Jan. 2025 (Issue 148)

We have original short fiction from Katharine Tyndall (“The Morning Room”) and Leyla Hamedi (“Karabasan”). Our Horror Lab originals include a flash story (“They Bought a House”) from Osahon Ize-Iyamu and a poem (“Annihilation of Red”) from Anuel Rodriguez. Our feature interview is with filmmaker Toby Poser. We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors.

Cover art by Larissa Kulik / Shutterstock

Jan. 2025 (Issue 148)

Editorial

Editorial: January 2025

by Wendy N. Wagner

None of us are free agents—every last one of us is bound at some point, or many points, in a social web that can be as sticky and as unbudging as any spider’s. The stories in this issue are about these bonds—bonds we choose, bonds we outgrow, bonds we are forced into.

Fiction

The Morning Room

by Katharine Tyndall

Author spotlight

In the morning room everything is bright and clean, florals and pastels. My wife says it looks tacky and childish, but after some pleading, she agrees not to touch the decorations. The faint lavender-colored walls I hang with dried pressed flowers in clear-plastic frames. The couch is the most expensive thing I ever bought.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Katharine Tyndall

by Jeremiah Underwood

I wrote this story over Christmas at my childhood home. The house is from the 1800s and has the type of basement that you can’t bear to spend more than a few seconds in. When I was little, if I had to get something from the basement, I would run down the stairs holding my breath and try to make it back up the stairs before I had to breathe again.

Fiction

They Bought a House

by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

The idea for this story began in my final week at the Clarion Writers Workshop. I wanted to write a haunted house horror story using stripped language, but unsurprisingly, it became strange and detailed and maximalist. It’s the perfect piece to summarize my time at Clarion, as it was collectively inspired by all the great stories I read over the summer of 2023.

Nonfiction

The H Word: Fashion and the Final Girl

by Jamie Zaccaria

Fashion is, and always has been, about expression; what you wear can send a message about who you are. For entertainment like film and television, it’s a way to explain to the audience who your characters are immediately and without subterfuge. It’s the “show, not tell” of characterization and this is especially true for films in the horror genre.

Fiction

Karabasan

by Leyla Hamedi

Author spotlight

Today his family comes to formally ask my parents—my father—for my hand. They will sit in our front room, the best room, and make small talk as his mother eyes me up and down. Her razor eyes will take in every detail and turn them into flaws and my mother will silently accept her disapproval by not saying a word.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Leyla Hamedi

by Devin Marcus

I’m originally Turkish and Iranian but I didn’t really grow up with stories about any demons from my side of the world. It was kind of a delight and surprise to find this family of demons that had Turkic origins, especially one that could be related to a universal one—a sort of cousin to sleep paralysis demons in a way.

Poetry

Annihilation of Red

by Anuel Rodriguez

I’d originally planned on writing a nightmarish short story, but it turned out better as a poem. It also became a way for me to explore grief and the loss of a loved one while attempting to deliver a more surreal and cinematic reading experience overall.

Nonfiction

Interview: Toby Poser

by Lisa Morton

There are no other filmmakers in the world of indie horror who are even remotely like the Adams Family. Based out of rural New York, these DIY wizards have produced four of the most interesting horror features of the last five years. Comprised of dad John Adams, mom Toby Poser, and daughters Lulu and Zelda, the family members do everything themselves.