The Enduring Influence of Ambrose Bierce

Earlier this year, after turning in the manuscript for a new collection of Ambrose Bierce stories, I was watching The Criterion Channel and engaging in an activity that screenwriter calls “eating your vegetables.” In other words, I was finally watching some of those classic movies I’d heard about but had never got around to actually watching.

I had just finished Carnival of Souls (1962), a stylish, low-budget horror flick that seemed to be a retelling of Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Ow...