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 […]
At Vulture, Bilge Ebiri shares some of the best car movies ever made. “This list of movies is quite eclectic—it includes gearhead classics, cult standbys, noirs, modern blockbusters, art-house favorites, and even some genuine obscurities. Along the way, it became clear to us that a “car movie,” more […]
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The Cultural Gutter 