Yuletide Musings: Frigid, Lonely, Grateful
Horror invites you to fully embody and express your grief. It does not attempt to distract, or pacify, or soften the blow of sorrow.
Horror instead offers you a bat and an old teapot and says: “Go on, break it. Scream while you do it. It isn’t healthy for you to hold that all in.”
That deeply intimate invitation to bring your darkness to the surface of your soul and gaze upon it - unflinchingly and with grace - is invaluable for a true integration of our own shadow.
In many ways, horror is more “real” to me than “realism” for that reason. There is safety in metaphor: comfort in the monster.
Blood of my Blood: First Impressions of Netflix’s “Midnight Mass”
Amid a stunning mélange of isolating scenery, claustrophobic small-town politics, and a stunning reinterpretation of Catholic lore, one element of Netflix’s Midnight Mass stands out: the horror, the unspeakable bloody horror of the thing, was once again for love.
Eurocentrism in The Gothic: Preliminary Threads
This was probably the right post to have formulated while on holiday in Ottawa, as although the city is beautiful, it is an absolute theme park of colonialism, and being surrounded by statues of European white men and buildings that emanated this fallacy of superiority was good motivation to tackle this topic.
A Warm and Timorous Welcome
If you’re coming here from my first attempt at a curated approach to my love for horror media, I’m sure you’ll find this a vast improvement. If you’re stumbling across this for the first time, well then, count me relieved you never saw the first iteration of this dreary and potentially ill-fated experiment before this moment. Regardless of who you are or why you’re here — welcome! Please accept my sincere condolences for what you are about to experience.