My cousin tried to show me an engulfed evil man with fantastical nightmares, but instead of scaring me, all Nightmare on Elm Street did was provide me with a new lens to experience the chaos of my life, and introduce me to the catharsis of experiencing emotions as a child that I once did not understand.

I published the original version of this article on Medium in July 2025. Given the way that things have developed around the world I wanted to revisit and update it, so here it is. “A client of mine was shot, Frank. Guess whose logo I found on the bullet case.” “Oh, for Christ’s sake. Bunch of bullshit fanboys, huh?” “Yeah, and a lot of them are cops.” Matt Murdock speaking to Frank Castle from a scene in Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+) A still from season 2 of The Punisher (

They’ll tell you, with confidence, that horror isn’t political. They’ll say it was you watch a chainsaw-wielding maniac with a mask of someone else’s flesh chase a half naked women through the backyard of an economic collapse and tell you there’s no politics that lie within that.