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.
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.
This column was created to give proper notice to the motion picture’s kith and kin: the television drama. Each installment, we’ll closely examine a stalwart story from the land of anthology horror. Why? Because as you’ll soon find out, they are all small, dark wonders unto themselves. This episode: The Man in the Suitcase.
The movie that spawned 2 sequels with a third on its way, a remake, comic books, a TV show, and even a musical now gets its own drink fit for a deadite.
This column was created to give proper notice to the motion picture’s kith and kin: the television drama. Each installment, we’ll closely examine a stalwart story from the land of anthology horror. Why? Because as you’ll soon find out, they are all small, dark wonders unto themselves. First up: Holly’s House.
If you want to sell me on a movie, you’ve got plenty of options. Folk horror, for sure, will get my attention, but mentioning a mythological creature or two will have me listening closely. Make that movie found footage, and suddenly, I’m leaning forward in my seat. Then I found out that the film comes from Australia—the country that has some of the bleakest, most unique, and culturally rich horror stories we’ve seen in decades—well, then there’s no question: It’s a must-see for me.
Beyond the Drumlins is a folk/cosmic horror film directed by Daniel W. Bowhers and co-written by Bowhers and Michael Kowalski. WSB had the pleasure of viewing Beyond the Drumlins at last year’s Thriller Picture Show Festival. In this interview, Ande sits down with composer, Johnny Tomasiello, an artist based in New York City, who gives a deeper look into his incredible and experimental process for scoring the film.
Fear is usually something we try to avoid. We turn on the lights after watching a scary movie, skip the dark hallway, or laugh nervously when a story gets too creepy. But when you study horror writing in college, something strange happens. Fear stops being only a feeling. It becomes a subject, a tool, a mirror, and sometimes even a teacher.
A cocktail built for fighting zombies.
When Alice Maio Mackay was 16 years old in Adelaide, South Australia, she released her first feature film, So Vam, which was then acquired and distributed by Shudder. Just two years later, she was already releasing her third and fourth films. Now, at 21 years old, she’s about to release her sixth venture, The Serpent’s Skin. It’s also her best.
Filmmaker and artist rebecca shapass debuts her newest film tempus fugit at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA. In tempus fugit, shapass combines shots of three primary locations—a cryogenics facility, a pile of writhing worms, and a house filled with items left behind by the previous owner—while incorporating elements of horror and experimental cinema.
As part of Women in Horror month, What Sleeps Beneath is celebrating women in Pittsburgh who are keeping the spirit of the horror community alive. In a city where the genre is deeply rooted, from serving as the location for classic horror movies to being home to the University of Pittsburgh’s Horror Studies program and archive, locals know that horror has always been more than just a story in a book or on a screen.
This wasn’t going to be a rehashed tale of Frankenstein and Pretorius joining forces, inexplicably transplanted into 20th century America. This was beginning to look like Sid & Nancy. This was Bonnie and Clyde. Or more accurately—this is Nancy. This is Bonnie. This is The Bride!
When it first hit the theaters, audiences viewed the movie as a standard slasher. The trailers promised dark comedy and quick scares. Yet, the narrative connected with viewers through profound existential dread. Intense paranoia and the psychological torture of repetition create the actual terror.
From solidly Weird tales of ghostly hauntings and unseen things to more subtle stories of lost children and malevolent housekeeping, Women’s Weird contained a vast range of subjects reflected through the lens of female experience.
One of the things I like most about horror is its range. Horror can be represented across the full spectrum of media and found lurking within even apparently-conflicting genres. I look back over the past few years and think beyond the obvious horror-homes of film and TV to examples like Tom Wright’s harrowing stage adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock, the haunting and hauntological sci-fi horror art books of Simon Stålenhag or even Cryo Chamber’s ever-expanding discography of sinister, abyssal dark ambient.
The Long Walk, a film adaptation of the Stephen King story, is grim reflection of authoritarian control—and an unlikely harbinger of hope in dark times.
Stop in to Pittsburgh’s Vinegar Syndrome - the best place to grab your horror, thriller, smut, and hard to find films on DVD and VHS.
Throughout the decades, slasher film villains have had their fair share of bizarre motivations for committing violence. In Jamie Langlands’s The R.I.P Man, killer Alden Pick gathers the teeth of his victims to put in his own toothless mouth in deference to an obscure medieval Italian clan of misfits.
Horror movies have been scaring the hell out of us for decades, but let's be honest—most follow the same tired formula. What separates the truly great ones from the forgettable jump-scare fests? Those moments when a film completely pulls the rug out from under you—when everything you thought you knew gets turned upside down.
There are many films that explore the behind-the-scenes world of Hollywood—in different eras, under different circumstances, and across various genres. It could be a large-scale, big-budget epic drama or a hilarious comedy or even a dark historical comedy musical. It could also be noir, a mystical thriller, or even horror. It is precisely this “dark triad” that defines the films in the selection we’ve put together for you.
The Twisted Childhood Universe gathers steam with it’s latest addition of Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare—a slasher that embraces the complexity of queer characters.
Bones and roots adorn the walls of their dimly lit home. A mjölnir necklace hangs around K.’s neck as he hand carves incense into a small cauldron burner and a breathy soundtrack begins to play. This is a couple that is in tune—with themselves, with the natural world, and, as we will soon see, the supernatural world, as well.
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This column was created to give proper notice to the motion picture’s kith and kin: the television drama. Each installment, we’ll closely examine a stalwart story from the land of anthology horror. Why? Because as you’ll soon find out, they are all small, dark wonders unto themselves. This episode: Thriller’s “The Cheaters.”