Horror Joy is a podcast by two university professors who take a deep dive into horror in hopes of finding joy lurking in the shadows.

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Brian and Jeff interview USA Today bestselling author Luke Dumas about horror’s link to joy, his path into the genre, and his novel Nothing Tastes as Good. Dumas describes early horror influences with his father, writing seriously since high school, and how Edinburgh inspired his first horror novel. In discussing Nothing Tastes as Good, he cites Stephen King’s Thinner, his experience growing up fat, and the fatphobic cultural discourse around GLP-1 drugs as key inspirations, aiming to depict the systemic horror of living in a fatphobic society. He addresses weaponized “health” language, gym shame, social media’s superficial acceptance, and autobiographical family dynamics. Dumas critiques unfaithful casting in new Carrie adaptations, previews his 2027 zoo-set thriller We Don’t Call Them Cages, and recommends the film Obsession for its emotional, tragic horror.Find more from Luke here: <a href="https://www.lukedumas.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.lukedumas.com/</a>Check out our previous Meet Your Maker episode with Briana N. Cox, author of Indigent<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2lWSrvablN9VCyeQi6TXJ3?si=kG2oivg2Qi2WK-07L0kV4w" rel="nofollow">Spotify</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/briana-n-cox-on-meet-your-maker/id1747568054?i=1000791976082" rel="nofollow">Apple Podcast</a>And Check out our ongoing Series on WitchesThe Witch (Eggers 2015)<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7tIWAcBQwGIIJ1RN0mr0gX?si=_yljnhdqQfmGNreHi_2ebA" rel="nofollow">Spotify</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vvitch-2015-witches-1/id1747568054?i=1000790891485" rel="nofollow">Apple Podcasts</a>The Autopsy of Jane Doe (Ovredal, 2016)<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hzMEnZdSeCtw1IpAN59Jx?si=eWAcQAZBQ0yTWIFUu5mTRA" rel="nofollow">Spotify</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-autopsy-of-jane-doe/id1747568054?i=1000793198453" rel="nofollow">Apple Podcasts</a>

Luke Dumas on Meet Your Maker

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From an AMC parking lot in Central Pennsylvania, Brian offers an immediate take on Other Mommy (a James Wan-produced Blumhouse/Atomic Monster film, retitled from Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House) with mixed expectations due to the cast (Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, and child actor Arabella Clarke) and skepticism toward Blumhouse style.Brian praises the acting—especially Clarke’s balance of innocence and fear and Chastain’s multiple character work—but argues that the film becomes a jump-scare mechanism that breaks suspension of disbelief, particularly in act two, as parents repeatedly leave a threatened child alone.While the first act’s setup and monster intrigue work, the mythology feels mishandled, the characters’ “conversion” to the supernatural happens too early, and by the third act the monster and logic feel silly; they also note an “icky” use of Dichen Lachman and faint anti-abortion undertones, though a ball-pit sequence effectively taps parental anxiety. Check out our other Fresh Cut Episodes wherever you get podcasts<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-joy-fresh-cuts-resident-evil-2026/id1747568054?i=1000790555134" rel="nofollow">Resident Evil </a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-joy-fresh-cut-resident-evil-stale-slice-edition/id1747568054?i=1000791334807" rel="nofollow">Resident Evil (Stale Slice Edition) </a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horror-joy-fresh-cut-resident-evil-stale-slice-edition/id1747568054?i=1000791334807" rel="nofollow">Backrooms </a>

***Horror Joy Fresh Cut: Other Mommy

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***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD***Brian and Jeff cut deep into the 2016 film The Autopsy of Jane Doe as part of their witch-themed Horror Joy series. Set almost entirely in a Virginia morgue, the film follows father-son coroners Tommy (Brian Cox) and Austin Tilden (Emile Hirsch) as an unidentified, externally pristine corpse becomes a mystery that unravels through forensic clues, escalating eerie events, and a reversal of the “mad scientist” trope as rational method fails. The hosts read the film through themes of women’s bodies as objects, inside/outside violence, sexual abuse and persecution, the male gaze, and revenge, suggesting Jane Doe becomes what society projected onto her through torture. They examine the morgue as a gothic, possessed space, question why Emma dies, and analyze the film’s turn to Leviticus 20:27 and problematic Bible translation/authority. They end by praising the minimalist “mystery box” structure, performances (including Olwen Kelly), and rewatch value.Come for the horror, stay for the joy!

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

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Brian reunites with author Brianna N. Cox to discuss her March release, Indigent, after earlier conversations about Sinners and Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory. Cox frames horror as a genre of empathy and connection that makes taboo fears communal and cathartic, and she compares horror and romance as “go big or go home” forms driven by intense emotion and physicality. She explains Indigent as a “worm vampire” novel that invokes vampire tropes without explicit vampirism, using cannibalistic, vampire-adjacent monsters to explore consumption, addiction, and late-stage capitalism among impoverished characters. The title references “medically indigent” patients and foregrounds U.S. healthcare trauma and distrust across a diverse ensemble cast. Cox argues horror is inherently political, shaped by social anxieties, and discusses double standards around AI controversies. She highlights BIPOC Vampire Day charity work and notes Indigent’s dual-narrated audiobook release in October via Simon &amp; Schuster.<a href="https://brianancoxwriter.com/" rel="nofollow">Briana N. Cox</a><a href="https://www.threads.com/@pedroparo2" rel="nofollow">Briana on Threads</a>

Briana N. Cox on Meet Your Maker

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Jeff returns with a “Horror Joy Stale Slice” to discuss Resident Evil after missing opening night due to post-BlizzCon illness.He teases future Horror Joy topics from Blizzard news (a Diablo announcement, a long-horizon StarCraft title, and World of Warcraft’s upcoming roguelite “Talebound” set in Drustvar or Revendreth). He largely agrees with Brian’s take, emphasizing the film’s distinctly video game-like cinematography (first-person flashlight/gun shots, claustrophobic “cinematic closet”) and wondering whether hyperreal gaming blurs fantasy and reality, contributing to cultural numbness and “main character syndrome.” Jeff argues the film’s jump scares are efficient rather than cheap, and that Cregger balances darker horror with humor, reading themes that can include class, modern healthcare, and genetic meddling. He highlights Austin Abrams’ performance, cameos by Paul Walter Hauser and Zach Cherry, recurring gun-ineptitude humor, local business shout-outs, and ways to follow/contact the show.

***Horror Joy Fresh Cut: Resident Evil (Stale Slice Edition)***

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Brian and Jeff Horror Joy begin a spooky-season series on witches by discussing Robert Eggers’ 2015 film The Witch, outlining its colonial New England setup in which an exiled Puritan family suffers escalating losses and turns toward suspicions of witchcraft and the devil, culminating in Black Phillip’s invitation to “live deliciously.” They trace Western and Christian obsessions with witches to the Middle Ages, emphasizing Malleus Maleficarum’s patriarchal fixation on female sexuality, and connect witch labeling to control, scapegoating, and contemporary Christian nationalism. The conversation links the film to Milton’s Paradise Lost via a “temptation narrative” reading, highlights dualisms (inside/outside, conceal/reveal, body/soul, girl/woman), and considers how Eggers’ period accuracy creates “prosthetic memory” while the horror largely arises from isolation, religious literalism, and family projection rather than constant supernatural spectacle.

The VVitch (2015) - Witches 1

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Brian shares spoiler-free thoughts after seeing Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil.He argues Cregger’s work (from Barbarian to Weapons to this film) carries a sense of fun, and praises Resident Evil for evoking video-game mechanics through camera perspective, rule-bound worldbuilding, and a self-aware celebration of playing games. He highlights effective, earned jump scares, strong movement through spaces, and accessible storytelling even without game knowledge. The film also raises themes of parenthood and the anxiety of creating life amid wars, rising costs, social backlash, AI, and climate change, alongside class critique through a courier protagonist trapped in gig-economy precarity. Brian ultimately recommends the movie for its music, snowy setting, Austin Abrams’ performance, sharp humor, and “dangerous look” cinematography that withholds information to sustain tension.

***Horror Joy Fresh Cuts*** - Resident Evil (2026)

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Jeff interviews British author Craig Wallwork about the connection between horror and joy, his early exposure during Britain’s “video nasty” era, and how his father desensitized him by explaining gore effects, creating a rare bond through film. Wallwork describes becoming a writer via transgressive and neo-noir influences before turning to horror 17 years ago after his daughter’s birth, using horror to process fear and anxiety through a story about a sleep pandemic and a father chasing the sun to keep his child awake. Discussing The Instruction Manual to Being a Vampire (2026, Trueborn Press), he explains rejecting vampire tropes and grounding vampirism in a blood-transfusion condition, with the vampire targeting “bad people,” and choosing a priest mentor figure for trust and access to confessions. He also previews a possession novel, There’s Something in the Fucking Basement, and shares recent horror joys, including mainstream recognition, women creators, and watching horror with his son.

Craig Wallwork on Meet Your Maker

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Brian and Jeff continue their camp horror series with Charlie Polinger’s 2025 film The Plague, set at a 2003 summer water polo camp where the central terror is not a slasher but toxic masculinity, bullying, and an ambiguous “plague” used to create in-groups and out-groups. They discuss how the plague functions as scapegoating and surveillance, how Ben (a new kid with a speech impediment) and eccentric Eli become targets, and how Jake’s bully leadership reflects power dynamics and absent/ineffective adults, including counselor “Daddy Wags” (Joel Edgerton). Finally, Brian and Jeff discuss the film’s dread-filled underwater cinematography, minimalist score, and ending centered on Ben’s blood-soaked, frenetic dance in addition to some discussions of broader plague narratives. And of course, they discuss joy.

The Plague (2025) - Summer Camp (Slasher) 3

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Brian and Jeff interview Glasgow-based award-winning writer, editor, and musician Neil Williamson about the relationship between horror and joy..Neil frames horror as the fun of “relishing the darkness” through traditions like Halloween and campy horror. Williamson recounts his path into writing via lyric-writing in a teenage band and into horror through the UK’s Carry On Screaming, Universal monster films, and authors like Stephen King, James Herbert, and Ramsey Campbell. They discuss Neil&#39;s BSFA-winning anthology Blood and the Bricks, and how he has reworked folk-horror tropes by relocating isolation, insular communities, and mythology into urban settings. This move was influenced by his novella Charlie Says and UK public information films, Cold War fears, and post-Brexit political shifts. The conversation also touches on contemporary surveillance anxieties, highlights stories such as “Dance Macabre” and “Hagstone,” and ends with Williamson’s recent horror-joy recommendations.

Neil Williamson on Meet Your Maker

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Brian Onishi and Jeff Stoyanoff continue their summer camp slasher theme with 1983’s Sleepaway CampThey are joined by guests Jo Vallese (editor of It Came From the Closet) and T (Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies), and frame the film through queer horror, trans horror, and the queer concept of camp. They discuss the film’s shift from idyllic opening to tragedy, its child and teen cruelty, predatory cook, and boundary violations, and how its notorious ending positions Angela as both killer and “final girl,” raising questions about identity, consent, and whether Angela’s gender is self-determined or imposed by Aunt Martha. The panel explores reclamation and rehabilitation, audience reactions (including a NYU screening with trans and nonbinary students), the Reagan-era backdrop, a gay male gaze reading via Viet Dien’s Sontag-inspired essay, and how the film differs from Friday the 13th through accidental camp, queer rage debates, failures of adult authority, and unusual violence against children. Dont&#39; worry, they find joy too.

Sleepaway Camp - Summer Camp Slasher 2 (with Joe Vallese and S. Trimble)

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Horror Joy: Meet Your Maker with Kailee Pedersen Brian interviews horror writer and opera singer Kailee Pedersen on Meet Your Maker about the relationship between horror and joy, which Pedersen links to the genre’s transgressive freedom, including psychological unsettlement and marginalized protagonists. Pedersen discusses her writing origins (starting seriously at 13, early Neopets fan fiction, and supportive teachers), her path from poetry and creative nonfiction to novels, and how horror “found” her through an interest in uncomfortable, suppressed aspects of human psychology. They talk about her books Pastorale, Sacrificial Animals, and The Minimalist, including how The Minimalist draws heavily from real experiences in classical music: pressure, failure, mental health, suicide, racialization, antisemitism, and homophobia. They explore trauma-based “haunting,” genre as marketing, first-person narration, prepared piano references, and Pedersen’s current horror joy in playing Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPGs.Pre-order Kailee&#39;s book, The Minimalist, which is out August 18th on St. Martin&#39;s Press.<a href="https://kaileepedersen.com/the-minimalist/" rel="nofollow">https://kaileepedersen.com/the-minimalist/</a>

Kailee Pedersen on Meet Your Maker

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Brian and Jeff return from a July hiatus for a Horror Joy series on summer camp slashers, beginning with Friday the 13th (1980).Their discussion focuses on sexuality, gender roles, and moral judgment, the absence of adult authority and supervision, and how the camp functions as a microcosm for late-1970s/early-1980s anxiety around Reagan-era politics and youth economic prospects, drawing on Kara M. Kvaran’s socioeconomic analysis and related scholarship.They end by sharing joys of slasher nostalgia, pre-cellphone disconnection, practical effects, and invite listeners to email about a possible Discord.

Friday the 13th - Summer Camp Slasher

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Brian and Jeff are joined for a special episode of Meet Your Maker by Spider One and Krsy Fox to discuss their upcoming film Big Baby (VOD August 7) and the relationship between joy and horror. Spider and Krsy trace their creative paths from small-town upbringings through music, acting, and songwriting into filmmaking, emphasizing that making your own work overcomes industry gatekeeping. They explain how Big Baby’s writer protagonist reflects frustrations with disposable modern criticism and explores storytelling’s power and responsibility, including a meta take on the author/filmmaker as a kind of slasher. They detail designing the original Big Baby mask with Little Shop of Gore, balancing gore with psychological thriller elements, and maintaining safety and a supportive “family” set culture. They tease possible Big Baby 2 and cite revisiting the Evil Dead series with their horror-loving daughter as current joy.

Spider One and Krsy Fox on Meet Your Maker

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On Horror Joy, Jeff is joined by author Michael Boulerice about his novella Inhalation (released June 16). Boulerice shares his origin story—writing nonfiction essays online before shifting to horror 4–5 years ago with help from developmental editor Alex Woodrow—leading to short-story sales and publishing with Dead Sky (including Feeding the Wheel). Michael and Jeff discuss why haunted house stories endure as fears of a corrupted safe space, then talk spoiler-light about Inhalation’s decaying home, Catholic family dynamics, weaponized belief, and Alice in Wonderland’s Caterpillar as cosmic-horror inspiration tied to Boulerice’s late father-in-law, whom the book tributes. ﻿Boulerice previews a themed collection, Ether’s Wood Elementary Primer (summer 2027), plus novels in progress, and cites recent joys like Widow’s Bay, Beyond the Walls, The Backrooms, and the film Human Lanterns.

Michael Boulerice on Meet Your Maker

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Jeff hosts a solo episode of Horror Joy: Meet Your Maker with author Amy Jane Stewart, who grew up in Edinburgh, lives in the Scottish Borders, and whose debut novel Hex House (Titan Books) is a feminist horror fairy tale released spring 2026. She is also completing a University of Sheffield PhD on winged women and received Creative Scotland funding in 2023. Stewart describes horror’s connection to joy through nostalgia for boundary-pushing media, the welcoming horror community, and horror as a safe space to explore big feelings and loss of control. She recounts deciding at 26 to pursue publication, facing rejections, finding her voice in creepy short fiction during an MA at York St John, and ultimately signing with an agent and a 2024 book deal, with Hex House blending fantasy and gothic horror. They discuss genre boundaries, haunted houses as subversions of home and trauma, Hex House’s dual perspectives (Ellie and Siobhan), and Stewart’s next dark-academia horror novel, plus recommendations including The Lamb, The Brides, and The Memory Tree.

Amy Jane Stewart on Meet Your Maker

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Jeff interviews horror author Josh Hanson (King’s Hill, The Woodcutters, Fortress, Marshbank, Minotaur Stories) about the relationship between horror and joy, which Hanson links to story-driven pleasure, safe transgression, and chasing the intensity of childhood fear. Hanson recounts discovering writing in college, burning out after an MFA at the University of Montana amid anti-genre attitudes and market-focused training, then returning to fiction around age 50 and establishing a daily routine that led to his debut. They discuss why haunted houses resonate as violations of domestic safety, and Hanson’s upcoming novel Calliope Street (out July 29), a triptych about Jack and Avery, a fixer-upper with a basement collage “altar” that functions as a portal, identity misrecognition and threat, and suspicion after Avery’s disappearance. Hanson cites Dario Argento’s vibe-first approach as inspiration and discusses recent horror that is bringing him joy. <a href="https://joshhansonbooks.com/" rel="nofollow">Josh Hanson</a>

Josh Hanson on Meet Your Maker

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Brian and Jeff welcome Shane Hawk, a Cheyenne and Arapaho horror writer and editor, creator of the Native Horror Index, and contributing editor at Counterpoint Press acquiring and editing Indigenous North American writers. Hawk explains how horror can produce joy through safe distance, catharsis, and the chance to rewrite grim histories by letting Native characters survive and resist stereotypes. He recounts early influences (Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, a childhood Halloween scare), returning to intense reading in adulthood, and self-publishing Anoka in 2020 before COVID led him to spearhead Never Whistle at Night with co-editor Ted Van Alst, evolving from a Discord/Twitter idea to a Vintage deal and major sales. He discusses horror community support, the anthology’s themes of revenge and community, his comfort centering Native perspectives, co-writing the stage audio-drama The Land Has Spoken, launching the directory-style Native Horror Index.The sequel to Never Whistle at Night, titled Back for Blood, is set for August 18, 2026.<a href="https://shanehawk.com/" rel="nofollow">ShaneHawk.com</a><a href="https://nativehorrorindex.com/" rel="nofollow">Native Horror Index</a>

Shane Hawk on Meet Your Maker

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Jeff welcomes Damir Debanic, owner of InterHuman Games, to discuss his upcoming board game Jure Grando, a Croatia-based, vampire-adjacent folklore horror title on GameFound.Debanic describes horror’s cathartic link to joy, his path from organizing events in 1990s Croatia to 15 years at sea, and why board games are “programming with paper” and a vehicle for story. He explains that horror board games mainly appeal to board gamers drawn in by theme, then outlines Croatian vampire/štrigoi lore, krsnik monster-fighters, and how Slavic mythology informed Dracula’s supernatural elements.Jure Grando emphasizes simple folk protections, no dice, minimal combat, and a two-phase race against encroaching darkness, a demonic cat, and the endgame arrival of Jure Grando, with multiple scenarios and endings.Debanic also summarizes prior games (Within Walls, Propuh, and Fear of the Dark) and previews future folklore projects and a possible Jure Grando sequel.<a href="https://interhumangames.com/" rel="nofollow">InterHuman Games</a>

Damir Debanic (Creator of Jure Grando)

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On Horror Joy’s Meet Your Maker, Brian is joined by Undertone writer-director Ian Tuason. They discuss the relationship between joy and horror, distinguishing joy as a sustainable state from fleeting happiness and describing horror as a creative outlet that can offer safe thrills and catharsis, especially for people shaped by trauma. Tuason recounts his path from writing poetry, stories, and short films to making a low-budget feature designed around sound, which he chose out of necessity and because audiences’ imaginations make the unseen scarier than visuals. They discuss Undertone’s reliance on silence, noise-canceling headphones, and off-screen space, as well as its religious imagery rooted in Tuason’s Catholic upbringing, where guilt functions like an antagonist and Mary and Abzu represent opposing sides of a maternal archetype. Tuason shares that he is rebooting Paranormal Activity, drawing on the first three films’ unseen terror while exploring the male gaze as a nemesis.

Ian Tuason (dir. Undertone) on Meet Your Maker

Horror Joy is a podcast by two university professors who take a deep dive into horror in hopes of finding joy lurking in the shadows.