Horror Studies

From its first publication in 1992, Men, Women, and Chain Saws has offered a groundbreaking perspective on the creativity and influence of horror cinema since the mid-1970s. Investigating the popularity of the low-budget tradition, Carol Clover looks in particular at slasher, occult, and rape-revenge films. Although such movies have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasures to their mostly male audiences, Clover demonstrates that they align spectators not with the male tormentor, but with the females tormented.

Cinema is full of neurotic personalities, but few things are more transfixing than a woman losing her mind onscreen. Horror as a genre provides the most welcoming platform for these histrionics: crippling paranoia, desperate loneliness, masochistic death-wishes, dangerous obsessiveness, apocalyptic hysteria. Unlike her male counterpart—the eccentric'—the female neurotic lives a shamed existence, making these films those rare places where her destructive emotions get to play.

Whether for entertainment, under the guise of medicine, or to propel consumerism, heinous acts are perpetrated daily on women’s bodies. In Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, award-winning journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore catalogs the global toll of capitalism on our physical autonomy. Weaving together unflinching research and surprising humor, these essays range from investigative—probing the Cambodian garment industry, the history of menstrual products, or the gender biases of patent law—to uncomfortably intimate.

In November 1957, a missing woman led investigators to an isolated Wisconsin farmhouse. What they discovered would leave a permanent mark on American horror. When Bernice Worden disappeared from her hardware store in Plainfield, Wisconsin, the search brought authorities to the home of Ed Gein. Inside, they found evidence of murder, grave robbery, and a hidden life that stunned a community. In Ed Gein: The House Behind the Horror, Dennis Henderson follows the case from the lives of the Gein family through the discoveries at the farm, the investigation, and the legal proceedings that followed...

Brought to you by Penguin. A deliciously dark collection of love stories to sink your teeth into, from the prizewinning author of NOW SHE IS WITCH Can 'no' be a declaration of love? What happens when love is savage, dangerous and all-consuming? In this gorgeous and unsettling collection, women...

This annotated edition includes: • All seventy tales, arranged into five thematic books • The complete longer fiction, including The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym • A critical study, "Poe Against the Light: The Fiction" • A full life of Poe — and the enduring mystery of his death • The detective story at its origin: the complete Tales of Ratiocination Every story he wrote. The man who invented your nightmares — and, in the same imagination, the detective. Edgar Allan Poe wrote almost nothing long, and so, uniquely among the great writers, the whole of his fiction fits in a ...

Jeffrey Combs gives an electrifying performance in “Nevermore, An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe”. Recorded before a live audience in Boston, Poe, with all of his passions, foibles, aspirations, and demons, comes vividly to life in this bravura, one-person play. Playwright Dennis Paoli...

Stephen King presents “a fresh adrenaline rush of terror” (People) in this electrifying #1 New York Times bestseller! The new minister came to Harlow, Maine, when Jamie Morton was a boy doing battle with his toy army men on the front lawn. The young Reverend Charles Jacobs and his beautiful...

For fans of Let Me In: The brochures for Reston Place promised a dream retirement. For some, however, it’s about to become a nightmare. A year after the death of his wife, seventy-eight-year-old Phil Persto moved to Reston Place for a rejuvenating fresh start. Instead, only days into his new life in Florida, he finds himself drawn into a seemingly impossible mystery. Patients in the community’s hospice unit are dying prematurely and methodically. Bodies are being quickly cremated and records destroyed. And now, his eighty-year-old neighbor, Emmaline Howard, has seen one of the victims...

In the early 20th century, World War I was the most devastating event humanity had yet experienced. New machines of war left tens of millions killed or wounded in the most grotesque of ways. The Great War remade the world's map, created new global powers, and brought forth some of the biggest problems still facing us today. But it also birthed a new art form: the horror film, made from the fears of a generation ruined by war. From Nosferatu to Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War. 

Brought to you by Penguin. Unleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voices A phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old stew made of...

The New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller about a group of college students encountering supernatural terror while on a road trip through Appalachia—an unforgettable, chilling novel that is “scary and hard to put down. You might be advised not to read it at night” (Stephen King). 1983...

A novella set in the hard-scrabble world of James S. A. Corey's NYT-bestselling Expanse series, The Vital Abyss is the secret history of the cataclysmic events that occurred on Eros station, and the revelation of what came after. . . Now a Prime Original series. HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIES...

🎃👻 Why did the undead chicken cross the road? To get to the fool's house. Knock, knock! Who’s there? …The undead chicken😆😅😂🤣 – 🧟♂️🧠 written by unknown undead. Get ready to howl with laughter (or moan, groan & face-plant 😱🤣) this Halloween! Prepare for spine-tingling, side-splitting chills with the ultimate 🎃 categorized collection of Halloween & Horror Humor that’ll tickle your funny bone🦴🩻 & leave you cackling like a witch 🧙♀️💀! Get buried alive in an utter avalanche⛷️🏂 of face-planting😒🌵 BAD (😈 EVIL?) DAD jokes -...

The Horror Writer covers how to connect with your market and carve out a sustainable niche in the independent horror genre, how to tackle the writer's ever-lurking nemesis of productivity, writing good horror stories with powerful, effective scenes, realistic, flowing dialogue and relatable characters without resorting to clichéd jump scares and well-worn gimmicks. Also covered is the delicate subject of handling rejection with good grace, and how to use those inevitable "not quite the right fit for us at this time" letters as an opportunity to hone your craft.

A mother knows when something is wrong with her child — but Susan never imagined the terror haunting her daughter could be real. What begins as innocent nighttime fear quickly twists into something darker. Her daughter refuses to sleep alone, wakes trembling, and grows more exhausted each morning as if something has been draining her through the night. Desperate to help, a friend gives Susan a small handmade worry doll — a charm meant to “take away a child’s fear.” Susan hopes it will bring comfort, a sense of safety, anything to ease the terror tightening its grip on her daughter...

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, was an Irish writer known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo. His book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, comprises two parts, the first being the "Kwaidan Proper" and the second, "Insect-Studies", which consists of an essay each on ants, butterflies and mosquitos. According to the author, most of the folk tales and ghost stories in the first part were translated from old Japanese texts. The themes encompass resurrection, sacrifice, magic, and the realm of dreams.

Your body is supposed to be yours. Until it isn't. Twenty tales of flesh that betrays, bones that remember, and skin that holds secrets too terrible to speak. In these pages, the human form becomes the ultimate battleground between self and something far more sinister. A woman's reflection grows more real while she fades away. A fitness tracker begins optimizing its wearer without permission. A heart transplant recipient discovers the donor isn't quite dead. A mother's body produces nourishment that isn't meant for feeding. From medical procedures gone wrong to parasites that rewrite your ...

Not Your Typical Mythology Book — This One Brings Japan’s Culture to Life in Words and Pictures Japanese Myths: An Easy-Going Culture Journey into Japanese Mythology and Folklore is a beautifully illustrated, easy-to-read cultural deep dive that goes far beyond legends. With nearly 40 stunning illustrations, this book connects ancient gods, mysterious yokai, anime, shrines, daily rituals, and even travel spots—revealing how mythology still shapes the rhythm of everyday life in Japan. Perfect for anime fans, travelers, or anyone curious about Japan, this book offers a complete yet ...

On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist was released. Within days it had become legend. Moviegoers braved hours-long lines in winter weather to see it. Some audience members famously fainted or vomited. Half a century later, the movie that both inspired and transcends the modern horror genre has lost none of its power to terrify and unsettle. The Exorcist Legacy reveals the complete story of this cultural phenomenon, from the real-life exorcism in 1949 Maryland that inspired William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel on which the movie is based, to its many sequels, prequels, TV series, and homages.