A Quiet Place (2018) opens 89 days after a race of extremely sound-sensitive creatures show up on Earth, perhaps from an exterritorial source. If you make any noise, even the slightest sound, you’re likely to be pounced upon by these extremely strong and staggeringly fast creatures and suffer a brutal death.

I can sometimes go months without having a panic attack. Unfortunately, this means that when they do happen, they often feel like they come out of nowhere. They can come on so fast and hard it’s like being hit by a bus, my breath escapes my body, and I can’t get it back.

Kicking off on Tuesday 17th October, the 2023 edition considers the cinematic, social and cultural significance of the possessed, supernatural and unclean body onscreen.

I was aware of the COVID-19 pandemic before I knew that’s what it would be called, and before it ever affected me personally. My husband is always on top of world events, and in late 2019, he explained what was happening around the globe.

Metal and horror have many aspects in common. The passionate fanbase for both genres attend festivals and has created strong communities. Horror and Metal fans often sport clothing depicting their favourite bands or films, almost like a uniform.

Mother is God in the eyes of a child, and it seems God has abandoned the town of Silent Hill. Silent Hill is not a place you want to visit.

In the late seventies and early eighties, one man was considered the curator of all things gore in America. During the lovingly named splatter decade, Tom Savini worked on masterpieces of blood and viscera like Dawn of the Dead (1978), a film which gained the attention of hopeful director William Lustig, a man only known for making pornography before his step into horror.

On August 25, 2000, the UK was treated to a gem of a slasher film, Cherry Falls (2000), being released in cinemas. While censorship issues meant the film was released two months later as a TV movie in the United States, Cherry Falls has still earned its place as a cult classic in the slasher world.

From the jaw dropping moment in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986, Tobe Hooper) when Stretch and Leatherface dance it out, to that edge-of-your-seat final boogie between Noa and Steve in Fresh (2022, Mimi Cave), I want to argue that these sequences change the course of both films, directing each narrative inexorably towards their end.

Both the original Pet Sematary (1989) and its 2019 remake are stories about the way death and grief can affect people in different ways. And while the films centre on Louis Creed and his increasingly terrible decision-making process, there’s no doubt that the story wouldn’t pack the same punch or make the same sense without his wife, Rachel.

Both Riley’s addiction and his Catholic upbringing define his arc in the miniseries, manifesting in a dangerous combination as he’s turned into a vampire against his will because of the island’s mysterious new priest, Father Paul (Hamish Linklater).

On Saturday, 17th June 2023, I sat down with two friends to watch The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009) and The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2012). I was nervous to be grossed out (I can’t really handle the idea of eating shit) but excited to cross these two films off my list.

Modern horror cinema has used the Frankenstein theme in various iterations, but none so unique as exploitation director Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker (1990).

In the sweaty summer of 1989, emerging like a monochrome migraine from the encroaching shadow of Japan’s economic crash, Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man shocked and disgusted the (very few) audiences originally in attendance.

The story focuses on a group of survivors after most of the world’s population is wiped out by Captain Trips, a lethal super-flu. And while there are enough horrors to go around in a story like this, the real focus of King’s book is how those who survive react to the changing world around them.

The Witch (2015), written and directed by Robert Eggers, is a horror movie about the most terrifying phenomenon to befall a young woman: mommy issues. While the movie is beloved for a variety of reasons, such as for its haunting visuals, eerie soundtrack, and feminist overtones, it is seldom recognized for its fascinating portrayal of mother-daughter conflict.

The year was 1968 and a young man named George A. Romero had shot his first film, a horror movie that would change the world of cinema and not just horror cinema, at that. Night of the Living Dead (1968), would go on to become one of the most important and famous horror films of all time as it tackled not only survival horror but also very taboo and shocking topics like cannibalism and matricide.

What any good remake or reboot should do is present the original concept in a way that captures the central idea while integrating new ideas and adapting it to the current audience as well as newcomers to the source material. It should not just be with one talking point such as, casting a trending TikToker.

Set during the mid-fifteenth century, Onibaba (1964) tells the story of two women fighting for survival. Credited only as Older Woman and Younger Woman (or Kichi's Mother and Kichi's Wife) according to IMDB, the story is focussed on the lengths these women will go to survive a war, and yet they’re not even given names, unlike the male characters.

Leatherface, the chainsaw-wielding and hulking antagonist of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), was a gift given to horror fans by visionary filmmaker Tobe Hooper. The concept of a violent—often childlike in the original version— beast of a man who wears the faces of his victims’ grabbed audiences in the 1970s and is still a horror cultural icon today, synonymous with powerhouse slasher icons like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees.

The 1990s is a divisive decade for horror fans. Some say it is the worst decade for horror films, whereas others included) see it as a very influential and distinctive time for the genre, particularly teenage slashers.

In recent years since the inception of the #MeToo movement, we have seen a turn towards discussing the abuses rife in the Hollywood system and the wider media landscape.

For journalist Veronica Quaife her life changes direction one night in a massive way while attending a Bartok Science Industries party. She’s there to cover the event for Particle magazine, and has a few interviews scheduled with scientists who all think they’ve discovered something which will change the world.

A24’s folkloric horror productions have been one of the most drawing narrative and cinematic styles within the past decade.

I often ponder if the reason we as fans of this much maligned genre watch so many films that fall within the scope of this genre is due to us being protective of it, or because we are searching for the hit which we felt on our very first time watching a film that got under our skin?

With the recent release of Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, The Evil Dead franchise has encountered a resurgence from its bloody grave…

In Cat People (1942), Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is terrified of intimacy, and the possibility that it will prove a folktale from her hometown in Serbia true—that she will become consumed by lust and passion, transforming into a panther.

Whether it be the mist-covered expanses of the Yorkshire moors or in the confines of the back of a Hackney Taxicab, an American Werewolf in London is haunted by the past through its inclusion and allusions to poems, rhymes, fairy tales and stories.

In a world where our bodies are so tightly policed and our desires are shunned, it seems no surprise that there is an abundance of horror films that see women rebel and reclaim their bodily autonomy

I can’t quite remember exactly what age I was when I first read It by Stephen King but I think I was around 13.