 Horror/Scary: February 11, 2026 Issue [#13586] |
This week: How To Turn Ordinary Things Into Horror Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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“Alone. Yes, that's the keyword, the most awful word in the English tongue. Murder doesn't hold a candle to it, and hell is only a poor synonym.”
― Stephen King
“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out, and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out, and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worst one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own has been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out, and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”
― Stephen King
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Sometimes, it’s not the ghost that gets you.
It’s the teacup.
The hairbrush.
The hand mixer your mother used when she was still alive—barely.
In horror, objects aren’t just set dressing. They’re loaded weapons—emotional grenades with the pin already halfway out. And if you’re a horror writer looking to dig under your readers’ skin, it’s time to stop thinking of things as… well, just things.
Let’s talk about how to use everyday items to curse, scar, and emotionally destabilize your characters—and maybe your readers, too.
Because a butcher knife is obvious.
But a cracked photo frame of a sibling no one remembers? That’s personal.
Great horror isn’t always loud. It’s intimate. And small objects—those everyday, too-familiar items—carry emotional weight. In the right hands, they don’t need to levitate or whisper to be terrifying. They just need to exist in the wrong moment.
What’s an everyday object that creeps you out—and why?
Let’s build a little museum of cursed curiosities together. I’ll bring the broken mirror and the candle that smells like regret.
🖋️ Final Thought:
Some ghosts moan.
Others just sit quietly on your shelf… waiting to be remembered. Use them wisely.
W.D.Wilcox
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| |  | Invalid Item This item number is not valid. #2350478 by Not Available. |
| | The Suit (E) Maybe looking up is not what we should be doing. |
| | Esmeralda (18+) The circus holds a bizarre secret for Jayson. |
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