June 17, 2022

Hey there, and happy upcoming Juneteenth and Father’s Day! It also happens to be Eric’s birthday on Sunday, so we figure you’re probably busy doing your own thing. We’ll certainly be doing our own thing—partying with friends at the Other Folk HQ and watching the original Candyman (1992), followed by Jordan Peele’s excellent 2021 “requel” (to use Scream 5’s parlance). Plus, Eric has a business trip coming up, so it’s gonna be a quiet week in our little corner of the internet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t visit, check out some old posts, maybe pick up a Dissected Head mug at the Cabinet of Desire, maybe consider supporting us on Patreon. All of our patron tiers come with early access to our posts, plus more at higher tiers, including mugs, t-shirts, and a very grotesque tote bag.

Dissections: Watership Down

Image Credit: Nepenthe Films

If you read last week’s update, you might be thinking to yourself, Wait a minute! I was promised an article was coming on June 22 about Watership Down, my favorite children’s movie about cute little bunnies dying horrific deaths. What gives? You’re right. And we’re sorry. That’s our bad. Thing is, though, Juneteenth, Dad’s Day, Birthday, Business Trip all in five days time. There’s just no room for Finish Article in that little stretch. So it’s going back one more week. It’ll go to Patreon supporters no later than June 29. The rest of you can expect it to come three days later.

Fables for the Dying: Poltergeists on President Street

Artwork: Eric Botts, ©2022

If you missed the release of our new Fable for the Dying earlier this week, LindaAnn Lo Schiavo describes her uncle’s stories of haunted poker games. Then she imagines a deeper story behind them, one about rage, murder, and madness in the face of abuse.

Judgments: Candymen

Image Credit: TriStar Pictures

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Well, we just told you we’re watching both Candyman films (not the numbered sequels), and it’s not the first time we’ve seen either film, so obviously we’re gonna have to do something with them. We’ve been thinking lately that our Judgments section needs a bit of shakeup. You’ll still get a review, and it’ll still be short, but our approach might look a little different. At the least, we’ll be writing about two films, so the scope’s bigger. Maybe we’ll have our first Judgments series…

Call for Submissions

Do you write short prose about horrific things? Fiction, nonfiction, prose poetry, we want it all. We have just two rules: 1) no more than 1,500 words and 2) no lineation.

We like a lot of different kinds of horror, but based on what we’ve published so far, it’s safe to say there are three really good ways to grab our attention. One way is with a smart blend of comedy and horror. We’ve put out a few Fables so far that have a way of using comedy to amplify horror and vice versa. Meg loves this stuff. Take a look at Cecilia Kennedy’s “Photoshoot with Possessed Bunnies” for a good example.

Another way to get us interested seems to be what Eric’s come to think of as the Poe approach: leaning hard into mounting and oppressive dread and madness. Take a look at Saoirse Ní Chiaragáin’s “Teufelsberg” for what we mean.

But we’re always scouting for work that gets at something bigger than itself. “Bob Barker’s Obsession,” by Shaun Holloway, does this well. It’s a story about humanity’s doddering lack of response to climate change wrapped up in a horrifically absurd concept.