Following a harrowing ordeal at the hands of Bloody Face, and a car crash immediately after, Lana Winters—back on a bed in Briarcliff—looks at Sister Mary Eunice and pleads, “He can’t know I’m here.”

“No one knows that you’re here,” A reply in which Lana, nor we, find any comfort at all.

The Land of the Rising Sun has done wonders for the horror community. From ghost girls to giant lizards, Japan has been scaring us for years with strange stories and bizarre creatures that still haunt many of our nightmares. The rising interest in Japanese comics has brought scores of readers dumping their hard-earned cash on the novel-thick manga, creating an illustrious, second comic movement wholly separate from its mainstream American counterpart. But don't let the idea of Japanese comics fool you; it's not all doe-eyed teenage girls fighting giant robots. It's an industry as diverse as it unique, ranging anywhere from comedy to mystery to sci-fi, even going so far as to aim at a particular reading populace, such as younger girls or older men.

“We have such sights to show you.” 

They’re immortal words, inspiring fear and horror ever since uttered by cruelest and most demonic creature of them all, Pinhead. He's a walking abomination, emblematic of Hell's deepest pits; a creature of unique vision and poetic justice who seeks pleasure in inflicting pain to the righteous and hypocritical. But what happens when he leaves Hell; When all that is his domain is suddenly under the rule of his most formidable human enemy, Kristy Cotton, the new reigning Queen of Cenobites? These are the questions that launch Boom Entertainment's mini HELLRAISER arc, THE ROAD BELOW. Hot on the heels of Clive Barker's return, this four issue mini-series promises to be as perverse and terrifying as its predecessor.

As we get one step closer to the season three hiatus, what we find is a lot of groundwork being laid before the real action begins. “When the Dead come Knocking” isn’t the strongest episode of the season. Throughout, it feels very much like hands on the reins keeping the show on course to fill out the hour, without diving headlong into the confrontation everyone is waiting for. In a series where more happened in a few episodes at the start of the season than in a big finale of any other TV show though, an episode is really only “weak” by comparison. “When the Dead come Knocking” remains a solid piece of business and the set-up work it does is necessary.

THE WALKING DEAD has really learned how to master the pre-credit sequence. No exception, “Hounded” sets the tone from the word “go”. Merle and some good ol’ boys from Woodbury are on a hunt for Michonne and as they discover, Michonne is hunting back. She gives them the straight up Viet Cong guerrilla treatment, first with a message written in downed walkers and then a brutal ambush where she takes down half the hunting party with her katana. Merle does manage to wound her, but it’s beyond clear she isn’t helpless prey.

By now it’s probably way too late to suggest that serious horror fans venture out to see a TWILIGHT movie, but it must be said that the latest and last installment, BREAKING DAWN, PART TWO, offers a climactic smorgasbord of vampire/werewolf violence that makes the preceding 80 minutes almost—but not quite—worth sitting through.

The swooping highs and lows of this series–often within the same episode—would of course lead to the Anne Frank two-parter differing greatly in quality. Taking in stride the lackluster and ludicrous first half (aside from Lana’s supremely tough aversion therapy), AMERICAN HORROR STORY aired one of its best episodes in “I Am Anne Frank, Part 2,” a tale in which almost our entire main ensemble got out of Briarcliff and into much worse circumstance.