Mostly Horror

We're bringing back our Mostly Horror rubric for another movie, this time with the 1987 Disney animated film, The Brave Little Toaster. It's a movie that we watched as young kids, and despite it being a Disney animation, its nightmare scenes, eerie music, and dark undertones still unsettle us to this day. That's why we put it to the test to determine whether we'd  consider it not a horror film, horror adjacent, mostly horror, or a certified horror film. 

We take into consideration its iconography and put it through the campfire test (would it still be horror if it...

In this episode, we welcome back filmmaker Leigh Whannell, the co-creator of horror franchise favorites like Saw and Insidious, and the director of films like The Invisible Man and Wolf Man. He’s back as a producer on the latest film in the Insidious franchise, Insidious: Out of the Further, coming August 21st.

Leigh shared how Insidious came about from a desire for creative freedom, discussed his creative partnership with James Wan, the lasting impact of Saw and Insidious, and how these franchises have evolved over the years. Plus, we got into the story behind “Tiptoe Through the...

This week, we bring back Xanthe, one of the hosts of the podcast Kindergeist, to talk about children’s horror. After catching up on all the latest news with her podcast and her current PhD research on children’s perspectives on horror, we put our “Is It Horror?” rubric to the test with another film: Coraline.

This time, we break down the film’s intent and horror iconography, try out the “campfire test” (would this still be a scary story if told around a campfire?), and more to decide whether this amazing stop-motion animated film is not a horror film...

This week, we're trying something new.

Our show is built around the idea that some films may not be "traditional" horror, but still feel mostly horror, or at least horror-adjacent. To explore that idea, we've created a rubric to determine whether a film qualifies as horror.

For our first attempt, there was no better film to put to the test than Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. We're joined by our friend Bruce as we evaluate the film across five categories: its intent, its storytelling DNA (how much of the film is built from horror storytelling), the...

This week, we sat down with writer, producer, and showrunner Nick Antosca, the creator behind the shows Channel Zero, The Act, Brand New Cherry Flavor, and the new Apple TV+ series Cape Fear, whose season finale just aired.

Nick shared how Jaws and Night of the Living Dead first introduced him to horror as a child and also gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what a showrunner actually does. We also discussed Cape Fear and how he reimagined the iconic story for modern audiences, reinvented Max Cady with Javier Bardem in the role, and approached the adaptation...

This week Director Nicolas Winding Refn joins us this week for a wide ranging conversation covering his career from Pusher through Bronson, Drive, and Neon Demon, up to his latest film, Her Private Hell, starring Sophie Thatcher. 

Refn returns after a ten year break from feature filmmaking, following a near death health scare he's been open about. He breaks down his creative process in detail, including his use of a triangle structure to connect disparate ideas into a single story, and how images, rather than plot, are always his true starting point.

Its a great c...

Steve and Sean are flying solo this week, no guest, just the boys catching up and diving into Evil Dead Burn. We open with our July travels then get into the news: remembering Sam Neill, the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake landing at Paramount Primal, and David Howard Thornton joining Behind the Mask 2: The Return of Leslie Vernon.

Then it's a full breakdown of Evil Dead Burn, Sébastien Vaniček's entry in the franchise and the first chapter of the new trilogy kicked off after Evil Dead Rise. We get into what we expected walking in...

This week, we're rewinding the clock and bringing back an interview from five years ago! We sat down with Richard Vreeland, better known as Disasterpeace, the composer behind It Follows, as well as films like Bodies Bodies Bodies and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

In this episode, we talk all about his collaboration with director David Robert Mitchell, how Mitchell discovered him through his soundtrack for the game FEZ, the intense three-week time crunch in which he composed the It Follows score, and some of his biggest sonic inspirations, including the  stabbing sounds from Psycho. Disasterpeace a...

In this episode, we caught up with New York Times best-selling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author Paul Tremblay, whose acclaimed novels include The Cabin at the End of the World (adapted into the film Knock at the Cabin), A Head Full of Ghosts, which is currently in the works as a film, Horror Movie, and his latest novel, Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, coming out this week.

We chatted with Paul about all the recent news in his world, from the upcoming A Head Full of Ghosts adaptation to the release of Dead But Dreaming of...

This week, we sat down with actress Natalie Grace, the breakout star of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Natalie shared all the details of her experience bringing Katie’s terrifying mummy form to life, from the audition process and lengthy prosthetic and makeup sessions to performing her own stunts for the role.

She also told us about her very first acting gig at just four years old, the surreal experience of suddenly seeing her own face plastered across billboards this year, and her journey into horror fandom sparked by her role. And of course, she shared some awes...

In this week’s episode, we got to chat with Adrian Chiarella, writer and director of the Australian supernatural horror film Leviticus, hitting theaters this Friday, June 19. Adrian is an award-winning filmmaker who gained acclaim with Dwarf Planet and his television work, and Leviticus marks his feature directorial debut.

We dove into Adrian’s background as an editor and how that has shaped his perspective and work now as a director. Adrian also shared how, as a queer teenager, he turned to horror films and connected with their themes of otherness and identity, and how those influences ulti...

This week, the two of us decided to dive straight into one of the most talked-about and highly anticipated horror films of the year: The Backrooms. What began as a single unsettling image posted online anonymously has now evolved into an A24 feature film, already amassing over $200 million worldwide.

We break down the origins of The Backrooms and how it's evolved over the years, from its roots on 4chan and the rise of liminal horror to becoming a viral YouTube sensation created by a teenager before eventually being picked up by A24.

We discuss what...

This week, we’re joined by Mostly Horror veteran CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture, to discuss her latest novel, Headlights. We caught up on her experience living on the road, talked about the color palettes of her books, and explored how visiting locations shapes her storytelling.

She also shared how the role grief and mortality played into writing Headlights, and what it was like navigating those more difficult themes while simultaneously reaching new highs in her career.

We also spent plenty of time talking about John Denver, UFOs, roadside attractions, and ot...

In this episode, we’re joined by Hugo Docking, a filmmaker and the co-founder of Spare Flesh, a stop motion animation and puppetry studio based in the UK. His work is known for its grotesque puppets, dark musical shorts, and incredible craftsmanship that turns stop motion into body horror and twisted comedy.

Together, we chatted about Hugo’s introduction to horror through Salad Fingers, disturbing British children’s media, and how COVID brought him back to stop motion filmmaking. We also learned all about the universe of Spare Flesh and how a passion slowly became a career. We dov...

In this episode, we’re joined by the director of yet another horror movie in theaters this month, André Øvredal, the filmmaker behind fan favorites like Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Now, he’s back with his latest supernatural horror film, Passenger.

Together, we had an awesome conversation about his history with horror, from a childhood memory of a haunted tennis court movie to obsessively reading Stephen King novels. We also dove into the behind-the-scenes of Trollhunter’s iconic VFX and his approach to finding humanity within monsters.

We...

This week, we’re joined by filmmaker, actor, and comedian, Curry Barker. Alongside his friend and collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, Curry is one of the minds behind the sketch comedy duo That’s a Bad Idea. He’s also the creator of a viral horror film, Milk & Serial, and now, his feature film Obsession is hitting theaters.

In this episode, we delve into Curry’s experience watching The Ring too young, what YouTube comment sections have taught him about trusting your audience, and how he approached making possession movies feel fresh again.

He also tells us about hi...

In this episode, we reunited with writer and director, Damian McCarthy, whose chilling new feature Hokum is now out in theaters. (It’s so terrifying that it reportedly made an audience member pee their pants during an early screening!) Starring Severance and  Parks and Rec actor Adam Scott, the film is already off to a strong box office start.

We chatted with Damian about his experience collaborating with Adam and what he brought to the role of Ohm, the influence of Damian's Irish Catholic background on his writing, and the grueling experience of filming in a burning hot...

This week, we did something new. It's just us, no guests. We're calling this segment "Pscyhoanalyze Me," and the whole idea is simple: you can learn a lot about someone by their movie picks. 

So, in this episode, we put that to the test. We're talking first-date horror picks, villains we'd (maybe?) defend, hot monsters, and what film we'd want playing on our deathbed. Along the way, we're throwing out questions that are personality-revealing and really get you thinking. 

If you're down for some wild questions (and maybe trying to answer them yourself), this episode is...

Hey Horror Fans!

The Book of the Dead is having a moment.

With Evil Dead: Burn dropping this July, Evil Dead: Wrath officially locked in for 2028, and Lee Cronin’s The Mummy keeping the Rise director in the conversation…it felt like the right time to go back to one of our earliest episodes!!

Back in March of 2021 we sat down with George Reinblatt, the creator of Evil Dead the Musical, to talk about what it takes to take one of horror’s most beloved franchises and turn it into a full blown stage...

This week we're talking to Adam Dougherty; the practical effects artist and founder of KreatureKid Studios!!! We chat about monsters, movie magic, and an industry that seems to keep choosing the product and quantity over heart, art and quality ... lt's a conversation about craft, independence, and what happens when the thing you've dedicated your life to gets treated like an outdated over expense.

If you're feeling a little empty about the state of the world, country and industry then this one is for you so...

COME HANG OUT!!!

<...

This week we're talking to Adam Dougherty; the practical effects artist and founder of KreatureKid studios!!! We chat about about monsters, movie magic, and an industry that seems to keep choosing the product and quantity over heart, art and quality...It's a conversation about craft, independence, and what happens when the thing you've dedicated your life to gets treated like an outdated over expense. 

If you're feeling a little empty about the state of the world, country and industry then this one is for you so ...

COME HANG OUT!!!

This week we did something a little different. For the first time ever we have a guest where we needed a translator and honestly... it was a blast! 

We are thrilled to be joined by Japanese story teller Genki Kawamura who is the producer behind Your Name and Suzume, NYT bestselling novelist of If Cats Disappeared From the World , and director of A Hundred Flowers and his latest film Exit 8, the new adaptation of the viral indie horror game!  

We talk about why liminal horror is having such a massive cultural moment, what it reflects abou...

Hey Horror Fans!!!

This week we sat down with comedian, creator and overall personality Katie Hettenback (Aka Katie Afraidy) from the Fangoria podcast Katie Afraidy and got into all sorts of nonsense. 

Stand up horror tastes, the movies that shape you and the ones that expose you. Turns out talking about horror can reveal a little more than you mean it to.. 

A few hot takes, maybe some questionable calls. Nothing we can take back now!! 

Also: Ed Gein bobbleheads, what actually counts as a zombie movie, and childhood goth phases. If...

This week Eric LaRocca is back on Mostly Horror for round three and we’re diving into his newest book Wretch: The Unbecoming of Porcelain Khaw.

This conversation goes to some interesting places. We get into grief, belief, and the ways people cope with loss, especially when that coping starts to drift into something a little more complicated. We talk about seeing meaning where there might not be any, the pull of certain ideas even when you know better, and how easy it is to blur that line.

We don’t really hold back on how...

This week we’re joined by Alec Duckart, the musician behind Searows, to talk about his new album Death in the Business of Whaling and all the stuff that feeds into his work.

We get into horror movies, growing up on things like The X-Files, and the films that have stuck with him over time, along with how that kind of atmosphere and storytelling shows up in his music. It’s a loose, honest conversation about influence, emotion, and making art that feels authentic and lived in sooo…

Come Hang Out!!!

<...

This week we’re joined by writer/director Ian Tuason, whose new A24 horror film Undertone is creeping into theaters March 13. The film plays with a deceptively simple question: what if the scariest thing in a movie isn’t what you see… but what you hear later?

We talk with Ian about building tension through sound, the eerie psychology of playback and EVP recordings, and why something as innocent as a children’s song can suddenly feel sinister when it’s heard through fresh ears. He also tells us about filming the movie in his own childhood home, the...

Writer and director Matthew McManus hangs out with us this week to talk about making movies with family, jumping from comedy into genre, and taking on the multiverse.

From American Vandal to indie sci-fi with his brother Kevin, Matthew’s always had a sharp sense of tone. With Redux Redux, starring his sister Michaela, the McManus siblings build a time bending revenge story that feels intimate, intense, familiar and like something we haven’t seen before. 

We get into collaborating with your siblings, shifting into darker spaces, handling big sci-fi ideas without losing the feeling, and w...

This week we’re joined by visionary artist Skinner!!! The mind behind neon-drenched monsters, cosmic chaos, and some of the most visually stunning artwork in modern horror and heavy metal culture. From album art for Mastodon to Magic: The Gathering, tabletop games, toys, murals, and beyond, Skinner has built an entire universe fueled by imagination, nightmares and obsession.

We dive into his new YouTube series Art Show With Captain Skinner, the evolution of his creative philosophy, and how he balances instinct, technique, ego, burnout, and survival in our modern societal hellscape. It’s a conversation about monsters, mush...

This week’s episode feels like a nice little time capsule.

We start with the latest horror news, including the new game from the studio behind Little Nightmares, updates on Jane Schoenbrun’s upcoming film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, new details on Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series, and the newly announced title for the next Evil Dead installment, Evil Dead: Wrath, directed by Mostly Horror alumni Francis Galluppi, plus a few other stories from around the genre.

Then, since we’ve officially hit five years of Mostly Horror, we take a little time to...

Hey horror fans!! 

This week writer and filmmaker Matthew Robinson joins us to talk about his new genre bending thriller Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die, a modern day Twilight Zone style story that mixes AI, tech obsession, and social chaos with sharp humor and unexpected twists. Matthew shares behind the scenes stories about writing for a stacked ensemble cast, working with actors like Haley Lu Richardson and Sam Rockwell, and what it was like seeing the script transform once a director like Gore Verbinski came on board. He also talks about his breakthrough film The Inv...

This week on Mostly Horror, we’re doing a rewind episode and revisiting our early chat with David Firth, the creator of Salad Fingers and one of the most uncompromising voices in indie horror.

With the state of the world feeling increasingly surreal, scary, and downright absurd, this conversation felt like the right one to bring back. David’s work has always reflected the darker side of humanity with brutal honesty, and supporting independent filmmakers and artists who refuse to pull punches feels more important than ever.

Before the interview, we catch up on horror news...

This week we’re joined by award winning filmmaker Greg Porper, writer, director, and producer of the darkly funny indie feature Don’t Tell Larry, now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. We talk about the film’s evolution from a scrappy web series into a feature, finding the right tone for a workplace comedy that slowly spirals into something more stressful and unsettling, and how a small lie can snowball into complete chaos.

Greg breaks down the real world inspiration behind Larry...that coworker thats just a bit off and no one wants to deal with a...

This week on Mostly Horror, we step into the ring with professional wrestler and horror fan Vinny Pacifico. We talk about the overlap between wrestling and horror, from larger than life characters and spectacle to violence, fear, and performance. Vinny also joins us to discuss his work in horror, including Crimzon Harvest and the wrestling infused Mr. Reset and the Society of Turnbuckle & Bone, plus what’s next for him in and out of the ring! 

And as always, before the interview we run through the latest horror news, and after the conversation we wrap things up wit...

Filmmaker Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Beauty and the Beast) joins Mostly Horror to talk about the power of video games as a storytelling medium, what makes Silent Hill one of the most haunting and enduring horror franchises of all time, and what it was like to return to that world nearly 20 years later with Return to Silent Hill. 

We explore why Silent Hill’s brand of psychological, atmospheric horror continues to resonate, how trauma and guilt shape its monsters, what separates Silent Hill from more action forward horror adaptations, and what truly makes a g...

It’s January, so we’re pulling out the horror crystal ball and looking ahead at what 2026 has in store. Friend of the Pod Gigi Leal (RoomforScream) joins us to go through a stacked list of upcoming horror movies and just… scream at each other like horror fans do.

We get into things we’re excited about, things we’re nervous about, and things we’re already overthinking way too much—covering titles like Evil Dead Burn from Sébastien Vaniček, Robert Eggers’ Werwulf, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple directed by Nia DaCosta, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, and m...

We’re starting 2026 the Mostly Horror way!! Talking horror with friends and arguing about what scared us the most.

For our first episode of the new year, we’re joined once again by Mike Scollins, writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers and a longtime friend of the show. Mike’s been on with us plenty of times before, from general horror hangouts, to breaking down Scream 6, to helping us celebrate past Spook’em Scare’em Awards, and now he’s back to do it again.

This isn’t a traditional awards show. There’s no voting, no wi...

Pull your chair a little closer and turn the lights down. This week on Mostly Horror, it’s just Sean and Steve, inviting listeners to settle in for a set of holiday stories best heard late at night.

After a brief stop in horror news, they share three chilling Holiday tales pulled from dark corners of the internet. A man visiting his mother wakes up to discover something important has vanished. A father tries to capture footage of Santa for his children and ends up watching something he can’t unsee. And two sisters driving through a fore...

With the holiday season in full swing and schedules getting messy, this week’s Mostly Horror episode came together a little differently. With no guest and a last minute pivot, Sean and Steve sit down to talk through what’s been happening across the horror landscape lately.

The episode kicks off with a rundown of recent news, from the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer to updates on the ever evolving world of M3GAN, plus talk of a new Steven Spielberg alien film that has everyone speculating. As always, the conversation drifts, digs...

This week on Mostly Horror, we are absolutely honored to be joined by the writer of Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family, Corpse Bride, Homeward Bound, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty and more... Caroline Thompson.

Caroline is one of the quiet architects of our childhoods, a storyteller whose work shaped entire generations without ever being given or demanding the spotlight. In this conversation, she opens up about discovering her voice, meeting Tim Burton, crafting characters inspired by her animals, and the real Hollywood stories behind some of the most iconic films ever made.

This week on Mostly Horror, we’re joined by the absolute legend: Matthew Lillard. From Scream to Thirteen Ghosts, Scooby-Doo, and now the ever-expanding Five Nights at Freddy’s universe, Lillard has carved out one of the most beloved and eclectic careers in genre cinema. We talk about his long-standing place in horror, the massive energy he brings to conventions, and why fans still rally around characters like Stu Macher after nearly 30 years.

With FNAF 2 on the way, we dive into his role as William Afton, the fandom that made the franchise a phenomenon, and how it feel...