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Mar 20, 2024 | 
alisonrumfitt.substack.com | Alison Rumfitt
Early on in Alex Garland’s new film Civil War, Kirsten Dunst’s photojournalist, Lee, lays naked in a bath – in the quiet solitude of the moment her thoughts turn inevitably to the grotesque. Her mind is wracked by the images she’s taken over the course of her career. We see, through her mind’s camera lens, a black man trapped in a tire being burned alive. This is not the only time the film shows you an image like this. It is, in fact, one of Garland’s only manoeuvrers here.
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Jan 16, 2024 | 
itsonlyzach.substack.com | Gerardo Sámano Córdova |Alison Rumfitt |Mattie Lubchansky |Zach Wilcha
I don’t watch horror movies. I don’t mind the occasional psychological thriller or suspense tale, but like the Supreme Court in 2000, I draw my personal line at gore. I wish I liked them! My friends seem to derive great joy from horror movies. I stopped the Scream franchise after the second installment, but many gay people have developed entire personalities around it. I trace my aversion to gory horror back to my childhood and two specific facts: 1. my family owned a funeral home and 2.
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Oct 16, 2023 | 
audiofilemagazine.com | Alison Rumfitt
Nicky Endres pulls out all the stops when performing this horror story about a haunted house and the shocking trauma it inflicts on three people: trans woman Alice and her friends, Ila and Hannah. The remarkable British accent Endres assumes in their dialogue aligns with the British terms found in the text. Endres infuses insecurity and a feeling of worthlessness as Alice revisits memories, verbalizing her musings.
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Oct 10, 2023 | 
nytimes.com | Megan Milks |Alison Rumfitt |Tor Nightfire
BRAINWYRMS, by Alison Rumfitt“She had worms in her brain,” a character in Alison Rumfitt’s “Brainwyrms” decides when faced with his mother’s increasingly transphobic zeal. “It was easier to think of it in those terms than to admit that his mother genuinely hated him.”Given the book’s title, it will not be a spoiler to reveal that this character’s mother is, in fact,host to a parasitic virus that is eating her brain. Is that better or worse than more familiar forms of virulent transphobia?
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Aug 29, 2023 | 
publishersweekly.com | Alison Rumfitt |Hailey Piper |Tananarive Due
Naomi Kritzer. Fairwood, $18.99 trade paper (262p) ISBN 978-1-958880-16-6Kritzer (Chaos on CatNet) shows off her worldbuilding chops in this impressive mystery set in a near future world in which a group of “libertarian separatists” have built an archipelago of man-made islands in the Pacific Ocean near the California coast. Each of the six islands is an independent country, with differing approaches to which laws—if any—apply to their citizens.
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Aug 23, 2023 | 
publishersweekly.com | Alison Rumfitt |Hailey Piper |Tananarive Due
Aric McBay. AK, $17 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-84935-504-9In the impressive fifth installment of AK Press’s Black Dawn series, which aims to “center queerness, Blackness, antifascism, and celebrate voices previously disenfranchised,” McBay (Kraken Calling) takes readers to the utopic planet Germinal. There, peacefully coexisting factions share both renewable resources and a worldview centered on kindness.
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Jul 10, 2023 | 
tinyurl.com | Alison Rumfitt
It’s a very, very hot day, the first of the year. We’ve spent the whole afternoon in a studio north of King’s Cross, London, fanning ourselves and drinking water to stop us from overheating. This is Ncuti Gatwa’s big moment. While he’s been striking poses for his Rolling Stone UK cover shoot, I’ve been sitting in the corner watching and feeling a little voyeuristic. It’s always interesting to witness an artist interacting with the people working around them; it reveals so much.
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May 12, 2023 | 
lwlies.com | Alison Rumfitt
About Little White Lies Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies. Editorial Design
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Apr 26, 2023 | 
barnesandnoble.com | Alison Rumfitt
From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I’m Worthless — “a triumph of transgressive queer horror” (Publishers Weekly) — comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence, and pleasure. When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, fucking strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya.
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Apr 19, 2023 | 
lwlies.com | Alison Rumfitt
Directed by Nicholas D Johnson Will MerrickStarring Ava Zaria Lee Nia Long Storm Reid Anticipation. The trailer seemed to give away too much, and I wasn’t as into Searching as some of the other similar thrillers. Enjoyment. However silly some of the plot contrivances get, some of the twists did make me gasp. In Retrospect. The final act was one reveal too many, unfortunately, and a glib use of a serious subject matter doesn’t help. Share this
