Michael David Wilson, founder of the UK horror website, podcast and small press This Is Horror, returns to his 2020 novella The Girl in the Video, a tale of paranoia, obsession and the dangers of technology, with a new edition featuring an original short story.
Originally published by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing in April 2020, The Girl in the Video follows a teacher whose life begins to unravel after he receives a strange and disturbing video. More videos follow, each containing information that no stranger could possibly know about him, as his curiosity gives way to paranoia and an obsession with discovering who is behind them — and what they want.
The story explores the anxiety surrounding technology and privacy, as its protagonist finds the boundaries between his personal life and the outside world becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
Wilson is a writer, editor and podcaster whose work has appeared in publications and podcasts including Scream, Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor and The NoSleep Podcast. He has also worked with 2000 AD, Terrorizer and Broken River Books, and is the author of They’re Watching, co-written with Bob Pastorella. He studied English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and also works as a professional ESL teacher.
To celebrate the new release of The Girl in the Video, CinemaChords spoke to Wilson about the origins of the novella, returning to the story various years after its original publication, and the ways technology can expose the parts of our lives we would rather keep private, and why those anxieties continue to provide fertile ground for horror.