SciFi and Fantasy
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SciFi and Fantasy

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IMAX Says It Can’t Build More 70mm Projectors for The Odyssey
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IMAX Says It Can’t Build More 70mm Projectors for The Odyssey

News The Odyssey IMAX Says It Can’t Build More 70mm Projectors for The Odyssey The real odyssey are the tickets we tried to get along the way By Matthew Byrd | Published on July 15, 2026 Image Credit: Universal Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Image Credit: Universal Pictures The hottest tickets in town (any town) are showings of the 70mm edition of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Such showings sold out instantly, and getting into one now would require you to pay absurd resell prices. IMAX has tried to accommodate the demand by adding showings at seemingly unusual times (who wants to go see a three hour movie at 2 a.m?), but the supply hasn’t come close to meeting the demand. And while The Odyssey is available in many theaters in multiple formats, it was clearly filmed with 70mm IMAX screenings as the “ideal” experience, making it all the more frustrating that it’s going to be nearly impossible to see the movie that way. The big problem is that there are only about 40 IMAX centers in the world equipped with the projectors required to show the movie in that way. So why doesn’t IMAX install those projectors in more of its theaters? According to IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond, it’s because they simply don’t make them anymore. “The problem is they haven’t made new IMAX film projectors in about 50 years,” Gelfond said in an interview with Variety. “So we retrofit them, rebuild them, and part of our strategy is to see how far we can take it. But certainly, demand-driven, I’d like to see more.” It is an… odd explanation to what is seemingly a fairly notable issue for a company trying to sell as many tickets as possible. Yet, Gelfond argues that the reason why so few theaters can support 70mm screenings is because they just don’t build the required projectors anymore. When pressed to elaborate on why the company simply doesn’t manufacture more of the equipment, Gelfond offered this equally strange follow-up reply. “We build new projectors every day, but film projectors using this film, it’s not practical. So we’ve got to find them, and we’ve got to rebuild them, which is what we did for The Odyssey,” Gelfond explains. “But can all 2,000 of our theaters have the film projectors? No, there’s just not that many around. But I think we could continue to grow it.” There do really seem to be some missing pieces to that explanation. It seems that IMAX either doesn’t know how to build those projectors anymore or has determined that the cost to do so en masse is simply not worth the revenue they would generate from the number of movies that would eventually support that format. The latter seems more likely and is, perhaps, understandable if you’re trying to outfit every IMAX screen with such projectors. But if you’re just trying to add a little more support for the biggest IMAX movie of the year (if not ever), then one wonders if it wouldn’t be worth it to crank out a few more projectors. Regardless, you can still technically try to snag some Odyssey 70mm tickets over the next few weeks. Just don’t be surprised if you have to “settle” for another format.[end-mark] The post IMAX Says It Can’t Build More 70mm Projectors for <i>The Odyssey</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2026
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Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2026

Books Young Adult Spotlight Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2026 Our summer reading picks include swoon-worthy romantasy, cutthroat competitions, and creepy small towns… By Alex Brown | Published on July 15, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share It may be hotter than Hades outside, but at least you’ve got your TBR to give you an excuse to visit your friendly neighborhood air conditioned library or independent bookstore. Out of all the nearly sixty science fiction, fantasy, and horror young adult books coming out in July and August, I’m highlighting my sixteen most anticipated. From summerween chills to swoon-worthy romantasy, from cutthroat competitions to creepy small towns, there is a lot to get excited for this summer. Thrills & Chills Funerals Are for the Living by Sami Ellis (Amulet Books; July 21, 2026) Junie and Jay are as close as sisters can get, despite having polar opposite personalities. A car crash takes Jay’s life and leaves Junie unable to remember what happened. With her mother catatonic with grief, Junie and her only friend Omari have to scrounge to get Jay buried, which is how she ends up in the next town over, Williamsville. Full of racist white people proud of their heritage—aka being related to the founder, a brutal white supremacist and slave holder—Jay’s grave is a site of consternation for Jay. Turns out the denizens are part of a cult and need the sisters for some dark, racist magic.  Local Gods by Melinda Salisbury (Sarah Barley Books; August 4, 2026) Sylvie’s whole life came crashing down when the FBI raided her father’s home on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Now she’s the pariah of Pine Ridge Hollow, and high school graduation cannot come soon enough. An encounter with the horned god of the West Woods, Illican, offers her a chance to fix things. If she saves Illican from dying, he’ll give her magic to save her hometown, now collapsing into ruin after her father’s crimes left many locals destitute. Her family has a strange connection to the horned god and the history of Pine Ridge Hollow, one Sylvie has only just scratched the surface of. Ghost Stories Take It to Your Grave by Louangie Bou-Montes (Godwin Books; July 21, 2026) Max cannot remember how he died. All he knows is that he’s spent the last 30 years being a sixteen-year-old ghost haunting a dilapidated house he isn’t able to leave. Joaquín wants to see a ghost more than anything, so he and his friends sneak into the house where Max died. An impulsive act opens the door for Max to be able to not only finally leave his tomb but also communicate with Joaquín. The boys look into Max’s death, but the real mysteries are whether Joaquín will be able to work out his feelings for his ex-boyfriend and what Max will do when he finally gets his answer. We Were Never Here by Sophia Hannan (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; July 28, 2026) Four teens enter a haunted house, and only three exit alive. Jules, James, Georgia, and Circe have been pulling art cons for a while now. Using their ghost hunting YouTube show as cover, they steal art and replace it with forgeries created by Circe. The art is then sold by their patron, Lark. But after Jules is murdered in one of the houses and Georgia, her secret girlfriend, has no memory of it despite waking up covered in Jules’ blood, the group splits up. Lark forces them to finish the job they started, so they head back into De Lys Manor to face their greatest fears. Death Is Not the End Hell to Pay by Lora Beth Johnson (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; July 28, 2026) Elle used to run a crew of thieves that sneak into the Afterlife to steal magic, back before her parents went missing and her brother Dante died. Just when she thought she was out, Rook pulls her back in. He hires her to steal his sister’s soul from the Afterlife, something that up until now Elle thought was impossible. After all, if she can retrieve Rook’s sister, maybe she can also bring Dante back. She gets the crew back together and hijinks ensue.  Find My Way Down to You by Julian Winters (Viking Books for Young Readers; August 4, 2026) It’s been two years since August’s boyfriend London was killed in a car crash, and he is still overcome with grief. The only bright spot in his lonely, empty life is Cary, a customer at the pizza joint he works at. When August learns that Cary is really a ferrier of souls in the Underworld, he convinces Cary to guide him on a quest to find London’s soul. But the more time the two spend together, the more August starts to feel things for Cary. Does he really want London back or is he really just trying to avoid processing his grief? Magic with a Twist Death Card by Jasmine Smith (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; August 11, 2026) Following her grandmother’s death, Mikaela is named as the next Witch Queen of her New Orleanean coven of Black witches. Then Joelle enters the picture. Mikaela reads Joelle’s fortune and is shocked to discover Joelle is destined to kill her by the next full moon. Complicating matters, a magical disease is running through her coven and a pack of racists are harrying her. Can her blossoming romance with Joelle win out against the threat of death? Mirrorwoven by Bori Cser (Feiwel & Friends; August 25, 2026) Del—formerly Princess Adeline, heir to the Gilnea throne—wants to live a normal, quiet life as a bard in the neighboring kingdom of Salato. She watched her lover kill her sister in a duel and now she wants nothing more but to play music and stay away from royals. Hiding her identity with magic is easy enough, but staying out of palaces proves trickier when she ends up as a bard for Queen Clara. Clara is new to the throne and out of her depth, and Del takes pity on her and helps her out. Clara’s effervescent sister-in-law Nasca puts Del’s masking magic to the test, as the only way the glamor can be removed is with a kiss from her true love. Past Is Present Bound by Fury by Noelle Monét (Margaret K. McElderry Books; August 18, 2026) After the death of her beloved grandmother, Gigi, Harper uproots her life and relocates to the school Gigi attended long ago: Black Mountain Academy deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Rumor has it the school is haunted. Also at the school are Lucas, a boy she had a brief fling with last summer, and Malachi, with whom she hasn’t spoken to since their falling out. Harper goes digging into the school’s history and unearths death and mysterious disappearances going back decades. Several chapters are set in 1926. The City of Slaughter by Aden Polydoros (The City Beautiful #2 — HarperCollins; August 25, 2026) Chicago, 1893. When we last left Alter Rosen, he had just survived a serial killer and being possessed by the dybbuk of his dead best friend Yakov. Frankie, a former child thief and boxer, and Alter decide to open a detective agency and help their Jewish community since no one else will. Once again, kids are vanishing off the streets, and once again, Alter and Frankie set out to investigate. In It to Win It No One Leaves the Manor by Kelly McWilliams (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; July 14, 2026) New Hampshire, 1921. Four young women arrive at Greystone Manor, an estate owned by an heir to an oil fortune. Vaughn is desperate to shed the stigma of mental illness and regain her place in society; Elspeth has spent her life being condescended to due to her dyslexia and wants to prove herself; Birdie, who uses a cane after a childhood bout with polio, wants to have some fun for once; and Dorothea, a white-passing Black girl is trying to find answers to why her mother disappeared from Greystone years before. The girls get more than they bargained for when the house and the monsters that lurk within turn the competition on its head. Immortal Game by Allison Saft (Wednesday Books; August 4, 2026) Six years ago, losing a game of chess to Midir, the king of the Fae, cost Shea her sister. So when she finally gets access to cross the Iron Veil and enter the Otherworld where Aideen is being held, she takes it. Luckily for her, the chance comes in the form of a once-in-a-lifetime chess tournament. As the competition turns deadly, she teams up with another competitor and Midir’s sister, the infuriating lovely Ciara.  Folklore & Mythology King of Lost Dreams by Nevin Holness (King of Dead Things #2 — Atheneum Books for Young Readers; July 7, 2026) The conclusion to this urban fantasy duology is brimming with Afro-Caribbean folklore. Eli still can’t remember anything from his past and is still reeling from Sunny’s big revelation. Malcolm is still stuck with his dangerous death magic, but his connection with Max is growing deeper. Now Eli’s nightmares are leaving marks on him in the waking world, so it’s up to the teens to track down their latest enemy. All the Queens’ Curses by Alyssa Hollingsworth (Page Street YA; August 11, 2026) Hollingsworth reimagines the folktale “Kate Crackernuts” from the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with this story about a teen suffering from chronic pain. Kit is always ill while her stepsister Catherine is the life of the party. She yearns for Catherine’s new fiance, Prince Idris, the only person who acknowledges she’s being abused by her stepfather, the king. The book has fae deals gone awry, body swapping, curses, and restitution for the harms caused by their ancestors. Nest of Tongues by Randy Ribay (Random House Books for Young Readers; August 11, 2026) Siblings Lily and Caleb are manananggal, shapeshifting creatures from Filipino folklore who can fly and drink blood to live. In other words: vampires. They keep their true identity secret from everyone but their family, including other supernatural beings. Then a monster hunter, or bayani, shows up and targets Caleb. No one has ever escaped from a bayani before, but Lily will do whatever it takes to protect her brother. Genre-bender Whenever You Are by Martine Leavitt (Groundwood Books; August 4, 2026) Fifteen-year-old Clem is about to be let out from juvenile detention, but his release date is yanked away when he tries to stop some guards from knocking other kids around. This incident lands him in solitary alongside Finn, a newcomer to juvie. The boys bond during their slivers of free time out of their cells, but both are trapped in a system designed to punish them in perpetuity. When Finn mysteriously disappears from his locked cell, the adults all look to Clem, but he has no idea. Finn mentioned a strange phenomenon in his cell, but that was just talk, right? What if you could go back in time and fix your mistakes?[end-mark] The post Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for July & August 2026 appeared first on Reactor.

Obsession Gets a Surprise Streaming Release Date on Peacock
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Obsession Gets a Surprise Streaming Release Date on Peacock

News Obsession Obsession Gets a Surprise Streaming Release Date on Peacock You’ll be able to stream 2026’s biggest surprise hit later this week By Matthew Byrd | Published on July 15, 2026 Image Credit: Focus Features Comment 0 Share New Share Image Credit: Focus Features After a historic box office run, industry analysts suspected it may be quite some time before Obsession gets a streaming release date. And while we had to wait a bit longer than usual for the movie to come home, Obsession is getting a somewhat surprising streaming release date this week. Peacock has confirmed that Obsession will debut on its streaming service on July 17. As mentioned above, the movie’s streaming release follows a prolonged box-office run and a delayed (and ultimately brief) VOD availability window. It’s doubtful that the movie will be available via any other streamers anytime soon, so it’s time to re-up that Peacock subscription if you don’t already have one. And if you haven’t seen Obsession… well, brace yourself. The horror film from director Curry Barker is undoubtedly one of the year’s most surprising films in ways that go beyond its incredible financial success. Essentially the tale of a love spell gone very wrong, Obsession takes a fairly familiar core premise and twists it in just the right ways to ensure that you’re never quite prepared for the places it goes. So while there’s a good chance you’ve already seen the movie based on how many people apparently have, there’s never a bad time to check out the story of a guy named Bear who speedruns through a series of bad decisions in record time. Until then, all eyes remain on what Curry Barker and Obsession‘s breakout star Inde Navarrette do next.[end-mark] The post <i>Obsession</i> Gets a Surprise Streaming Release Date on Peacock appeared first on Reactor.

The Perils of Flame-Colored Hair: Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell”
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The Perils of Flame-Colored Hair: Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell”

Books Reading the Weird The Perils of Flame-Colored Hair: Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell” One must always keep their promises — even from beyond the grave… By Ruthanna Emrys, Anne M. Pillsworth | Published on July 15, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches. This week, we cover Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell,” first published in the September 1925 issue of The Blue Magazine. Spoilers ahead! England, 1790: Jack relates “the most awful story [he knows.]” For twenty years, it’s haunted him; he hopes that, with God’s mercy, writing it down and confessing “his small share therein” will bring respite. * * * Hector Greatrix was Jack’s “counsellor, companion, and prop in all things evil.” A relative of the Earl of Culver, he was educated for the Church. Due to his rakehell lifestyle, he was unfrocked, and comrades called him “the Bishop of Hell.” Jack’s tale opens in 1770. Thirty-year-old Hector was magnificent, his beauty yet untouched by debauchery. His intimates were “villains,” a class from which Jack doesn’t exclude himself. The exception was Hector’s cousin Colonel Bulkeley, “austere, upright, and punctilious.” It demonstrated Hector’s hoodwinking ability that Bulkeley believed him “wild, unfortunate, and blameable, but in no way vile or dishonoured.” Bulkeley mediated between Hector and Lord Culver, getting the rake a handsome allowance which Bulkeley augmented. Ostensibly, Hector was studying law, as was (actually) Jack. Jack, “the most reputable of [Hector’s] disreputable friends,” would accompany him on visits to his patrons. At Bulkeley’s house they met the Colonel’s young bride, Alicia. To the rakes, she seemed childish, insipid, with mere china-doll prettiness. Clearly, she and the Colonel adored each other. But Alicia had auburn hair, a shade for which Hector had a “curious and persistent passion.” Jack jested that Alicia was the most unattainable woman he’d ever set eyes on, and Hector responded: Take Bulkeley away for a month, and the little lovebird would flutter to any man’s arms. Hector’s disregard for decency and honor repulsed Jack, and a string of suicides and questionable deaths drove him to seek better company. The Bulkeleys’ marriage remained idyllic. Then the Colonel’s regiment was summoned to India for three years. That winter, Jack met Alicia in a London ballroom. She and her two children were staying with her married brother and so should have been well protected, but why then was she dancing with Hector? Gossip soon paired the two. Jack appealed to Hector to leave Alicia alone. Alicia’s brother, alarmed, was guarding her from the rake. He didn’t guard her close enough. When Hector fled England to escape his debts, he took Alicia along. The earl cut him off completely, and the illicit couple lived off Alicia’s small allowance from her brother. Bulkeley resigned his commission and returned to England. He wouldn’t pursue the adulterers, but if Hector returned, either he or Bulkeley would die. Permanent exile wasn’t to be Hector’s fate. Lord Culver’s heirs died one by one. Lord Culver soon followed, leaving Hector to inherit his title and estate. Hector settled into an elegant Paris hotel. Alicia remained with him, though she’d suffered terrible humiliations and losses under Hector’s “protection.” She’d birthed three children, all now dead. Hector had never been without mistresses, often under the same roof with Alicia. To wring more money from her, he’d pimped her to a series of “lovers.” Summoned to Paris, Jack saw that the china-doll had grown voluptuous of figure, clever of dress and speech. Her tone was defiant but the look in her eyes was that of a “whipped dog.” Her desperate hope was that Bulkeley would grant the long-refused divorce that would let her marry Hector, and rebegin life as Lady Culver. Jack had scant hope for either man, but promised to speak to Hector on her behalf. Hector swore that he’d never marry Alicia, the “harlot” of his own making. That wasn’t his concern now: his desperate hope was that Bulkeley would renounce his pledge to duel. But the Colonel was watching Culver House, awaiting the new lord’s inevitable homecoming. Hector feared losing to the martial expert. Pitiless, Jack declared that all England would call Hector a coward. Eventually, Hector did come to London. He’d left Alicia in Paris with lies about his return. Jack saw Hector the night before his meeting with Bulkeley. He was with old boon companions, but far more sober. He wanted Jack to make his will but was too agitated to begin. Dismissing Jack, he promised: “If I go to Hell tomorrow, I’ll pay you a visit to let you know what ’tis like.” Meanwhile, Alicia followed, planning to wheedle her way into Culver House during the duel. Bulkeley dropped Hector with one shot, but instead of a mortal wound, he’d targeted Hector’s jaw, leaving his face hideously mutilated, no longer kiss-worthy. When Hector was carried into Culver House, Alicia’s presence so enraged him that he hurled her down the stairs. She’d die soon afterwards. The day she was buried, Hector effectively committed suicide by tearing off his bandages. Endeavoring to forget these horrors, Jack went to a party. He came home late to a house oddly dark. At last he struck a light and saw someone sitting in a chair with its back to him. The visitor turned. It was Hector, his face veiled with crimson fire through which his eyes gleamed with “unutterable woe.” The flames rose above his head into a bishop’s mitre glittering with lambent jewels. As the spectre raised a hand in mock benediction, Jack fainted. “This fiend had been forced to keep his oath—to discover to another scoffer the truth of Hell.” What’s Cyclopean: It’s hard to credit that Narrator’s own head isn’t turned by Greatrix’s grace and strength, “tawny haired and tawny eyed,” elegant and engaging. The Degenerate Dutch: Mrs. Burgoyne is “flat, childish, almost imbecile, almost incredible.” Why would one respect the agency of a woman who’s barely a girl? For that matter, what could matter about her as a person, beyond the hue of her hair? Her worth, and her degradation, come from sexual purity and then lack thereof. Anne’s Commentary They have always been with us, in life and legend and art, those wascally libertines. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives this overview of the term’s complicated history: “The word libertine comes from the Latin lībertīnus, a word used in early writings of Roman antiquity to describe a formerly enslaved person who had been set free (the Roman term for an emancipated person was the Latin lībertus). Middle English speakers used libertine to refer to a freedman, but by the late 1500s its meaning was extended to freethinkers, both religious and secular, and it later came to imply that an individual was a little too unrestrained, especially in moral affairs. The likely Latin root of libertine is līber, the ultimate source of our word liberty.” Greatrix’s clerical training came only because his father figured he’d have the greatest chance of advancement in that profession. Given his strong preference for vice over virtue, not even his considerable charisma could secure his place in the Church, nor could he have wanted to labor indefinitely under its pious rules. As a younger son, his other choices of a gentleman’s profession would have been the Army or Navy, law, politics, colonial administration, or medicine. A military career was not only regulations-heavy but included the risk of getting shot, to which Hector was averse. Politics was risky and expensive unless a relative had some seat securely in his pocket; also, it could also be so scandal shy. Going out to the colonies, too arduous. Ditto medicine, also there were all those unattractive sick people. All the approved paths to earning his keep would mean enslavement to a Hector Greatrix! His superior spirit demanded to be set free, so he could be a libertine in the earliest sense of the word! Also, in the later meaning of a freethinker, a free-doer. As for what libertine tended to mean by the 18th century, how could one be too unrestrained in moral matters when one had the intellect and courage to realize there was no Heaven or Hell? Luckily, Hector has a rich uncle susceptible to his charm and self-distanced from the tattle-tale whirl of London society. Even luckier, he has an honorable cousin who is still susceptible enough to think that Hector is naughty but redeemable rather than absolutely selfish and heartless. Unlike many rakes in novels of his own day and their descendants into our own, there isn’t a woman angelic enough to make him change his evil ways for love. Hector and Alicia are understandable in the way of well-drawn stock characters. Narrator Jack is more ambiguous. He is honest enough to admit that he was no neutral observer of the most awful story he knows. He doesn’t even except himself from Hector’s villainous intimates. Well, not completely. A few paragraphs later, he describes himself as the “one of the most reputable of his disreputable friends, being, as I can truly say, more wild and young than vicious.” There’s yet sufficient good in Jack for him to resent Hector’s analysis of Alicia’s susceptibility. Hector may not believe in nobility or decency, but Jack won’t hear those qualities defamed, especially in those who’ve been so kind! Hector’s a jerk. Jack is just jerk-curious. And maybe he’s seen enough. It has nothing to do with Hector sneering that Jack’s a “Puritan.” Hector’s sticks and stones can’t break Jack’s bones. His morals are offended, not his feelings; that’s why he starts withdrawing from his former friend. Besides, he has law books to read. Which books probably warn him to withdraw farther from someone whose name’s being whispered in connection with mysterious deaths. Jack never confesses to any specific excesses he committed as Hector’s merely wild and young companion, but he writes at length about three meetings he has with Hector years later. In each he comes off as the voice of honor and decency. Hector must stop pursuing Alicia while Bulkeley’s in India! Hector, now that he’s Lord Culver, must not besmirch that esteemed title by being too great a coward to meet Bulkeley’s challenge. Also, he should do the right thing and marry Alicia. Hector, now that he’s returned to England and received a formal challenge, must go through with it. Hector’s panic-terror and rage must affect Jack; Jack slips and records how at Hector’s abject mutter of “Say I have a chance,” he smiles. So much for the rake’s “invincible courage.” Hector gets payback in the story’s last scene, a brief but harrowing vision of the Hell both free-thinkers had dismissed as superstition. Its “Bishop” pays Jack that promised visit wearing his fiery mitre, but with untriumphant woe in his flame-veiled eyes. Or is there a touch of triumph in the mock benediction of Hector’s raised hand? Maybe it’s a “See ya later,” rather than a “Farewell forever.” Either way, Jack does the time-honored salute to the unbearable by falling senseless. No worry, he must wake up, or he couldn’t have written down this most awful tale. Ruthanna’s Commentary That was, frankly, a lot less weird in my weird than I was hoping for. And based on the introduction in Queens of the Abyss, a lot less history in my weird historical. I can only be grateful that it wasn’t from the point of view of the horrible person who eventually gets eaten by a grue. In general, I try to read reparatively—or at least to acknowledge when I dislike a story for reasons unrelated to the text. I don’t always succeed, and I confess that I’m coming up a bit light this week. Part of the issue is that I didn’t hate it; it didn’t raise a ton of passionate emotional reaction at all. When I ask myself what the author was going for, I strongly suspect that she had one gorgeous image—Greatrix’s spirit wearing a miter of hellfire—and came up with a story to support that image. The problem is that between “Greatrix sucks,” “Greatrix sucks more,” “Greatrix promises to come back and show off his hat if the afterlife exists,” and “Greatrix dies and keeps his promise,” the expandable part is Greatrix sucking. And his sins on the page do indeed suck, but are also insufficient to earn his title. More unholy rites! More playing with forces better left buried! Ruining “infantile” women with auburn hair and then murdering them is certainly suckage, but I regret to say that I think more than one guy was doing that at the turn of the 19th century. I suspect Byron of being an inspiration, but despite the poet’s low murder quotient you can get way more shock value from any one of his biographies. From the story’s opening, I was expecting the sort of homoerotic leader-follower pairing in wickedness from which Lovecraft wrings so much angst. But Jack becomes sensibly disgusted by Greatrix almost immediately, and remains on the story’s edges only because of his willingness to come when “summoned.” He nobly advocates for Alicia Burgoyne without once respecting her as a person. There’s a sad lack of homoeroticism in the whole thing; Greatrix’s corrupting charisma remains safely at a remove. A good weird story, even if it doesn’t fully acknowledge the weirdness until the end, needs to spend its words building the fear of that denouement, in either the reader or the character. Lovecraft’s “aesthetes” work their way toward disturbing the dangerous dead. Shirley Jackson’s “witch” invokes the natural un-naturalness of children, so that the reader shudders along with the rhythm of the train. Poe’s apocalyptic party reeks of desperate denial. Jack has already become a god-fearing, hell-believing citizen by the time his religious convictions are confirmed. This shouldn’t make a glimpse of the abyss unremarkable, and the opening promises sleep-disrupting terror. But the fear of the abyss should also be personal. Imagine if, when Greatrix avers that death is mere oblivion, we learned something of Jack’s own doubts? Perhaps his late-blooming belief in hell is still incomplete, and he hopes or fears that Greatrix is right. Perhaps he isn’t confident in his own salvation, and worries that his youthful association with the “bishop” still taints him. Perhaps he (unlike Alicia) still quietly loves Greatrix and wishes that his former friend weren’t bound for eternal punishment. But—beyond his plot-driven willingness to answer when Greatrix beckons—none of this is particularly supported. We don’t know the shape of his hell-fears. It makes their confirmation fall a bit flat. In any fanfiction, there is a balance between taking advantage of existing canon, and adding meaning with one’s own narrative—this is no less true when leveraging any deep-rooted mythos, be it Olympian or Christian. It’s the same error as Lovecraftiana that hopes for shudders at the mere mention of a shoggoth. I’m a hard sell on Christian horror in general, but I don’t think that’s the problem here. I think the problem involves assuming that readers will bring their own full baggage to the idea of hell, and to the disgust associated with an unfrocked clergyman. If the reader lacks an overflowing complement of that baggage, the story misses its oomph. Next week, join us for the final fate of Three-Persons and Good Stab, in Chapters 23-24 of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.[end-mark] The post The Perils of Flame-Colored Hair: Marjorie Bowen’s “The Bishop of Hell” appeared first on Reactor.

Artist Trevor Henderson on the Siren Head Movie, the Backrooms Phenomenon, and the Benefits of Scaring Kids
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Artist Trevor Henderson on the Siren Head Movie, the Backrooms Phenomenon, and the Benefits of Scaring Kids

Movies & TV Siren Head Artist Trevor Henderson on the Siren Head Movie, the Backrooms Phenomenon, and the Benefits of Scaring Kids “I think, for the weirdo work, it is an unprecedented time.” By Matthew Byrd | Published on July 15, 2026 Photo and artwork courtesy of Trevor Henderson Comment 0 Share New Share Photo and artwork courtesy of Trevor Henderson The success of Backrooms understandably triggered a wave of speculation that studios and streamers everywhere were about to go on the hunt for online horror phenomena that could become the next major motion picture. Recently, Warner Bros. took a big step forward into that new era by greenlighting a feature film adaptation of the Siren Head character that will be co-written by Zach Cregger and Brian Duffield with Duffield also directing. For some, the upcoming film will be their first exposure to the Siren Head character. But for years, this tall creature with speakers for a head that blasts ominous and seemingly nonsensical phrases has been lurking on the edges of the internet. It has been a subject of fascination and speculation among those who have spread and grown its legend through stories, images, games, and videos. Like many real-life cryptids, the creature’s story changes a bit from telling to telling and person to person. Its powers, age, height, and motivations are often subject to change. Behind all the mythos lies one of the few inarguable facts about the character: it was created by artist Trevor Henderson in 2018 when he shared the first drawing of the character through social media accompanied by this short blurb: She was on vacation with her husband and they were scoping out graveyards on the way, as you do, when she saw it. Rising out of the old cemetery, big as an old (macabre) telephone pole. Was this some kind of bizarre art piece the authorities hadn’t gotten wise to yet? Even as she stepped out of the car, the megaphones on it’s “head” screeched to life. “NINE. EIGHTEEN. ONE. CHILD. SEVENTEEN. REMOVE. VILE.” A buzzing, doubled voice screamed random words at her. At this point, it jerked into motion, striding down the hill towards her. The growth of Siren Head’s popularity in the eight years since the creature (perhaps appropriately) broke through the noise of the internet has been nothing short of remarkable. And yet, few have been more surprised by the creature’s rise than Henderson himself. I recently spoke with the artist about the creation of Siren Head, the upcoming adaptation, and what it means to be part of this moment when a new generation of creative voices is paving the suddenly very exciting future of horror. Matthew Byrd: First of all, congratulations on the news of the Siren Head adaptation. Trevor Henderson: Thank you. It’s a deeply anxious thing, but also a good anxiety, I guess. It’s really, really, really weird. It’s completely out of my wheelhouse, and it came about so fast it hit me in the face like a punch. Matthew: How did that happen? When did you first hear there was a possibility? Trevor: My rep is a guy named Josh Dove who has been with me since 2020 or 2019 even. So it’s been over half a decade we shopped around a pitch of the general artwork, the world, and some of the characters. Then, when Siren Head blew up, it became more of a Siren Head-specific pitch. We had people who were interested, but when Backrooms did so well, the demand became overwhelming. Everything with the movie announcement came together in like two weeks. It was boom, boom, boom. All the way through it was like, “Okay, first this studio is interested. Now it’s a bidding war. Now Zach Cregger has a pitch and wants to be involved.” It just happened incredibly fast. Matthew: You mentioned the Backrooms of it all. How much do you think that played into this happening when and how it did? Trevor: I think it’s hard to overstate how intrinsic Backrooms doing so well, and it being such a singular vision from a young, independent creative person, was to the wave we’re just sitting at the start of right now. I think we’re going to see a lot of films made from online horror and specifically younger people’s online creative products. Matthew: Why do you think that is happening now? I mean, you can look at Obsession, Backrooms, Iron Lung and say, “Well, these movies are very good.” But why now, in terms of people gravitating toward all this? Trevor: I think people respond well to a competent, singular, specific vision. Kane Parsons is the figurehead of that Backrooms thing, which started out as an online horror image with some text. Through his short films, he really chiseled that down into something very, very specific. Having that come to theaters through A24 and maintain that vision… I think there’s a version of the Backrooms film that could have happened, and I almost expected to happen, which was much more conventional in tone and what it was trying to accomplish. I feel like the weird, interesting, flawed, but ambitious, strange, confident version of that movie is what people are responding to. I think that goes a long way toward getting people excited and getting people into the theater. Matthew: Siren Head’s legacy is tied so much into its ambiguity. It’s still early days, but what are your expectations and hopes in terms of expanding on that idea through a movie without compromising the ambiguity of the character? Trevor: I hope that a lot of that is retained. I think a lot of the stuff people enjoy about Siren Head are things like how it can blend into the background and be this large imposing figure that is also somehow very stealthy and strange. The fact that it has no clear origin… that it’s something that shouldn’t exist and the incongruous nature of that, and that it spouts nonsense words and strange signals. At least for me, that’s a lot of the appeal of the character. I really hope that mystique is maintained while telling an engaging and interesting story around that. I would certainly hope there’s no, “Here is the origin of the character, here’s where…” because that’s completely not the point and it won’t do anything to help. But I am confident that will be maintained. I don’t think they’re going to do that. With the Backrooms film, they don’t say, “Here’s where the Backrooms came from,” and audiences were completely fine with that. As long as that mystique is maintained, I’m feeling very confident about the direction and very excited about it. Matthew: It’s funny because I’ve seen people say, “Siren Head is a character that scares me intrinsically in some way, but I can’t explain why.” Some say it’s the size, some say it’s the lack of eyes, or even the lack of a backstory. What do you think it is about the character that people respond to? Trevor: I think that for me, so many elements of it just do not make sense, and that is really scary. It looks like a rotten human being, sort of. It has these rusted metal elements that are fused with it, but not in a way that would make any logical sense. Then there’s the fact that it’s spewing pure surreal, abstract nonsense and tornado sirens. It has no eyes, which is always really scary for me. That’s carried over from Giger’s design for the Xenomorph, where he insisted on it not having any eyes because you lack that connection. Any time something has eyes, you can read intent. You have this level of understanding. You remove the eyes from anything, and it becomes completely ambiguous in terms of its intentions or goals. That goes a long way to make the character scary for me, and I think people respond to that. Matthew: It’s so fascinating that, without the eyes, people have looked at this figure and read so much from it and put so much of their own stories into it. Trevor: Yeah. When I made Siren Head, I was pumping out these photobash drawings and drawing different creatures into photos that were donated to me or that I took myself. It was almost an art-making exercise of creature design and seeing how well I could hone the skills of blending a character into a photo through lighting, texture, and color to make it look like it was there when it was taken. I did that character, I liked the character, but then I moved on to other stuff. Having people keep returning to it over many years and having it resonate in that way, with people telling their own stories and creating their own versions of the design and fan art and everything, there’s something there that obviously clicked with people on a deep level. I don’t know what it is specifically, but it really resonates with people, and I’m honored that something I made has endured with an audience for so long. Matthew: One thing I’ve seen and agree with is that there’s something to the almost found-footage nature of the creation. It has this Blair Witch quality where there’s enough suspension of disbelief that it feels like this could actually be there somewhere. Trevor: That’s a quality I try to have with every piece of art that I do with the photo-based stuff. It’s all supposed to capture one moment from a found-footage horror movie that was never made. Kind of the one big money shot with a little bit of text underneath. On a brain level, you know it’s fake because you’re seeing impossible things. But by getting rid of a lot of the movie-making conventions, you trick your hindbrain a little bit into believing a little bit more. I try to tap that power by using photography and things like blur and different effects that make it feel like something your eye might actually see. So I’m happy to hear you say that. That’s what I try to do all the time. Matthew: How much of the character’s story, such as it is, existed at the time you made the drawing? Trevor: I’ve said this before, but I’m obsessed with the idea of number stations. I don’t know if you’re familiar, but they’re these strange, anomalous signals that actually exist on the radio waves. They’re just voices saying weird words over and over again. At the time, I was like, “What if that was coming from a thing? A creature instead of a radio station somewhere? What would that look like?” That’s where Siren Head came from. For a long time, that was really the extent of it. But because the character was popular and people liked seeing it, I drew it more. As you draw it more, naturally this world and the idea behind the character develop more. I have some vague ideas in terms of what Siren Head is, but I never want to really say that because I don’t think it would benefit the character in any way, shape, or form. Matthew: How much of Siren Head’s success do you attribute to people taking what you created and making it their own? Trevor: It’s a bit of a double-edged sword because you have to make peace very quickly with the internet as a whole. When it embraces something, there’s a degree to which it stops being yours, and you have to be okay with interpretations. In the beginning, it was a little weird because there was a lot of clickbaity YouTube stuff with the character specifically to appeal to children. It was strange to see something that I made go in that direction. But at the same time, I don’t think it would have endured the last eight years if there hadn’t been that wild fan response. Especially with kids. So it’s two things at once. It’s really weird. The amount of times I have hopped on a Zoom call with someone and they’ve been like, “I only found out about Siren Head through my kids because my kid was on the schoolyard at his elementary school and another kid was telling an oral scary story about Siren Head…” It’s become this legitimate schoolyard boogeyman. Which is amazing. I couldn’t ask for anything else. That’s so cool that something I made up is being passed by word of mouth. That alone outweighs any possible negatives. Matthew: I sometimes feel jealous of getting to grow up in this era of these creepypastas. Trevor: Yeah, absolutely. I think if I was a kid around this time, I would be over the moon for the stuff that I’m making and other people are making. I think, for the weirdo work, it is an unprecedented time. Matthew: It is funny, though, because I do feel like there was a point when studios maybe veered away from the idea that kids do like being scared. Now as we get back to that in various ways, it does feel like that may be part of the missing piece that wasn’t there in previous years. Trevor: Kids love monsters, and they love being scared. Especially with stuff that’s made for kids but doesn’t condescend. I think it’s so important to have kids’ horror media and gateway horror media that also has stakes and isn’t talking down to them. When you talk down to a kid, especially with something positioning itself as “the scary stuff,” they can see through it in a second. They fully read it as bullshit and will reject it outright. When I was growing up, and I’m sure this is true for a million other weirdos now, it was the Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books with Stephen Gammell’s illustrations. Those three books are a dark, wonderful cloud that looms over everything I’ve done for the last twenty-five years. You can trace it all back to seeing some of those Stephen Gammell illustrations in the library and being so scared I couldn’t look at the page. I had to flip past several illustrations. I think having something like that for each generation of kids is so important. And it has to kind of scare the shit out of them because it becomes this perfect awful gem in their memory. It will spur so much creative stuff. Matthew: You mentioned folk monsters and folk stories. There’s a degree to which various folk monsters throughout history have represented some sort of cultural fear or anxiety. What do you think Siren Head represents to people as a folk monster? Trevor: For me, it’s always represented a general ambiguous sense of oncoming doom. The fact that it’s an announcement siren that is traditionally associated with tornado sirens makes it feel like a walking portent. A walking portent of both decay and disaster. It might represent different things to different people, but that’s always been my interpretation. Especially because it’s usually depicted in very rural areas in the photography. I feel like that also speaks to something. Disaster is my answer. Ongoing doom and disaster. Matthew: As we get into this new era of, for lack of a better phrase, this kind of internet-to-Hollywood horror pipeline, are there other creations or stories that stick out in your mind that people should take a look at? Trevor: Off the top of my head, there’s a newer series I really love called “The Glendale Archives.” It’s about a guy who wakes up in a world where everyone is gone. It’s just him and these really upsetting entities or monsters. So it’s him trying not to go insane by himself. But it lets the series be very human-focused and character-driven. It’s mostly him talking about his worries and anxieties. And it’s also sometimes a cooking show because he’ll just go through a recipe. It feels like such a breath of fresh air for the analog horror scene. Matthew: Ultimately, what do you hope the relationship between the Siren Head movie and the original image, and everything that sprung online from it since then, is? Trevor: I think it’s a really great opportunity because, purposefully, the character has stood on its own without a ton of lore or narrative surrounding it. So I think it’s a great opportunity to build that out in a really interesting way. I don’t think it can ruin any of the art or the atmosphere or the world-building I’ve done beforehand. It can just use it as a jumping-off point. I hope a lot of that mood is preserved in the film version. But at the same time, I’m unbelievably excited to see the take on the material that Brian Duffield and Zach Cregger have internally. I hope to find out about that soon. I think both things are going to be able to coexist. I hope they will inform and help each other.[end-mark] The post Artist Trevor Henderson on the Siren Head Movie, the <i>Backrooms</i> Phenomenon, and the Benefits of Scaring Kids appeared first on Reactor.