Horror Homeroom

Posted on July 2, 2021

The Bloodcurdling Book Club: Return to Fear Street

With genuinely scary jump scares, bloody kill sequences that leave an impression, and a pitch perfect 90s soundtrack, Fear Street: 1994, the first of three book-to-film adaptations dropping on Netflix today, more than lives up to the hype. When news broke that this beloved series was being adapted, we knew that we wanted to go back and revisit a couple of books in the series. And so, this week’s hair raising reads are 1989’s The New Girl and 1991’s Lights Out. A time capsule of questionable sexual politics, these books helped to establish a template of horror storytelling that authors still follow today. On this podcast, we talk blood, guts, and spoilers so listener discretion is advised.

Recommended Reading:

Coppell, Vicki. “The ‘Goosebumps’ in Goosebumps: Impositions and R. L. Stine.” Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 8.2 (1998): 5-15.

Jones, Patrick. “Nothing to Fear: R. L. Stine and Young Adult Paperback Thrillers.” Collection management 25.4 (2001): 3-23.

Lair, Mackenzie. “What’s so Scary about Fear Street? A Feminist Analysis of R. L. Stine’s Fear Street Series.” New Views on Gender 15 (2014): 11-15.

Nodelman, Perry. “Ordinary Monstrosity: The World of Goosebumps.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 22.3 (1997): 118-125.

Perry, Leslie Anne, and Rebecca P. Butler. “Are Goosebumps Books Real Literature?” Language Arts 74.6 (1997): 454-456.

Smith, Stacia Ann. The Exploration of Middle School Students’ Interests in and Attractions to the Writings of R. L. Stine. The Ohio State University, 1998.

Tanner, Nicole. “Thrills, Chills, and Controversy: The Success of R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps.” Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management 6 (Spring 2010): 1-13.

West, Diana. “The Horror of R. L. Stine.” American Educator 19.3 (1995): 39-41.

Lights Out is very hard to find, but you can get The New Girl from Amazon (ad):

And you can find the first four Fear Street novels in this collection:

Posted on June 26, 2021

Memories Worth Keeping: Adaptational Changes in IT: Chapter 2

Guest Post

Stephen King’s IT – and, later, the Andy Muschietti adaptations – have been vital to my journey as a horror fan and an aspiring fantasy/horror writer, and as an important way to think about change. I read IT during the summer of 2018, after moving from the home I had lived in for 12 years. While I approached the novel thinking I had hit the jackpot of horror, I found myself more moved by the strong bond that the Losers’ Club formed as adolescents, which made the disintegration of these friendships in adulthood all the more tragic. In many ways, IT shares more DNA with Stand By Me (a non-horror adaptation, based on King’s short story “The Body”) than some of his other horror novels. Both works are coming-of-age stories that see seemingly unshakeable friendships tested by fears and anxieties – some are explicitly horror-related, such as Pennywise, but others are more existential: how long will we remain friends? Adulthood, in these stories, seems to be more of a source of horror – or, at least, anxiety – than any monster or bully, and yet when it comes, it happens gradually. Adulthood’s arrival is not heralded by ominous music or a jumpscare, it just… happens, and childhood friendships that seemed strong don’t always last. Read more

Posted on June 22, 2021

A Chilling Summer Treat: Image Comics’ Ice Cream Man serves up horror outside the Season of the Witch

Guest Post

Summertime is the time for water games in the backyard, day-long visits to the amusement park, and chilly rocket pops from your neighborhood ice cream man. But summertime is also the time to ready oneself for the chilling spooky season that is just around the corner, and one of Image Comics’ horror series — Ice Cream Man, written by W. Maxwell Prince & illustrated by Martin Morazzo — is ready to serve up any deadly delicacy — & more! — that you can imagine.

Simply know that the just desserts come with a price. Read more

Posted on June 17, 2021

Carrie White as Witchcraft, Power and Fear

Guest Post

In our hands: embers embers embers
just waiting for
the opportunity
to ignite

-Amanda Lovelace, The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One (53)

The Witch in Popular Culture

In the twenty-first century, literature and film have demonstrated a compulsion to return to the figure of the witch. Witches are embedded in popular culture old and new. From the folkloric enchantresses Baba Yaga, Circe, and Morgan Le Fay to the fairytale hags who eat, kidnap, and murder children in stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White, the witch is designed to reinforce men’s fear and abhorrence towards women. Modern media, however, continues to challenge the witch as a figure of absolute terror and evil. What happens, for example, when the witch is a child herself? Portrayals of the “goodhearted” child-as-witch emerged and took centre-stage in stories such as Harry Potter (2001-11) and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018). But before Hermione and Sabrina, there was Stephen King’s Carrie White.

Posted on June 14, 2021

The Bloodcurdling Book Club: Reading Summerville

Elizabeth Erwin

This week’s hair-raising read is 2013’s SUMMERVILLE by D.T. Neal. The story follows three friends who are planning to dive for some expensive brandy bottles they believe are sitting at the bottom of a South Carolina River. When the group encounters a hitchhiker to whom they decide to offer a ride, a series of events are put into motion that leaves no one unscathed. Part southern gothic and part ecohorror, this novella takes some big swings but do they pay off? Listen to the latest episode of The Bloodcurdling Book Club to find out!