I wrote about Obsession, Backrooms, YouTubers, and the epidemic of bland competence.

For the Electric Dreams newsletter I wrote about Jean Renoir’s weird detective story Night at the Crossroads, Makoto Naito’s supercharged actioner 13 Steps of Maki, and Wisit Sasanatieng’s romantic Western melodrama Tears of the Black Tiger.

I wrote about Twin Peaks, being depressed, returning to writing, and life in 2026.

New Monstrum slipped in just before 2025 ended! Essays on "vegan & animal welfare horror": cannibals, plant-witches, the King of the Ants & scared little rabbits in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES. @mikethorn.bsky.social @fredbarrett.bsky.social and others #openaccess www.monstrum-society.ca/monstrum-v8-...

Fred Barrett provides a retrospective review of Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, observing vegan allegory in the “dehumanizing” cruelty meted out by the film's human antagonists. @fredbarrett.bsky.social tinyurl.com/2hp6967b

Happy Halloween! Halloween belongs to horror so I wrote about Massimo Dallamano’s brutal giallo/poliziottesco hybrid What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, Banmei Takahashi’s weird home invasion thriller Door, and Clifton Holmes’ SOV nightmare In the Dark

since it’s halloween season i decided to write some words (okay, a lot of words) on Tobe Hooper and one of his great unsung masterpieces, Spontaneous Combustion

i wrote about Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and about how it isn’t really about Yukio Mishima at all

wrote a short story about an aimless young woman trying to navigate a new relationship while also being stalked by a cat killer

Electric Trio vol. 10 is out! me and my friend Alex took a look at Germain Dulac’s silent melodrama The Cigarette, Howard Hawks’ late style racing film Red Line 7000, and Takashi Komatsu’s voyeuristic cyberpunk thriller Scan Doll. tap in:

for In Review Online, i wrote about The Return of the Living Dead, counterculture, punk rock, cynicism, and how the horror genre lost its subversive power in the 1980s. check it out:

Electric Trio Vol. 9 is here! i wrote about Sara Gomez’s radical docudrama One Way or Another, Jin Chen’s melancholy romance Love in the Internet Generation, and Laurel Nakadate’s haunting coming of age DV drama The Wolf Knife. tap in!

some new fiction — i wrote a short story about two people falling in love, daydreaming, battling illness, slipping through time, and succumbing to desire while waiting for a train

i wrote about David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, wanting to be a corpse, being on vacation, listening to Prefab Sprout, and the beauty of ruining your life

As Robert Aldrich's 1955 noir turns 75, the film lives on in the work of Cronenberg, Lynch and many more

i wrote about Robert Aldrich’s 1955 noir classic Kiss Me Deadly, its enduring legacy, ecstatic truths, and the long shadow of the atomic bomb for @lwlies.com

Electric Trio Vol. 8 is up! this time around i wrote about a particularly nocturnal noir, a gritty romantic drama, and a baffling, spellbinding sci-fi fantasy film that proves once and for all that love is in fact the answer. tap in

new short story is up on the newsletter. i wrote about a young hockey player whose game comes to a premature end after a nasty slash by an opponent

new short story is up on the newsletter. i wrote about a young hockey player whose game comes to a premature end after a nasty slash by an opponent

bambissima

about a month late to the party but i finally put together a list of my favorite films from last year. i also included some honorable mentions, mainly because i was looking for an excuse to write about Denzel Washington's Gladiator 2 performance. tap in:

didn’t quite manage to get this out before the new year but here’s a new Electric Trio for you all! featuring a silent romantic drama, a surreal noir mystery, and a no-frills car chase actioner

Year-end roundup of sorts: for Long Library, I wrote about how some of my favorite films of 2024 (and one of my least favorite) reflect the complicated relationship between contemporary cinema, nostalgia, and the history of the medium peterraleigh.substack.com/p/past-and-p...

will drop a new Electric Trio piece before the year is over but in the meantime check out the films the column has already covered — Antonioni-flavored slashers from HK, forgotten German Expressionist classics, art horror pornography... lots of good stuff

excited to share a new Electric Dreams piece, this one on Luchino Visconti’s Sandra, a film not usually considered amongst his greatest. guest contributor Sebastian makes a compelling case for why it deserves to be reconsidered

I’m fairly biased since these are two of my very favorite guys, but really loved this wide-ranging conversation between @fredbarrett.bsky.social & Alex (not on here just yet) on the politics & aesthetics of Megalopolis. Give it a look: fredbarrett.substack.com/p/the-image-...

i sat down with the inimitable Alex (aka @dogshit95) last month to pick his brain on a wide range of topics, including tech utopianism, the politics of filmmaking, the state of criticism, and the aesthetics of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Okay, well, some people I can recommend to follow if you like movies, criticism, and good posts: @petreraleigh.bsky.social @narrativematters.bsky.social @fredbarrett.bsky.social

after a four-month absence, Electric Trio is finally back. to mark its return (and in honor of the halloween season) i took a look at five underappreciated horror films. tap in:

since it’s october, i decided to write about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, my favorite film of all time, for In Review Online

fantastic writer, saw her read in Hamtramck for the lizard brain anthology, which sorta misrepresented it's food and drinks/the air of a party. I don't know if Anna is capable of writing a character without a racist internal monologue

i recently had the pleasure of chatting with the brilliant Anna Krivolapova. we talked about fiction trends, being russian on the internet, parapolitics, and of course, Incurable Graphomania, her incredible short story collection

new fiction piece on the Electric Dreams newsletter! June Sayers concocted an op-ed written by "a prominent diversity consultant for Raytheon" that talks about streaming, toxic masculinity, and how paramilitaries are bringing about positive social change. read it here:

i wrote a short story about a late-night host who sees a ghost while preparing for an important show

talking music over at Electric Dreams: i looked at some releases from the past few months that i enjoyed including LPs, EPs, and singles from Boldy James, Mei Semones, Trophy Wife, and more

put out a piece of short fiction last month, inspired by my recent move to a new city (and country for that matter). it touches on one-sided conversations, weird boyfriends, dreams, and the Super Mario Brothers Movie. give it a read if you’re interested

Hüsker Dü’s seminal 1984 LP Zen Arcade turned 40 this month and Electric Dreams guest contributor Kris Aldag takes a look back at the ‘80s, delves into the album’s themes, and challenges some of the popular narratives that surround it. good stuff!

wrote about The Great Consoler, The Fastest Gun Alive, and Thick Skinned for the Electric Dreams newsletter

Alejandro Valadez wrote about Shinji Somai’s fascinating 1987 drama Luminous Woman, masculinity, modernity, and wrestling for the Electric Dreams newsletter

wrote about Chime, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest exercise in dread, for In Review Online

i wrote about Shia LaBeouf, abuse, memory, and fame

for the Electric Dreams newsletter, Eddie Averill took a look at Shallow Hal and Love on a Diet while reflecting on the death of the fatsuit comedy

wrote about John Rosman’s debut film New Life for In Review Online

wrote about From Morn to Midnight, The Demon, and Women of the Night for the Electric Dreams newsletter!

the great @comradeyui.bsky.social wrote some really excellent words on Jia Zhangke’s Ash Is Purest White for the Electric Dreams newsletter. tap in

Electric Trio collab post! my buddy Luis took a look at The Goat Horn (1972), while i covered Brigade of Death (1985) and the Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! series (2012-2015)

Electric Trio collab post! my buddy Luis took a look at The Goat Horn (1972), while i covered Brigade of Death (1985) and the Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! series (2012-2015)

excited to share my friend Alex’s (aka @dogshit95) piece on Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Michael Haneke’s Caché, and how they each grapple with bourgeois evil