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Horrorshows and Horrortells: Fear in the Explicit and Oblique

An oft-cited guideline if you've ever come across the academia of writing and storytelling comes in three short words: show, don't tell . 
Recent posts

House (1977): I Just Really Want You To Watch House (1977)

The only thing I can assure those who haven't seen House is that this post will not  prepare you for the film because that's literally impossible. But I'm here to tell you this bonkers piece of cinema is an absolute must-see for pretty much everybody. 

The Exorcist vs. The Omen: Morality and Show, Don't Tell

Because religion doesn't play a huge part in my life, it's easy to think the entire concept of religious horror would flop for me and I'd never want to spend time on it. But that's not the case. The genre can  miss for me...but only if it uses religious alignment as a shorthand for morality.

Pearl (2022): The Value of a Star

For me, the mark of an acting performance is if I genuinely cannot imagine a single other performer doing as well.

X (2022): The Core of a Story

In this post, I'm going to start talking about one of my very favorite horror projects in the space today, which hasn't yet concluded as of writing, but has knocked the first two of its three films out of the park. Ti West's (and, as of Pearl , also Mia Goth's) X  film trilogy. 

Skinamarink (2022): What Scares You?

Skinamarink  is one of those horror films which, when described on paper, may not seem like a film that would scare a lot of people. For many, it simply doesn' t, and yet it's the scariest thing many others have ever seen.

How Horror Can Subvert the Final Girl

As I've already discussed, the final girl (a concept codified in Carol Clover's analytical text  Men, Women, and Chainsaws ) is the archetypal female lead and survivor of a slasher movie.