What is anthology horror (and why it slaps)

Learn all about the elusive horror anthology, why it works, and which ones you should check out.

Hello hello hello,

This week’s newsletter is a love letter to the anthology format of horror. Whether collections of short stories, TV series with new plots for every episode, long-form podcasts, or movies that showcase various seemingly unrelated stories, I love a good horror anthology. In fact, I dare say I even love a bad horror anthology. Here’s why.

It feels fairly obvious that I’d be biased in favor of the horror anthology, seeing as I am actively working on publishing one. But it’s more than just a convenient way to publish a book without having to write the whole book myself (I swear this isn’t just authorial laziness); it’s a chance to experiment, to explore. Horror anthologies open themselves up to weird ideas that may not withstand a whole movie of plot, but sure do make a compelling short story. Horror is speculative fiction; it is a genre that asks “what if?”. Sometimes, the answer that follows doesn’t need to be long.

That said, horror anthologies, whether printed or filmed, are inherently a risk. Unlike single-narrative movies or books, which are a cohesive whole, horror anthologies are a Frankenstein’s monster of writing. That means that the same bar of quality is not guaranteed from the start to the end of an anthology.

(I mean, with ours I can vouch for each and every story, but the point still stands).

Take Black Mirror for instance. Classic sci-fi horror anthology. Do I think every episode of Black Mirror is a gem? Absolutely not. But I appreciate that each episode is a fresh attempt, and I would happily sit through a dozen black-and-white robot dogs (sigh) or Miley Cyrus AIs (bigger sigh) just to get a chance to watch Be Right Back one more time. The horror anthology is a playground, it leaves room for trial and error. It leaves room for different perspectives. I’ve never liked the “biking for credits” or the “social media points” episodes but I know they’re a lot of people’s favorites. What one person might find boring, another might find terrifying.

If you want to read more about exactly what makes something a horror anthology, how they connect to the oral tradition of storytelling, or how they could have saved Stranger Things from its lackluster seasons 2 and 3, check out our article on horror anthologies. It’s a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot, for a long time.

Your weekly Kickstarter/anthology update

Speaking of anthologies, the work on our own horror anthology is chugging along nicely. We are going to be printing some test copies in the coming weeks to make sure the colors in our cover pop the way we want them to. We’ve also recieved draft sketches of both the sticker and the bookmark, and have selected the design we plan to go with. We’ll have something to share soon and I think you’re going to be pleased. I very much was.

Meet the writers

Thinking about the anthology format has me thinking about the many wonderful people whose writing is featuring in the anthology. So, for the next few newsletters, I figure it’s time you start getting to know them. Kicking us off with the intros is Georgina Pearsall, a brilliant writer with a knack for transforming text into crawling anxiety.

Georgina Pearsall is a literature and creative writing graduate turned traitor currently studying to become an accountant. She is based in Essex and continues to write despite the confusion this causes her finance coworkers. She continues to study finance despite the confusion this causes her creative friends. Georgina is primarily interested in any horror that explores creeping dread, with a particular fascination with ghosts. Her work follows her lifelong ambition to completely externalize her own struggle with anxiety until she can finally prove it was ghosts the entire time.

Here’s a taste of her work, from the short story “Within Walls”:

"The winter has pushed the foliage from the path, and the dead leaves that made the ground slick in the autumn have merged into the dirt. The trees are stark and twisted, their shapes strange without their canopies, the bark contorted into knots. Over thousands of years, the human mind adapted to find faces in everything. You keep your eyes on the path."

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Today’s horror recommendation: American Horror Story: Cult (Season 7)

American Horror Story is probably one of the most famous horror anthologies in recent years. While I can’t say I’ve seen every season of the show (it sure lives up to the anthology truism of being “hit or miss”), I can wholeheartedly recommend season seven. Cult explores a post-2016 America, its framework grounded and political in the way a lot of the other seasons aren’t. Instead of relying on supernatural elements and demonic monsters, season seven explores the psychology of disenfranchisement and what drives people to political extremism. Don’t worry: you don’t have to watch seasons 1-6 for it to makes sense; in fact, I’d say it’s probably better if you don’t.