On a treelined suburban sidewalk, a man wearing a white mask and blue coveralls steps out from behind a hedge.
  • Freddy and Jason faceoff during the movie Freddy vs. Jason

    Three Poems by Steven Karl


    Terror in the body, terror in the family, terror on the page, terror in the machine. Today we feature Part II of a series of poems by Steven Karl. Read the poems.

  • The shunting scene from Society

    Sex Tent by Kris Hall


    Just because we’ve seen Sex Tent 11 times doesn’t mean we’re prepared for Sex Tent 12. We know this, and yet we’re surprised by how spicy it gets up there. And still we push through the crowd. Read the story.

  • A line drawing of a vintage projector

    Friday Feature


    Mini-reviews of horror movies, books, albums, and other cultural artifacts dropping every Friday.

    Now screening: Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022)

Recent Work

Friday the 13th's Jason is ablaze walking through a cornfield in Jason vs. Freddy

Three Poems
by Steven Karl

Halloween is every day in our hearts, but this week feels extra hallowed, connecting Samhain with the Day of the Dead. We can think of no better celebration at CDSOB than to present poems from regular contributor Steven Karl. Part I of the set goes up today, and we can all look forward to Part II this coming Monday. Today, 2 elegies and a double feature🎃🔪🖤🔥🍿

Published October 30, 2024

Henry Bemis wanders a desolate landscape in the Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last"

from …AGAIN
by Mark Nowak

You only live once, & yet we expect another turn of the wheel. Mark Nowak presents a litany of x, y, & a bit of z from a series called …AGAIN.

Published October 14, 2024

A headshot of Henry in Eraserhead. Behind him is a dresser with what appears to be a teddy bear on top.

Two Poems
by Juliet Cook

Rotting bear dolls & chicken brains erase our heads & replace them with images of themselves, & though we might not have a name for this process, Juliet Cook’s poems show us what it feels like to find ourselves somewhere between foreground & background.

Published June 10, 2024

The sun sets in an orange sky over a body of water in the movie A Bay of Blood

Four Poems
by Jeremy Hoevenaar

We come to “an altar in the sound” “in the flayed yard” “a yolk spitting wet ropes of shadow” “filled with new language” in the light off the axe of Jeremy Hoevenaar’s poems in the moments before the sky goes out.

Published September 30, 2024

A black and white image from They Live, which shows an alien purchasing a newspaper that says "conform" at a news stand

What is Horror Poetics? Part V: The Point of No Return by J †Johnson

Horror queers the so-called rational world and puts the lie to the promise of normality. “What Is Horror Poetics? Part V: The Point of No Return” kicks off cycle 5 with a vengeance.

Published September 25, 2024

Animated deer snarling and baring sharp teeth

Watch for Deer
by Michael Sikkema

Soon we will all be saying “watch for deer” when we leave the party and go out into that big night. Today, we feature new poems from CDSOB regular Michael Sikkema’s “Watch for Deer” series, in anticipation of his forthcoming CDSOB chapbook of the same name. Watch for deer.

Published July 1, 2024

A still from the movie Dolls, in which a woman with a masked doll face holds her eyeballs in her fingers next to the empty eye holes of the mask

Four Poems
by Melissa Eleftherion

The horror books we read as kids reveal a darkness we might spend a lifetime working through, along with the very real terrors we encounter. Melissa Eleftherion parses memories of strange companions from formative reading experiences in poems from their “suture” series.

Published June 24, 2024

The author stands beneath the Mahoning Drive-In sign, which is advertising Alien Invasion Weekend

Screen of the Heavens: Alien Invasion Weekend, Mahoning Drive-In by J †Johnson

The truth was out there at Mahoning Drive-In’s Alien Invasion weekend, & so were we. JJ gazes at that great screen in the sky & writes about an out of this world 35mm double-double feature🥁🛸📽️🍿

Published June 5, 2024

A black and white movie still from Nosferatu where the shadow of Count Orlok is creeping up the stairs
An image from the movie Candyman, where Candyman hovers vertically in the air near the ceiling in a hospital room
A still from the movie Carrie, where Carrie stares blankly with eyes wide while she is covered in blood against the blue curtain
A still from the movie Re-Animator where Dr. West is filling a hypodermic needle with a glowing green liquid