Critic Darryl Jones on the history and appeal of a disreputable genre
The Irish critic writes that horror, like all avant-garde art, operates at the extremes and tests its recipients’ tolerance levels.
Gary Sherman’s Death Line is a downbeat film that sympathizes with its monster
The 1972 British film, about survivors of a cave-in relegated to life as cannibals in the tunnels under London, is a grim critique of how capitalism treats its workers.
Stephen Graham Jones’s self-aware metafictional slasher The Last Final Girl
The American novelist’s violent, cheeky 2012 book displays a true fan’s knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the cinematic subgenre.
Andrew Pyper on why he writes horror fiction
The number one reason? It’s fun.
The mystery behind the death of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849 under conspicuously mysterious circumstances. A Buzzfeed mini-documentary speculates on what might have happened to him.
Carol J. Clover and gender subversion in the modern horror film
Clover codified the notion of the final girl, but her 1992 text on the modern horror film extends her inquiry further than just that.
Gunnar Hansen on what constitutes horror
The original Leatherface asks whether Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film classic can be considered horror without any supernatural elements.
“What did he have to report?”: “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
Jackson’s story of the commute from hell is one of her most nerve-shattering, Kafkaesque tales.
“I was thinking about my neighbours”: Shirley Jackson on her literary inspiration
Shirley Jackson on the inspiration for her classic 1948 chiller, “The Lottery.”
The automaton cometh: “The Sandman” by E.T.A. Hoffmann; Ritchie Robertson, trans.
The Prussian author’s 1816 tale is an early 19th century progenitor of the modern horror story.