At some point in the recent past, I caught wind that the science fiction author Robert Heinlein had written a short story called “All You Zombies.” The story, I was told, featured one of the greatest plot twists ever devised. Intrigued, I read it, and generally agree with that assessment. More recently, I sat down…

A few interesting thoughts related to storytelling hit me this morning. I did some research on it, and I’m far from the first to come up with this stuff, but it seems worth considering. Part of human evolution involved developing the ability to track the social status of members of small groups/tribes, etc. So, knowing…

Certain films just don’t quite know what to do with themselves. 1970’s “Joe,” starring Peter Boyle (the monster in “Young Frankenstein” and dad character in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”) as a hippy hating working stiff, is one example. The plot in brief: white collar father Bill discovers his daughter (played by Susan Sarandon in…

Dario Argento is a well-known Italian filmmaker who did a string of terrific slasher films from the 70s into the 2000s. (He’s also known as the father of the actress/director, Asia Argento.) I went through a phase of watching his movies about 15 years ago, but somehow I missed “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,“…

So I’m currently reading a rather dense introduction to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. (Or maybe I’m the dense one. I’m not sure.) I’ve known about him for years, and have always been interested in his phrase “the meaning is the use,” which I took to mean that a word’s meaning does not come from…

Horror sequels can be tough to pull off. Often the original lays out a series of perplexing events (teenagers dying in their dreams, for example) and then provides an explanation (Freddy Krueger was killed by those teenager’s parents and seeks revenge.) When you get to the sequel, the mystery is gone.  Sometimes screenwriters handle this…

You’ve encountered killer weed, but killer weeds? Cat and her husband take residence in a summer cabin on a lake. Various tensions start to flare (her husband’s a real dbag) and Cat finds herself drawn to… something in the water. This story has a kind of “simmering cool” that reminded me of a Steven Soderbergh…

Gather round, young ones, and let me tell you about a mysterious bygone era known as the eighties. This was before all your newfangled internet and AI chatbots. Movies were a trip back then. If you missed them when they played in the theater, you had to wait and hope they showed up at your…

AI horror is gonna lure me every time. You might recall my rave review for the critically maligned “evil Alexa” movie “AfrAId” a while back. Stories about the fears of AI just really tickle my philosophical funny bone. As a result, I knew I would eventually see “Companion” (about an intelligent sexbot) when I saw…

Many people are probably familiar with the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s where at least dozens of people across the country were accused and convicted of committing fantastical crimes – child sacrifices, weird sexual abuse – then shown to be innocent. It’s a fascinating instance of mob mentality gone bad (I guess it…

There’s a timeless premise for horror movies: young people do something horrible and are punished for it. It’s the conceit of “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, “Soriority Row”, “Carrie” and even my new novel “The Mirror Man.” (How’s that for subtle advertising?) 2020’s “The Call” follows this path as well. New kid in…

I’m pleased to announce my second horror novel, The Mirror Man,” is arriving at Amazon on May 1st, 2025. Pre-orders available now. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DYBKTX7Y Blurb: What you don’t say can still kill you. When a viral sex video humiliates a small-town beauty queen, college student Mason Gutierrez’s friends join in the online mockery. Mason stays quiet,…

I don’t talk much about television shows here, partly because there isn’t much horror on television. (I’ve found seasons of American Horror Story hit or miss—sometimes brilliant, sometimes unwatchable.) Because it aired on STARZ, otherwise known as the network nobody watches, I missed the horror comedy series Shining Vale that ran a few years ago.…

I’m taking part in a new book promotion that has a number of horror books available at Amazon. Click the link to see the goods! https://books.bookfunnel.com/intotheshadows/onn2n93q1y

So I don’t write here much about writing. Perhaps that’s ironic. I don’t know; I’ve never been clear what irony is. However, I was looking through some notes and came across this handy list I created for myself in my formative days editing “What Waits in the Shadows”. Thought I would share it here. Things…