Terror takes flight: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by Richard Matheson
Of all the genre master’s classic novels and stories, none comes close to the sheer paranoid terror of this ruthless chiller.
Christopher Sharrett on neoconservatism in the 1980s and ’90s horror film
Upending the radical vision of much 1960s and ’70s American horror cinema, the following decades saw a reactionary retrenchment, argues the academic and critic.
“The actual worth of the things you make”: “Wolverton Station” by Joe Hill
Hill’s Gothic tale is an exuberant mashup of Warren Zevon, Little Red Riding Hood, and “An American Werewolf in London.”
Nathan Ripley on the intimidation of writing in “the best genre”
The author of psychological thrillers says his respect for the horror genre may explain why he has had difficulty writing in the genre.
“I am a singularity”: “Event Horizon” by Sunny Moraine
The house in the story – a living thing that demands to be fed – is a metaphor for difference and the other.
Nick Cutter, aka Craig Davidson, on the allure of Asian horror
Manga creator Junji Ito’s work is a terrifying combination of enclosed spaces, group mania, and obsessive desire, writes Cutter.
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.