Black Magic Treehouse

What do you do when you have an opportunity to record a podcast episode and you've done no preparation whatsoever? You shoot the breeze, of course! Or the 'bumps. Eric and Jose reminisce about the ghoulish godfather of '90s children's horror, R.L. Stine, and his plethora of peculiar paperbacks. Reader beware--we'll throw our arms in the air like we just don't care!

On this Very Special Episode of Black Magic Treehouse, Jose regales Eric with a tale of his own creation: a little ditty crafted in childhood that bears more than a passing resemblance to Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and, needless to say, Mortal Kombat. Evil Mirror tells the story of a boy's horrific (and surprisingly action-packed) encounter with his shadow self. Tune in for a heartfelt moral about how sometimes, the things we fear the most have been less than twenty steps away from us the entire time.

Halloween is over, except in our hearts. Join Eric once more as he runs down the second half of his October watchlist, offering thoughts on first-time watches including The Stendhal Syndrome, the Spanish-language version of Universal's Dracula, Offseason, Basket Case, Lord of Illusions, Satan's Rhapsody, The Bloody Pit of Horror, Books of Blood, Tourist Trap, Five Nights at Freddy's, The Night Strangler, The Hole in the Ground, The Haunting of the Queen Mary, Psycho II, Insidious Chapter 3, and Blind Beast.

Also I don't know the ethics of utilizing works created by AI in a I'm-not-profiting-off-this context, but just in case a citation is needed, this episode's art was created by Stable Diffusion.

Jocelyn Heaney's anthology about our friend the shark contains precisely one good story. At least that's the way Eric remembers it from his time spent with the collection following a Scholastic book fair in 5th grade. And by "good" he means someone gets eaten by a shark and it is goretastic. Jose is also here, relating memories of trips to the beach that include monster roleplays under tree tunnels and tricking his mother into thinking he's being attacked by a bloodthirsty ocean creature. Or something to that effect.

Eric took the October Challenge, and since nothing is valid unless you're sharing it online, he decided to drop a bonus podcast series all by his lonesome detailing his thoughts on the horror movies he's watched this month! Part One includes mini-reviews (or ramblings) for: Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Funhouse, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, 1922, Possessor, Meg 2: The Trench, Twins of Evil, Destiny, Skinamarink, The Stepfather, House on Haunted Hill, The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales, The Strangers, Shivers, and We're All Going to the World's Fair.

On the first of two VERY SPECIAL Halloween episodes, Jose and Eric discuss the ninth entry in a post-Goosebumps anthology horror series entitled (You're Invited to a Creepover) by the mysterious, and apparently pseudonymous, P.J. Night. They swap Halloween memories, recommend Halloween activities, and occasionally say things about the actual book. Fangs for stopping by!

On part two of our Are You Afraid of the Dark? retrospective, we discuss the three-part meta-episode, The Tale of the Silver Sight! Jose and Eric bag on child actors, bag on the writing, and bag on the look and feel of the post-revival show. But they love it...they swear.

Opening music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

As the last dog day of August slips by, join us on a trip to a utopian ladder-filled library as we pore through junior encyclopedias for classic creature features. The yellowing pages! The crummy Xeroxed black-and-white photographs! The musty scent of a book that ought to have been "weeded" (an industry term, apparently) decades ago. Ah, nostalgia, thy name is Crestwood. Also, Jose and Eric discuss why they will probably never do a Godzilla themed-episode. (He boring! Go ahead, cancel us.)