‘Reanimal’

Reanimal, Tarsier Studios’s latest near-wordless video game, shows players a hellscape steeped in fascism where five children journey into the maws of death. On the surface, it is about a boy finding his beloved sibling amongst the wreckage and reuniting them with friends. Yet, nothing is what it appears as these masked travelers traverse realms of watery nightmares.

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Books & Literature Oscar Cadeau Books & Literature Oscar Cadeau

[Book Review] The History of Transgressive Canonical Horror in ‘Infernas’

West Ambrose’s verse novel glosses over the original Inferno with the wordplay in its title, proposing Infernas as "a place or condition suggestive of hell...a conflagration [and]...the lower parts of the body, the abdomen". In this respect, Ambrose recontextualizes the original Divine Comedy as a site of body horror as well as psychological anguish.

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Guest Writer Guest Writer

Why Space Is the Perfect Setting for Existential Horror

There’s something wrong with looking up to the night sky. Not dangerous. Just deeply, quietly disturbing. Maybe it's the scale of it. The way those tiny lights remind you how small your problems are. Or maybe, it’s just the silence.


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Brandon Ketchum Brandon Ketchum

Stokercon 2026 Visitor’s Guide: Haunted Sites Outside Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is a city loaded with dark history. From natural disasters to steel industry accidents to the shady goings-on at the old penitentiary and larger-scale incidents like the Homestead Strike (and its breaking), Pittsburgh has seen it all. There was even a bombing in the Gulf Tower back in 1974! Plenty of hauntings can trace their roots to the city's past, and there is plenty of horror to explore.

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