Almost every writer—myself included—has at one point said, “It’d make a better short.” Seconds after the familiar phrase is uttered however, I often find myself wondering if, in fact, the hypothetical “it” were a short, would I have ever seen it? While short films can often be a wholly striking introduction to new talent, and lovely asides from masters, they don’t typically have the widest audience. So, having been exposed to a number really great works in recent weeks, here’s a roundup of some wonderful horror shorts, and where you may be able to see them if you’re on the lookout.

It’s “holy shit hot” in New York today. Here are two cool things to give a moment’s thought to.

Recently, a friend of mine and I decided to start once again exploring the park I’ve essentially grown up right next door to. The biggest in New York City, Pelham Bay Park, despite being decidedly non-threatening (we’ve done a ton of looking into its past without much scary success), is still an absolutely terrifying place, much like the abandoned Six Flags you're about to meet below. 

As I hope Monday is treating you all well, I also hope this past weekend was another exciting part of the glory that is October/autumn/Halloween season. What did you do? Like myself, I imagine many of you went out and saw the sequel to last year’s ultra-low-budget megahit, and while I mostly enjoyed it—or at least the experience of being startled with fellow spectators—I couldn’t help but think it squandered an opportunity at the end. Thus, I was inspired to pen probably the shortest of Terrifyingly Gnarly entries. Hit the jump to read a brief idea (though if you haven’t seen the movie, I would recommend not doing so) of just how I would’ve created a grand finale to PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2…

Recently, a blog went up on FANGORIA taking a handful of legendary horror directors to task for essentially riding the waves of their legacy and failing to continuously and contemporarily put out excellent work. No doubt, it’s an interesting theory worth debating and investigating. However in my eyes, its author made one fatal mistake (and no, it wasn’t that confrontational opening line—although that was slightly devoid of taste). Nick sought to claim that Wes Craven neither is, nor ever was, great. I’m under the belief that no matter how you feel about many of his films, that’s simply a falsehood. So with two weeks until the filmmaker’s latest, MY SOUL TO TAKE, hits theaters, I’ve decided to look at one of his movies a week (excluding the landmarks like LAST HOUSE, NIGHTMARE and SCREAM) to showcase that even during misfires and his lesser praised works, Craven displays talent, chops and incredible imagination. Read on for week five (check out lat week's entry here)—my look at 1994’s return to Elm St, WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE.

Quite recently, a blog went up on FANGORIA taking a handful of legendary horror directors to task for essentially riding the waves of their legacy and failing to continuously and contemporarily put out excellent work. No doubt, it’s an interesting theory worth debating and investigating. However in my eyes, its author made one fatal mistake (and no, it wasn’t that confrontational opening line—although that was slightly devoid of taste). Nick sought to claim that Wes Craven neither is, nor ever was, great. I’m under the belief that no matter how you feel about many of his films, that’s simply a falsehood. So with three weeks until the filmmaker’s latest, MY SOUL TO TAKE, hits theaters, I’ve decided to look at one of his movies a week (excluding the landmarks like LAST HOUSE, NIGHTMARE and SCREAM) to showcase that even during misfires and his lesser praised works, Craven displays talent, chops and incredible imagination (head here for last week's). Read on for week four—my look at 1997’s sequel to one of his biggest successes, SCREAM 2.

Quite recently, a blog went up on FANGORIA taking a handful of legendary horror directors to task for essentially riding the waves of their legacy and failing to continuously and contemporarily put out excellent work. No doubt, it’s an interesting theory worth debating and investigating. However in my eyes, its author made one fatal mistake (and no, it wasn’t that confrontational opening line—although that was slightly devoid of taste). Nick sought to claim that Wes Craven neither is, nor ever was, great. I’m under the belief that no matter how you feel about many of his films, that’s simply a falsehood. So with four weeks until the filmmaker’s latest, MY SOUL TO TAKE, hits theaters, I’ve decided to look at one of his movies a week (excluding the landmarks like LAST HOUSE, NIGHTMARE and SCREAM) to showcase that even during misfires and his lesser praised works, Craven displays talent, chops and incredible imagination. Check out last week's right here and read on for week three—my look at 1988’s Haitian Voodoo-zombie flick THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW.