The Devil’s Handshake

Picture this: it’s the middle of winter in New Zealand. You’re rugged up on the couch in your best black hoodie, doom-scrolling TikTok while the rain hammers the windows. And there, between a satisfying slime video and a Tauranga café review, an absolute unit of a medieval torture device appears on your screen. Welcome, my ghoulishly curious friends, to the very strange second life of the thumbscrew or as history’s more dramatic corners prefer to call it, the Devil’s Handshake.

NZGeekChicMay 13, 2026May 12, 2026Leave a comment

Experts, History of Torture, Middle Ages, OCD Vampire

Buried Alive: The Gothic Horror of Immurement in Medieval Times

In the shadowed corridors of medieval castles and the crumbling walls of forgotten abbeys, the silent screams of the forsaken linger. Immurement—the act of sealing a person within a wall, crypt, or underground chamber—was one of the most horrifying fates to befall the condemned.

A living tomb, a slow descent into madness, and a fate worse than death itself. It was not simply an execution; it was the ultimate abandonment, a punishment that blurred the line between justice and sheer cruelty.

OCD VampireApril 5, 2025April 3, 20252 Comments

Gothic Bite Magazine

Where the news come from beyond the grave

Tag: Medieval Darkness

The Devil’s Handshake

Buried Alive: The Gothic Horror of Immurement in Medieval Times

In the shadowed corridors of medieval castles and the crumbling walls of forgotten abbeys, the silent screams of the forsaken linger. Immurement—the act of sealing a person within a wall, crypt, or underground chamber—was one of the most horrifying fates to befall the condemned.

A living tomb, a slow descent into madness, and a fate worse than death itself. It was not simply an execution; it was the ultimate abandonment, a punishment that blurred the line between justice and sheer cruelty.

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In the shadowed corridors of medieval castles and the crumbling walls of forgotten abbeys, the silent screams of the forsaken linger. Immurement—the act of sealing a person within a wall, crypt, or underground chamber—was one of the most horrifying fates to befall the condemned.

A living tomb, a slow descent into madness, and a fate worse than death itself. It was not simply an execution; it was the ultimate abandonment, a punishment that blurred the line between justice and sheer cruelty.

Share this: