Nightmare Magazine

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Nonfiction

Nonfiction

de•crypt•ed—Elison on Matheson

But why bother pointing out the myriad failures of a half-century old novel? Matheson is dead, but like Hell House’s moldering emasculated patriarch Emeric Belasco, he haunts us still. With a lingering nostalgia unmoved by decades of new and exciting work, many horror publications and fans insist that the genre’s golden age rests squarely in the lap of about four white men who wrote most of their best work between 1970 and 1985.

Author Spotlight

Nonfiction

The H Word: Dirty Mouths Stinking of Plague

On the evening of January 14, 2021, Corey Johnson was placed on a cross-shaped gurney in the death chamber of the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was strapped down, fitted with an IV, and asked if he had any last words. “No, I’m okay,” Johnson said, before adding, a moment later, “Love you.” As the drugs started to flow, Johnson lifted his wrist slightly to wave at someone in the observation chamber.

Editorial

Editorial, April 2023

Welcome to Issue #127 of Nightmare Magazine, and welcome to April, that month of fools and taxes. It’s a time of year when bad choices can really come back to bite you in tender places, a time when it’s all too easy to find yourself shaking your head and saying “Why the heck did I do that?” And that’s why this issue is all about self-sabotage and bad ideas.

Author Spotlight

Nonfiction

Media Review: The Menu

There exists an intermittent but very real phenomenon of movie critics, mostly male but some female, revealing—sometimes inadvertently and sometimes unabashedly—that they are deeply in love with the actresses they write about. It is always actresses, for some reason, at least in the manifestations I have seen. Examples would be the one well-known TV guy who kept praising one lady as the most fascinating actress of her generation until his partner finally demanded, “Can you name even one memorable movie she’s been in?”

Author Spotlight

Nonfiction

The H Word: The Monster at the End of This Essay

I’ve watched monsters topple cities, scorch the countryside. I’ve explored the caverns they dwell in and swum the depths they arose from. When I existed in a different form, smaller, a bit more eager, I sought these monsters out or, more often, whimpered while I waited for them to slither out of the shadows. Would one appear while I showered? The sound of their squelching webbed steps hiding in the hot hiss of the water’s spray? Would they hover outside my window, backlit by the moon, their claws dragging down the windowpane?

Editorial

Editorial: March 2023

One of winter’s biggest trials was that I got a new laptop and had to find updated versions of all my favorite pieces of software. I had no idea the software landscape had changed so dramatically in ten years! Everything’s based on the subscription model these days, and even basic programs have bells and whistles my Luddite brain can’t fathom. When your first computer experience involved five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disks, you sometimes find yourself greatly suspicious of programs eager to check your grammar and word choice.

Author Spotlight

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