horror corner

recommended sites | movies | books | games

welcome fellow creeps! i've been obsessed with horror media from a pretty young age, so this is where i'll be talking about my opinions and recommendations on all things scary. if you have any recommendations for me, on the other hand, please leave a comment in the cbox chat on my home page! i'm always looking for new things to watch, read, etc. i love most subgenres in one way or another but i especially enjoy horror that has some type of sociocultural message and/or very interesting imagery, especially if there's a smart final girl.

neocities

cozy angels' slasher shrine     the stillman's light

across the web

 

 

 

 

does the dog die? (crowdsourced trigger warnings for movies, not horror specifically)

bloody disgusting (hub for news about all things horror)

kindertrauma (site about the horror media that freaked us out as children)

fangoria (horror and cult film magazine)

lair of horror (lovely site for fans of the horror movie classics)

effedupmovies.com (just like it sounds, get your fix on disturbing movies)

the cannibal cafe forum (an archive of the infamous site, read at your own discretion)

exit mundi (explains various end-of-world scenarios)

erowid experience vaults (read about people's experiences on every type of psychoactive drug)

the shadowlands (the oldest paranormal website)

mattisdovier on giphy (artist who makes creepy black + white gifs. warning: flashing images)

terminal 00 (very creepy/trippy; warning: site autoplays loud music)

last meals project (in case you're curious what people ate before their execution)

136 creepy wikipedia articles (just what it sounds like)

bongcheon dong ghost (scary interactive web comic; warning: jumpscares)

ok-su station ghost (another webcomic by the same artist, but no jumpscares)

scp foundation (archive of fictional creatures and anomalies)

sentimental corporation (???)

dr. rinaldi's horror cabinet (wordpress blog with loads of interesting writings/reflections)

your ghost stories (paranormal stories and info, you can even submit your own experience)

internet pathology lab (images/info on human internal anatomy.. gross!)

black friday death count (exactly like it sounds)

darwin awards (old site giving "awards" to people whose stupid decisions turned fatal)

this man (creepy/weird and interesting)

housecreep (find out if you live near a murder house)

plane crash info (photos, statistics, recordings + transcripts of last words, etc. from airplane accidents)

ride accidents (info. on carnival and amusement park accidents)

the oklahoma girl scout murders (site dedicated to an unsettling unsolved murder case)

ted's caving page (site where a man writes about bizarre experiences he's had)

aisekai hospital (archive of the hospital's old site, which is visually very odd)

the conet project (a collection of recordings from shortwave numbers stations)

urban exploration resource (find spooky abandoned spots to explore)

free reads:

 A Modest Proposal by Johnathan Swift
 Edgar Allen Poe Complete Collection
 H.P. Lovecraft Complete Collection
 Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
 The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs
 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
 The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
 The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
 The Landlady by Roald Dahl
 I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell
 Coraline by Neil Gaiman

personal reviews:

i didn't really start to read books in the horror genre until 2022, but i've really been enjoying getting back into reading and experiencing horror through lit, so i decided to share my thoughts! the books are listed in the order i read them, with the most recent one i've read listed last. the cover images used were on the hardback sleeves/paperbacks i read.

Fantasticland  by Mike Bockoven

well first, i'd like to thank my friends randie and sav for suggesting that i read this book and also for letting me borrow their copy.

clicking on the book cover will lead you to the goodreads page where you can read a full synopsis. tldr; teens working at a huge amusement park get flooded in during a hurricane. the situation quickly devolves into violence and bloodshed. the story is told through a series of interviews of those involved, attempting to answer the question of why so many kids died despite having an adequate amount of food, water, and shelter to keep everyone safe. (fiction)

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

there could not have been a better time for me to read this book, considering i finished it around the same time i was buying my season pass for kennywood park. i think the fact that i was getting ready for the park reopening helped me get more absorbed in the book, visualizing the description of the fictional fantasticland park more vividly than i might with other books. when areas of the park came into play, in my mind i likened them to similar areas in kennywood, silly as that sounds. kennywood is definitely far smaller than fantasticland is depicted (rivaling disney), but of course i used a little imagination as well.

fantasticland is a wonderful mix of genres: thriller, disaster, psychological, and a gorefest with some social commentary sprinkled in. my friends warned me that it was brutal, but as a desensitized horror movie junkie, i didn't think it would have much more of an impact than anything i've seen. well, i was dead wrong. reading this book gave me some intense gutteral reactions and forced a gasp of shock from my lips several times. something about reading about such atrocities for some reason hits harder than watching something on the screen, in my opinion. i should also give props to the author, who brought each character alive enough for me to feel genuinely heartbroken if/when they died.

Ring  by Koji Suzuki

i'd like to thank my friends again because they gifted me this book and i really enjoyed it! as soon as i finished it, i bought the next two books.

you can click on the book cover to read the full synopsis, though most horror fans are pretty familiar with the premise. tldr; a journalist, while investigating the death of his niece, finds a sinister, haunting VHS tape that warns viewers they will die in 7 days unless they fulfill an unknown charm. he spends the next week trying to uncover the mystery behind the tape in order to save his life. (fiction)

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

i definitely couldn't read this book without having the American movies in the back of my head. i've actually not watched the Japanese movie adaptation, so the 2002 film was my only reference point. some of the major differences between the book and that movie (that i can talk about without spoiling plot) are that the book takes place in Japan, the protagonist is a man, and the tone of the book leans more toward mystery/psychological than it does toward pure horror.

although i did enjoy the book and see why it inspired so many interpretations, there were some things i didn't love. the pacing wasn't bad, but i also wasn't at the edge of my seat either. this could totally be due to the fact that i ultimately already knew what the charm was, though. i also didn't like the two main protagonists, they both just seemed douchey and misogynistic and i couldn't really root for them. despite this, the ending still left me wanting more and i really liked the writing style.

Exquisite Corpse  by Billy Martin, a.k.a. Poppy Z. Brite

funny story: one day i was watching the lovely youtuber may leitz (who i have a totally weird parasocial crush on) discuss the most disturbing books she has ever read when she mentioned this one. i saw the book cover and said to myself, "wait... you bought that for your roommate a few years ago at a used book store." so i walked to his bookshelf and picked it up, deciding to read it since he still hadn't. after reading it, i can definitely say it is the most disturbing book that i have ever read.

click the cover for a full synopsis. tldr; a perverse British serial killer escapes from prison and comes to Louisiana, where he meets and falls in love with a rich, cannibalistic killer in New Orleans who has yet to be caught. their chance meeting emboldens them to go after their 'perfect victim' together, no matter the cost. (fiction)

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

i started to read this book about a week after the dahmer series on netflix starring evan peters came out - i had started to watch it but did not like the direction it was taking and how he was being portrayed in such a sympathetic light. although dahmer is never mentioned in the book, both of the main characters are obviously heavily influenced by him and his crimes. the book did not take a sympathetic look at these murderous characters, though - they weren't depicted as products of some sad upbringing and the author doesn't make any lengthy attempts at explaining how they became killers. they just simply are that way, and although the reader may find them clever at times, they are never really likable.

as for horror, the author spares no gory detail when it comes to the killings and the sexual acts (including those with corpses). because of the subject matter, opinions seem to differ on this book but i personally loved it. i think it's a really terrifying southern gothic story depicting the horrors of being a gay man in post-HIV, serial killer era America. if you can handle excessive gore in movies and books then i definitely think you should give it a read. it grossed me out, it made me mad, and it upset me.. so of course, i plan on reading more books by billy martin in the future!

Spiral  by Koji Suzuki

i decided to read the second book in the ring series while the first one was fresh in my mind, but that wasn't actually necessary because suzuki wrote this sequel in a way that it could be read as a stand-alone novel. he spent several pages going over the entire plot of the first book to catch new readers up to speed, but it made sense with the plot, as the protagonist had to catch up on what took place in the first installment and what happened directly after.

click the cover for a full synopsis. tldr; a pathology doctor who is mourning the loss of his young son is tasked with the autopsy of an old friend, an unpredictable philosophy professor who died of unusual causes. what the doctor finds leads him to do his own investigation into the ring curse, which has taken on a sinister new form.

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

this book is where it fully divulges from whatever i remember from the american film series. i personally enjoyed it more than the first book because i found the protagonist to be more likeable and i really couldn't tell what would happen next. it did have the same issue as the first where it started off really slow (with a lot of talk about DNA) but then it amped up toward the last 1/3 of the book, but i didn't really mind. i can't really get into a lot of it without discussing spoilers but i will say that i'm definitely excited to read the third book in the ring installment!

Jurassic Park  by Michael Crichton

i bought this book early in 2022 because i think i read something on tumblr about the book being a lot more brutal/gory than the movie, so i was interested to see the differences. coincidentally, around thanksgiving i found out that my 7 year old cousin was reading it. i asked his dad if he thought that the book might be a little intense for a kid that age, but he kind of just shrugged it off. so i decided then that i would read it next and finish it in time for christmas so i could talk to my little cousin about it. i also got him jurassic world (which i plan to read as well) as a gift.

click the cover for a full synopsis. the premise is very similar to the movie: a billionaire hires scientist to re-create dinosaurs with DNA samples on an island off of costa rica with plans to open a "nature preserve" park. issues with the park's systems continue to cause delays and strange animal bites are occuring on the mainland. several people are invited to spend a weekend on the island, but things go wrong very quickly.

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

i was surprised to find that i actually liked the book better than the movie, despite the movie definitely being iconic. it certainly was more brutal than the movie and spares no gory detail. i thought grant was a more likeable character and malcolm, although his frequent monologuing was sometimes annoying, provided really good commentary on human hubris and how capitalism impacts the motives behind scientific innovations. unfortunately, ellie's character seemed a little under-utilized. i know this book is technically a sci-fi thriller, i think it definitely earns it's spot as horror lit as well.

Loop  by Koji Suzuki

this is the third book in the ring series which i have been reading (if you couldn't tell). i was very excited to read it because it felt like the story finally hit a crescendo and was getting really good.

click the cover for a full synopsis. tldr: humanity is being slowly wiped out by a new virus with no cure. an exceptionally intelligent college student whose loved ones are infected with the virus goes to new mexico to find the strange, abandoned 'loop' project in hopes of coming up with a cure.

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

i was really hoping that this book would finally shed some light on sadako's intentions and how she was able to set off this chain of events, but it did not. for the first third of the book, i was struggling to figure out how this book would even connect to the ring story. once it did, it still felt like nothing was entirely clear aside from explaining some small things that most readers would have assumed were due to something paranormal, or meant to emphasize the underlying theme of the butterfly effect. instead, the writer turned the entire story on it's head and everything the reader thought they knew about the story... well, this book just changes your view of things. that's all i can say without getting into spoilers. i think some people will really like the trajectory that this book took, but i wasn't a huge fan. i was hoping it would lean more into horror, but this book feels more like an existential science fiction. i don't think it was a bad book, it's just not what i was expecting so i was inevitably a bit disappointed.

Hide  by Kiersten White

i bought this book on a weekend beach trip with my boyfriend and was drawn to the cover because of the ferris wheel on the cover. i had recently read Fantasticland, so i was really looking forward to reading another horror novel that takes place in an amusement park.

click the cover for a full synopsis. tldr: 14 people are lured to an abandoned amusement park by the promise of a cash prize for being the winner of a week-long game of hide-and-seek. as people in the competition are "found", it becomes clear to the remaining competitors that there is a lot they don't know about the supposed game they're playing.

my *spoiler-free* thoughts.   .   .   .

on the inner flap of the book sleeve, it is described as a supernatural thriller. well, i read that once right before i bought the book and didn't read it again when i started the book because i took the book sleeve off while i read it. my point is that i totally forgot there was going to be a supernatural element to the book, so i was very surprised when it became a main plot point about halfway through the book. i personally think it's a pretty unique premise and all of the characters were interesting, but i felt like parts of it were lacking in detail/depth and i was left with a lot of questions at the end of the book. it's possible that the author is more used to writing shorter books because before this, she primarily wrote YA novels. despite this, i still enjoyed the read and plan to read the author's upcoming novel, Mister Magic.

free videogames:

Serial Experiments Lain - fan-made version that can be played in-browser, offered in several languages

LSD: Revamped - a fan remake of LSD: Dream Emulator

notpron - a riddle/puzzle game with a creppy atmosphere

Murder Games - text-based multiplayer battle royale RPG

Kitty Horrorshow - itch.io creator with several surreal/unsettling games available to play

VHS 1986 - creepy point-and-click puzzle game

C.H.A.I.N. - 20 games by 20 developers tied together by one narrative

Next Door - Junji Ito-inspired pixel horror

Nothing Special - short visual novel about being kidnapped by a stalker

Project Kat - short mystery/horror RPG

Purgatorium - short newgrounds game (warning: gore, jumpscare)

Fancy Island - cutely deceptive

Candypink - nothing could possibly go wrong working at a candy shop!

Doki Doki Literature Club - visual novel about a book club, nothing suspicious here

A Slasher Dating Simulator - you can currently play the free demo, as the game is not finised yet

board game recommendations:

Betrayal at House on the Hill

published/released in 2004

priced around $60 USD

3 to 6 players needed

approx. 1 to 2 hour gameplay

light/medium difficulty

i first played this back when i was a junior or senior in high school and it's really what got me into board games beyond monopoly, candy land, etc. once i got a hang of how it was played (you can read the game rules here), i was instantly hooked and ended up playing it over and over again for hours with my friends. it's so re-playable that years later, i still get excited to play it!

the basic premise is that a group of people are exploring a spooky, mysterious mansion until something causes one of them to turn on the rest of the group. players start off by choosing from several unique characters with different stats. the board initially starts out as a hallway, basement entrance, and upper floor entrance. players draw room tiles each turn to expand on and explore the house, meaning the house is constructed differently each game. the first portion of the game consists of players exploring the house and collecting items that may be useful later. some rooms trigger an omen, each of which moves the players closer to the second portion of the game: the haunt.

depending on where/how the haunt started, one player is deemed the traitor and a specific haunt scenario is provided. from here on, the traitor is working against the rest of the group and players can be killed. there are a ton of haunt scenarios, which adds another layer of uniqueness to each game and gives it such great re-playability. i really love this game and would definitely recommend it, especially if you're newer to this type of board game. if you have a group of 5 to 6 people to play with, this game can be a lot of fun.

i also just recently got the chance to play the 3rd edition of the game, which comes with all new characters as well as more detailed art and game pieces are more varied in shape and size to make it easier to tell the difference between them. the rules are also changed slightly, but not so much that it feels like a different game. i would definitely recommend this version of the game as well, especially if you've played the original and want some more variation. there's also a few expansion packs as well as a version called Betrayal at Baldur's Gate based on the video game, which is assume is more dark fantasy/cosmic horror, that i really want to get my hands on.

Dead of Winter

published/released in 2014

priced around $60 USD

2 to 5 players needed

approx. 1 to 2 hour gameplay

medium difficulty

my friends introduced me to this game in 2022 and at first i was worried it would be too difficult or overwhelming when i saw all the game pieces, but it really wasn't (although in my friend group we kind of deem one person being in charge of figuring out rules, handing out cards and tokens, etc. and it's typically not me, so i'm not the best judge of difficulty). i definitely enjoy competition, but i also really like cooperative games like this that encourage a lot of communication, trading resources, and working toward a common goal. the premise of the game is that a colony of people are trying to protect their shelter and survive through the zombie apocalypse.

each player controls multiple characters with unique abilities and has their own personal goal as well as the main objective that the group is trying to accomplish. there is also an option to have one player secretly betray everyone by working towards a personal goal that sets the group back. each round there is a player phase in which each person has their character do things like search for other survivors or essential items, kill zombies, heal themselves, put up barriers, etc. next is the colony phase where more zombies show up, survivors must be fed, and any other conditions that need to be met are fulfilled. this continues until the group objective has been achieved or everyone dies!

i've also played the stand-alone expansion called The Long Night, which has all new characters, new gameplay elements such as bandits from other colonies, and a mysterious new location called Raxxon Pharmaceuticals to explore (doing so is high risk, high reward). there's also the possibility that you can run into some nasty new types of zombies. i personally think it's cool that you can play this by itself or combine it with the original game, but it could potentially be a lot for newer players. no matter what, i think Dead of Winter is worth checking out and is perfect for a snowy day indoors with your friends.

The Last Friday

published/released in 2016

priced around $50-$60 USD

2 to 6 players needed

approx. 1 to 2 hour gameplay

light/medium difficulty

review/recommendation coming soon...

share your thoughts?