Things that delighted me in February, 2026:
In T. D. Cloud's Ossuary, a group of government "Curse Breakers" venture into the Parisian Catacombs to rein in some errant magic, but little do they know that the burial chambers entrap a secret darker than they can imagine. This one takes a very unexpected, and terribly interesting, turn that I definitely didn't see coming; it transforms into a different sort of horror tale, the kind that should appeal to fans of Robert Egger's Nosferatu. This is a quick novella, perfect for when you want to read something short that still packs a punch. I'll definitely be adding Ossuary to my curated list of recommended short novels and novellas.
Released in 2020, Volur's Death Cult is by no means a new album, but it was new to me. The Runecairn game I've been running had me combing through my record collection for music with the right feel, and Volur had to be in there--and that's when I discovered that I had somehow missed this release. Volur's style is nothing if not unique: they play avant garde doom metal, heavy on the violin, light on vocals, and somehow jazzy in structure while still exuding an atmosphere of pagan occultism. Death Cult only consists of four tracks, but each song is lengthy and full of twists and turns that will defy your expectations. I am very happy to have caught up to this one.
I was genuinely taken aback by how much I enjoyed Luc Besson's new Dracula movie. It is a prime cut of Grade-A Gothic Nonsense. It's fun to see a ridiculous b movie on the big screen; we used to have more kinds of movies in the theater other than "blockbusters" and "award-bait." Sure, it's built like Lego from pieces of previous Dracula adaptations, but it has its own charm too: the bizarre Dracula perfume! Dracula's little gargoyle pals! A truly dubious sense of how long it takes to travel across Europe! It is a strangely slobbery movie! Sight gags involving Dracula's suicide attempts! I'm also going to out on a limb here: despite the smaller budget, there are things this version of Dracula steals borrows from previous versions (mostly Francis Ford Coppola's) that it actually manages to execute better.
In the Knave of Graves, the warden of a graveyard who failed out of magic amulet school finds himself at war with a black magician who wants the saintly bones he's charged with tending. Complicating matters is his ham-fisted attempt to gain the love of a wealthy widow, the visits of a precocious child, and his alliance with a terrifying night hag. S. J. Shank's style of fantasy is at once exotic, grounded, and seasoned with recognizable human failings and aspirations. If you're in the market for dark fantasy that colors way outside the lines, with none of the usual conventions, The Knave of Graves is a unique novel that will serve you well.
Like Ossuary, In This City, Where it Rains is going to make an excellent addition to the list of great novellas and short novels I maintain. A girl who can see ghosts lives in a version of Edinburgh that is like a rainy purgatory; no one ever leaves, and no one remembers what year it is. Everything changes when she meets the handsome son of a family deeply connected to her own mysterious past. She's invited to their remote manor house to explore her heritage, but--yeah, it's a horror show over there. If I had to do a comparison, I'd say that Lyndsey Croal's novella felt a bit like Crimson Peak meets Silent Hill.
It feels unfair to release a potential Album of the Year in February, but nobody told Worm that. Necropalace is fuckin' amazing; it takes the basic formula of blackened doom and adds elements of dungeon synth, goth metal, and some truly ripping melodic leads. I had this on repeat for two weeks; nothing could shake its place as the only disc going on my stereo. This one is really going to be hard to top. Consider the gauntlet thrown.
I finally read Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions last month in anticipation of the release of its prequel, House of Splinters. House of Splinters definitely did not disappoint. In this novel, a woman of the burgeoning middle class has married a man of status; they move to his ancestral seat upon the death of his father and find themselves within a house that may be haunted by the spirits of the past. This one has a laundry list of Gothic elements going on: an ancestral witch burned at the stake; a footman who cucked his master and either fell from a balcony or was pushed; sinister Dutch art that moves on its own; a kid who sees ghosts everyone else thinks are imaginary friends; a cursed hanging tree in the village green; an estranged brother recently returned from India; a crumbling manor, financial worries, and stained relations with the peasant villagers. The most amazing thing is that all those elements really do add up to a satisfying whole. If you have an interest in modern authors working in classic Gothic conventions, you owe it to yourself to check out both The Silent Companions and House of Splinters.
I actually got this fancy book of Godiva Ghoul's art last month from the fulfilled kickstarter, but I didn't have time to sit down with it and pore over its macabre pages until February. You may know Godiva Ghoul's work from social media if you follow Gothic or erotic artists; if you enjoy what you've seen of it, this collection is well worth picking up to have a lot of fantastic art all in one handy place. This one is definitely for the perverts, as you can see from the 18+ age warning on the slipcover; each page in the book is devoted to a naked monster girl or creepy chick. The amount of art in this collection is, frankly, pretty overwhelming.
I thought I'd be getting some Gothic fantasy vampire hunting action in Anna Kovatcheva's She Made Herself a Monster, but actually this is a deft, quieter historical fiction about how the people of a Bulgarian village navigate the whims and preoccupations of their village leader. Their "Captain" has a young ward he's raised as his own daughter, and whom he plans on marrying against her will as soon as she gets her first period. There is also a widow he takes sexual advantage of because he knows her status as a "witch" makes her extremely vulnerable. Also in the mix is a young man he raised and sent away to learn the doctoring arts; that doesn't stop the Captain from physically abusing him, too. Everything gets complicated when a fraudulent vampire hunter comes to town and the doctor falls in love with the widow. I really loved this one; just a masterfully done Gothic drama with a sense of place and specificity outside the norm.
In February, I inadvertently watched a lot of sci fi movies about virtual realities and the nature of being. Tron was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, but I hadn't watched it for decades; I honestly still think it's pretty fun and original. I remember The Thirteenth Floor from my days working at a video store, but any chance it had at acclaim was immediately overshadowed by The Matrix; it's a solid sci fi noir about virtual reality, and I think it's actually a nice little film on its own merits. It's a bit amazing that I never saw the original Ghost in the Shell before (it was one of about ten anime movies you could get your hands on easily back in the day) and it totally lived up to its reputation. Ghost in the Shell: Innocence was also really, really good. I'll be definitely be watching the SAC series after all this.
Night of the Vampire's The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade does black metal as Gothic synthwave. Straight away, you have to accept that there will be over-the-top cheese going into this project. But does the combination work? Surprisingly, it does! The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade sounds like the soundtrack to an Italian horror film you badly want to watch.
The Carpenter's Son does the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas as a horror film. Apparently this film was critically panned, but I think the unique premise and haunted atmosphere worked for me in a way that, say, exorcism movies generally don't. There are issues, of course; for example, Nicolas Cage is gonna Nicolas Cage as Joseph, and that's just something you've got to accept. I thought FKA Twigs did a fine job as Mary, and it was actually kind of inspired to give a young Jesus who is just learning of his role in the world a big dose of school shooter energy.