Horror Lex®

Horror Lex will no longer be posting here daily, or perhaps at all. Please join us at horrorlex.bsky.social (which has a nice little academic/film community, by the way) and continue to enjoy our site horrorlex.com, which isn't going anywhere. Awooo!

We agree with William Burns that CRUISING (1980) is an "underrated, misunderstood masterpiece" about a serial killer lurking in the S&M shadows. Read his new essay in @blfj to revisit the film's production and legacy. #openaccess brightlightsfilm.com/cruising-the-b…

A longer think piece by William Burns on Fritz Lang's M & its influence on representations of serial killers (Burns also wrote the brilliant Ghost of an Idea: Hauntology, Folk Horror and the Spectre of Nostalgia, from @Headpress) headpress.com/product/ghost-… horrorhomeroom.com/the-art-of-mur…

An excellent piece on Fritz Lang's M over at @horrorhomeroom. Author William Burns is also the mind behind our latest book, Ghost of an Idea: Hauntology, Folk Horror and the Spectre of Nostalgia. #fritzlang #peterlorre #serialkillers #cultfilm horrorhomeroom.com/the-art-of-mur…

In the wake of David Lynch's death, those inspired to write about his signature real-as-surreal style should check out our blog. We've pulled together 75+ books & essays about Lynch and his films that are **FREE** to read/download. #davidlynch #openaccess horrorlex.com/blog/david-lyn…

Another *free* ebook from @CambridgeUP's gothic series, from the venerable @maishawester. "African American Gothic in the Era of Black Lives Matter" looks to GET OUT, CANDYMAN '21, LOVECRAFT COUNTRY and more, w/in the movement that helped define our times. doi.org/10.1017/978100…

When we think of an '80s teen icon, why is it Ferris Bueller and not Freddy Krueger? Cullen Wade asks a good question and crunches the box office numbers at @HorrorHomeroom #openaccess #horror horrorhomeroom.com/brats-vs-splat…

Bonus note: The authors compare ATLANTIQUE (the feature-lenth version of Diop's two films) with John Carpenter's THE FOG (1980), including with some side-by-side screenshots. How did I not notice that similarity before??

How can we use ghost stories like Mati Diop's ATLANTICS (2019) to teach about post-colonial hauntings of French-speaking Africa? Find out in Doyle D. Calhoun & Jill Jarvis's new essay in @YaleFrenStudies. Normally e-embargoed but it's #openaccess pre-pub! academia.edu/126070899/Foll…

The cover story of this Winter's American Entomologist asks: "Are Entomologists Mad Scientists (According to #Horror Movies)?" Maybe--I've seen PHENOMENA, and that McGregor guy is sketch. Author Edwin Harris / access via Oxford Academic @EntsocAmerica doi.org/10.1093/ae/tma…

A fascinating exploration of a 1960 #horror film shot thru w/Mexico's socio-political turmoil. Read Raúl Rodríguez-Hernández & Claudia Schaefer's "Orlak, The Hell of Frankenstein: Screen Monsters and Mexican Modernity" #openaccess in Transmodernity. doi.org/10.5070/T4.208…

We missed this over the holidays, but check it out --- SAW and vampires, SAW and philosophy, SAW traps as queer!

Data Note 6B: As a final caveat to this entire series, the indexing at Horror Lex is done by a human, not AI. Subjectiveness abounds. Also, we have access to the text of the vast majority of the 2024 works, but not 100%. Take all this data as trends, not hard science.

(6/6) The Horror Lex Year in Review concludes! #HorrorLex2024 Over 800 people contributed to at least one work in the Horror Lex index in 2024 as author or editor. We ❤️ you all! But let us thank those prolific few who contributed the most works this year. Do y'all ever sleep?

Data Note 6A: These honorees on Twitter are: @FernandoPagnon3 @baconetti @dawnkeetley @StepfordDotter @TheProfRog @annodracula @HauntedKevin

Data Note 5A: This is based on a small number of works, and almost all are articles/essays rather than books - but that's the point. Usu. it takes a few years for very new films to trickle into the zeitgeist, but these films were so hot, people have been writing about them ASAP.

(5/6) The Horror Lex 2024 Year in Review continues! #HorrorLex2024 Third, to get a sense of the most talked-about films of the moment, we took the subset of Trending Films that were released in 2023 or 2024. The Substance was first with a bullet:

(4/6) The Horror Lex 2024 Year in Review continues! #HorrorLex2024 Second, what films were not just talked about but heating up? We looked at just those films that were the sole/primary focus of a particular work. Note what changed & what didn't - including a swap of Candymans!

Data Note 3A: PSYCHO has held the overall most-discussed-film spot at Horror Lex since we began. Not surprising: it's both a key film in horror history AND people have had decades to write about it. Will be interesting to see if any film rivals it as the years go by.

(3/6) The Horror Lex 2024 Year in Review continues! #HorrorLex2024 What films were hot topics? We sliced that data in three ways. First, this is the uncorrected raw results: the films that were substantively discussed the most, period.