Emily Harris’ 2019 retelling of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Ur-Lesbian Vampire text Carmilla (1872) comes at you with so much intelligence, emotional authenticity, and raw, molting gorgeousness, the vampire bit might be the least interesting part. I have seen reviews that question whether there is even any vampirism […]
“Satan said, ‘I am better than him. You created me from fire and him from clay.” ~ Quran 7:12 quoted in Roh. “Ephemerality is ours.” ~ demon in Roh. “The next time you think you see a a demon, shoot it.” ~ The Wind. Warning, I tried to […]
In The Hunger (1983), Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) and husband John (David Bowie) are rich and young and in love and have absolutely everything: an inexplicably labyrinthine estate in the heart of Manhattan, yawning, idle days spent on books and orchids and cellos and nights strobing full of […]
The following contains spoilers for every version of The Shining and both versions of its sequel Doctor Sleep. With a legendary, cross-genre publishing career pushing toward its fifth decade, Stephen King’s name has become a thing unto itself. It is adjectival; it has top billing; it is printing […]
Horror satisfies many social and psychological needs. These are the stories we are compelled to tell because they’re fun, because they’re exciting, because it’s natural to crave the thrill and the sweet, sweet dopamine of survival. They allow us to talk about trauma and grief and existential fear, […]
Halloween (1978) wasn’t the first slasher film, not by a long, long shot, and Laurie Strode wasn’t the first Final Girl, but — as I have discussed here before — the commercial appeal and success of Halloween codified the slasher subgenre and set the rules for at least […]
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The Cultural Gutter 