On June 4, 2020, we published our very first episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast. Since the podcast came before the website, we recognize June 4 as the anniversary date for Certified Forgotten as a whole.
That means we’re 24 hours away from turning six years old. And over the past six years, we’ve published — according to our napkin math, anyways — 298 essays on underappreciated horror films, 46 reviews of new releases (which we only started doing in 2025), and 179 new podcast episodes. Through all the ups and downs of being a writer-owned publication, we just keep chugging along.
A lot has changed for us since 2020, but recently, we’ve seen a lot of indie horror sites pop up around us (the latest, Darker Times, kicked off as recently as Monday). And with so many really great writer-owned publications floating around, we thought our birthday would be a great time to remind you why you should care about Certified Forgotten.
One of the things that makes us a little different is that we don’t publish news items or opinion pieces. We don’t weigh in on the horror news of the day – outside of this newsletter – and instead take a one-movie-one-article approach to horror criticism. Think of us as Leonard Maltin’s Guide to the Movies, only if each listing was a 1,000-word essay about why you should care about the movie instead of a 100-word review.
This is how we’ve chosen to play the SEO game: every article should be just as relevant in a decade as it is today, because most of our pieces are in-depth analyses of horror titles. And that means our site traffic in any given week is delightfully all over the map, as unknown movies become cult classics and cult classics become Hollywood staples.
While we don’t always hit the mark, our goal each week is to publish three pieces:
An essay on an under-appreciated horror movie from a freelance contributor.
A review of a new release from one of our cofounders.
A new podcast episode (either a 30-minute new release feature or a 60-minute guest spot highlighting a film with 10 or fewer reviews on RottenTomatoes).
Our current budget for contributors currently is split between our subscription income and owner contributions, and we can proudly say - and have the 2025 tax returns to back us up - that 100% of our subscriber dollars go to our writers. And while we’re always looking to increase our freelance budget each month, we’ve figured out what sustainable looks like for us, and we’re making it work.
That’s Certified Forgotten. That’s what you’re supporting when you sign up for a paid subscription, or sign up for our newsletter, or even share our pieces on social media. We’ve said from the beginning that our goal is not to become the next Bloody Disgusting, but to ensure that there are enough active horror publications for writers to always have places to pitch.
We weren’t the first horror site, and we won’t be the last. But after six years, I think we’re comfortable saying only the heat death of the universe could keep us from providing a platform for writers to talk about the horror movies they love.
Thank you for being a part of it all.
Matt Donato & Matthew Monagle
New This Week
Backrooms Review: An Empty Exercise in Liminal Storytelling
While we always offer an unapologetically positive approach to our essays — we want people to write about the movies that excite them — our reviews are, of course, an honest analysis of what we saw in a new release. So while I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a Backrooms hater, I (Monagle) am comfortable saying that it’s both aesthetically and narratively empty. There are better ways for horror to embrace our existential nightmares than this, but I look forward to what Kane Parsons does next.
From the Archives
Big Problems, Small Joys: The Music of Jaws: The Revenge
With a new Steven Spielberg movie headed to theaters this summer, now’s a great time to talk about Jaws. No, not the first movie. Or the second. Actually, let’s skip the counting - we’re talking about the fourth movie in the Jaws franchise, which should be a bigger feather in the cap of composer Michael Small. In an era where every studio seems to make their sequels bigger — in most cases, to jumpstart the heart of a dead franchise — there’s something charming about the olden days, when franchises were a few recognizable names and whatever loose change you had rattling around.
Around the Web
Quick hits from around the world of horror and indie journalism.
How about another plug for Darker Times? There are a lot of indie horror publications out there, but we’re always a little disheartened at how many feel like it’s OK to accept unpaid contributions in the hope that they’ll figure it out down the line. It’s great to see a site that is waiting to accept freelance work until they can afford to do it right.
Speaking of indie sites: I (Monagle) wasn’t the only one to be disappointed in Backrooms. Our friend Kate Sánchez at But Why Tho? also shares the mixed bag of this debut feature.
You probably don’t need us to tell you that frequent podcast guest BJ Colangelo is a force of nature behind the keyboard, but her latest piece on the double standards of success for YouTube horror creators is a banger.
We all think that Adam Wingard’s new movie Onslaught is a stealth sequel to The Guest, right? Right? Man, how cool would that be.
There’s going to be a new Until Dawn video game, and Bloody Disgusting shares what we know (and the trailer, you should check out the trailer).
Want more? Certified Forgotten also offers a weekly podcast series featuring some of the biggest names in the horror genre. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast platform of choice.