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We have original short fiction from Manish Melwani (“MAMMOTH”) and Ally Wilkes (“Billy Blue”). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story (“The Dark Devices”) from Bruce McAllister and a poem (“Penis Secrets of the Anunnaki”) from Sonya Taaffe. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors, and a book review from Adam-Troy Castro.
Cover art by Juhasz Sz / Shutterstock
The night hag or “sleep paralysis demon” is such a common experience it gave birth to the term “nightmare.” Every society generates its own terrors, but the shadowy figure is universal.
I don’t think going to Mars will save us. Nor will building some godlike artificial intelligence. No—if there is to be a worthwhile, dignified future for human life on Earth, we have to break free of this malevolent cosmology, this planet-devouring maw.
As so many pieces of this length do—and I’m not the only writer who will report this—the idea and storyline for “The Dark Devices” came to me in a very visceral, very disturbing (wait for it) flash. The writing itself? A little research on Pieter’s period and country before that could happen.
I’ve been told that nautical horror is having a moment. What that means, or what any of us should do about that fact, is a little bit oblique, mainly because oceanic terror has been the quiet backbone of the horror genre for almost as long as it has existed.
I live near the Greenwich Peninsula, which is an area of London crammed full of new-build blocks of luxury apartments, some of which (particularly during the COVID lockdowns) seemed almost entirely empty. I would often notice a single light in the stairwell.
This poem sprang from its title, a product of old-school random-generator email spam. I suspect it meant the Anunnaki in their pseudo-scientific incarnations, but I thought of the chthonic demon-deities of the Akkadian underworld.
Adam-Troy Castro examines a thriller (What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan) whose ending puts it squarely in the realm of horror. He also discusses A Scout Is Brave, a new novella by Will Ludwigsen and a zombie movie you might want to check out.
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