Rec
I tell people allll the time this is the best 1970s sweeping horror epic about evil in a small town. Think Salem’s Lot but with a more verbose and literary style. Great entry point into modern gothic and classic gothic horror. Such a cozy vibe I find myself rereading it sometimes in winter!! You’ll enjoy it if you like Joyce Carol Oates’s work. The movie is awful and I wish they would rework this into a modern adaptation… perhaps a television series since there‘s so much material
Apr 6, 2024
Related Recs
Rec
🕯lots of great recs here, but if you want horror that is more based in storytelling and has a bit more on its mind than just slashers or gore you should check out folk horror or older horror films from the 60s/70s. as others have recommended, The Wicker Man (1973) is a must. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) is also a classic. The VVitch (2015) is also fantastic as an intro to more conceptual horror. you said you wanted deeper cuts, so check out Viy (1967) or Alucarda (1977), both of which i’ve posted more detailed recs for on my profile. also!!!! i don’t know how you feel about silent/b&w films but Nosferatu (1922) is an all-time genre mainstay that still holds up. Ari Aster’s work is great but it’s probably more gruesome than you’re looking for. have fun!!!
Apr 24, 2024
Rec
I know I’m 1000 years late to the party here… I had friends on Tumblr like ten years ago who loved Rob Zombie but I initially dismissed his body of work and refused to watch any of his films.
I already intuitively knew this to be true but this officially marks the point at which I confirm that I definitively have bad taste because I loved this movie.
House of 1000 Corpses is a love letter to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and grindhouse cinema, and exists within the thematic subset of horror movies about people on a road trip who find themselves stranded in the worst place imaginable due to vehicular dysfunction—The Hills Have Eyes, House of Wax or Wrong Turn—which I LOVE. Like truly among my favorite concepts.
Where I grew up, to get anywhere you would have to drive hours through empty desert with random little creepy houses and old gas stations (both operational and abandoned) littered along the way, and nothing in between. So these kinds of scenarios were like all I could ever imagine as a hysterical demented child.
But I love this even more because it’s like okay what if you took those movies and made them more like Off Season by Jack Ketchum which was one of my favorite horror books as a teen (highly recommend if you’re a freak like me) and is so graphic and disturbing and hopeless. (See italicized footnote at the bottom for further thoughts…)
But also add in goofy campy characters like a Harley Quinn/Elly May Clampett-type girl who likes to do makeup like Theda Bara and perform Marilyn Monroe songs on stage, her evil brother who looks like Riff Raff, and their mom who is like redneck Jennifer Coolidge played by KAREN BLACK (who slayed btw literally and figuratively). Combine it with a haunted house thrill ride and also make it weirdly hilarious, completely insane, and devoid of taste with absolutely no restraint. But with a hyper-stylized fantastical element that allows you to view the happenings on screen with some amount of remove and enjoy yourself rather than just feeling sickened and low-vibrational. Go off Robert Zombie!!!!
(Footnote: All of these stories are based on the legend of the Sawney Bean family which okay blah blah anti-Scottish propaganda by the British—some scholars actually believe in its veracity as a true accounting of events—but like what if??? Wouldn’t that be sooo creepy to be on your horse at night, far away from other people, and come upon a band of inbred roaming cannibals and you have no phones no lights no motorcars not a single luxury and they take you into a damn CAVE. I can believe it happening because Fred and Rose West were unfortunately real. Well anyway if you like the terror that conjured up for you and are interested in its truest modern analogue read Open Season by Jack Ketchum or watch this movie I guess. Thanks for reading if you did)
I already intuitively knew this to be true but this officially marks the point at which I confirm that I definitively have bad taste because I loved this movie.
House of 1000 Corpses is a love letter to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and grindhouse cinema, and exists within the thematic subset of horror movies about people on a road trip who find themselves stranded in the worst place imaginable due to vehicular dysfunction—The Hills Have Eyes, House of Wax or Wrong Turn—which I LOVE. Like truly among my favorite concepts.
Where I grew up, to get anywhere you would have to drive hours through empty desert with random little creepy houses and old gas stations (both operational and abandoned) littered along the way, and nothing in between. So these kinds of scenarios were like all I could ever imagine as a hysterical demented child.
But I love this even more because it’s like okay what if you took those movies and made them more like Off Season by Jack Ketchum which was one of my favorite horror books as a teen (highly recommend if you’re a freak like me) and is so graphic and disturbing and hopeless. (See italicized footnote at the bottom for further thoughts…)
But also add in goofy campy characters like a Harley Quinn/Elly May Clampett-type girl who likes to do makeup like Theda Bara and perform Marilyn Monroe songs on stage, her evil brother who looks like Riff Raff, and their mom who is like redneck Jennifer Coolidge played by KAREN BLACK (who slayed btw literally and figuratively). Combine it with a haunted house thrill ride and also make it weirdly hilarious, completely insane, and devoid of taste with absolutely no restraint. But with a hyper-stylized fantastical element that allows you to view the happenings on screen with some amount of remove and enjoy yourself rather than just feeling sickened and low-vibrational. Go off Robert Zombie!!!!
(Footnote: All of these stories are based on the legend of the Sawney Bean family which okay blah blah anti-Scottish propaganda by the British—some scholars actually believe in its veracity as a true accounting of events—but like what if??? Wouldn’t that be sooo creepy to be on your horse at night, far away from other people, and come upon a band of inbred roaming cannibals and you have no phones no lights no motorcars not a single luxury and they take you into a damn CAVE. I can believe it happening because Fred and Rose West were unfortunately real. Well anyway if you like the terror that conjured up for you and are interested in its truest modern analogue read Open Season by Jack Ketchum or watch this movie I guess. Thanks for reading if you did)
Oct 27, 2024
Rec
👻‘The Haunting of Hill House ’ is perhaps the greatest haunted house story ever. The 1963 film is also gloriously spooky. Everything she wrote is a banger.
Sep 27, 2024
Top Recs from @taterhole
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It lends a reflective and wistful tone to written communications imo…
6d ago
Rec
My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌
Feb 23, 2025
May 28, 2025