31 Days of Spoooktacular: Even a Man Who Is Pure in Heart

For 31 Days of Spoooktacular, I wanted to do the occasional spotlight on the monsters that have formed the deep and gristly backbone of pop culture. Through a society's monsters, you can tell a lot about that society. What scares us, helps to define us. It is no coincidence that, in the wake of World … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: Even a Man Who Is Pure in Heart →

31 Days of Spoooktacular: Portrait of a Slasher Movie

The slasher movie is, by far, one of the subgenres of horror that most sticks to a formula. And here is the formula: Pre-Credits Kill+Character Introduction+Cat Scare*+Minor Character Killed Off+Pointless Drama/Comedic Scene+Secondary Character Killed+Hero(ine) and Killer Meet-Up+Hero(ine) Triumphs+One Last Scare=Slasher Movie This is, for the most part, how every slasher movie plays out. You have … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: Portrait of a Slasher Movie →

31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Learning Curve (Part 2)

A few months ago I talked about reading older horror authors in order to see what had come before and learning from it. Just reading modern work is like reading the stuff that came before, but diluted, with six degrees of separation. You'll see a little bit of Matheson and Lovecraft in a Stephen King … Continue reading 31 Days of Spoooktacular: The Learning Curve (Part 2) →

It’s on the Air

You can't sense it, but I can. I step outside and I can smell it, hovering on the fringes, hanging back from the senses; that lingering odor of decay in a basement that promises something hidden under the floor. You don't notice it. But it's coming. It's in the way the shadows are cast now; … Continue reading It’s on the Air →

Learning the History

If there's one thing that I'm particularly weak on, it's my horror history. I don't read a lot of horror to start and I read even less of the older examples of the genre. Sure, I'll pick up some pulps or read more Lovecraft than can fill the forgotten tomb city of R'lyeh, but for … Continue reading Learning the History →

The North End Excursion (Part II)

There are places in this world where the skin of our world has been worn thin. Here, breaches can happen and travelers from our world can cross over to the other....just as they can also cross over into our world. These are places where the very fabric of reality has been frayed and where the … Continue reading The North End Excursion (Part II) →

The North End Excursion (Part 1)

I was reading the Necronomicon, a collection a short stories by the Mad American H.P. Lovecraft, when I noticed something interesting in one of his stories, specifically "Pickman's Model". While most of his tales revolve around fantastical locations or rural areas or fictional towns, this particular story takes place in Boston's North End. There is … Continue reading The North End Excursion (Part 1) →

A New Story Is Up: Carolyn

Over a year ago, I wrote a story called For Carolyn and it was published on Tales from the Zombie War. There were a few comments asking for more about both Carolyn and her mother, Alex, and while I normally ignore comments asking for a sequel, I actually had an idea about them and where … Continue reading A New Story Is Up: Carolyn →

An Analysis of Fear

Over the years, I've made Horror my thing. I've watched countless horror movies. I've read countless horror stories. I've viewed the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. I've worked out the formulas for the non-Euclidian shapes of Lovecraftian geometry. I've sampled the wares of multiple cultures; the giallo films of Dario Argento, the existentialist nightmares of French cinema, and … Continue reading An Analysis of Fear →

A Break from the Fear

I've been staring at this story for about twenty minutes now and so far I have nothing. I know exactly where this story is going to go. I know what's supposed to happen and when things are going to happen. A will follow B which will lead to C and then comes D. I know … Continue reading A Break from the Fear →