Author: mikethornwrites

Mike Thorn is the author of Shelter for the Damned, Darkest Hours, and Peel Back and See. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies and podcasts, including Vastarien, Dark Moon Digest, The NoSleep Podcast, and Tales to Terrify. His essays and articles have been published in American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper (University of Texas Press), MUBI Notebook, The Film Stage, and elsewhere.

Best first viewings, 2023

Pre-2023 releases only, chronologically organized.

Top twenty

La Bête Humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)
The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)
Margie (Henry King, 1946)
Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947)
They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)
Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949)
Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956)
See No Evil (Richard Fleischer, 1971)
Trilogy of Terror (Dan Curtis, 1975)
Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)
Pauline at the Beach (Éric Rohmer, 1983)
A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)
Patty Hearst (Paul Schrader, 1988)
Jade (William Friedkin, 1995)
Nixon (Oliver Stone, 1995)
Stealing Beauty (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1996)
Romance (Catherine Breillat, 1999)
Ju-On: The Curse (Takashi Shimizu, 2000)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)

Other standouts

After Death (Yevgeni Bauer, 1915)
Satan’s Rhapsody (Nino Oxilia, 1917)
Warning Shadows (Arthur Robison, 1923)
A House Divided (William Wyler, 1931)
Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Night at the Crossroads (Jean Renoir, 1932)
A Night on Bald Mountain (Claire Parker & Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933)
From Mayerling to Sarajevo (Max Ophüls, 1940)
The Letter (William Wyler, 1940)
The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
The Woman on the Beach (Jean Renoir, 1947)
The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949)
Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953)
French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1955)
A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald, 1956)
Interlude (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
The H-Man (Ishirô Honda, 1958)
I Bury the Living (Albert Band, 1958)
The Flesh and the Fiends (John Gilling, 1960)
Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961)
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 1963)
The Collector (William Wyler, 1965)
The Birthday Party (William Friedkin, 1968)
Secret Ceremony (Joseph Losey, 1968)
Claire’s Knee (Éric Rohmer, 1970)
The Last Run (Richard Fleischer, 1971)
Super Fly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)
Legacy of Satan (Gerard Damiano, 1974)
Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)
The Haunting of Julia (Richard Loncraine, 1977)
The Pied Piper (Jiří Barta, 1986)
The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)
Def by Temptation (James Bond III, 1990)
Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
The Tempest (Stanislav M. Sokolov, 1992)
Green Snake (Tsui Hark, 1993)
Affliction (Paul Schrader, 1997)
Forever Mine (Paul Schrader, 1999)
In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001)
Auto Focus (Paul Schrader, 2002)
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2004)
Universal Soldier: Regeneration (John Hyams, 2009)
Nas: Time is Illmatic (One9, 2014)
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Andrew Jarecki, 2015)
Beware the Slenderman (Irene Taylor Brodsky, 2016)
Sick (John Hyams, 2022)
Tár (Todd Field, 2022)

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Best first reads, 2023


I read 101 books in 2023. Here are my favorite first reads (pre-2023 releases only).

The top twenty are organized chronologically (I restricted myself to one per author). The rest are organized by authors’ last names.

Top twenty:

The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert (1856)
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins (1860)
Roderick Hudson, by Henry James (1875)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (1891)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M. R. James (1904)
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (1905)
The Listener and Other Stories, by Algernon Blackwood (1907)
The Subjugated Beast, by R. R. Ryan (1938)
Native Son, by Richard Wright (1940)
The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long (1946)
Gravity and Grace, by Simone Weil (1947)
The Road Through the Wall, by Shirley Jackson (1948)
Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin (1956)
The Wapshot Chronicle, by John Cheever (1957)
The Collector, by John Fowles (1963)
Julia, by Peter Straub (1975)
The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons (1978)
The Ceremonies, by T. E. D. Klein (1984)
Soul/Mate, by Joyce Carol Oates [as Rosamond Smith] (1989)
Paradais, by Fernanda Melchor (2021)

Other standouts:

Poetics, by Aristotle (335 BCE)
Inner Experience, by Georges Bataille (1943)
Weird Mysticism: Philosophical Horror and the Mystical Text, by Brad Baumgartner (2021)
Tender is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica (2017)
The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories, by Algernon Blackwood (1906)
The Lure of the Unknown: Essays on the Strange, by Algernon Blackwood (2022)
Drop City, by T. C. Boyle (2003)
The Hungry Moon, by Ramsey Campbell (1986)
The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1940)
The Wapshot Scandal, by John Cheever (1964)
Falconer, by John Cheever (1977)
Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi (2019)
A Short History of Decay, by E. M. Cioran (1949)
The Vet’s Daughter, by Barbara Comyns (1959)
The Juniper Tree, by Barbara Comyns (1985)
Americana, by Don DeLillo (1971)
The Names, by Don DeLillo (1982)
God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, by Vine Deloria Jr. (1972)
The Lost Daughter, by Elena Ferrante (2006)
The Magus, by John Fowles (1965)     
Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill (2005)                
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, by Amitav Ghosh (2016)
Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, by J. Jack Halberstam (1995)
Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1981)
Last Summer, by Evan Hunter (1968)
The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson (1949)
Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson (1951)
The Bird’s Nest, by Shirley Jackson (1954)
Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing, by Stephen King (2000)
The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (2016)
The Moral Essays, by Giacomo Leopardi (1832)
Hieroglyphics and Other Essays, by Arthur Machen (2022)
Burnt Offerings, by Robert Marasco (1973)
The Beetle, by Richard Marsh (1897)
A Century of Weird Fiction, 1832–1937: Disgust, Metaphysics, and the Aesthetics of Cosmic Horror, by Jonathan Newell (2020)
A Garden of Earthly Delights, by Joyce Carol Oates (1967)
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, by Joyce Carol Oates (1993)
The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art, by Joyce Carol Oates (2003)
Jack of Spades, by Joyce Carol Oates (2015)
The Anthrobscene, by Jussi Parikka (2014)
Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, by Paul Schrader (1972)
EcoGothic, edited by Andrew Smith and William Hughes (2013)
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies, by Clark Ashton Smith (2014)
Motley Stones, by Adalbert Stifter (1853)
Marriages, by Peter Straub (1973)
Koko, by Peter Straub (1988)
Sides, by Peter Straub (2007)
After Life, by Eugene Thacker (2010)
Fear and Nature: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene, edited by Christy Tidwell and Carter Soles (2021)
A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, by Kathryn Yusoff (2018)

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The Edge of the Edge: A Numinous Conversation with Mike Thorn and Kathe Koja

“Over the past few years I’ve had the privilege of enjoying an ongoing dialogue with one of my major creative influences, award-winning writer Kathe Koja. Two years ago, she and I discussed genre and process during the virtual launch for my second short story collection, Peel Back and See. Last year, we discussed our work’s relationship with cinema for In Review Online. While brainstorming about topics for future conversations, we decided to pursue the concept of numinosity: its permutations in literature in film and the role it plays in our own creative projects. This article is the result of our email thread on the subject.”

Read the full article.

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It‘s Back: Adaptations of Stephen King’s Horror Epic (In Review Online)

Film adaptations of Stephen King’s work often suffer from genre misidentification. This isn’t to say that filmmakers mistakenly read King’s work as horror fiction — much of it undoubtedly is horror fiction. The primary shortcoming of many adaptations — including Andy Muschietti’s 2017/2019 It duology — is a limited perception of what the horror genre is, what it can do, and how it interfaces with other literary and cinematic traditions. It (1986) might well be King’s most horrific novel, its title representing the numinous and multifaceted object of fear itself. It’s as replete with monsters and grotesquerie as anything the author has written, but it also might be his most thematically and structurally ambitious work.

Read the full article.

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New Mike Thorn story “Solstice Grinsztad” to be included in Solstice in Purgatory (coming November 7 from The Seventh Terrace)

“The Winter Solstice. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s the most wonderful time of year. And it’s full of f*cking monsters. Don’t act like you don’t know. You’ve heard the cracking ice, seen tracks in the snow, smelled the bloody breath, and felt the rumbling Ho-ho-ho deep in your guts. We celebrate because we’re terrified of the dark outside our door.

Winter is an eternity, particularly in Purgatory. So, no matter which Terrace you call home, we invite you to while away the long, frozen nights with this curated collection of short tales from some of the most deliciously demented minds in horror. Some will make you laugh, some will make you shiver, and some…well, let’s just say nothing is sacred here. Enjoy, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll live to see the Equinox.”

Click here for more info and full table of contents.

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Mike Thorn’s 100 Favorite Horror Books, October 2023 Edition

I’m inaugurating a new tradition. I’ve organized my choices chronologically, with externally and/or posthumously edited collections/anthologies at the end.

Vathek, an Arabian Tale; or, the History of the Caliph Vatek, by William Beckford (1786)
The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe (1794)
The Monk: A Romance, by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)
Zofloya; or, the Moor, by Charlotte Dacre (1806)
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley (1818)
Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Robert Maturin (1820)
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg (1824)
The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
The Great God Pan, by Arthur Machen (1890)
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (1890)
The Damned, by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1891)
The Beetle, by Richard Marsh (1897)
Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897)
The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells (1897)
The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson (1908)
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (1915)
The Breaking Point, by Daphne Du Maurier (1922)
Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier (1938)
The Subjugated Beast, by R. R. Ryan (1938)
Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber (1943)
The Hounds of Tindalos, by Frank Belknap Long (1946)
The Scarf, by Robert Bloch (1947 / 1966)
Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson (1951)
The Unnamable, by Samuel Beckett (1953)
The Bird’s Nest, by Shirley Jackson (1954)
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson (1954)
Cape Fear, by John D. MacDonald (1957)
The Sundial, by Shirley Jackson (1958)
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Shock!, by Richard Matheson (1961)
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury (1962)
The Collector, by John Fowles (1963)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima (1963)
New Stories from the Twilight Zone, by Rod Serling (1965)
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison (1967)
Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967)
Last Summer, by Evan Hunter (1968)
The Obscene Bird of Night, by José Donoso (1970)
The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty (1971)
The Room, by Hubert Selby Jr. (1971)
The Other, by Thomas Tryon (1971)
The Stepford Wives, by Ira Levin (1972)
Child of God, by Cormac McCarthy (1973)
Starling Street, by Dinah Palmtag (1973)
Carrie, by Stephen King (1974)
‘Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King (1975)
Julia, by Peter Straub (1975)
The Demon, by Hubert Selby Jr. (1976)
Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (1976)
Long After Midnight, by Ray Bradbury (1976)
The Shining, by Stephen King (1977)
The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons (1978)
Blood Secrets, by Craig Jones (1978)
Ghost Story, by Peter Straub (1979)
Books of Blood: Volume One, by Clive Barker (1984)
The Ceremonies, by T. E. D. Klein (1984)
Hawksmoor, by Peter Ackroyd (1985)
The Damnation Game, by Clive Barker (1985)
The Juniper Tree, by Barbara Comyns (1985)
Songs of a Dead Dreamer, by Thomas Ligotti (1985)
Toplin, by Michael McDowell, (1985)
The Hungry Moon, by Ramsey Campbell (1986)
It, by Stephen King (1986)
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (1987)
The Nightrunners, by Joe R. Lansdale (1987)
Why Not You and I?, by Karl Edward Wagner (1987)
The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing (1988)
The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum (1989)
The Pines, by Robert Dunbar (1989)
Boundaries, by T. M. Wright (1990)
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
The Cipher, by Kathe Koja (1991)
Grimscribe: His Lives and Works, by Thomas Ligotti (1991)
Prodigal, by Melanie Tem (1991)
Something Stirs, by Charles L. Grant (1991)
Specters, by J. M. Dillard (1991)
Summer of Night, by Dan Simmons (1991)
Bad Brains, by Kathe Koja (1992)
Lost Futures, by Lisa Tuttle (1992)
Skin, by Kathe Koja (1993)
The Between, by Tananarive Due (1995)
Zombie, by Joyce Carol Oates (1995)
You Can’t Catch Me, by Joyce Carol Oates [as Rosamond Smith] (1995)
Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z. Brite (1996)
Traplines, by Eden Robinson (1996)
Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis (2005)
A Dark Matter, by Peter Straub (2010)
Tender is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica (2017)
Everything That’s Underneath, by Kristi DeMeester (2017)
And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, by Gwendolyn Kiste (2017)
Strange is the Night, by S. P. Miskowski (2017)
The Seventh Mansion, by Maryse Meijer (2020)
Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe (1956) [edited by Edward H. Davidson]
Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood, by Algernon Blackwood (1973) [edited by E. F. Bleiler]
The Haunted Dolls’ House and Other Ghost Stories, by M. R. James (2006) [edited by S. T. Joshi]
Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, by H. P. Lovecraft (2007) [edited by Joyce Carol Oates]
Ghost Stories of Henry James, by Henry James (2008) [edited by Martin Schofield]
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies, by Clark Ashton Smith (2014) [edited by S. T. Joshi]

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