In 2020, housebound horror journalists Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle (me) decided that we wanted to try our hand at creating a new horror publication. Based on their new podcast of the same name, Certified Forgotten was designed to be a home for the kind of longform horror essays that inspired so much of our own writing. Now Certified Forgotten is celebrating its upcoming five-year anniversary with a brand new website and a subscriber-based model.
For some of you, Certified Forgotten has become a favorite publication. For others, Certified Forgotten might be a new face in the horror space. But no matter whether you’re visiting our website for the first time or the hundredth, it never hurts to reintroduce ourselves.
So what makes Certified Forgotten different from the countless other horror sites out there? Well, it’s a couple of things, really. The first is that we are dedicated – maniacally, fanatically dedicated – to articles about niche horror films. You won’t find any listicles or news items at Certified Forgotten, nor will you often find SEO-friendly features about major releases. We are obsessed with the movies that can count their champions on a single hand – especially when those titles have slipped between the cracks of film festivals and independent distribution.
This is a place for horror journalists to write about movies like Tom Shankland’s The Children. Or Baptiste Rouveure’s Anonymous Animals. Or Brad Michael Elmore’s Bit. Or any number of underseen horror films that deserve a second look. If most major film publications are about meeting audience demand, then our goal at Certified Forgotten is to create it: to help connect readers with films that might not get the time of day elsewhere.
Certified Forgotten is also the exclusive home to Molly Henery’s Uterus Horror series. Since joining the website as a freelance columnist shortly after our launch, Molly continues to offer her thoughtful takes on horror cinema and the way specific titles portray coming-of-age stories within the genre. With our relaunch, we’re also proud to announce a new monthly series from Rob Hunter, whose insights into genre film – especially horror – have made him a go-to writer for many of your favorite publications.
From time to time, you will also see new features and reviews from myself and Matt Donato, the website’s cofounders. With nearly three decades of film journalism between us, both Donato and I have written for some of the industry’s most prestigious publications, and – inasmuch as I’m comfortable making claims to such a thing – are considered thoughtful voices in the horror space. Donato and I are also the only Certified Forgotten contributors who are unpaid for their work, allowing more of the money we earn from our subscriptions to go directly to our freelance writers who are working hard to carve out a career in this tough industry.
Despite this fancy new website, Certified Forgotten remains a small publication. Our budget – which continues to rely heavily on monthly contributions from us as cofounders – only allows for a handful of new essays a month. Speaking candidly, our current publishing schedule is only made possible by our full-time careers outside of the industry, but our hope is to make this publication self-sustaining and capable of running no matter our professional circumstances.
As for the future? We know our lane. We don’t have any grand designs to turn Certified Forgotten into a multimedia company – though we do promise to post more video podcasts to our YouTube channel for anyone who likes that sort of thing. No, we just want to do more of the same. We just want to say yes to more pitches, to increase the frequency with which we publish new essays, and to continue to be a space where amazing writers can grow their portfolios and get paid to write about the kind of movies that are too-often overlooked.
That’s where you can help. Obviously, encouraging our readers to purchase a monthly or annual subscription to Certified Forgotten is our endgame, but we know there are a lot of incredible publications out there and not enough dollars to go around. So we just ask that you start small: subscribe to our new newsletter, The Rewind, and/or share the articles you enjoy on social media. If (once) we earn your trust as a go-to publication for horror criticism, we would be grateful for any contributions you may be able to offer.
For now, though, we are filled with gratitude for everyone who helped kick off this new era of Certified Forgotten. To our former Patrons, who helped make the website a little less of a financial burden. To our contributors, who have poured their hearts and souls into some of the internet’s best essays about the genre. To our contributing editor, Christine Makepeace, who offers the kinds of insights and feedback that any publication would be glad to have. And to you, dear readers, who continue to make Certified Forgotten the passion project of a lifetime. We hope you continue to enjoy our publication as much as we enjoy making it.
