Horror

American Horror Story recreates The Strangers, but without the bloody payoff

This week’s American Horror Story was a wonderful exercise in emotional attachment, and what happens when there is none. It’s probably a bad sign when I’d rather hang out with the extras handing out blow jobs to Jim Morrison than the actual cast, isn’t it? Ah well, at least we’ll always have Constance. One thing…

Television Meredith Woerner

Secrets from the Walking Dead Comics Hidden in the Season Two Videos

Last year, The Walking Dead deviated massively from Robert Kirkman’s comic book source material — ending in a giant CG fireball. But will the new season adhere to the original work? Here are a few comic book clues we picked up in the trailers, clips and promo shots! BIG SPOILERS AHEAD. First, you can clearly…

Television Meredith Woerner

Classic Board Games Photoshopped into terrifying horror films

Battleship, Monopoly, Ouija — these are all real board games Hollywood has been turning (or at least attempting to turn) into major motion pictures. But what about the rest of the classic brain teasers? A Photoshop contest challenged folks to imagine even more board game movies — by creating horror movie posters. The results were…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Show off your Halloween finery in io9’s 2011 Costume Show!

Every year we celebrate Halloween on io9 by having a costume show on Flickr. Here you can see one of last year’s costumes, Mr. and Mrs. Boba Fett, posted by Kristin D. Post your pictures in this year’s io9 Halloween Costume Show! Here’s how to participate. Post pictures of yourself in our io9 Halloween Costume…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The director of The Thing reveals the alien’s secret backstory

While writing and shooting the prequel to John Carpenter’s ice-cold horror story The Thing, director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. had a chance to explore the original movie’s backstory. Find out how and why the thing crashed on Earth in our exclusive interview. Was The Thing always going to be a prequel movie? Or did it…

Movies Meredith Woerner

All the John Carpenter Easter Eggs in The Thing prequel

The Thing prequel’s cast and crew reveal their favorite nods to the John Carpenter classic hidden in the new film. Which we then chopped up and recreated with original 1982 Carpenter footage so you’ll know exactly what to look for inside this horror film. Here’s the official synopsis: At an Antarctica research site, the discovery…

Movies Meredith Woerner

How scientists discovered the “fear center” of the brain

Fear is one of the most universally understood human emotions. Every one of us is familiar with the feelings, behaviors, and symptoms engendered by fear — so familiar, in fact, that we can sense it in the voices and actions of our friends and loved ones, and even recognize it in the facial expressions of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

2 Girls One Demon: an Exclusive Shot from Paranormal Activity 3

We admit we were pretty skeptical about Paranormal Activity 3, until we saw this recent trailer, packed with scares and creepy flying children. Could this origins tale be the scare-fest we wanted from the second film? https://gizmodo.com/new-paranormal-activity-3-trailer-delivers-three-times-5844939 Check out this new demon reaction shot, and find out about how you can bring the found footage…

io9 Meredith Woerner

The trailer for the Nigerian Exorcist will make your head explode

The art of the American movie trailer has been long dead. Hollywood should crib from the playbook of the Nigerian exorcist flick Mass Destruction, which sells the living crap out of a movie that is almost assuredly unwatchable. https://gizmodo.com/movie-trailers-are-becoming-a-crashing-bore-5821368 Here’s a review of this Nollywood horror drama via African Movies Direct: After attending a late…

Movies Cyriaque Lamar

Rediscover the British classic Quatermass and the Pit on Blu-ray

The most renowned of the Quatermass films (which are themselves derived from the 1953 TV show titled The Quatermass Experiment), Quatermass and the Pit is a Hammer film that holds a firm place in the minds and memories of science fiction and horror fans. Fondly remembered for elements that could be perceived as simultaneously excellent…

Movies Chris Hart - The Film Pilgrim

When Halloween 3 came out, you could buy replicas of the masks that melted kids’ faces

Those of you keeping track at home will remember that the third Halloween film, Season of the Witch, had absolutely nothing to do with Michael Myers chasing Jamie Lee Curtis. No, it was about an evil Halloween mask manufacturer who sold masks imbued with microchips that contained fragments of Stonehenge. On Halloween night, the masks…

Movies Cyriaque Lamar

The Vampire Diaries: Playing mind games with a Salvatore brother is like shooting an unarmed man

How on Earth does The Vampire Diaries do it? I’m serious. Last night’s episode had some story elements that most other shows would have spun out for a half dozen episodes, or a half season. And they were just brought up, dealt with, and then discarded. In particular, both Salvatore brothers decided they were sick…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Horror’s Greatest Heroes: the 10 Best Monster-Fighters!

Horror doesn’t just have to be about scary monsters and their victims — some of our favorite horror stories include awesome monster-slayers, who are on a mission to wipe out everything slimy or toothy. Here are horror’s 10 greatest heroes. We scoured the internet to find the greatest monster-hunters in horror, and we also asked…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders and Katharine Trendacosta

American Horror Story invites you into the house that masturbating ghosts built

What on Earth is American Horror Story about? We can only assume that Glee creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk hoped to channel some sort of antiquated mescaline-infused donkey-sex show, because that’s what I walked away with. What starts off as a seemingly innocuous haunted house tale, complete with the generic strobe light gag, turns…

Television Meredith Woerner

Exclusive First Look at the Raw Terror (and Shirtlessness) in Bedlam Episode 2!

Want to see an excellent example of spooky terror done right on television? Check out this exclusive clip from Saturday’s new episode of Bedlam on BBC America. Leah (Kara Tointon) is trapped in an underground garage, where the lights keep going out, and someone — or something — is following her. Here’s a second clip,…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Horror and Dark Fantasy on Television: The Full-length Interviews

How do you freak people out without spending movie money on special effects? Gamble: Luckily for modestly budgeted productions everywhere, you can scare people without spending much money. It’s about creating tension. A lot of the scariest sequences in film and TV are basically about people walking up ordinary hallways to closed doors. When executed…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Fleshlight creates vampire, Frankenstein, zombie and cyborg vaginas

Tired of humping the same old fake, rubbery vagina hidden inside a flashlight? Fleshlight’s already four steps ahead of you: They’ve created a zombie, vampire, Frankenstein, and cyborg vaginas — in case you ever wondered what having sex with a vampire was like (which apparently means getting around the horrific labia wings). Congratulations Fleshlight, you’ve…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Never eat again after visiting the Museum of Food Anomalies

The Museum of Food Anomalies, entirely located online, allows you drop weight fast. See a frightened little sandwich get smothered in a plastic bag, demonic bell peppers, fruit loops shaped like Saturn, a cryptic message (JUUG) spelled out in an eggplant, and a ranch dressing spill that spontaneously formed the number ‘2.’ [via MOFA]

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen ruin Halloween (and Star Wars)

Watch the tiny twins shimmy around in giant stormtrooper and Darth Vader helmets for their fashion line stylemint. A noble effort, ladies — but the key to cosplay is pretending that you like dressing up as Batman in a leather pencil skirt.

io9 Meredith Woerner

Why are severed human feet washing up on the beaches of the Pacific northwest?

The Salish Sea has been depositing some gruesome things on the shores of Washington and British Columbia. Single feet (and a few pairs) keep washing up on these cold, rainy beaches. Find out how many incidents there have been over the past five years, why it’s always feet, and why they wash up on this…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

American Horror Story recreates The Strangers, but without the bloody payoff

Secrets from the Walking Dead Comics Hidden in the Season Two Videos

Classic Board Games Photoshopped into terrifying horror films

Show off your Halloween finery in io9’s 2011 Costume Show!

The director of The Thing reveals the alien’s secret backstory

All the John Carpenter Easter Eggs in The Thing prequel

How scientists discovered the “fear center” of the brain

2 Girls One Demon: an Exclusive Shot from Paranormal Activity 3

The trailer for the Nigerian Exorcist will make your head explode

Rediscover the British classic Quatermass and the Pit on Blu-ray

When Halloween 3 came out, you could buy replicas of the masks that melted kids’ faces

The Vampire Diaries: Playing mind games with a Salvatore brother is like shooting an unarmed man

Horror’s Greatest Heroes: the 10 Best Monster-Fighters!

American Horror Story invites you into the house that masturbating ghosts built

Exclusive First Look at the Raw Terror (and Shirtlessness) in Bedlam Episode 2!

Horror and Dark Fantasy on Television: The Full-length Interviews

Fleshlight creates vampire, Frankenstein, zombie and cyborg vaginas

Never eat again after visiting the Museum of Food Anomalies

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen ruin Halloween (and Star Wars)

Why are severed human feet washing up on the beaches of the Pacific northwest?

Startup Successfully Ignites World’s First Fusion Rocket

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Humans Were Already Dog People 16,000 Years Ago, DNA Suggests

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Dyson Airwrap Falls to an All-Time Low in Amazon’s Spring Sale, Lowering the Barrier for This Premium Multi-Styler

The ‘Tales from ’85’ Trailer Wants You Back in ‘Stranger Things’ Already

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Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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