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Welcome to Issue #152 of Nightmare Magazine! And if you’re a subscriber reading this on release day, then happy May Day—a day where many cultures in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the high point of spring, a day of fertility and growth.
The bedbug bite is unlike any insect bite I’ve experienced before. You’re covered in these welts, and the cumulative effect of their itching is the inability to concentrate on anything other than that sensation. If horror is about extremity, then this story is about extremity of sensation.
Nat Cassidy writes horror for the page, stage, and screen. His acclaimed novels, including Mary: An Awakening of Terror, Nestlings, and Rest Stop, have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, and more. He’s just released his new novel The Wolf Comes Home.
“Glory Hole” is a horrific, although incredibly intimate, look into the ways in which we punish ourselves in ways we think we deserve. What was your inspiration for this story? What was the writing process like, and was it any different from the ways you’ve written other stories? I wrote “Glory Hole” shortly after suffering […]
Everyone dreams, whether we remember it or not. Scientists tell us that dreams are the warnings of our subconscious—a means of exploring that which we cannot bring ourselves to say aloud. Religion tells us that dreams can be revelations or assurance.
But in folklore the fool has also played the role of the teacher. They make mistakes so we don’t have to. This month’s issue is full of fools and those who take advantage of them.
Growing up listening to folktales about reanimated corpses made this aspect of horror a pretty normal one for me, and in this story, their presence made sense with the location being the former cursed burial ground.
Guest reviewer J.B. Kish shines a spotlight on a French horror film you might have missed: MadS. Find out why it’s a must-see on for both film nerds and horror fans!
This is an Ecuadorian tradition, to burn a poppet doll on New Year’s Eve and leave the bad year behind as you jump across the burning effigy. We burn a body that represents el año viejo—the old year—so we can leave behind all that negative energy and welcome a new year full of hope and possibilities. I wanted to examine this celebration by emphasizing its violence and the borrowing of faces to do so.
In late 2023, I noticed a new subgenre on the horizon, emerging from the intersection of celebrity culture and horror. I call it “Stage Fright”—save the groans, it’s a working title. With the release of Trap, Smile 2, and MaXXXine, this new wave reflects a zeitgeist increasingly disillusioned with the glittering facades of billionaires and icons, and eagerly tuning in when these stars find themselves ensnared in tragic circumstances.
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