A lot of horror builds off the question of “what if the thing that can fulfill your dreams demands too high a price?” The classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw” did it. So did Stephen King’s Pet “Semetery.” And so does “Night Swim”, a little unpolished gem that popped up on my Amazon feed. In…

I tend to review horror films. 1964’s “The Visit” is more of a drama, but sometimes dramas, which hew closer to reality, are the most horrifying stories of all, right? HAWHAWHAWHAW! (Evil laughter fades to silence.) The plot is an extended Twilight Zone episode. Ingrid Bergman’s Karla inherits  vast wealth when her husband dies (it’s…

Wes Craven’s name has lured me to watch bad films before. “They” was intriguing and suspenseful until it ended right at (what felt like) the start of the third act. And he had a few other clunkers like “Red Eye” and “Dracula 2000”. (That said, I love “Nightmare on Elm Street”, and both versions of…

Here’s the thing: it’s tough to mix horror and comedy. The two modes are so opposed that you really have to lean into one over the other. When I think of films in this hybrid genre that succeeded, I think of “House” and “Homebound” (mostly humor), or “Return of the Living Dead” and “The Reanimator”…

That it was my third viewing of Martin Scorsese’s remake of the film noir classic that prompted this review tells you everything you need to know. I don’t watch crappy films three times. But even on repeat, Cape Fear is a magnificent film. The plot drives forward, the tension simmers before exploding into a violent…

I was recently drawn to watch “Brain Dead”, a 1990 offering that includes both Bills e.g. Pullman and Paxton. (Together at last!) It was billed as a thriller, but I could tell from the promo material that was like calling “Natural Born Killers” a romcom. I was immediately guarded when the intro credits were rendered…

I recently reviewed “Nightwish.” Now I turn to another movie with a nocturnally themed title, this one a film noir feature from the 50s. “Nightfall” is quite entertaining. Aldo Ray, an actor I was unfamiliar with (a quick wiki search reveals he was an incorrigible drunk), plays the classic noir loner who wanders the streets…

The two big questions I had while watching 1989’s Nightwish were “where is the night” (it’s one of those rare horror films that mostly takes place during the day) and “where is the wish”. The night eventually comes, but I never understood what the wish was. The movie starts with an elaborate horror sequence which…

When you watch schlocko-horror cinema, it’s a bit like playing the slots in Vegas. You take a chance with every viewing, hoping you might get a big payoff. With “Humanoids of the Deep” we hit the jackpot. It is fantastic!!! The film starts a bit slow. Fishermen and denizens of a small coastal town start…

I’ve always been a sucker for revenge stories: tales where a character is wronged and then given a chance to even the odds. This is doubtless driven by my inner desire to seek revenge on the many, many, many people who have wronged me. Oh, how I would love to see them suffer! But in…

As autumn approaches, a collection of horror authors, including myself, have gathered to offer their novels and collections at the bare price of 99 cents! This is a good opportunity to stock up on affordable horror ebooks. Click the link below or on the logo for a look at the titles. You’ll see my debut…

So I don’t write here much about writing. Perhaps that’s ironic. I don’t know; I’ve never been clear what irony is. However, I was looking through some notes and came across this handy list I created for myself in my formative days editing “What Waits in the Shadows”. Thought I would share it here. Things…

Part of the fun of horror writing is getting to discover the real life monsters that populate nature. Many posts ago I mentioned the giant insects of the Carboniferous Period. Today I discovered the blobfish, which looks very much like the name would suggest. (Pics at link.) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-ugliest-animal-blobfish-6676336 And there’s an explanation for its hideous…

I was just reminded of the existence of Inkitt, a “story-farm” company similar to Wattpadd. Writers on Inkitt post stories, some of which earn mass readership. But Inkitt has a twist that I’ll let this TechCrunch article explain. Everyone has a story in them, as someone famous once said. A startup called Inkitt believes that…

Though I seldom comment on a celebrity’s death unless I have some personal story about them, I did feel an extra kick in the gut when Donald Sutherland died. He was a face so present for the entirety of my life (his career was in full swing in the seventies when I was born) that…