Listen, nobody who knows me at all will be surprised that I would choose to introduce some great posts about Women in Horror. It’s very “on-brand” for me as you might say. Let’s get started then!

1. An Enduring Appetite for Horror: Two Ghost Stories to Watch  Strangely enough, for a site devoted to Halloween and horror, although I love Halloween I am kind of a baby about horror movies. I’m working hard to fix this and I certainly can appreciate many things about many instances of them, I just get scared easily. I do enjoy horror movies that don’t follow the trope of “teen girls get butchered by a psychotic killer for going into their own basement without turning the lights on.” These two seem like a good break from that tired idea. Truthfully, I saw The Babadook shortly after it came out and it scared the bejesus out of me. I haven’t seen Housebound, but now I kind of want to. Maybe I’ll work up to it!

2. Half-Seen Things and Possibilities: Coronary Cartography by Ashley Blanton I was an art major and I’m always impressed by beautiful art and by how much art there is that it seems the greater world is not sufficiently aware of. I saw this and was instantly obsessed. How beautiful is Ashley’s work? I love it so much.

3. The Lips of a Strange Woman: The Pulp Art of Margaret Brundage  A female pulp artist! Did you know this was a thing that existed? Because I didn’t and I love this. No surprise, when it was revealed she was a woman her controversial art only became MORE controversial. She did pull some nice commissions but died in relative poverty and obscurity. This is why we can’t have nice things, folks.

4. 20th Century Glamour Ghoul: Presenting Maila Nurmi as Vampira  You can’t really get more classic than Vampira. Malia Nurmi was discovered by going to a costume party dressed as Morticia Addams!

5. Judith Beheading Holofernes  Judith saved her city by seducing and then killing Holofernes, an invading general under Nebuchadnezzar. He was apparently warned not to attack the Jewish people and welp, he done got learned didn’t he? Yeah he did. This is one of my favorite biblical tales. Here’s another painting of the same moment by Caravaggio. Want to know what my other favorite is? This. Dudes, we’ve been sick of you for literally thousands of years. Time is up. Finally, please enjoy women murdering men in Western art history. HEADS ARE FOR WOMEN.