Whoah, cool. Such an honor:

“He’s kept all of the rejection letters he’s received from publishers and he has them in a folder on his shelf.” 📚 ICYMI! In Episode 2 of ETCH CAST, Will shares a behind-the-camera moment with @sgj.bsky.social — a reminder that even legends start with a stack of nos.

A shelf of nightmares, bound in paper and ink. 📚 Paul Tremblay. Mariana Enriquez. Stephen Graham Jones. Laird Barron. Elizabeth Hand. The writers who haunt these spines are the same voices haunting FIRST WORD ON HORROR.

Every fantasy head should watch SPINE OF NIGHT. It's really an incredible accomplishment.

Imagine buying a house in New Jersey and finding out it’s Bobby Bacala’s from THE SOPRANOS. Tour buses. Scandinavian superfans. Murdered-on-this-block lore. Will Battersby doesn’t have to imagine — he lives it.

ETCH CAST is LIVE! @swordcandlebell.bsky.social recalls how Gremlins delivered his first cinematic terror. We dig into the films and books that scarred us young — and why genre isn’t a cage but a toolkit. 🎧 Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6fo7... #etchcast #gremlins #horror #podcast

The shadows have a new frequency. Our podcast, ETCH CAST, premieres this week. It pulls back the curtain on the chaos of independent filmmaking: childhood nightmares (Gremlins, Large Marge), decades of Stephen King (yes, even Maximum Overdrive), and why we think genre isn’t a cage — it’s a toolkit.

ICYMI! This is the final chapter. Fourteen weeks. Chaos, myth, and memory. Spine Summer ends here — with @swordcandlebell.bsky.social reflecting on The Spine of Night and the worlds still waiting in shadow.

Think of this as your reading break. @lairdbarron.bsky.social’s words linger in the silence, echoing long after the page turns.

@heavymetalofficial.bsky.social just called our own Philip Gelatt “one of the leading names in working adult animation and speculative entertainment.” We couldn’t agree more. From THE SPINE OF NIGHT to FIRST WORD ON HORROR, Philip continues to shape the future of genre storytelling with ETCH.

Subscribed, awesome!

ICYMI! What does The Spine of Night sound like? Not just swords and screams, but springs ripped from garage doors, echoes of Conan, and music forged in the fires of fantasy. In Part V, hear from composer Peter Scartabello on how he shaped the score, experimental and unforgettable.

The biggest voices in horror fiction. The stories that keep you up at night. And the insights that make it all the more chilling. 😱 Critics are calling FIRST WORD ON HORROR “an essential look at horror’s most compelling voices.”

Meet Belle. NYU-trained. Horror-inclined. Pink-hair-roller-wearing chaos wrangler. She grew up on Don Bluth and DVD closets with sliding ladders. Now she crafts the strange, the sharp, and the genre-bent with Etch.

Before the rotoscope, before the blood — there was cardboard armor, yoga mats, and a warehouse full of nerds armed with nothing but imagination. Part IV of The Making of The Spine of Night takes you inside the live-action shoot that became the bones of our fantasy epic.

In front of the camera. ➡️ Behind the camera. If you could interview Mariana Enriquez, what would you ask her? Her haunting, brilliant, and darkly funny episodes of FIRST WORD ON HORROR are now streaming on our Substack.

It began with a maze. With a Minotaur. With limbs flying and music swelling. And with the question: why do anything at all? Part III of The Making of The Spine of Night is here — exploring Exordium, the short film that started it all.

The captain has taken the wheel… and the canvas. 🎨🛸 We’re teaming up with Skinner for his next creation — Art Show with Captain Skinner — a collision of art, comedy, and chaos, co‑conspired with Allen Cordell and featuring surprise guests like Skye Elobar (The Greasy Strangler, Infernal).

This behind-the-scenes gem comes courtesy of our co-founder and producer, Will Battersby — who has a knack for finding the most unsettlingly perfect places to shoot. A new project is coming… and it’s very us.

Step into the darkness — First Word on Horror merch has officially dropped! From chilling t-shirts to exclusive art, each piece is inspired by the haunting episodes of our streaming series. Whether you're into psychological terror, gothic tales, or spine-tingling horror, we've got something for you.

“Let’s shoot this f***ing thing.” 🎬 Step into the freezing warehouse where The Spine of Night began. Part One of our behind-the-scenes series is here. Chaos, rotoscope, and chicken guts included. @swordcandlebell.bsky.social

“How do you live through this?” @paultremblay.bsky.social believes horror is the only genre bold enough to ask the impossible questions — and maybe, if you’re lucky, offer a glimpse of an answer.

ICYMI: The final chapter of THE SPINE OF NIGHT is here. Tzod. Ghal-Sur. The mountain. The end. Director @swordcandlebell.bsky.social reflects on the film’s long road — lost files, festival runs during lockdown, and the strange, beautiful cult following #TheSpineofNight has found.

Meet April Merl. 👋 She edits frame by frame, thought by thought — cutting time, stitching story, and occasionally throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. April doesn’t just shape our timelines, she leaves her mark in every frame.

ICYMI: Spine Summer Chapter Five — Hierophant — is live. Power fractures. Cities burn. Belief hardens into ruin. We’ve also unearthed a deleted sequence from The Last Night of Uxon — a glimpse of a city’s final breath, preserved in storyboards and early animation.

Something unusual is brewing behind the scenes… and it’s only getting weirder. 👀 The Etch team reunites with legendary SFX artist @jselenfriend.bsky.social for a new show that’s currently under wraps (but not for long). It’s twisted, it’s wild, and it’s unmistakably us.

ICYMI! 🌑 SPINE SUMMER: CHAPTER FOUR — The Road of Straw Director @swordcandlebell.bsky.social shares how a lost festival short became the spark behind The Spine of Night, plus behind-the-scenes insights on bold visual choices, what was cut, and why this chapter had to feel different.

Welcome to Etch Movie Night, curated by Philip Gelatt: writer, director, and apparent collector of forgotten nightmares and VHS fever dreams. From Spider Labyrinth to Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy, this stack could summon a demon or start a PhD program in esoteric cinema. What have you seen?

When your night ends with confetti, whiskey, and a life-altering conversation with a crow monarch in a velvet cape… you might be on the set of #CASSIEWORKMANISWITCHYAF. Cassie Workman and Ben Russell conjure chaos, comedy, and a little existential dread a new project - coming 2026.

Chapter 3 of #SpineSummer is here. Lovers, war, and the return of a long-lost song that shaped the scene. @swordcandlebell.bsky.social shares what was cut, what remained, and why it still matters. 💀 Watch now + subscribe to support indie film: etchstudio.substack.com #etchfilm #TheSpineofNight

Happy Birthday to Will Battersby, our fearless producer & director who’s survived lost luggage, -11° weather, a cavity, and a carbon monoxide evacuation, all in one week (and still made it to set with a smile)! 🎉🎬🎂

On #WorldMusicDay, we’re turning up the volume on what moves us — literally. Our #FIRSTWORDONHORROR authors reveal the eerie tracks that fuel their craft. @sgj.bsky.social @paultremblay.bsky.social @elizabethhand.bsky.social @lairdbarron.bsky.social

⚔️ “In Doom I Am Reborn” — Chapter Two of The Spine of Night is now live. Director @swordcandlebell.bsky.social unearths lost lines, forgotten versions, and the strange origins of what could be the film’s sequel.

@paultremblay.bsky.social’s got killer taste... and now you can too. From the haunting framed posters like this one by Emma Tremblay to the rest of our #FirstWordOnHorror merch, these dark treasures are as spine-tinglingly refined as his writing.

We couldn’t do #FirstWordOnHorror without YOU. To show our appreciation, director Philip Gelatt is pulling back the curtain with a quick behind-the-scenes look at how we bring these chilling stories to life on our Substack.

We're doing this neat thing with my film over on the Substack:

🌑 #SpineSummer begins. Where bone meets vine, where the cold forgets flesh — the story opens. Director @swordcandlebell.bsky.social shares a glimpse behind the veil: lost beasts, forgotten bears, swamps that burn, and the ghosts of comics past.

ICYMI! Spine Summer is here! 🎉 This summer, we’re celebrating #TheSpineOfNight like never before! Gain exclusive access to never-before-seen footage, behind-the-scenes interviews with the creators, and a chance to grab limited-edition merch.

I dunno, I always hope that this place is watching my back. But maybe not ...👀

Some places feel like they’re watching you back. 👀 Tooley Cottage — where we filmed @elizabethhand.bsky.social for FWOH — hums with that quiet, unsettling calm. A forest path. A lake just beyond. A sun-faced sentinel smiling on the wall. What’s the creepiest place you’ve ever found comforting?

Happy birthday to a true master of the best kind of darkness!!!

Happy Birthday, Philip Gelatt, co-founder of Etch and master of lurking in the shadows (literally) while crafting brilliance from the dark. 🎂 Behind every frame of First Word on Horror, there’s Philip, fueling the madness with his passion for storytelling. We see you, even when you think we don’t.

I was interviewed about my portrait of @lairdbarron.bsky.social for @etchfilm.bsky.social . The interviewer, Lacey Gilleran, did a fantastic job and really honored me with the space to talk about the ideas that went into the creation of the piece, and my thoughts on creating weird art.

There’s a place in the dark where stories become shapes. Where myth hunts memory, and the moon burns with the eye of the Old Leech. We spoke with @mrj81.bsky.social whose painting captures the haunted stillness of @lairdbarron.bsky.social’s world — where the Wild Hunt rides again in oil and shadow.

Merch for FIRST WORD ON HORROR for the merchants. I'm partial to the movie poster with Emma Tremblay art. @etchfilm.bsky.social etch-shop.fourthwall.com/products/the...

Step into the darkness — #FirstWordonHorror merch has officially dropped! 🔥 From chilling t-shirts to exclusive art, each piece is inspired by the haunting episodes of our streaming series. Whether you're into psychological terror, gothic tales, or spine-tingling horror, we've got something for you.

On this National Streaming Day, we mark the quiet power of stories that haunt and follow. From shelf to screen, from one mind to many — streaming lets our dark little series travel farther than we ever imagined. More eyes. More ears. More believers in the weird.

ICYMI! We got inside the mind of Morgan Galen King (@swordcandlebell.bsky.social) — Etch co-founder and the force behind The Spine of Night — to explore VHS horror roots, roleplaying roots, and what it takes to animate a dark fantasy epic frame by frame.

Hey, my son in the background—he helped out, that day:

Behind every terrifying tale is a smile like this. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at @sgj.bsky.social — surrounded by books, stories, and the kind of imagination that keeps you up at night.