Author: Liz Griffiths
Body horror seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts in the last few years with such films as 2021’s Malignant and 2024’s The Substance. A term first coined in the 1980s, the body horror sub-genre rose to fame as a gnarly, gross-out style of film that carefully juxtaposes camp and over-the-top visuals with classic horror
With 2024’s Terrifier 3 breaking the box office record for the highest-grossing unrated film of all time, Damien Leone’s iconic character Art the Clown has blown up as a pop culture icon. Art’s admittedly grotesque visage appears on t-shirts and posters, his likeness is replicated by countless cosplayers, and he even has a massive online
The 2008 horror film The Strangers, written and directed by Bryan Bertino capitalizes on some of our most common fears: home invasion and random, unprovoked violence. It takes the minimalist, almost homemade look of horror films from the early 2000s and dials up the amount of tension and suspense, relying less on gore and more
It isn’t easy to portray a culture’s traditions and beliefs in a horror movie without it feeling gimmicky and a bit hokey, so 2020’s The Old Ways sets the bar fairly high for itself in that regard. We’ve seen films and books use cultural lore in countless ways, some that do it successfully (such as
In the early 2000s, the horror market was saturated with films of all types as directors looked to find the next big thing. What would horror look like in the new millennium? What were people afraid of now that Y2K had passed without so much as a hiccup? Would rapidly advancing technology aid in the
Harleigh Beck’s 2023 novel Sinister Legacy came highly recommended as the go-to title in horror erotica, a strange subgenre that is not quite dark romance and not quite pure horror. It ventures into the perilous intersection of erotica and horror, weaving a captivating narrative that will leave readers both aroused and unnerved, often at the
Horror and children’s literature are a crossover you don’t expect to see, but Bret Nelson and Pete Mitchell’s 2024 book The Part Mart is exactly the right mix of creepy and cute. While not a horror book in the classic sense, the idea of a literal body shop and a disembodied head watching YouTube are,
Preston Allen’s 2024 novel, I Disappeared Them is a riveting exploration of human complexity, blending elements of mystery, psychological depth, and societal commentary into a compelling narrative. It evokes disgust and rage from the reader, but also at times empathy and a sense of relatability as we struggle to answer the age-old question of nature
Not since 2006’s Stay Alive has video gaming been in the spotlight of horror in the way it is in 2023’s Livescreamers. Directed by Michelle Iannantuono, this sequel to the 2020 film Livescream follows a group of streamers testing out a new indie-horror game where all their secrets will be laid bare and the stakes
Since 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project,” found footage films have taken the horror genre by storm with movies like Rec (2007), Creep (2014), and Cloverfield (2008). Something about the shaky camerawork and low-resolution video adds to the immersive quality of horror, making viewers feel like they’re a part of the nightmare, and the 2023 film