The season of novelty typefaces looms before us and so does the perfect time to rescreen a vintage horror film. I'll be announcing my screening of B-Movie Producer Roger Corman's Creature from the Haunted Sea with Ghoulish, a free font designed Canadian art director Gary Pullin, a man who takes unnatural delight in putting the chill into a serif.

Readers who frequent PCWorld’s font downloads may already know the four frights of Savage's Sinister Visions Font Quartet. No slouch at font creation, Savage proposed a collaboration. Pullin replied by sending a master file of his letterforms. These were re-mastered in Adobe Illustrator. The pair filled the gaps in the set; Savage hit the send button; and Ghoulish went digital.

Ghūl, the font's namesake, is a late 18th century Arabic term for a shape-shifting desert demon said to rob graves and devour corpses. The font Ghoulish resembles not so much a ghastly gourmand as the dark forest where this demon sleeps off the banquet. Pullin’s top serifs are twigged--winter-bare and fragile. The emphasis on weight in the font’s vertical stems mimics a heavy trunk, with lower serifs adding the effect of bare roots.

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Weighty Ghoulish works in measured doses of 72 points and above. Narrow counters and a minimal use of negative space within angled letters like W, M and V become a problem at 60 points and below.

To use this Corman-inspired novelty face in your collection, think like the producer himself. This year's family vacation video deserves new titling. For your consideration: "Bad Seeds of the Back Seat," set large as a scream in Ghoulish. Ghoulish comes with a commercial-free license. As long as you don't claim the font as your creation, there will be no scary calls from lawyers when your production goes viral.

Note: To use this font, unzip the folder and install the .ttf file in the folder C:\Windows\Fonts. Note that the font won't appear in your applications until you close and re-open it. For more guidance see How to Install and Uninstall Fonts in Windows.

--Kate Godfrey