THE HORTICULTURE OF HORROR

FEATURED ARTICLES

June 23, 2024

Apocalypse Cow

Kyle, a young man of little means with a serious addiction, walked up to the food truck hiding a gun in his jacket pocket. He knew this dude made a lot of money because people lined up around the block to get a burger around lunch and in the evening…
June 1, 2024

Barker's Brilliance and the Future of Literature

By C. Rommial Butler ====== Stephen King helped catapult Clive Barker into worldwide fame with this line: “I have seen the future of horror… and his name is Clive Barker.” He was right. Where King helped make horror wildly popular in the …
May 11, 2024

Doctor Gramma

By C. Rommial Butler ====== When mirror regards mirror which is the reflection? This question popped into my mind when I stumbled onto the doctor’s experiment. But I cannot go into that without some background. I’ve always had a way with …
April 24, 2024

Pulling at Threads...

“Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has nine thousand matches, the other seven thousand matches. Each of them is concerned about who’s ahead, who’s stronger.” -Carl Sagan It would be…
April 23, 2024

Ape-Mania: A Discussion W/ Hunter Goatley

“YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP. DAMN YOU. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!” -Captain George Taylor ***** MAD: Hunter, it’s great to speak with you again today and thanks for agreeing to this short discussion! There’s a lot to talk about, but first o…
April 13, 2024

The Crow and the Winter Soldier

By C. Rommial Butler ====== Here’s a tough thing for us to admit: We are not responsible for every bad thing that happens to us. Here’s another tough thing for us to admit: We are responsible for the way we deal with it in the aftermath.…
April 10, 2024

MAD GOD - A Review

If you’re a massive horror aficionado such as myself, you likely have a huge stockpile of films waiting in your watch list, across multiple streaming platforms. With so many movies to view, and so little time, it’s often difficult to gauge what you’…
April 5, 2024

FESTIVAL OF THE LIVING DEAD - A Review

When I first saw the news that a “spiritual sequel” to George A. Romero’s classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was about to be released, it immediately jumped to the front of my “to do list”. Romero’s original DEAD trilogy are among my favorite films of…
April 3, 2024

Magnetic Hypnosis and Ethereal Forms

It’s always a pleasant surprise when you stumble upon a hidden gem which manages to break through all the buzzing static of mainstream horror and presents an original story. Even better if that film delivers unique supernatural themes, merged with s…
March 28, 2024

Interview W/ Eskeletosart

MAD: Jaime, it’s good to talk to you again! We had some correspondence a couple of years ago in regards to a zine I was working on, and I’ve always dug your style and subject matter (primarily comic books and horror art). It has been very cool to se…
March 27, 2024

Talking Schop with Slenderman

By C. Rommial Butler ====== As I was picking my way slowly through Arthur Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Idea, I happened upon a point of view relevant to horror fiction. Discussing how dogma tends to fail to align with the intrinsic …
March 14, 2024

Quoth The Raven: Don't Be A--

By C. Rommial Butler ====== At a local bookstore, I nabbed a reprint of Cotton Mathers’ On Witchcraft. He was one of the judges who presided over the Salem Witch Trials, and the book is his justification for the proceedings. I outright rejec…
March 1, 2024

Be Careful What You Wish For...

By C. Rommial Butler ====== First off, let me say that Talk to Me was an immensely enjoyable film. I urge you to watch this 2023 Australian affair if you haven’t already, and especially before you read the following essay, as it will contain…
Feb. 22, 2024

Secrets Best Kept

There’s a certain inevitability for any avid reader, of which we meet various books that simply don’t hold our interest for one reason or another, and we’ll regretfully put them down, perhaps never to pick up again. There’s no shame in not finishing…
Feb. 4, 2024

There Are Other Worlds Than These...

"Sometimes dead is better." -Stephen King, Pet Sematary ====== It might sound strange to some fans, but if one were to ask about my favorite books by horror master Stephen King, more than one of them would come from his alter ego, Richard B…
Feb. 3, 2024

How Easily We ForgIT

By C. Rommial Butler ====== Most people will recollect Stephen King’s IT from either the TV miniseries or the more recent films. These treatments of the story each have their charm and deserve a visit if you haven’t yet taken the time; the m…
Jan. 15, 2024

Found/Headless

By Michael A. Dyer ====== When one considers low budget horror movies, a few things come to mind. Of course, we have such offerings as THE TOXIC AVENGER ($500,000) from Troma Entertainment, and many of the straight to video features of the 8…
Jan. 10, 2024

Night Swim and Heckle-Worthy Horror

By C. Rommial Butler ====== I went into Night Swim not expecting much and I was pleasantly unsurprised. I still don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. This brings to mind an interesting point about the Horror genre, especially in film…
Jan. 3, 2024

Night Sweats - Part: 2

By Andy Emantsal ====== Welcome again to another addition to Horror To Culture. In this gripping continuation, you will see how my tormented night terrors got worse for me to endure. The doctors said my creativity exacerbated my parasomnia. …
Dec. 27, 2023

The Host and the Parasite (Which is Art?)

By C. Rommial Butler ====== Rod Serling on The Twilight Zone. The Cryptkeeper on Tales from the Crypt. Indy’s own Sammy Terry from Nightmare Theater. These are just a few examples of the horror host. The horror host is a convention that goes…
Dec. 20, 2023

DEAD CROSS – The Cult of Mike Patton

“I can dress up the dead man But I can’t bring him back to life Bring it out, bring it out.” FAITH NO MORE – MOUTH TO MOUTH ====== If I had to pinpoint certain moments of adolescence that really served as an epiphany to my little pre-teen…
Dec. 9, 2023

The Thing and the Highwayman

Energy Never Ends By C. Rommial Butler ====== My oldest daughter and I checked out the fortieth anniversary theater showing of John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic, The Thing. The Thing holds up after 40 years. The practical effects …
Dec. 5, 2023

Night Sweats

By Andy Emantsal Thank you for joining us here at Horror To Culture!!! In this installment, I will be telling the tale of a horrifying nightmare that haunted me for 3 years of my childhood. At the height of my affliction I was having this same d…
Dec. 3, 2023

What Lurks in the Shadow Mountains?

“Throw the phone out the window If you want the neighbors woke You’ll have to shout out loud And set the bed alight and slow If you want the neighbors woke You’ll have to shout even louder.” -St. Vincent – Black Rainbow ====== By th…