Horror Homeroom, Author at Horror Homeroom

Posted on October 7, 2026

Trapped in the Replica: Industrial Exploitation, Spatial Memory, and Media Panopticism in Scream 3

Guest Post

Gary Miceli

Sidney Prescott’s entry onto the Stab 3 soundstage begins with a deceptive, everyday errand: finding a hairbrush dropped by an actress and stepping into the production space to return it. What begins as a mundane act immediately collapses into spatial and emotional disorientation as she crosses the threshold onto the set. She is instantly overwhelmed by a wave of lingering trauma, confronted by the harsh reality that Hollywood has commodified her horrifying personal history into a profitable entertainment spectacle. The set does not merely resemble her past; it functions as an uncanny, hyper-detailed architectural replica of her childhood home. Surrounding this replica are the body doubles and actors cast to play her, reinforcing a quiet, tragic alienation: the “Sidney Prescott” the world now consumes is no longer a real person, but a fictionalized caricature constructed by media executives. As she confronts this physical manifestation of corporate exploitation, her initial shock shifts into hesitant curiosity, drawing her deeper into the structure to inspect its disturbing accuracy.

Posted on October 5, 2026

“He’s a wild creature. We can’t ask him to be anything else”: Marine Monstrosities in The Shape of Water

Guest Post

Charlotte Troy

In 2017, renowned Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro released The Shape of Water, asking his audience to find comfort in his sympathetic monsters and further question the slippery boundary that separates the natural from the unnatural. Arguably, Del Toro’s filmography has been largely defined by his fascination with mythological and fantastical creatures including everything from vampire slaying half-vamps attired in leather trenchcoats (Blade trilogy) to cigar-smoking half-demons with an adoration for kittens (Hellboy franchise). In both literary and cinematic form, monsters act as the “patron saints of otherness” (Del Toro, “At Home with Monsters”) who are condemned, alienated and even killed “because their physical existence defies our expectations of normality in ways that offend us” and in turn threaten our social reality (Davies 29). Admittedly, monsters appear in Del Toro films as both protagonists and antagonists, but I argue that their central role as unlikely, sympathetic heroes raises questions about how true monstrosity is not synonymous with the nonhuman.

Posted on September 30, 2026

When Being Good Isn’t Enough: Capitalism, BioPower, and Monstrosity in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil

Guest Post

Diana Cedeño, PhD

I’ve always thought that what makes a good horror movie is the feeling it leaves you with after it ends. That feeling doesn’t have to be fear; what matters is that something stays with you. But that response also depends on your connection to the film and the expectations you bring to it. Those expectations were especially relevant when I watched Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil (2026). As a fan of the games, I came with an open mind. I knew Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, or even Alice weren’t in it, so I was prepared for a different story. By the end, though, I found myself drawn to its protagonist’s ordinary concerns: earning extra money (and in this economy?), getting the job done, and trying to help. That connection made his eventual transformation particularly unsettling. Before his transformation, Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a medical courier trying to get through a difficult assignment. His circumstances become increasingly grotesque, but there is something familiar about his initial predicament: he has work to finish and personal concerns that cannot simply be put aside.

Posted on September 28, 2026

Loner review – excellent found-footage folk horror

Dawn Keetley

Written by Charlie Robb and co-directed by Robb and Douglas Tawn, the 2025 Loner is a found-footage folk horror film about a man called Angus (played by Robb) who heads out into the Northumbrian woods to vlog about “living off the land” – totally cut off from the modern world (no wi-fi, for instance). It should be noted, though, that the cabin he’s renting, advertised as an “Anonymous Retreat,” has plenty of mod cons, and he’s not exactly roughing it. That’s probably a good thing, as Angus’s efforts to film himself “living off the land” turn out to be rather comically incompetent, such as when he attempts to instruct his viewers on how to build a wilderness shelter (which isn’t a shelter) and in which he then gets hopelessly trapped.

Nature isn’t the worst of Angus’s problems, however, as he encounters increasingly strange and disturbing things. On his way into the woods, he runs across what seems to be a buried Celtic marker and a strange white rock. But then later, while he’s recording ambient forest sound, he hears a grunting and someone sobbing and whimpering. That night, a woman whom he had passed in the forest on his trek in bangs on the door of his cabin begging to be let in, screaming that she’s in danger. Angus won’t let her in – too terrified to help her, even though the woman – Eve (Kat Johns-Burke) – does not seem at all threatening. This isn’t a choice you usually see characters make in films, but Angus’s character has been developed enough at this point in the film that the choice seems believable, true to him.

Two rooms are depicted in a dollhouse. In the first room, a doll plays the piano and stares at a flower under glass. In the other room, a dolls sits in a bed while a child peers at it through a window in the dollhouse.

Posted on September 21, 2026

Dolls and Their Houses

Special Issue #10

On this last official day of summer, we come bearing a special issue that was months in the making and – we hope you’ll agree – worth the wait. With truly stunning and thought-provoking cover art by Andrew Foley, Dolls and Their Houses features seventeen original essays exploring the varied ways dollhouses and miniatures pervade horror.

We are deeply indebted to the wonderful writers whose work makes up this issue: Jeff Ambrose, Rebecca Booth, Gabrielle Sinclair Compton, Elizabeth Erwin, Tess Ezzy, Sarah Fevri, Linda Ganus, Dawn Keetley, Paul A J Lewis, Emily Naser-Hall, Catherine Pugh, Alice Sage, Lindsey Scott, Raquel Souza, NelRae Toler, Laura Wright, and Charlotte Yule.

As always, this issue is free to read and can be enjoyed on the website, through digital download or via flipbook. You can access all of these options by visiting the Dolls and Their Houses publication landing page.

We hope you enjoy!