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Jonathan Siefer

Jonathan is an Oregon coast-based journalist who specializes in horror media. He began his career as a contributor for 1428 Elm, a former horror news site that belonged to FanSided.

He has conducted interviews with different figures in the genre, including Bram Stoker Award-nominated authors. He also routinely reviews films and written works. 

He holds a B.A. in English Studies from Western Oregon University. 
 

The Horror Lounge •

Book review: Just like ghosts, Something Followed Us Home will stay with you long after you lay it down

As summer comes to a close, and we finish reading the terrifying stories in last month’s release of Never Whistle at Night Part II: Back for Blood, we can kick off spooky season with another round of tales best told in the dark.The best—and most profound—ghost stories carry the most human qualities. The aspects of life that can already haunt us reflect well in the afterlife. Colonization, faith, historical/generational trauma, displacement, and even love carry their own haunting potential. But w...
The Horror Lounge •

Festival horror hit The Waiting Man holds its US premiere this month

September has been a great month for horror films. Zach Cregger's highly anticipated Resident Evil adaptation releases this Friday, and on September 25th we'll see Maika Monroe (It Follows) play an unhinged governess in Victorian Psycho. But the good news extends to the independent circuit as well. Back in July, attendees at PUFA (Pucela Fantástica) in Spain were treated to a new, terrifying found footage legend. The Waiting Man had its world premiere in July. Now, the horror phenomenon that swe...
The Horror Lounge •

My thanks to Tim Curry, for introducing me to horror

Those were the first words I ever heard Tim Curry speak on screen. Through his raspy voice, the classically trained English actor invited both Georgie Denbrough and four-year-old me down into the sewer for a balloon and a paper boat. Sadly, my parents turned the channel before I could see poor Georgie’s “entrance” into the sewer. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to watch the rest of the film (or even know its name), being told it was “too scary." This was the first time I learned that something could...
The Horror Lounge •

Dominic Francisco’s Losing the Plot is an ambitious, but flawed, surrealist project

As a lifelong Pacific Northwesterner, I’m both drawn to and familiar with the aesthetic of the region. The foliage and routinely gray skies often seen driving through areas like the Northern Oregon Coast or Washington campgrounds mark the region as home. As beautiful as it is, it can also be fittingly eerie. This eeriness is a focal point in Losing the Plot, a unique visual and audio project from Washington-based artist Dominic Francisco.Described by Francisco—who we interviewed earlier this mon...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Shane Hawk and Ted Van Alst Jr. discuss Never Whistle at Night Part II: Back for Blood, along with growing up with horror, presidential reading rooms, and meeting Clive Barker

To see them at events, when you’re reading together, or doing signings and just chatting online. It’s amazing to kind of sit back, and we also have our own works in there that we’re pretty proud of. But then it’s just extra cool to have all these other writers in there and then they get extra notice—not that any of the invitees need extra notice—but then people that might not have read them before will go to their back catalogue, and it generates a lot of hype and book sales for everyone involve...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Never Whistle at Night Part II: Back for Blood editors Shane Hawk and Ted Van Alst Jr.

Shane: Yeah, it was pretty much the same. In our mission statement with this series our biggest aim is to get more native, indigenous people published. Whether they are writing currently and just trying to get noticed. Whether they see the open call and they, you know, maybe have a dream of becoming a writer and they can join in and try to get published.With the first one, we started out with inviting people. That’s while we’re getting the concept ready and saying, “Hey, would you like to be a p...
The Horror Lounge •

Book review: Mayhem and metaphor combine for twisted tales in Never Whistle at Night Part II: Back for Blood

Tales of the macabre, of the old spirits, even of humankind. All such tales are told around the massive campfire that is Never Whistle at Night: Back for Blood, a collection of indigenous short horror stories written by indigenous authors.Compiled and edited by Shane Hawk and Ted Van Alst Jr., Back for Blood is the anticipated second edition to Never Whistle at Night. Released in September of 2023, Never Whistle at Night featured 26 different indigenous authors.Back for Blood features 21 authors...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Author Domininc Francisco talks about surrealism and nostalgia in Losing the Plot

A lost soul wanders the hillside in a hypnotic daze. Initially guided by an innate yearning, he soon realizes that he doesn't actually know what he is looking for. As he looks for clues in his surroundings, both the hillside and his body begin to warp. Will he find his way or lose himself to this place? The Horror Lounge: You’ve described this project as a cross between an audiobook and an album, which I think is the best way to classify it. How did the idea for the narrative, and such an intere...
The Horror Lounge •

What the second trailer for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reveals to us

Two months before its scheduled release date, we’ve been treated to the second official trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, hinting at more easter eggs, more character and more terror.The trailer opens with medical courier Bryan, played by Weapons star Austin Abrams, at a hospital agreeing to a last minute, double-pay delivery “outside the zone.” While driving on a snow-covered lonely road at night while arguing with his love interest Michelle over speaker phone, he accidentally hits a wom...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Mallory Arnold talks about Cross my Heart I Hope You Die

When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they've each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain.Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one o...
The Horror Lounge •

Book review: Revenge is a story best read cold in Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die

The book follows the perspectives of three women; Nora Callahan, a high school cross country coach; Ruby Monroe, a kindergarten teacher; Cham Fenno, an auto-mechanic. Though the three of them are quite different, they all share something they never would’ve eexpected; Jason Vance—a nomadic biker. And an athletic dive bar performer. And a crypto trader. Basically, anything his partners need him to be so that he can take anything he needs from them.The three women have a chance encounter and disco...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Carl Sundström talks about The Waiting Man and what went into found footage's newest legend

Carl: The Waiting Man—the phenomenon Alikabiha—has been an idea that has been developed over many years. It stems from when I was a teenager (I’m 34-years-old now). Me and a childhood friend were often recording short films with a camcorder. At that time, Slender Man was the big thing, and we wanted to do a short film about that character. The idea was that the protagonist noticed a man from his window and his first thought was that it must have been someone who was waiting for the bus. But in r...
The Horror Lounge •

Book review: Alex Grass presents his unhinged, though somewhat unbalanced, short story collection Infernal Tramps

The horror genre has always promised the potential for the weird and macabre. That promise gets delivered in Infernal Tramps¸ a collection of new and already-published tales from the twistedly creative mind of Alex Grass, author of A Boy's Hammer and Black River Lantern.Grass uses some of the most refined language I’ve ever read in a contemporary horror work (despite an overuse of “whore” and its connotations), and the way he uses it to tell stories of odd and inventive terror makes for an intri...
The Horror Lounge •

George Romero's Twilight of the Dead is being resurrected with special effects guru Greg Nicotero

It’s been almost ten years since George A. Romero, the Father of the Zombie Film, passed away, leaving behind an unshakeable, undead legacy. This summer, his last project is getting reanimated. With 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, which started his “Living Dead” franchise, Romero introduced one of cinema’s most iconic creatures; zombie flesh eaters (not to be confused with one of the alternate titles of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2).The films in the franchise consist of Night of the Living Dead (1968)...
The Horror Lounge •

The Waiting Man adds a veiled original legend to the found footage genre (spoiler-free review)

The Waiting Man is a found footage project from Swedish photographer and filmmaker Carl Sundström. Previous films from him include Documenting the Witch Path and Reportage November. His film work generally features folklore, and in this film, he explores his own original legend through the camcorder lens (as well as those belonging to surveillance and web cameras). The film opens with a 911 call from a frantic little girl crying “he’s here” and wants to hurt them. There is a blood curdling screa...
The Horror Lounge •

Book Review: Clay McLeod Chapman serves unique courses in Acquired Taste

Last September, we were treated to a unique blend of flavors with the release of Acquired Taste, Clay McLeod Chapman’s macabre collection of short stories. This month, we’re being given a second helping of this collection with an official paperback release nine months after its original publication. The collection consists of almost a decade’s worth of 25 short stories that, as Clay pointed out in our recent interview with him, largely features flavor and appetite. The Shirley Jackson and Bram S...
The Horror Lounge •

Interview: Clay McLeod Chapman talks "Acquired Taste" and mixing humor with horror

Last September saw the release of Clay McLeod Chapman's Acquired Taste, a collection of horror fiction that is currently nominated for the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. On June 9th, the paperback version will be released by Titan Books, who was also behind April's release of Ronald Malfi's The Hive.Clay: You know… I’ll come clean: The title first came about after reading a few too many one-star reviews for my work online. I wanted to ask myself why cert...
The Horror Lounge •

Mattel's Shorty doll, inspired by Killer Klowns from Outer Space, introduces a cult classic to the new generation

As of right now, Mattel is currently sold out of this product (incredibly within one minute of listing it), but confirmed restocks are on the way!Mattel, the company behind the Barbie, just released their latest addition to their Monster High line, and it’s introducing the next generation to one of the most popular cult classic horrors of the 1980s. Killer Klowns from Outer Space was released in 1988 and centered on an invasion of extraterrestrial clowns in the small college town of Crescent Cov...
The Horror Lounge •

Video game elements teased in the first trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil

The first teaser trailer for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film is here, and the vision teased from one of the genre’s breakthrough directors is one that makes us want to dust off the PlayStation 1 and find an old TV to play the first two games on.Described by Cregger himself as a love letter to the game series, the film does not adapt a storyline from the games but introduces a new story meant to exist “concurrently” with the characters and events of Resident Evil 2. Despite being longer than mo...
The Horror Lounge •

The Yogurt Shop Murders returns to HBO Max with a revealing conclusion

The Yogurt Shop Murders was released on HBO Max in August 2025, detailing the tragic quadruple homicide that occurred at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop in Austin, Texas in 1991. Despite a lengthy—and controversial—investigation, the case remained unsolved at the time the series premiered.Now, aligning with a great documentary trend for 2026, HBO Max will debut a fifth episode of the series as a conclusion, detailing the revelation and its ramifications on family, friends, and investigator...
The Horror Lounge •

Good Boy writer and director Ben Leonberg will be helming Sony's Ankle Snatcher

The 2025 experimental horror hit Good Boy came out in October, placing short-film writer and director Ben Leonberg in the feature-length horror spotlight. Now he’s stepping back into it with news that he will be directing Sony’s Ankle Snatcher, an adaptation of the Grady Hendrix short story of the same name. The original story was released by Amazon Original Stories in 2023 as part of their Creature Feature selection of horror stories, which also featured original works from authors such as Joe...
The Horror Lounge •

Review: Ronald Malfi's The Hive slithers into our heads and won't stop buzzing

Released this week from Titan Books, the sprawling 768-page epic is a labyrinth in nearly every sense of the word. Each chapter is a small piece of a large cosmic puzzle that had me turning pages and racking up notes like coat hangers (you’ll have to read it).Mariner’s Cove is a lovely bayside community in Maryland. Following a violent summer thunderstorm, the residents of the cove find random inanimate objects scattered throughout (a shopping cart wheel, a colander, the rim of a basketball hoop...
The Horror Lounge •

Dexter: Resurrection gains original Hannibal Lecter actor Brian Cox for season 2

Dexter: Resurrection premiered July 2025 on Paramount +, ushering a return of the serial-killing forensic analyst Dexter Morgan, who was last seen in New Blood, the sequel series set ten years after the original series finale. Resurrection returns for a second season this October, and it’s been confirmed that veteran actor Brian Cox will join the cast as the New York Ripper.His character is described as a serial killer who once terrorized New York years ago but is no longer active. He continues...
The Horror Lounge •

South of Midnight weaves into PlayStation and Switch consoles this week

2026 is shaping into an excellent year for horror video games. February has already displayed that, with Reanimal signifying Tarsier’s epic comeback, and Resident Evil: Requiem bringing Leon S. Kennedy back to Raccoon City. March will be closing out with a special release of South of Midnight for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. South of Midnight, a fantasy action game from Compulsion Games, was released on April 8, 2025 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game received particular praise towards...
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