Dark-haired onryo. Kuchisake-onna. Hanako-san of the toilet. Japanese folklore has long dominated the Western horror world, but Thailand’s haunts may just be able to compete. Continue reading The Haunting of Thai Lemon Foods Factory
In the early 1800s, a penal code debate raged across the United States, and at its core was the same question that we still wrestle with today: punishment or rehabilitation? The state of Pennsylvania was one of the earliest in advocating for rehabilitation-based reform using separate incarceration. Though the method was experimental, Eastern State Penitentiary (then called Cherry Hill Prison) was opened on October 25th, 1829, for male inmates only.
Continue reading “The Chilling History of Eastern State Penitentiary”
Dating back to 1333, Himeji Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s considered the pinnacle of traditional Japanese architecture. But no great palace is without its ghosts.
Inside the Himeji Castle complex is a large water well surrounded by stone pillars. This well is supposedly home to the ghost of Okiku, a beautiful servant girl who turned into one of the yūrei after her brutal death. In particular, Okiku is an onryō, a vengeful spirit of a person who died with a grudge. Like other onryō, she wears a white kimono, and her long black hair hangs disheveled over her shoulders. Her legend is widespread: the story of Okiku and the Well is regarded as one of the Three Great Yūrei (San O-Yūrei) in Japanese folklore. Okiku’s story has been adapted to bunraku and kabuki theatre, manga, and even illustrated by Katsushika Hokusai, the artist behind the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa.
Continue reading “The Haunted Well of Himeji Castle”
On May 8, 2026, Koji Suzuki passed away at a Tokyo hospital at the age of 68. The horror world lost one of its most quietly revolutionary architects: a man who, almost by accident, rewired the global imagination for fear.
Continue reading “Remembering Koji Suzuki”
Galveston Island was first settled by Europeans in 1816, though some scholars say that Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca made a pit stop here in 1537 before traveling across the U.S. Southwest. Famous privateer Jean Lafitte soon settled on the island from Louisiana and used the island as a base for piracy and slave smuggling, though he was forced to leave in 1821 by the U.S. Navy after he attacked an American ship. It changed hands several times during the Mexican Revolution, the Texas Revolution, and the American Civil War, but it remained a major port in the Gulf of Mexico.
Continue reading “The Ghosts of Galveston Island”
Technically, Isla de las Muñecas is not an island at all. It’s a chinampa, or a small rectangle of fertile arable land built up on wetlands for agricultural purposes. Thie particular chinampa is located in the ancient Aztec canals of Xochimilco in Mexico City, Mexico. Don Julian Santana Barrera was the owner of the island until his death in 2001. The island was used as the location of the film María Candelaria, the first Mexican film to be screened at the Cannes International Film Festival. Barrera moved to the island in the early 1950s, and from there, things took a strange turn.
Continue reading “Mexico’s Island Of The Dolls”
Charles Manson was born on November 12th, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Ada Kathleen Maddox, an unmarried 16-year-old. She later married William Eugene Manson, though the couple divorced in 1939. His early life was unstable: his mother was frequently absent or incarcerated, and Charles was shuffled between relatives and reform schools for much of his childhood. He spent the better part of his teens and twenties cycling in and out of prison. After the divorce, he took his stepfather’s surname due to Maddox’s neglect.
Continue reading “Because You Were Home”: The True Story Behind “The Strangers”
McKamey Manor is a notoriously intense survival horror-themed haunted house attraction located in Summertown, Tennessee. The founder, Russ McKamey, has been known to be an avid horror fan since childhood, and in 1989 he decided to build his very own haunt in San Diego, California. He attempted to move to Illinois and Arizona in 2014, but the backlash to his presence was so strong that he abandoned the attempt. The San Diego house closed in 2015, but two years later, McKamey moved to Summertown and reopened for business: passionate about humane animal treatment, he only asked for a 50-pound bag of dog food or a donation to animal welfare as admission.
Continue reading “McKamey Manor: America’s Most Controversial Horror Attraction”
DISCLAIMER: I am neither a medical nor a mental health professional. Additionally, several details of the Škrlová case are related through hearsay and internet rumor. This article is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I have done my best to report the facts as they are and note a few places where urban legend has taken root.
Continue reading “The Girl Who Wasn’t a Child: The Barbora Škrlová Case and the Horror It Inspired”
The Roland Doe case is one of the most-documented possession cases in American history. It entered the mind of the public in 1949, when several newspapers printed anonymous articles describing the possession and exorcism of a 14-year-old boy in Missouri, pseudonymously referred to as Roland Doe or Robbie Mannheim. It is widely believed that these articles were written by Luther Miles Schulze, the former pastor of Doe’s family. The case itself was documented in a diary by Raymond J. Bishop, a priest who was present at the exorcism. Much of the information now known comes from a book by Thomas B. Allen.
Continue reading “The Real Story Behind The Exorcist, The Exorcism Of Roland Doe”
Today, we’ll be looking at the inspiration behind Ghostface and the Scream franchise: Danny Rolling, also known as the Gainesville Ripper. Rolling was an American serial killer from Shreveport, Louisiana, who killed 5 college students in Gainesville, FL over four days in 1990.
Continue reading “Reel Horror – The True Story Behind Ghostface”
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