“While the top of the charts has been oligopolized, the bottom remains a vibrant anarchy. There are weird books and funky movies and bangers from across the sea. Two of the most interesting video games of the past decade put you in the role of an immigration officer and an […]
One of my great loves in horror is when an inanimate object becomes sinister. Some of my favourites are the trucks and various electronics in Stephen King’s cocaine-fuelled opus, Maximum Overdrive (1986), the spooky mirror in Mike Flanagan’s Oculus (2013), and the diabolical tire and an insidious leather […]
At The Hustle, Mark Dent writes about the history of “Easter eggs” at Atari. “Clayton had picked up a dot, a secret key, in a black castle and carried it back to an earlier room where the dot granted him access to a door. Inside the door was […]
At UnHerd, Dorian Lynskey writes about villains, pop psychology, backstory and corporate storytelling. “What Lumet and Chayefsky were really getting at with their rubber-ducky quip was the pretence that explaining everything is akin to psychological veracity. We are all shaped by our experiences, good and bad, but rarely […]
Sakina Murdock writes about why she’s invested in independent publishing. “The problem is that proper ‘big’ publishing is broken. Not in a way that readers might consciously notice, but its systems are running on empty. Empty promises. Empty marketing budgets. Empty of innovation. Not completely empty, but running […]
At Chicago Magazine, Jake Malooley writes about the origins of Candyman (1992) in a piece about a murder in Chicago’s Grace Abbott Homes. “To get at the real horror behind Candyman, I knew I had to talk to Steve Bogira. Now 66, the veteran journalist covered race and […]