by Keith Jackson Imagine a cool and breezy autumn night. The bare branches of trees tap against the window, playing with your senses and making you feel like someone is watching. You and your friend sit nervously in a dark room, alone and bored. Your friend suggests playing the game you rented from the local […]

by Madeline M.H. Grosh Halloween is a holiday widely celebrated across the United States and Western Europe. Caught up in the excitement of the holiday, many do not understand the mysteries and the fears that make up the original reason for its creation. Halloween is renowned for being the one day when you are able […]

by Emily Barsic His face peers into yours with a bright red painted smile, but only he knows his real emotions hiding behind the mask. Despite his fake smile, he begs you to laugh at his painted face and squeaky nose and quirky actions. As he comes nearer, uncanny fears arise. You know that the […]

by Aidan McBride In his 1924 story “The Rats in the Walls,” horror writer H. P. Lovecraft breaks his usual mold, moving away from typical science fiction stories and taking a decidedly more Gothic approach.  The story diverts from cosmic horror to give us a much more human villain and creates horror not through cosmic […]

by Kathryn Hampshire  When you hear the word “monster,” what comes to mind? Is it the black-and-white, somewhat blurry image of an undead creature from that horror film your parents didn’t know you were watching from behind the couch? Is it a memory of believing without a doubt that there was something sinister living under […]

by Maggie Weeks-Foy Him, a supervillain in The Powerpuff Girls, was one of the first plausibly gender-nonconforming monsters to grace the animated screen. A devil with high, high heels, an effeminate voice, and an adoration for his rubber duck, Quackers, Him strikes fear into the hearts of little kids, not only through his love of […]

by Noah Patterson  In William Peter Blatty’s film The Exorcist, the catalyst of demonic possession transforms Regan, a young girl, into a prime example of the abject and grotesque. Through reasons unknown (though one posited explanation includes playing with an Ouija board), Regan becomes the target of a powerful demon and is rendered unrecognizable by […]

By Sarah James “It was bloody. Messy. Thirty-one flavors of bottom-dwelling nasties. Hell, most days it felt like 360 degree combat. But there was something about being there.” These are the words Dean Winchester of The CW’s Supernatural chooses to describe his experience in purgatory. The idea of purgatory is not new; many religions have […]

By Rose Franklin Few fictional characters have attained the level of fame that British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has held for over a century. The eccentric detective was first introduced to readers in the late 1800s through a series of short stories and novels that quickly captivated British and American audiences, whose […]

By: Shannon Walter “Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society and our society’s station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all of that cool stuff too but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness.” – Robert Kirkman When […]