August 14, 2010

Best of the Dark Side: 13 Spookiest Horror Websites

The "Horror links" part of Dark Side of the Net was probably the most disappointing part of the site, to me personally. I knew I wasn't doing a good job archiving, listing new sites, and sorting things into proper categories. Also, some of the worst submissions by 13 year olds of crappy Geocities and Tripod sites fell under the Horror category. It was alot to sift through - literally over 100 emails a day just from the Horror category alone.

I had some struggles trying to categorize some of the really good horror sites. Should they go under Horror Movies, or Horror Literature? I eventually lumped most of the horror sites I wasn't sure of into "About the Horror Genre" and went from there.

Then, a couple times when I found what I thought was a great horror website - lots of content, great graphics, updated news, and tons of links - I realized they'd stolen and copied hundreds or thousands of links from Dark Side of the Net. That made me suspect they had then also stolen the content, graphics, and news from other sites, so I couldn't link to them. There are still 3-4 huge, massive Halloween and horror sites that I refuse to link to because they still have extremely obvious evidence that they copied links from Dark Side of the Net (typoes, misspellings I made, links to fake pages I made in order to catch thieves, etc!)

I got frustrated and pretty much left the horror pages alone, concentrating instead on other parts of Dark Side of the Net. So these thirteen sites that follow pretty much comprise the ONLY horror sites in my 2010 horror sites database. So I'm glad they are all awesome ones that I enjoy and am proud to remind you to visit!

1. Bloody Disgusting

You can't talk about great horror sites on the net and fail to mention Bloody Disgusting.

I have no idea how many people they have working for them - I can't imagine this is the devoted work of just one person? They post news insanely fast, keep up with everything in the genre, and seem to know about everything about the genre. Info here includes horror games and music, not just movies and books like just about every other horror site out there.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/

2. Shock Till You Drop

An extremely important horror resource, posting breaking news and making multiple posts per day. If you care about the horror genre, you're likely already camping at this site all day long.

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/

3. Zombo's Closet of Horror

A very well respected horror site. Their site sends me an extremely huge amount of traffic every day, due to a small link to Dark Side of the Net on their page, so I can only surmise how extremely many visitors enjoy their site every day. These bloggers (Iloz and Zimba) are extremely dedicated to their craft and passionate about horror. I think I remember back when this was a website, not a blog. There are now sections for Halloween, "Really Bad Movies," and a cool fiction section called "Cheeky." Do yourself a service and visit this site right now!

http://www.zomboscloset.com/

4. Feo Amante

"Horror, Thriller, Mystery, and Suspense in literature, movies and more." You couldn't ask for a more knowledgeable host. If it's horror, it's here.

http://www.feoamante.com/

5. Fearnet

I'm not sure what's going on with this site, since a "V" TV show video starts playing when you visit. That strikes me as a sci-fi show, not horror. Anyway, lots and lots of good content here to keep you busy.

http://www.fearnet.com/

6. The Cabinet of Dr. Casey

The web's oldest horror news website, extremely respected and mentioned in countless horror and Internet reference books. It was down for a few years, but I'm happy to say it's back now. Currently the focus is on the excellent Dark Destinations part of the site.

http://www.thecabinet.com/

7. HorrorSquad

A horror blog featuring horror news, horror movies, horror DVDs, and an event calendar.

http://www.horrorsquad.com/

8. Horror Asylum

Lots going on here. Horror news, including Blu-Ray, videogames, music, and books.

http://www.horror-asylum.com/

9. Horror.Com

Horror trailers, games, news, and the ubiquitous horror movie reviews. The link directory is outdated, and the horror book reviews haven't been updated since 2009, but the movie reviews are current. I wish there was an About Me page on this website giving credit to the author for their hard work.

http://www.horror.com/

10. Horror Reanimated

A well-written horror blog by multiple authors. You can tell a lot of thought was put into each post. Besides the usual reviews and news, there is original fiction, publishing reviews, interviews and more.

http://www.horrorreanimated.com/

11. Beyond the Groovy Age of Horror

This blog specializes in 1960s and 1970s horror, but also throws in a few surprises now and then.

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/

12. Dark Angels Realm of Horror

A long-running site based in the UK. Currently reviewing "Predator," covering "The Last Exorcism," and some Romero films. There are forums, a chatroom, a message board, and a Hall of Fame.

http://www.realmofhorror.co.uk/

13. TheoFantastique

John Morehead's excellent blog: "A meeting place for myth, imagination, and mystery in pop culture." Well-written posts on the fantastic, not just horror.

http://www.theofantastique.com/

--Carrie Carolin

Dark Side of the Net

3 comments:

  1. Thank you! I'm honored to be mentioned, and especially by your exemplary blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I echo John's comments and am honored to be included as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fearnet does sometimes have movies that may not quite be classified as true horror. I have seen fantasy, thriller, and comedy movies on their cable TV On Demand channel but in all cases there is at least some link to horror. In their defence horror is not always easily defined. You can have sci-fi/horror movies, horror/sci-fi movies, etc. etc. For instance, is "The Andromeda Strain" sci-fi or horror? Or both? Steven King covers this topic somewhat at length in "Danse Macabre" (which I am just now reading).

    Anywho, I've never really read Fearnet's website but since I do watch their On Demand movies on a weekly basis I figured I would applaud your choice of Fearnet and offer a few encouraging comments.

    ReplyDelete

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