The Most Deliciously Scary Stories to Consume This Halloween

Welcome to the relaunch of You Might Like, our weekly recommendations column. In this issue, the recs come from me, Han Goldstein, The Persistent’s social media editor and editor of this column. I also watch, listen to, read, and even write horror for fun.

But before I get to the spookiness, I want to point out that you’ll notice something different about this version of You Might Like – and the YML columns in the future. Instead of a round-up of tips from FOTP (Friends of The Persistent) each topic will be curated by one person at a time, preferably someone who considers themselves a bit of an expert on the subject at hand. I’m this week’s expert, and while I’m a relatively recent convert to the horror genre, I’m an avid, enthusiastic and almost exclusive consumer of  horror content by and about women. 

There’s something about women horror writers – I think simply being women gives them the knowledge and experience necessary to truly critique life under the patriarchy, and the horror element only drives the point home. Below, you’ll find five of my favorite woman-centered horror delivery vehicles, including an album, a scary movie, a TV series, a prolific horror author, and even an herb garden, starting with the simply terrifying and working up to the more gory stuff. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Want a figurative taste of horror without having to actually consume anything scary? Take a trip to The Met Cloisters in New York City and make sure to check out the “Magic” section of The Bonnefont Cloister Herb Garden within the former monastery. In a raised garden bed, you’ll find a sample of thorn apple, a psychoactive herb used by witches in medieval Europe. Don’t eat it — just read the placard and learn something about ancient women gardeners.

On Ethel Cain’s debut album, she tells the story of a young woman caught up in religion, abused by men, who eventually dies in an especially gruesome way. It’s not autobiographical, though it is loosely based on Cain’s lived experience of growing up as the child of a deacon in the Southern Baptist church.

It’s a tale as old as time: A woman is told at work that she’s getting “too old” and decides to resort to drastic measures to stay employed. In this version, fading Hollywood film star Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore) consumes a black market serum that promises to make her more youthful – with eerily effective and gruesome results.

When a local New Jersey high school soccer team goes missing in the Canadian Rockies, a terrifying presence starts following the girls and, later, the women — even after they’ve been rescued and are reintegrated into society. The dual teenage/adult timelines expose the tensions in our relationships with long-term friends, ourselves, and the truth. Watch all three seasons before the final season comes out next year.

Of all my favorite women horror writers — I have too many to name here, but you can see a full list on my Storygraph — Agustina Bazterrica novels feature the most pertinent social commentary in the most resonant, horrifying ways. In the novel “Tender is the Flesh,” (2017) set in a world where humans are grown for meat, a man falls for a female “steer.” In “The Unworthy,” (2025) a women’s cult at the end of the world claims to protect its participants from the horrors outside, only to inflict even worse horrors on themselves.

Fellow horror fans, we want to hear from you. What scary movie, book, podcast, or other recommendation do you need the world to know about? Send us an email at [email protected] and we may include it in the next You Might Like! We'll be back with more recommendations next Friday.