protean depravity

Juan Martinez is an English professor at Northwestern University and the author of the short story collection Best Worst American as well as the Weird fiction work Extended Stay , his debut novel, which tackles themes such as undocumented Latinx experiences in the USA and living and working conditions under capitalism. Extended Stay was published in January 2023 by University of Arizona Press. I'm very grateful to have a chance to chat with him about his work.

So maybe this year gives me a brand-new second chance, an opportunity just like I have been wanting, having missed a big part of my beloved Berlinale due to sickness. I was really thrilled to see that there's a four day mini-fest, The Fantasy Filmfest Nights, taking place in April and their selection is perfect! A mixture of very international horror, action and humor, including one feature I painfully had to miss in February, awaits its audience at the beautiful Zoo Palast in spring. I decided to go full program this time to make up for the Berlinale debacle and pamper myself, but there's still some flicks I'm more enthusiastic about than others. Here they are! 

With not one but two nunsploitation movies about to be released soon, I have taken the cue that it's time for a blog post of collected nun and religion horror movies that are worth something for all I know. Because there are a lot useless ones, looking at you The Unholy and The Nun .

I hope you're enjoying the beautiful sunshine which finally graces us, here are the new shorties!

I only own these three from this year's Bram Stoker preliminary ballot. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of tired and won't even bother to pretend I care about a good picture, please pardon my bad photographic eye anyway. Although their statuette looks like made out of earwax and I personally don't always agree with their selection and think they sometimes blatantly ignore deserving books, the Bram Stoker Awards matter nevertheless and they are the primary source any horror reader does and should go to to find writings and authors of high quality. To receive the Stoker award is probably a kind of honor for authors too, but from a reader's point of view, it doesn't really matter to me who, in the end, receives the hideous earwax castle, it is the preliminary ballot which really counts, because it gives me a wider list of books against which I can compare and check if I have been reading the good stuff, or which books I have been missing. Also, back when I was buil...

There are books on this Earth, which can take you away - not so much into another world than rather into another reality. You know that place exists, only it is different from where you are, they do things differently, the history is another, and the horrors, though similar in nature, are different there too. In ten stories from various Latin American countries, Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories takes you into such a different reality where it’s nothing astounding to have a vulture as neighbor, where you can see the ghost of a serial killer, where supernatural, extraterrestrial beings are among us, in our houses, in our gardens, and where the haunting remnants of Nazism brought here from far away mesh with cults and communes and reign in terror.

The Creepy Crypt Saturdays at the Rollberg Kino are on their best way to be my favorite thing in the world. What am I talking about? The Yorck Kino cinema group has a bunch of special showings, like sneak previews, classics, MonGays and one of them is the Creepy Crypt where you can watch a horror movie every Saturday night at the Rollberg Kinos. There is a second horror movie night, Bis(s) zum Abspann which started as a vampire series, but expanded its focus to creatures of the night in general, this takes place once a month in the Odeon in Schöneberg. Whether you want to see an old classic on the big screen or discover the latest pictures, the movies of Creepy Crypt have a wide range, it's a healthy mix of old and new which never gets boring. You can also make a wish, just write them a mail or listen to their podcast in which they discuss the movies we watched.

Enjoy the latest short reviews!

Hey guys! Remember I was talking about giving away the review copies of books I don't care to keep? They have been starting to pile on too much and I want to make space for books I like, so I was initially thinking of a way to cooperate with the Otherland Bookshop to leave them there for people to go and just take the books they want. I have been in talks with them, and it looks a little tricky, because, as a bookshop which also has a used books section, they want to sell books and yes, they want to sell my secondhand books too, and not give them away. We are still searching a possible solution, but I'm somewhat impatient and will start with the giveaway for those of you in Berlin. I really want to start giving books as soon as possible and begin with the first batch you see on the picture.