(IP, 2026, 345 pages)
Osgood Perkins is often mentioned in the same breath as Ari Aster (Hereditary) and Robert Eggers (The Witch), the filmmakers behind the new heyday of art horror. But where Aster names a deep-seated fear in his protagonists and his audience alike and brings it to the surface, and Eggers, like a historian, builds an almost archaic sense of period, Perkins takes a third path: he writes poetry. His films, from The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015) through Longlegs (2024) to Keeper (2025), follow a lyrical rather than a dramatic logic: mood, suggestion, and silence instead of explanation. Where does this distinctive quality come from? How does personal loss become the language of film? And why is the horror genre, of all places, where poetry and grief come together?
This is the first book-length study of the complete work of the son of Psycho legend Anthony Perkins. Gmelch shows how poetry functions in these films not as ornament but as a structural principle: an alternative grammar of horror. Combining biography, film analysis, and genre theory, the study portrays a filmmaker whose work pushes the boundaries of what horror can be.