On a treelined suburban sidewalk, a man wearing a white mask and blue coveralls steps out from behind a hedge.
  • A close up of a woman inspecting a sharp vampire tooth in her mouth

    [interview with a vampire] by Heather Bowlan


    Finally, an interview with a vampire we would invite into our home for the holidays. We’re a sucker for a vamp who can sing for their supper. Today, a poem by CDSOB neighbor Heather Bowlan. Read the poem.

  • A close-up of two hands: a gloved hand of a scarecrow passing a small white flower off to the small hand of a child

    Field of Screams by John Sara


    Who on the Cul-de-sac of Blood has not had a scarecrow at the table? This one’s for all of you plucking straw from the rug: John Sara’s “Field of Screams.” Read the poem.

  • 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: Frankenstein (2025)

Recent Work

Shelley Duvall in the Shining, holding a knife up with a terrified expression on her face

His Blood
by Laura Shell

You never know what’s on the other side of that door. Today, we open up and bleed with “His Blood,” by Laura Shell.

Published November 17, 2025

An abstract image featuring what looks like a plastic bag with red and purple objects inside

Four Images
by Brandon Tanczak

If you gaze for long into a polyethylene bag, the polyethylene bag gazes also into you. Today, we feature uncanny digital manipulations from Philly’s own Brandon Tanczak. Happy nightmare, baby.

Published November 10, 2025

An image from Alison's Birthday: in the foreground is the back of a man in a suit holding a pitchfork. He is standing in a cemetery. Across from him in the distance, Alison enters into the cemetery.

Potatoes of Promise
by Marcus Silcock

Robot cows, whales in the walls, a wooden bible, spuds from the darklands. Marcus Silcock serves folk horror with “Potatoes of Promise.”

Published November 3, 2025

Screenshot of the movie Brain Robbers from Outer Space that shows a woman in a head scarf and overcoat lighting a cigarette outdoors at night

Wholly Worthwhile: My Part in the Longest Bad Movie Ever Made by Stefanie Kalem

This week, a scary season treat from one of our favorite essay writers, Stefanie Kalem, who somehow never told us she was in a straight to video horror B-movie epic a couple decades ago. We made her watch it & write about the experience.

October 27, 2025

A ghoulie emerges from a toilet

No Fever
by Maris Catherine Tiller

Call in sick today, watch horror movies in bed, & read Maris Catherine Tiller’s gross-out gem, “No Fever” #garfieldmondays

October 20, 2025

Elaine, in The Love Witch, drinks from a goblet as she sits on a circular rug that has a pentagram and astrological signs on it. She is surrounded by candles..

Three Poems
by Kia Alice Groom

“There’s an image / replaying on a dusty screen / somewhere in hell—or the next town / over.” “The body is just a house— / backrooms baby, / the boy who is all hallways.” “Piss in a jar, salt & cayenne, / legs slick with black wax / & grave dirt.” Poetry is spellcraft, and Kia Alice Groom knows how to do things with words. Behold!

Published October 14, 2025

From Twin Peaks: The Return: A swirling vortex opens in the sky

Under the Gyre
by Lillie E. Franks

“It is finally as though that thing of monstrous interest / were happening in the sky,” wrote John Ashbery. As Lillie E. Franks tells it: “Millicent Pawlowski, the Happy Medium, stands between the crowd and the police and opens her mind to the glowing cyclone which fills nearly half of the sky above her.” Buckle up: today we feature “Under the Gyre”🌪️

Published October 6, 2025

An image from Lake Mungo of the lake at night with a light shining on the trees that line the shore

What Is Horror Poetics? Part 666: The Medium Is the Monster by J †Johnson

The window in that old house at the end of the block is glowing again. CDSOB returns with Cycle 666 & the latest installment of J †Johnson’s “What Is Horror Poetics?” where we fuck around with haunted media & find out: “Part 666: The Medium Is the Monster”📼🛶🖤🕸️📺⭕️

Published October 1, 2025

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