Spooky Media Recommendations

Harper Bolick:

Suspiria (1977) is a horror classic that persistently floods the viewer’s senses with its chilling and unnerving atmosphere. From the unsettling uprightness of the dance academy to the nerve-wracking score, it leaves you on edge throughout. When watching, you’ll find familiar features of older horror movies such as the charming cherry-red of the SFX blood. A conglomeration of many familiar horror details, this movie is described as an Italian Giallo; a genre that had a significant influence on the slasher genre. The Giallo is a genre with elements of mystery, psychological horror, slasher, and sometimes supernatural horror. Suspiria thrives in these horror elements and its spirit truly comes from the haunting score and beautiful color work that dance around the main character as she aims to solve the mystery of this unsettling academy. While the plot struggles to hold its own compared to the atmosphere, you are sure to enjoy the aesthetic the movie presents to you with an unabashed passion. When finishing, you might just have a lingering red glow imprinted behind your eyelids.

Caroline Roth:

Are you a fan of the multi-million dollar ‘90s hit Silence of the Lambs? Do you like eerie, morbid TV shows? Have you seen Ella Enchanted? If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions, you may enjoy the cult classic series, Hannibal. This series revolves around Will Graham (as portrayed by Hugh Dancy, a.k.a. Prince Charmont in Ella Enchanted), a neurotic criminal profiler who begins seeing an FBI-assigned psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is played by Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish actor known for Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Casino Royale for fans of James Bond. The series explores Graham’s descent into madness as Lecter gaslight, manipulates, and frames him. The cast of characters created by Bryan Fuller, the showrunner, is well-developed and terrifyingly realistic. Hannibal explores the complex relationship between the titular character and Will Graham, dissecting their nuanced and pseudo-romantic connection. Their entanglement forms the core of the show while story arcs and other characters orbit their barycenter. Considering the main theme of cannibalism, the show does contain heavy special effects in the gore and blood department, so if you’re squeamish in any way I’d advise skipping this pick. The complexities and layers of Hannibal cause this thrilling show to leave you guessing about what’s really going on, coupled with the breathtaking, artistic cinematography making this one of my (and many others) favorite series. Hannibal is available on Hulu for free and on Prime, Youtube TV, and Apple TV for $1.99 an episode.

William Mammes:

‘Shiver’ by Junji Ito is a horror manga short story collection. He invents far-out concepts that you can’t even explain succinctly. Topics range from puppet people to cosmically horrible beings, to grease. Ito’s stories are not usually jumpscare or in-your-face scary, but build up and are scarier when you think more and more about it, like ‘The Long Dream’; when the stories are in your face though, they have beautifully awful pieces of art portraying them, like in the story the whole collection is named after, ‘Shiver’. This book will be a fun read for any fans of horror, no matter what sub-genre you love.

Some of the stand-out stories are ‘The Long Dream’, ‘Hanging Blimp’, and ‘Used Record’.

You can find this book at your local library (not the school’s), or on Amazon for $20.

Hannah Porterfield:

My favorite piece of spooky media is the Let’s Not Meet podcast on Spotify. It’s a podcast in which various people submit stories of their creepy and frightening encounters, and the host, Andrew, reads them. His voice is very calming, and occasionally he brings in guest stars to read with him. The podcast is great to listen to while driving, cooking, drawing, or just on its own!