is the copy editor for Field of Vision’s online journal Field Notes and for Film Comment magazine, as well as a frequent contributor to Film Comment, Metrograph’s Journal, and other publications. He wrote a thesis on depictions of old age in American cinema.
It’s quite likely that my first taste of narrative horror was provided by Tales from the Crypt, the luridly tongue-in-cheek anthology series...
December 22, 2024
Though recent events have redefined masks as symbols of caution and courtesy, their role in the horror pantheon is steadfastly sinister.
November 2, 2024
If ever a film’s reputation preceded it, Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is that film. On more than one occasion, Charlie Chaplin...
October 18, 2024
The actor’s Oscar-nominated, atypically sinister turn supports the notion that unassuming fellows are often the ones to fear most.
August 20, 2024
In the inaugural entry of a new column singling out enduringly creepy film characterizations, an American sweetheart cast against type emerges as one of cinema’s most unexpectedly chilling villains.
February 7, 2024
Jack Clayton’s masterpiece of narrative ambiguity The Innocents begins with a time-honored tableau: Deborah Kerr, hands clasped devoutly, imploring a higher power...
October 31, 2022
This past March, X, Ti West’s gleefully raunchy hybrid of two late-’70s subgenres (farmhouse horror and farmer’s-daughter porn), overachieved in four meaningful ways.
September 19, 2022
Unfairly remembered more for his staggering innovations with makeup than for his equally staggering dramatic skills, Lon Chaney is the absent father of horror cinema.
July 15, 2022
When Bette Davis as Jane served Joan Crawford’s Blanche her pet bird for “din-din,” a new strain of horror was born. Either “Grande Dame Guignol” or “psycho-biddy cinema”...
April 19, 2022
There’s no crueler fate for an inventive, well-crafted film than being remembered solely for its twist ending, especially with said twist divulged through a line reading that oxidized...
March 1, 2022
Acclaimed stars’ forays into horror roles are always revealing, and sometimes revelatory.
October 31, 2021
Beast is a lot of movies in one package—fractured fairy tale, belated-coming-of-age story, psychological drama, regional horror film—but above all it’s a calling card for its leading lady...
October 31, 2021
is a writer, photographer, videographer, and cinephile living in Portland, Oregon.
