‘A torch illuminates a human skull!’ My horror all-nighter in a haunted manor
Immersive theatre is booming. So what’s the next stage? A 24-hour, up-all-night scarefest in a spooky manor. Our writer grabs her smelter – and prepares for the thrill of her life
October 2023
Suitable Flesh review – eye-rolling Heather Graham in erotic body-swap horror thriller
Adapted from a 1937 HP Lovecraft story, this has some nice stylistic touches, even if the demonic possession, wafting sax and softcore silliness is a bit over the top
October 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 horror short stories
With Halloween looming, these tales by authors from Shirley Jackson to Stephen King are guaranteed to keep you awake as the nights close in
April 2021
Top 10s
Top 10 books about museums
Whether it is Orhan Pamuk’s love-struck Museum of Innocence, Donna Tartt’s bombing in a New York gallery, or the case of a curator who turned to crime, museums are home to fascinating stories
September 2020
Lovecraft Country: episode by episode
Lovecraft Country recap: season one, episode seven – a trippy, afro-futurist time-travelling delight
HBO’s 1950s fantasy sci-fi takes another unexpected turn as Hippolyta and George reunite and Montrose’s flimsily divided worlds collide
Lovecraft Country: episode by episode
Lovecraft Country recap: season one, episode six – war, Judy Garland and a foxy lady
A Judy-loving nine-tailed fox spirit switches up the mood as we jump back in time three years for a standalone episode that featured some murderous romance
Lovecraft Country: episode by episode
Lovecraft Country recap: season one, episode five – the goriest, sauciest episode yet
As HBO’s fantasy epic continues, we saw Tic beat his father to a pulp – though it was ‘the Stiletto Scene’ that proved unbeatably shocking
August 2020
TV review
Lovecraft Country review – are people scarier than monsters?
Thrilling action-adventure is the first priority of this new HP Lovecraft-inspired drama, but its prescient message about racism is never far from the surface
May 2020
Book of the day
The City We Became by NK Jemisin review – a fizzing New York fantasy
NK Jemisin: 'It’s easier to get a book set in black Africa published if you're white'
March 2020
Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon dies aged 72
Director made his name with shock theatre in Chicago before turning to gory screen horror – and creating Disney classic Honey I Shrunk the Kids
February 2020
Color Out of Space review – Nicolas Cage goes cosmic in freaky sci-fi horror
A repulsive alien organism is unleashed on Earth in Richard Stanley’s scary, hokey – and often funny – extravaganza
August 2018
Top 10s
Top 10 books about strange towns
From JG Ballard’s corporate towns of the near future to Richard Scarry’s animal society in Busytown … Shaun Prescott picks his favourite civilisations in miniature
March 2018
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff review – smartly subversive pulp horror
Secret societies, ghosts and Ku Klux Klan killers … racists are the monsters in this Lovecraft homage with a conscience
January 2018
Top 10s
Buy a cat, stay up late, don't drink: top 10 writers’ tips on writing
Made a New Year resolution to start writing that novel? Take some writing tips from Leo Tolstoy, Muriel Spark, John Steinbeck and other famous authors
October 2017
Books blog
Writing women into The Wind in the Willows revitalises the canon
Kij Johnson
Making imaginative room for another sex in this much-loved classic opened up its world to me
March 2016
Lost HP Lovecraft work commissioned by Houdini escapes shackles of history
Could Cthulhu trump the other Super Tuesday contenders?
November 2015
World Fantasy award seeks designs to replace HP Lovecraft statuette
HP Lovecraft biographer rages against ditching of author as fantasy prize emblem
