Forlorn Harbor by Jim Doran
A group of teens break into an abandoned cinema and discover the films are watching them back. Deeply rude behaviour from a building, honestly.
📚 Pre-Reading Thoughts
The setup immediately screamed classic anthology horror to me - old televisions humming in dark rooms, morality tales with slightly theatrical narration, the kind of story where someone definitely says “we should split up” moments before regretting every life choice that led there. I was expecting strong The Twilight Zone energy, and the abandoned cinema setting felt perfect for that sort of layered, self-aware horror.
📖 Post-Reading
As I thought…
The atmosphere absolutely lands. It has that uncanny “lost late-night television” feeling where everything is slightly heightened and dreamlike, like stumbling across a half-forgotten horror anthology at 2am and wondering if it was ever even real.
The episodic structure works surprisingly well. On paper, the rhythm - episode, regrouping, another episode - could have become repetitive, but the pacing keeps things moving and the shifting group dynamics stop it from feeling formulaic.
The punishments are properly thought through. There’s a satisfying morality-play logic to them without becoming preachy or predictable.
It surprised me by…
How entertaining the reactions between the classmates are. The real tension isn’t just the horror scenarios; it’s watching different personalities fracture, panic, rationalise, or turn on each other under pressure.
The way the cinema itself starts to feel almost sentient - not loudly haunted, but quietly wrong.
The ending. It threads a difficult needle really well: enough closure to feel satisfying, but enough lingering menace to leave the lights on in your brain afterwards. It trusts the reader to sit with discomfort instead of overexplaining.
There’s also something wonderfully old-school about the whole thing. Not nostalgic in a forced “remember VHS tapes?” way - more like it genuinely understands why anthology horror works in the first place: fear is often strongest when it feels ritualistic.
🎧 Music Pairing
🎵 Featured Song: Season of the Witch
🎶 Vibe Album: Lost Themes — synth-heavy unease, abandoned places, and the sense that something terrible is approaching at walking pace.
🎧 Artist Recommendation: Nick Cave — particularly the darker, narrative-driven tracks that feel like cautionary tales whispered in neon light.
🌈 Vibe Check
Colour Palette: flickering projector white, velvet red, nicotine yellow, static grey
Soundtrack: projector reels clicking, old speakers crackling, footsteps in empty aisles
Season: late autumn edging toward winter
Mood: uncanny, claustrophobic, and weirdly hypnotic
Scent: dust, stale popcorn, damp carpet, overheated film reels
🃏 Tarot Pull
The Moon Fear, illusion, distorted perception, and truths revealed through nightmare logic rather than reason. Perfect anthology horror energy: not everything makes sense in the moment, but emotionally it feels terrifyingly coherent.
👀 For fans of
The Twilight Zone
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Are You Afraid of the Dark? with the volume turned way up
