Bleak Week: Despair Feels Good in a Place Like This
Notes on Bleak Week: Elle, dir. Paul Verhoeven, 2016; Sweet Country, dir. Warwick Thornton, 2017; Come and See, dir. Elem Klimov, 1985; Mother Joan of the Angels, dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961; The Devil, Probably, dir. Robert Bresson, 1977.
Ghostface Headspace
On Scream, dir. Wes Craven, 1996; Backrooms, dir. Kane Parsons , 2026; and La Cérémonie, dir. Claude Chabrol, 1995.
Obsession Obsession
On Obsession, dir. Brian De Palma, 1976; Obsession, dir. Curry Barker, 2025; and "Irresistible," The X-Files season 2, episode 13, dir. David Nutter, 1995.
Cannibal Rerun
On Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016).
Fantasies, Dreams, & Legends
On The Blood Spattered Bride, dir. Vicente Aranda, 1972; Hokum, dir. Damian McCarthy, 2026; and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V. E. Schwab, 2025.
Interlude: Five Movies That Shaped My Taste in Horror
On Cure, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997; The Seventh Victim, dir. Mark Robson, 1943; Panna a Netvor/The Virgin and the Monster/Beauty and the Beast, dir. Juraj Herz, 1978; Onibaba, dir. Kaneto Shindō , 1964; Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, dir. Wes Craven, 1994.
All I Know Is That I Don't Know
On The Crazies, dir. George A. Romero, 1973; Mother Mary, dir. David Lowery, 2026; Cloud, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2024.
Gothic Beach
On Byzantium, dir. Neil Jordan, 2012; Exit 8, dir. Genki Kawamura, 2025; and Crossroads Issue 1: The Long Decade, ed. Candice Bailey and Gavin Lees, 2026.
Grime
On Folies Meurtrieres, dir. Antoine Pellissier, 1984; 1000 Women in Horror, dir. Donna Davies, 2025; and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, dir. Ariane Louis-Seize, 2023.
The Cenobite Always Rings Twice
On Hellraiser, dir. Clive Barker, 1987; Forbidden Fruits, dir. Meredith Alloway, 2026; and Cannibal, dir. Manuel Martín, 2013.