Carol Borden was editor of and a writer for the Toronto International Film Festival’s official Midnight Madness and Vanguard program blogs. She is currently an editor at and evil overlord for The Cultural Gutter, a website dedicated to thoughtful writing about disreputable art. She has written for Mezzanotte, Teleport City, Die Danger Die Die Kill, Popshifter and she has a bunch of short stories published by Fox Spirit Books including: Godzilla detective fiction, femme fatale mermaids, an adventurous translator/poet, and an x-ray tech having a bad day. Read and listen to her other shenanigans at Monstrous Industry. For her particular take on gutter culture, check out, “In the Sewer with the Alligators.”
My last feature at this year’s Fantastic Fest was director Fergal Costello, co-director/action choreographer Lee Huang, and writer Paddy McDonald’s kung fu horror comedy, Kung Fu Deadly (Ireland/Australia, 2026). When Dublin is beset by a swarm of rats, well, one neighborhood in Dublin, exterminators Danny (actor/comedian Steven He […]
Girl In The Night (Slovenia, 2026) is a portrait of late night life in small cities or in city neighborhoods that seem empty except for the quiet yellow glow of street lights. It’s a deadpan comedy about how we change ourselves, hoping to be who the people we […]
My next movie at Fantastic Fest 2026 was Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s Donkey Princess (Chile / France / Netherlands / Uruguay / Germany) and I think I love it. Princess Diana (Antonia Giesen) grows up in a fairy tale world with her mother the Queen (Victoria Giesen) […]
At Fantastic Fest, the Gutter’s own Carol Borden girds her loins and travels into a hostile subterranean world with Mason DeRushie’s Kylgor in the Grisly Abyss (Canada, 2026)! I have missed sword and sorcery movies and fantasy that isn’t J. R. R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, and […]
One afternoon, I was out listening to music on a walk. A guy stopped me on the sidewalk in front of a church to inform me that walking around outside with both earbuds in isn’t safe. He thought I didn’t realize it’s important to be able to hear […]
It’s not meteorological summer here in the Northern Hemisphere yet, but it’s June. It’s hot and my a/c is on. I have been sticky with sweat and sunscreen. I have had my first Arnold Palmer of the season.(And my first Dinah Shore—lemonade with seltzer). It is summer as […]
Find t-shirts, mugs, totes and more at our new Guttermart location at Teepublic!
The Cultural Gutter 