Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters is a Stoker Award finalist
I am honored to announce that The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press, 2025), is a Horror Writers Association finalist for a Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in the Category of Long Non-Fiction. I had the privilege of co-editing this volume with Brandon R. Grafius, and working with a great […]
Brandon Grafius discusses “Scared by the Bible”
Brandon R. Grafius is the guest who discusses his new book Scared by the Bible: The Roots of Horror in Scripture (Morehouse, 2025). You may know the Bible as a testament of faith. But within this sacred book are also the world’s first horror stories. Conventional wisdom has it that the origins of the horror […]
“Left Behind” and Evangelical Body Horror
For the last couple of months I’ve been doing research as I draft a book proposal for a potential co-authored volume on the New Christian Right and Satanic Panic. The chapter I’ve been focusing on lately deals with end-times anxiety as a formative element of NCR fear, evangelistic impetus, and revenge on the ungodly. As […]
Heather Macumber on the Monstrous in Revelation
Dr. Heather Macumber is the author of a new book titled Recovering the Monstrous in Revelation: This book reads Revelation through the lens of the monster. Using monster theory, Heather Macumber approaches the cosmic beings in John’s Apocalypse as other and monstrous regardless of whether they are found in heaven or the abyss, with significant […]
SOCIETY body horror inspired by THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
I’ve been enjoying the second season of Eli Roth’s History of Horror on AMC, and in the episode of Body Horror an interesting and unexpected statement was shared in the commentary. Brian Yuzna, the director of a film that had escaped me previously, Society (1989), was talking about the influences on him that led to […]
Podcast with Brandon Grafius: “Reading the Bible with Horror”
I’m pleased to share a video podcast conversation I had with Brandon Grafius on his book Reading the Bible with Horror. We have been working together for a while co-editing the volume Theology and Horror, and we talk a little about this too, as well as our new project the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters. […]
Holy Horror and the Bible: A Conversation with Steve Wiggins
Steve Wiggins is an independent scholar and author of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies (McFarland, 2018). As the title indicates, Steve looks at how the Bible is incorporated into horror films. He and I discuss this and related topics in this conversation. From the book’s back cover: What, exactly, makes us afraid? […]
Titles of Interest – Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies
Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies By Steve Wiggins McFarland, 2018 What makes you afraid? It may be more than what you think. Horror films have been exploiting our fears almost from the moment movies were invented. Lurking unseen in the corner of horror, however, is something unexpected: the Bible. Sit back while […]
New series: Horror and Scripture
HORROR AND SCRIPTURE Lexington Books/Fortress Academic is pleased to announce a new series: Horror and Scripture. The series seeks monographs that explore horror, monsters, and the monstrous in early Jewish and Christian scriptures (including canonical and non-canonical texts). Books in the series will be grounded in the disciple of Biblical Studies, but will exhibit a […]
Monster Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Terry Wright of the Sacred Writings blog made me aware of a new essay applying monster theory to biblical studies. The title and abstract are reproduced below. Text and Terror: Monster Theory and the Hebrew Bible Brandon R. Grafius Currents in Biblical Research Volume 6, Issue 1 (2017) Abstract While biblical scholars have long been […]
