When people hear the name Nashville, their thoughts immediately turn to cowboy hats, rhinestones, and the Grand Ole Opry. Twanging country music and smokey honky tonk bars fill the mind and evoke a very specific style. The one thing no one expects is a vibrant and growing horror community deep in the heart of Music City. Daisy Dukes, so named because they make “short shorts” is the collaborative brainchild of Dycee Wildman, Jennifer Bonior, and Stephanie Adams. The trio met d

To call Robin Fuqua “skilled” would be an insult to the massive store of talent that this particular Woman in Horror possesses. With over ten years of experience as a special effects makeup artist and some pretty impressive work attached to her name. A freelancer, she relies heavily on her skill and reputation to carry her to her next job while working towards her own goals as an artist and horror lover. I got a chance to talk to Robin recently and was excited to hear what sh

Once in a great while a character is brought to life that outgrows its creator’s wildest dreams and becomes a life all of its own. Like a mad scientist whose creature runs amok, these figures in horror culture burn themselves forever into our memory and become as much a part of the culture as any artist could ever hope. When Maila Nurmi dressed up as Morticia Addams from the popular, dark comedy comic strip The Addams Family, all she wanted to do was see the cartoon antics of

There are scaremakers outside of film and television who don’t get a lot of attention because, well, their medium doesn’t come into our homes on DVD or through a streaming service somewhere. As we’ve talked about before in interviews with Chet Zar and Paul Gerrard, art design itself is a vital link in the creative process that brings our favorite scary stories to life. Much like that art, an equally overlooked and underappreciated piece of that creative process is the role th

Back in September I told you about the incredible Women in Horror Film Festival in Peachtree City, Georgia. For three days attendees were given the chance to not only watch some of the most amazing independent horror films by women from all roles in the industry but also had the chance to discuss these fantastic movies with the creators themselves. Unlike some festivals that come across as stuffy and inhospitable to all but the industry elite, the producers of Women in Horror

I saw a lot of incredible short films during the Women in Horror Film Festival. Everything running the gamut from psychological torture to outright gore and always from a unique perspective. There were movies that gave me the creeps, that made me laugh, and more than a few that left me pretty shaken up as the lights came up in the screening room. But none of what I saw had prepared me for the abject horror and discomfort that I suffered at the hands of Unbearing. Warning, the

I was fortunate enough to return to Atlanta this past weekend to attend the inaugural year of the Women in Horror Film Festival. There’s no argument from anyone that women play an integral role in the creation of some of our most beloved movies and television shows but while they are instrumental in bringing these stories to life they are often overlooked and disregarded in the world of filmmaking. In fact, unless a woman happens to be the pretty face of that final girl in a

Atmospheric. It’s the first word, the best word to describe Samantha Kolesnik’s short film I Baked Him a Cake. The music is haunting, cold as we open up in a small, dimly lit room where a woman is busy at work with power tools. We cut to a scene on the wall, the silhouette of the woman and someone else cast on the wall. In a crunchy, slopping of meat and bone rendered away from a body, the arm comes free and, despite seeing the visceral carnage of human devastation that has b

Women have always had an integral, if not somewhat cubbyholed role to play in the horror genre. In the earliest days of the genre on stage and screen they became either the damsel in distress to be rescued by the heroic male lead or they were some villainous monstress, a concubine of Satan sent to steer that same male hero into disaster. Even with the emergence of women’s rights and changing views of sex and sexuality in society, the most you could ever hope for was still som