‘Imagine tales so bone-chillingly cold you’ll beg for a warm bed to hide under!’ or so promises the cover copy of Chillers (1990). The front cover amplifies host Anthony Perkins’ role, suggesting a link to the better-known episodic horror series around that time like Tales from the Crypt, […]
“If you’re the perfect detective, then the perfect criminal must be out there.” ~ Mrs. Midorikawa The world would be a better place if there were more artful crimes, renowned detective Akechi Kogoro tells us in the opening of The Black Lizard (1962). There are too many heinous […]
At The Paris Review, Anne Diebel considers Dashiell Hammett’s “strange career.” “In a 1929 interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dashiell Hammett described his first attempts at ‘breadwinning.’ After dropping out of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at 14, he worked as a messenger boy for the Baltimore and Ohio […]
Dashiell Hammett’s “The Gutting of Couffignal” is available for your reading pleasure at the Library of America’s blog. The story originally appeared in the Dec., 1925 issue of the influential pulp fiction magazine, Black Mask. Along with the story there’s a discussion of the publication pressures of writing […]
Bound (1996) starts with an excellent practical effect title shot, then the camera moves to a woman, tied up in another woman’s closet, as we hear voices talking about money, theft, time and a plan. You can tell it’s not her closet because she is very butch and […]
At CrimeReads, Claire Whitfield considers misleading characters and murderers hiding in plain sight. “we expect bad people to come with devil horns and a handy label. It’s still a surprise when we find out murderers can be charming and admired in the community. Cruel manipulators might always open […]
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The Cultural Gutter 