Putting the Fatal in Fatalism: Tarot (2024)

Seven friends rent a mansion for a weekend to celebrate a birthday. Elise (Larsen Thompson) and her besties Haley (Harriet Slater), Madeline (Humberly González), Paige (Avantika), Grant (Adain Bradley), Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz), and Paxton (a wildly entertaining Jacob Batalon) have run through their supply of beer and are searching for a stash in the rental […]

No Hay Luz En Oscuro: Romina Garber’s Castle of the Cursed

When Estela lost her parents in a freak, unexplained accident aboard a New York subway, she was thrown into a system that pretended to care, but was ultimately powerless to do anything to help her. She was an undocumented immigrant, after all, because her father apparently never filed the proper paperwork to change their status. […]

Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here: Dante’s Inferno (1911)

To climb a mountain that leads to paradise, Dante Alighieri (Salvaore Papa) must first descend into the Inferno at its foot. When his way is blocked by three hideous beasts, the beatific Beatrice request pious poet Virgil (Arturo Pirovano) guide the still living mortal on his journey, and Virgil agrees, descending from Paradise just when […]

A Macabre Scavenger Hunt: Tim Waggoner’s Lord of the Feast

Some time ago, a cult tried to bring their filthy god to life. They sought the destruction of the Omniverse, whatever that might mean, and through the gruesome grimoire Liber Pravitis Itineribus (The Book of Depravity), found a means of doing so. But when the god was nothing like what they thought it would be, […]

Parable of the Bloodsucker: Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling

When Shori attains consciousness, she has no memory of who she is, where she is, or what she is. She knows only the unrelenting hunger. It is satisfied at first by a surprisingly docile and self-sacrificing animal. Later, it is a human being who gets too close, who whispers words not of warning or fear […]

Just Me and the Forever Dead: Linda Addison’s How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend

Linda Addison is one of the best kept secrets in speculative poetry, bar none. She has a terrific sense for language, a playfulness that veers into the darkest pockets of human experience and back out again into the realm of surreal whimsy. Who can fashion a punchline that also serves as a revisionist fairy tale […]

A Vague Sense of Unease: Christi Nogle’s One Eye Opened in That Other Place

Christi Nogle’s name is not a familiar one for me, and this is the first concentrated dose of the author’s short fiction I’ve had. The writing is lyrical, poetic. The characters are drawn well. The circumstances they find themselves involved in run a gamut from the chilling to the warmly inviting. Her characters live in […]

When You’re In Doubt, When You’re In Danger, Take a Look All Around, and I’ll Be There: Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is trying to make the best of a terrible situation. With a mom (Jennifer Pierce Mathus) who was slain by a slasher killer, a new stepmom (Carla Gugino) who is a smiling suburban horror, a dad (Joe Chrest) who is easily steamrolled, a perky cheerleader sister Taffy (Liza Soberano) who has her […]

Calling Up What Cannot Be Put Down: The Church (1989)

In the days of the Teutonic Knights (around the year 1000 C.E./A.D.), a gang of afflicted, demonic disease bearing infidels were put to the sword. Before evil energies could resurrect the bodies and seek revenge, a priest (Enrico Osterman) demanded that the mass grave be covered and consecrated. Later, a church would be erected on […]

A Delicious Stew of Anxiety, Suspense, and a Dollop of Romance: Whitney Hill’s Eldritch Sparks

Just after finding a way to embrace her feared heritage and join the society of Otherworld creatures hidden outside of normal human interactions, Arden Finch became a Christ-like figure, a unifier of the djinn, werewolves, vampires, elves, and whatnot. It is not a role she wants, but it’s one she has accepted. Unfortunately, she still […]

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