Cocktails from the Crypt: Terrifying Yet Delicious Concoctions Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films by Jonathan Dehaan and Kimberley Elizabeth
Page Street Publishing (November 26, 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Jonathan Dehaan and Kimberley Elizabeth launched Nightmare on Film Street in 2016 as a welcoming space for horror enthusiasts of every stripe and obsession level. Their mission? To celebrate the eeriest genre there is in the most enjoyable way possible. Forget deep dives and academic critiques — they’re all about sharing laughs, spinning conspiracy theories, and making cheeky observations. Beyond podcasting, they are emerging filmmakers, with Kimmi celebrating her writing and directorial debut in the segment “Do Us Part?” of 2022’s horror snthology Sinphony. They live in Winnipeg, Canada with their two pugs. Their new collection of cocktail recipes is Cocktails from the Crypt: Terrifying Yet Delicious Concoctions Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films.
This book is exactly as described. Each drink recipe is dedicated to a particular horror film, with a full-page recipe and description paired with a beautifully staged photograph of the drink. Each recipe begins with a clever description, often as fun and punny as one would expect from the crew at Nightmare on Film Street, followed by the ingredient list, the recipe instructions, and then a movie morsel, offering a fun tidbit about the film in question. Most of the recipes are clever takes and interesting twists on known recipes. For example, The Hessian’s Hearth, dedicated to the 1999 film version of Sleepy Hollow, is a standard mulled wine. However, the authors make the instructions fun and haunting, encouraging home mixologists to “Stir in Demerara Syrup, sweet as the heart of fair Katrina” and, while imbibing, to “keep an eye out for the Hessian.” The authors clearly want the book to be an experience, and to build on that experience to create fun and festive horror movie nights.
Cocktails from the Crypt is exactly the fun that it purports to be. There are dozens of horror-themed cocktails, most standards augmented or tweaked to give them a spooky twist or fun garnish (a cocktail olive is the “full moon” in the Wolfman’s “Full Moon Martini”), but with a few very unique punches and shooters to keep things surprising. The whole book is meant to deliver an experience, though, and encourage horror film fans to up their movie watching game. Rather than just pop in an old b-film VHS, Dehaan and Elizabeth encourage their readers to build an event around the viewing, complete with potent potables that are sure to delight horror fans and cocktail enthusiasts alike. This is a fun and festive book, perfect for planning your next horror party.
