The horror diary

Classic and niche horror films, books and games, occult horror, and the art of making ordinary things unsettling.

Undertone: the sound is the invitation

The strongest part of this pitch is the ordinary habit it turns against us: listening again.

The doorway is the hook. Explaining everything behind it could be the mistake.

The opening works because its enchanted wood is still a place a child has to get home from.

Before the vampire arrives, the opening has already made ambition uncomfortable.

Two kinds of control are a good idea. The handover between them is where the risk lives.

Beautiful horror works best when looking closer becomes a mistake.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman turns decoration into something almost unbearable to look at.