Horror has never belonged to one geography, one aesthetic, or one fixed frame.

It has travelled through migration, survived censorship, lived in ritual, and moved through the bodies of those forced to cross oceans. It has been whispered in folktales, carried in superstition, encoded in memory, and shaped by survival. Long before publishing imprints and box office returns, horror was communal. It was cultural. It was inherited.

The genre has always been expansive.

The visibility around it has not.

I AM HORROR is a permanent NightTide initiative dedicated to documenting and amplifying creators of color actively shaping the horror genre across disciplines and continents. It is not driven by aesthetic shorthand, nor confined to a single theme. It is rooted in authorship and contribution.

This initiative builds an archive.

It centers writers, filmmakers, scholars, podcasters, performers, and interdisciplinary artists whose work materially shapes the genre’s present and future. Each participant contributes a personal declaration, defining their own relationship to horror, their cultural lineage, and their creative impact.

No prescribed image.
No narrowing of scope.
No momentary spotlight.

Horror has always been global. I AM HORROR makes that global authorship visible and permanent.

NightTide Magazine has long been committed to amplifying marginalized voices within the genre, not as a trend, not as seasonal programming, but as an editorial principle. From critical essays to curated conversations, the work has always centered depth, lineage, and sustained creative practice. I AM HORROR extends that commitment into structure. It formalizes what has already been foundational: that horror is shaped by voices far broader than its most familiar image.

Archives matter because memory is fragile. Genres are mapped and remapped over time. Histories are written. Canons are constructed. Names are remembered. Others are omitted. Without deliberate documentation, contribution becomes anecdotal instead of recorded. I AM HORROR exists to ensure that the creators shaping horror now are not footnotes later.

This is not about correcting the genre. It is about recording it accurately.

The archive will grow monthly. It will expand across borders and disciplines. It will inform future programming, panels, and scholarship. It will exist as a record, steady, cumulative, and enduring.

I AM HORROR launches March 15 with a curated founding cohort of creators whose work is actively shaping the genre across continents and disciplines. Following launch, the initiative will open to rolling global submissions, with up to five creators added monthly to the archive.

Writers. Screenwriters. Directors. Scholars. Podcasters. Performers. Interdisciplinary artists working within horror.

Those who wish to participate will be invited to contribute a brief personal declaration, a reflection on authorship, belonging, cultural memory, or creative contribution. The archive will expand steadily and intentionally, building a cumulative record of the genre as it exists now.

I AM HORROR centers creators of color who are actively contributing to the horror genre through published, produced, performed, or critically engaged work. While horror fandom is expansive and vital to the culture of the genre, this initiative focuses specifically on those shaping the field through sustained creative or professional practice. NightTide looks forward to building additional curated spaces in the future that celebrate and spotlight fans of the genre as well.

Horror does not stand still. It mutates. It migrates. It reinvents itself in every generation. I AM HORROR exists to ensure that as it evolves, the record evolves with it.

The genre has never belonged to one geography, one aesthetic, or one fixed frame.

It belongs to those who shape it. And they are here.

How the Archive Will Work

Beginning April 1, the I AM HORROR archive will become a live section on NightTide.

Creators will be documented through curated entries that highlight their work, perspectives, and areas of expertise within the horror genre.

Rather than functioning as a static directory, the archive will grow through regular editorial updates.

Every few weeks, new creators will be added and organized through searchable tags such as:

• country or region
• discipline (film, literature, scholarship, etc.)
• research or creative focus
• folklore or thematic concentration
• areas of expertise within horror

This approach allows the archive to remain discoverable and dynamic, helping researchers, programmers, collaborators, and readers locate creators through the subjects and traditions they work within.

The long-term goal is to expand the project into a dedicated archival platform in 2027, allowing the collection to grow beyond NightTide into a larger searchable resource for the horror community.

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