A decade ago during the filming of Esme Duncan’s hit slasher No One Can Hear You Scream, actress Theo Cloutier disappeared in an apparent skiing accident while on location in the remote area of Mount Defiant. Her body was never discovered.
What really happened to her? Rumors and theories abound, as all you Horrified fans know. Was it just a tragic accident? Or is there something more sinister burrowed beneath the hard ice and snow left on that mountain all those years ago?
What do the other actors know? What is director Esme Duncan not telling? And is there any truth to those random sightings of Theo fans have claimed to have had over the years?
Use the comments to tell me your own theory.
~IzzyScreams
Read more theories about the story Izzy can’t stop investigating.
Michelle L. Cullen has lived and traveled all over the world: from working as a decent (if powered by enough espresso) bilingual secretary in Paris to backpacking around Europe, Central America, and Southern Africa, to helping to rebuild communities after war throughout Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific. She studied anthropology at Melbourne University in Australia and sociology at the London School of Economics in England. She currently lives in Annapolis, Maryland, where she’s busy doing yoga, playing outside, or plotting murder. Her latest novel, A Field Guide to Death and Deceit, will be published September 15, 2026, and you can get more information and order it right here.
Michelle is a proud member of SinC, ITW, MWA, and The Authors Guild.
But what scares her? What terrifying places has she been to and lived to tell the tales? Read on to find out…
What is your greatest fear?
It’s not my greatest fear, but it is a new one…I no longer like to fly, which is a bit nuts given how much I’ve traveled in my life. I’ve been to over 60 countries and have flown on everything from jumbo jets to four seaters, and twin engines to prop planes. I’ve even taken lessons to fly a helicopter and have flown one myself.
But a few years ago, I had a very bad flight. We got stuck in a thunderstorm and had to divert to make an unplanned landing in a neighboring state. Between the turbulence, thunder, and lightening, the flight left its mark. I’ve flown since then, but the ease that I felt before isn’t there. I’m hoping it returns soon because I have no plans to stop traveling.
“A few years ago, I had a very bad flight… Between the turbulence, thunder, and lightening, the flight left its mark.”
What’s something that most people are afraid of that you are not?
Amusingly, while I’m now a nervous flyer, I’m not afraid of heights. My highest rock-climbing record is 900 feet. In fact, my favorite climb is Seneca Rocks because near the top, one of the last pitches requires you to step out from a small ledge over a sheer drop of about 800 feet. It’s exhilarating.
What’s the scariest place you’ve ever been?
After studying to be an anthropologist, I worked for the World Bank doing post-conflict reconstruction, with my first assignment in Rwanda just four years after the genocide. Given the tenuous situation, there was a curfew every evening at sundown. Wherever you were at 6 p.m., you were there for the night—which for me was usually the Hôtel des Mille Collines (aka the hotel in Hotel Rwanda), where over a thousand Tutsi fled for their lives during the war. While doing field work, I had an unarmed driver who would escort me around the country to conduct interviews and gather information to help design projects. I talked to all sorts of people, from individuals who were attacked during the war, to those who lost loved ones, to those who slaughtered their own families. With each trip, there were concerns about landmines, getting hijacked, and running into rebels or guerilla forces. Then there was the smaller enemy—mosquitos that could infect me with malaria or dengue fever. As a petite woman just out of grad school, it was one hell of a first job to start my career.
Have you ever had premonitions or known when something was about to go wrong?
I wouldn’t call it premonitions, but my work in war-torn countries amped up my spidey senses, honing my instincts on people and situations. Once, I was in a famine-stricken village in Burkina Faso near the Sahel Desert, where the annual income was less than $10 USD. I sat outside with the village chief and leaders in a men’s drinking circle as we wrapped up our discussion on living conditions when a cell phone chimed in the distance. Since no one who lived in that village could have afforded a cell phone, I knew that someone in the area was likely linked to gangs that had been stopping and robbing cars carrying aid workers. I quickly thanked the village chief for his time, said we needed to leave, then asked my driver to take the longest route back to the hotel, as the gangs would not expect us to use those roads. For the first 20 minutes of that slow, nerve-wracking ride, my driver and I anticipated an ambush around every turn. I was ridiculously happy to get back to my concrete block hotel that evening.
Have you ever had an incident that totally freaked you out?
Normally when I travel in the bush, at night I do a quick check to make sure there aren’t any large bugs in the bedsheets. One night, I didn’t remember until the lights were out and I was already lying down. Exhausted from the day, I half-heartedly propped myself up on my elbow and lifted my pillow. Something large and dark crawled over the side of the bed. I curved my fingers around the edge of the mattress to flick whatever it was onto the ground, then stopped when the hair on the back of my neck raised one by one. Somewhere in my brain I registered that whatever it was didn’t move like a cockroach.
I got up and turned on the lights, then peeked over the side of the bed. It was a scorpion. I went to the hotel front desk to get help, and we eventually found and killed the scorpion. Later, when I had access to the internet, I tried to figure out what kind it could have been. Given where we were and what it looked like, it was probably a venomous fattail scorpion, one of the most dangerous types in the world. My field research team was convinced that a witch had put it there, but that’s another story…
What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever written?
I tried to write a thriller based on my work in post-genocidal Rwanda, doing my best to make it sinister and atmospheric. An editor friend who reviewed it for me kindly noted that perhaps “dark” isn’t my thing because I had people smiling and laughing on every third page.
What person living today terrifies you the most and why?
There are a lot of people who terrify me at the moment, and I mean A LOT, but I’m going to keep this apolitical.
What’s creepier: clowns, dolls, or wax figures?
That’s easy. Clown dolls. I had one as a kid, and after I saw Poltergeist, I made my mom put it in a box then store it in the crawl space in our basement; which then, of course, made me afraid to go down into the basement on my own unless every light was on.
The members of the cast of the horror film No One Can Hear You Scream have not been seen or heard from in three days since a midnight announcement they were broadcasting got cut off midstream with no explanation. The actors, including Cassidy White, Ben Hartman, Jake Abbot, and Ruby Morales, were reuniting at Frostmourne Resort, an abandoned ski lodge recently occupied by the acclaimed horror director Esme Duncan.
Officials from Shadow Crest Village report that they have been unable to reach the lodge by radio. A severe storm has prevented helicopters or vehicles from safely being able to reach the remote lodge.
Reports from other sources allege that relations between Duncan and villagers have been strained because local actress Theo Cloutier, who starred in the movie No One Can Hear You Scream, died in an apparent skiing accident during the filming nine years ago, her body never recovered.
The live stream was broadcast on popular fan site TheHorrified.com and was reportedly going to be the announcement of the cult movie’s sequel. If you have any information, please contact local authorities.
It’s been nearly 10 years since The Lumberjack hacked his way into all our hearts… and spleens… and the backs of our heads.
Leaving his impression, if you will.
And now I’m here to tell all my diehard Horrfied fans that my favorite twisted, brilliant film director Esme Duncan has definitely been in talks with several of the original cast members of No One Can Hear You Scream.
If I had a Ouija board and gathered you all around my grandmother’s mahogany dining room table to ask the spirits what all this means, I think we know what that planchette would spell out: S-E-Q-U-E-L.
Can you even imagine??
Fans of this site know how I feel about No One. I’ve documented alternate endings, posed meta-analysis of the film’s subtext, and written a paper for The Journal of Film and Media Studies looking at feminism and isolation in Esme Duncan’s horror movies. I firmly believe that Esme Duncan is one of the greatest directors of all time, and is paving the way for future female horror directors.
If a sequel is indeed happening—which, as reported last year in Variety after Esme partnered with a development company to purchase Frostmourne Ski Resort, is a serious possibility—then we may be able to finally discover what really happened after that heart-stopping last scene of No One Can Hear You Scream.
For now, Esme seems to be keeping everything secret. But as fans of No One Can Hear You Scream, we are screaming to know.
And we will know.
Check back here for more updates. I may have some exciting news for you after the weekend!
~IzzyScreams
Find out more about the sequel and Izzy’s exciting news…
“Laurie’s Theme” by John Carpenter, from Halloween
I love the main Halloween theme—who doesn’t?—but in some ways, this lesser-known song is even more haunting.
“Detroit” by Disasterpeace, from It Follows
This is one of the most unsettling movies I’ve ever seen, and this song captures that vibe pretty stealthily. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been going about my day only to freak out when I see some random person walking a little too fast right toward me.
“A Nightmare on Elm Street Main Theme” by Charles Bernstein
Total classic! This song is dreamlike, yet completely warped and twisted. I’ve always been afraid to accidentally fall asleep while listening to it.
“Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield, from The Exorcist
Honestly, the reason why this song works so well is because it doesn’t entirely sound like a horror movie theme. It’s got a childlike, repetitive melody that contrasts sharply with all the demonic projectile vomiting going on in the film. Holy hell.
“Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny, from Sleepwalkers
I get chills whenever I hear this song, remembering this cheesy yet haunting early ’90s movie written by Stephen King. Could that mother be any creepier? And those cats! Eeek!
“In Dreams” by Roy Orbison, from Blue Velvet
David Lynch was a total god, and he knew how to create the most terrifying moments on film with the simple placement of a song. Dennis Hopper’s portrayal of a psychotic killer is contrasted so perfectly with this dreamy oldies-turned-creepy tune.
Read more about Izzy Bingham in The Cold Read!
“Season of the Witch” by Lana Del Rey, from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Okay, two things about this movie. One, I’ll never look at a scarecrow the same way ever again. Two, you have to admit the opening sequence is one hundred times better with Lana Del Rey’s soothing, lilting voice singing over it.
“Tales from the Crypt” by Danny Elfman
Come on, you know you’re going through the gates, into the spooky house, through the secret bookcase, down the spiral stone stairs, through the creaky wooden door . . . and yep, you’re opening up that coffin . . .
“Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, from Scream
This song appears in nearly all the Scream movies. Is it because Ghostface always wipes his knife with his right hand after a kill?
“Hello Zepp + Overture” by Charlie Clouser, from Saw
I love how this theme builds in terror and anxiety. It’s composed by a former Nine Inch Nails band member, and the industrial vibes fit perfectly with the claustrophobic feel of Saw.
“Cry Little Sister” by Gerard McMann, from The Lost Boys
Besides being a perfect angsty ’80s song, this tune really mirrors the movie’s themes of yearning, lost youth, and the desire to belong—in this case, to a vampire community. But, hey, when you find your people . . .
“The Killing Moon” by Echo & the Bunnymen, from Donnie Darko
This song is just plain cool. But as the opener for Donnie Darko, it creates a really chilling atmosphere to set up this weirdo cult classic. I’ll never look at bunny costumes the same again.
“Stigmata Martyr” by Bauhaus, from Night of the Demons
Okay, so the lipstick scene in this movie is probably the most . . . um . . . memorable (if you know, you know), but Angela’s dance to this song when she’s possessed is a close second for me. Talk about mesmerizing.
Bill Varner’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Cimarron Review, The Cincinnati Review, Dialogist, Journal of the American Medical Association, New Ohio Review, The National Poetry Review, New Ohio Review, The Penn Review, The Shore, Southeast Review, and elsewhere. He’s been a finalist for the Erskine J. Prize from Smartish Pace and the Maine Literary Award. His chapbook, Leaving Erebus (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019) was selected by Marjorie Maddox as the winner of the Keystone Chapbook Series. He grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and now makes his home in southern Maine.
But what scares him to the bone? Read on to find out…
What is your earliest childhood memory of fear?
I have two brothers, seven and ten years older than I am. We were living in a house with a hatch that opened up directly to the basement’s laundry room. When I was three, my brothers locked me in there. They had a large Frankenstein model four feet high and attached strings to it like a puppet. I was absolutely terrified and just kept slamming my fists against the steel door until they bruised. I can still picture everything—the pile of clothes, the space between the washer and dryer, how many blouses and jeans hung on the clothesline that stretched across the ceiling. Every time I think of it, I feel the same overwhelming fear. I’m terrified just writing this down. I called the Frankenstein model after that “The Cut Monster.” After we moved, I found it again in the attic. I still remember the exact positioning of its arms and face’s shade of yellow. Needless to say, I never went in the attic again.
People often say death is their greatest fear. What are your feelings about death/dying?
My first panic attack about death happened when I was eight, and I continued to have them for years. Having a chronic disease for as long as I have, it’s a good day when I don’t think about death. I’m also a bit of a hypochondriac—but it’s also well-placed anxiety. Death isn’t my greatest fear now. I’ve somewhat come to terms with it. I’ve researched so many near-death experiences. I binge them on YouTube and have a ton of books with theories and beliefs about the afterlife. I do believe in some kind of life after death—at least that consciousness goes on. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We are not a body with a soul. We are a soul with a body.” What scares me the most is the process of dying. The pain, the weakness, and on and on. When I die, I want it to be fast. A widow-maker heart attack for instance. Let’s hope that’s not a premonition. Or maybe it wouldn’t be bad if it is. When I’m 90.
What are your phobias?
Ledges. Not necessarily heights. I like to be up high in a skyscraper behind windows. But get me near a ledge and my legs grow incredibly weak and my arms shake. I’ve often thought that if I was reincarnated, in a past life, I fell from a high place. It just really gives me the willies.
Alan Orloff has published fourteen novels and more than sixty short stories. His work has won an Anthony, an Agatha, two Derringers, and two Thriller Awards. He’s also been a finalist for the Shamus Award and has had a story selected for The Best American Mystery Stories. Alan lives and writes in South Florida, where many scary creatures live.
Read on to discover what other scary creatures keep him up at night…
What is your greatest fear?
Not sure these are my greatest fears, but they do get my heart pumping. First, ever since I was in a deadly train crash, I’m a little apprehensive when driving over train tracks. In a battle between pick-up truck and locomotive, truck always loses. Second, ever since a harrowing incident on a golf course in a freak thunderstorm, I’m, uh, respectful of lightning. A guy was pinned under an overturned tractor which was leaking gas as lightning struck all around us. Fortunately, he was rescued unharmed—but definitely not unshaken.
Is there any fear you’ve overcome in your life? How has that changed you?
As a kid, I was afraid of the water. My mother would take me to different pools—one each summer, for maybe five years—for lessons, but I never conquered my fear of drowning. Finally, four decades later, I decided I was being ridiculous. I took some lessons and learned how to swim. Now, I swim for exercise a few times a week. (Of course, I don’t swim in water over my head. Baby strokes, er baby steps!)
What person living today terrifies you the most and why?
Is this a trick question?
What are your phobias?
I have a (well-publicized) cheese phobia. Any dairy, or anything that looks like dairy, grosses me out. Not a fan of white, squishy, oozy, gelatinous food (except, weirdly, mayo and ice cream. Go figure, ice cream doesn’t gross me out!).
What’s the scariest experience you ever lived through?
I’ve made three emergency plane landings (as a passenger, not a pilot), complete with fire engines racing down the runway next to the aircraft. Zero stars, DO NOT RECOMMEND. You might want to think twice before flying or traveling on a train with me. On the other hand, I live to tell the tales, so maybe you DO want to travel with me—I’m good luck!
Deborah Lacy’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Fault Lines, Shhhh…Murder! , Mystery Weekly Magazine, Murder Most International, and the Anthony Award Winning Anthology Blood on the Bayou She is the editor of the new short story anthology, The Most Dangerous Games, which includes stories from Heather Graham, JD Allen, Alan Orloff, K.C. Selby, P.M. Raymond, and others.
Do dangerous games scare her? Or is it some other sinister thing that brings terror into her heart? Like drinking a coke, perhaps??? Read on to find out…
When I hear that song, even if I don’t hear the scream, I feel the scream inside of me. It sounds and feels like someone is in terrible pain. Different versions of the legend say different things. In one version, the cover model interrupted recording so the manger stabbed her, and the band keep playing. In another, she was burned from the boiling honey poured all over her during the album photo shoot, and it killed her. The one I heard most often was that she was covered in hot honey while lying on a table. The shoot took so long that the honey hardened. When she finally tried to get up, her skin was ripped off her body, killing her.
Never mind sound studios are soundproof by design. Never mind album cover photo shoots didn’t happen while songs are recorded. Never mind that model is still very much alive. The scream sounds real, and the stories were repeated and repeated.
“She was burned from the boiling honey poured all over her during the album photo shoot, and it killed her.”
Do you enjoy scaring other people?
I enjoy scaring other people with my writing, but not in person. If you pick up a short story or a book in a particular genre, you’ve agreed you’d like to be frightened. But in real life, there are enough real things to be frightened of, so I don’t try to scare people.
My 12-year-old next-door neighbor kid has a completely different philosophy.
What’s your favorite horror movie or television series?
Stranger Things. I’m excited about the upcoming last season—November 26, 2025. Here’s the teaser for season 5. Happy Thanksgiving.
What is your favorite monster/villain?
I’m going to pick two because it’s a tie between the Weeping Angels in Dr. Who and Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones.
The Weeping Angels are monsters that look like marble statues that can only move or get close to you when you blink. But as soon as someone tells you, “Don’t Blink” it’s all you want to do. It’s nefarious because blinking is involuntary, but you can only save yourself if you can harness control. The whole concept is diabolical.
Cersei Lannister is another of my favorite villains. She’s truly evil, but as you get to know her family, and see what other people in power did to her, you realize how easy it was for her to become evil. Throw in some ambition, and the position of women in royalty, and you get the toxic cocktail that is Cersei.
Curtis Smith has published over 125 stories and essays, and his work has been cited by or included in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Spiritual Writing, The Best Small Fictions, The Best Microfictions, and the Norton anthology New Micro. He’s worked with indie publishers to put out five story collections, two essay collections, seven novels, and one book of creative nonfiction. His 2020 novel The Magpie’s Return was named one of Kirkus’s best indies of 2020, and his 2023 novel The Lost and the Blind was a finalist for Foreword Reviews’ Best Indie of the year. His latest novel, Deaf Heaven, came out in May 2025.
But what strikes fear in his heart? Read on to find out…
What is your greatest fear?
If I’m being honest, my greatest fear isn’t some evil force from the outside world—it’s the inner worry that someday I’ll stop being productive—and in turn, stop being self-sufficient—and all this will domino into becoming a burden to those I love. And unlike the thousands of frivolous fears I’ve entertained over the years, there’s a decent chance this one is waiting for me somewhere down the road. My only reassurance lies in the fact that today is not that day.
What is your earliest childhood memory of fear?
I was four or so when I got lost in the neighborhood supermarket. My mother doesn’t remember this—and perhaps it was nothing more than her turning at the aisle’s end while I considered a cereal box’s cartoon figures. But when I looked around and found myself alone, the world opened up and swallowed me. I still remember how tall the shelves were and how small I felt. I think all of us carry cornerstones of fear—and I’m sure every moment of panic in my life contains a bit of that long-ago afternoon.
“I was four or so when I got lost in the neighborhood supermarket. …When I looked around and found myself alone, the world opened up and swallowed me. I still remember how tall the shelves were and how small I felt.”
What is the scariest thing you remember from childhood?
There were a number of books that frightened me—not the text so much as the images. And of course, the more they scared me, the more I returned to them. One was from a Ripley’s Believe it Not (bought at my elementary school’s book fair—thanks, Scholastic!). Those pages were filled with pen-and-ink renderings of oddities—and this one was about a woman from some royal European family who was afraid of the dark and refused to sleep at night. I can still see the picture of her holding a candle, her eyes wide. Another was from a little booklet about Abraham Lincoln I bought on a family trip to Washington, D.C. Near the end was a photograph of the four hanged conspirators—one a woman—all with hoods over their heads. I was probably nine or so, and for a year, maybe two, I couldn’t lie down to go to sleep without those images looking down from the foot of my bed.
Amy Mason Doan is the bestselling author of the just-released novel The California Dreamers, as well as Lady Sunshine, The Summer List and Summer Hours. Before turning to fiction, Amy worked as a reporter and editor for The Oregonian,San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Forbes, and other publications, where she interviewed everyone from beer-brewing monks to billionaire CEOs. Amy has an M.A. in Journalism from Stanford University and a B.A. in English from U.C. Berkeley. Amy grew up in Danville, California, and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.
But what terrifies her to bits? Read on to find out…
Is there any fear you’ve overcome in your life?
Public speaking. I’ve quit jobs because they wanted me to do it, but I’ll stand up in front of crowds now to promote my books. As a midlist author, it’s important. I underwent hypnotherapy to get up the guts for my book launch before my first novel came out in 2018.
And now people say, “You’re such an extrovert! You’re a natural up there!” etc.
I. Am. Not.
I just know how to fake ease quite well now. I’m proud of my courage, and there are nice moments—especially when I’m done. But it’ll never be fun for me.
What are your phobias?
Veins! Omg, veins.
This girl in seventh grade knew I didn’t like wrist veins. I’d made the mistake of telling her they bugged me. So one day in our English class she decided it’d be hilarious if she pantomimed digging hers out with a pencil across the room from me. I nearly fainted.
Unfortunately, I have “difficult” veins for phlebotomists, whatever that means. They aren’t visible, and it can be hard to get an IV going with me. Once my mom was sitting with me as I got prepped for a knee surgery in San Francisco (skiing injury in Tahoe!).
And the nurse said, “Oh, you’re a tough one. And she kept poking and poking me, and I was bleeding quite a lot from one arm that had a lot of failed attempts.
My mom, who also hates veins, got so woozy at the sight she had to put her head between her knees. All the doctors and nurses rushed to help her, ignoring me as I bled out…
Kidding. I was fine. But my mom and I still laugh about that day.
“The nurse said, “Oh, you’re a tough one. And she kept poking and poking me, and I was bleeding quite a lot from one arm that had a lot of failed attempts.”
