Author | Critic
“This is a duo of brutal stories from writer Mike Thorn. Tied together by the theme of fulfilling a debt to a supernatural creature, the stories differ on their endings between hope for the future and dread.”
“Exhumation started off creepy, progressed to f***ed up and stayed firmly in that position until the very end.”
BOOKS
Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers, by Erin Emily Ann Vance (2019)
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, by Gwendolyn Kiste (2017)
Arctic Smoke, by Randy Nikkel Schroeder (2019)
Autobiography of Childhood, by Sina Queyras (2011)
Burqa of Skin, by Nelly Arcan (2011)
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, by Thomas Ligotti (2011)
Daddy Love, by Joyce Carol Oates (2013)
A Dark Matter, by Peter Straub (2010)
Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King (2010)
Full-Metal Indigiqueer, by Joshua Whitehead (2017)
Home, by Toni Morrison (2011)
Horror of Philosophy, vols. 1-3, by Eugene Thacker (2011-2015)
Monoceros, by Suzette Mayr (2011)
Oil on Water, by Helon Habila (2010)
On an Ungrounded Earth: Towards a New Geophilosophy, by Ben Woodard (2013)
Only Pretty Damned, by Niall Howell (2019)
Open City, by Teju Cole (2011)
Point Omega, by Don DeLillo (2010)
Son of a Trickster, by Eden Robinson (2017)
Strange is the Night, by S. P. Miskowski (2017)
The Streets, by Robert Dunbar (2015)
The Thing: A Phenomenology of Horror, by Dylan Trigg (2014)
What is Not Yours is Not Yours, by Helen Oyeyemi (2016)
Where the Sun Shines Best, by Austin Clarke (2013)
The Wilderness Within, by John Claude Smith (2017)
FILMS
4:44 Last Day on Earth, dir. Abel Ferrara (2011)
Almayer’s Folly, dir. Chantal Akerman (2011)
The Assassin, dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien (2015)
Bitter Money, dir. Wang Bing (2016)
Blackhat, dir. Michael Mann (2015)
Cityscape, dir. Michael Snow (2019)
Cosmopolis, dir. David Cronenberg (2012)
Crazy Horse, dir. Frederick Wiseman (2011)
Djinn, dir. Tobe Hooper (2013)
J. Edgar, dir. Clint Eastwood (2011)
Jauja, dir. Lisandro Alonso (2014)
Journey to the Shore, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa (2015)
Knock Knock, dir. Eli Roth (2015)
Like Someone in Love, dir. Abbas Kiarostami (2012)
The Lords of Salem, dir. Rob Zombie (2012)
Mekong Hotel, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2012)
The Other Side of the Wind, dir. Orson Welles (2018)
People That Are Not Me, dir. Hadas ben Aroya (2016)
Shutter Island, dir. Martin Scorsese (2010)
Stemple Pass, dir. James Benning (2012)
Three Landscapes, dir. Peter B. Hutton (2013)
A Touch of Sin, dir. Jia Zhangke (2013)
Twin Peaks: The Return, dir. David Lynch (2017)
Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey, dir. Terrence Malick (2016)
ALBUMS
★, by David Bowie (2016)
Bring on the Sun, by Laraaji (2017)
Circle the Wagons, by Darkthrone (2010)
Concrete Desert, by The Bug vs Earth (2017)
Conversations with Myself, by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (2011)
Conversion, by Jacob Kirkegaard (2013)
Copper Lock Hell, by Khost (2014)
Destiny Calls, by Chevalier (2019)
Ett, by Klara Lewis (2014)
Every Day I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came, by Jesu (2013)
Firepower, by Judas Priest (2018)
Heaven Upside Down, by Marilyn Manson (2017)
Lost Themes II, by John Carpenter (2016)
Lulu, by Lou Reed & Metallica (2011)
NV, by Gnaw Their Tongues & Dragged Into Sunlight (2015)
Ornitheology, by Chubby Wolf (2010)
A Paean to Wilson, by The Durutti Column (2010)
Post Self, by Godflesh (2017)
Posthuman, by JK Flesh (2012)
Pylon, by Killing Joke (2015)
Skeleton Keys, by Steve Roach (2015)
Tempest, by Bob Dylan (2012)
Universal Themes, by Sun Kil Moon (2015)
Utilitarian, by Napalm Death (2012)
Yeezus, by Kanye West (2013)
The folks at Cinematary invited me to submit a ballot for their Best Films of 2019 Critics Survey; their rules were different from Seventh Row‘s, so my list was also different.
The folks at Seventh Row invited me to submit a ballot for their Best Films of 2019 Critics Survey.
Mike Thorn is a beloved Losing the Plot alumnus who returns to discuss his latest book, Dreams of Lake Drukka & Exhumation, out with Demain Publishing’s Short Sharp Shocks series. We talk about the influence of location on fiction, films we’ve enjoyed recently, the challenge of long distance relationships and more!
The folks at Seventh Row invited me to submit a ballot for their Best Films of the Decade Critics Survey.
I wrote about Rob Zombie’s 2010s cinematic output for In Review Online. I discuss problems of solipsism in contemporary genre scholarship, Zombie as renegade anti-humanist, and more.
Marna Larsen is an insightful commentator on all things horror esoterica, so I was thrilled when she reviewed Darkest Hours. On the story “Fear and Grace,” she writes:
“… a reminder about a certain kind of predatory magnetism that simultaneously makes someone charismatic to the masses and also a horrifying monster one on one.”
