Brian and Jeff interview horror author Rachel Harrison (The Return, Such Sharp Teeth, So Thirsty, Black Sheep) about the relationship between horror and joy, her writing origin story, and her novel Play Nice.

Harrison describes horror’s joy as catharsis and a safe space for fear, anxiety, and “big feelings,” offering empowerment through survival and, as a writer, control.

She recounts studying screenwriting, moving from LA to New York, working TV jobs, writing short speculative fiction (Bad Dolls), and publishing The Return in 2020.

She discusses finding community—especially through Clay McLeod Chapman and Nat Cassidy—during lockdown and navigating “cafeteria anxiety.” On haunted houses, she emphasizes home as supposed safety, and explores tropes of women not being believed, gaslighting, and emotional abuse, including Play Nice’s book-within-a-book framing.

She previews Kiss, Slay, Replay (Sept. 8), recommends Liz Kerin’s How to Disappear Completely, and praises the Netflix series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.