In this episode we're talking about horror at The Oscars, Demi Moore's (and horror's) snub, and the sex workers who had Anora stolen from them; what's streaming right now, FoundTV online worldwide and exceptional horror shorts on YouTube, The Dead Thing, Bloody Axe Wound, what's coming to theatres, books, and the Bram Stoker Awards.

We discuss:

This article about names in horror, Companion, Opus, Locked, Ash, The Woman in the Yard, Humanist Vampire, Starve Acre, Sator, Criterion's amazing horror catalog.

In online finds: FoundTV, and YouTube horror shorts Baby Fever, Who Goes There, Prey, The Hound, Do You Even SCREAM?

Main events: Richard examines The Dead Thing, a misunderstood slow burn supernatural dating app horror descent. Violet takes the lead in writing a love letter to Bloody Axe Wound, a film with zero faults and an incredible cast and soundtrack. Also much excitement for the Osgood As Dead series, and the Bram Stoker Award novel nominees:

House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias

I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Find all podcast links on our Raised By Horror Linktree (including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and more). Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue. Support us on Ko-Fi!

In this episode of Raised By Horror we’re talking about Oscar nominations, Heretic, Nosferatu, new films in theatres, and horror books we're excited about.

In Oscar noms, we discuss the history of The Oscars ignoring horror films, the few films it has acknowledged, how we feel about Demi Moore and The Substance nominations, as well as Nosferatu and Alien: Romulus noms.

Image via: A24’s ‘Heretic’ from Iowa filmmakers is a test of faith [Iowa Public Radio]

Next we peel back the surprising layers of Heretic, a tense horror thriller that pits two Mormon missionary girls against a terrifyingly charming Hugh Grant. We also pick apart THAT ending, which is still being hotly debated in forums, and the reactions in reviews from different religious review sites. Also, the film's questions about religion and marketing, and how abusers leverage faith to put people in cages.

Then we do a deep dive into Nosferatu: how it compares to other iterations of the canon (see what we did there?), what male reviewers are getting wrong about this particular Nosferatu, and why this film resonates both powerfully and bleakly for women -- particularly American women right now. We pick apart people's expectations of the film, its place in the depictions of female maladies, why it's so similar to The VVitch, and how the film shows us that monsters are created for control -- to decide who is, and is not, "normal."

We wrap up with films and books. Excitement for Heart Eyes, much love for Companion, mixed feelings on The Monkey, why you should pre-order The Butcher's Daughter, and get copies of Bowling With Corpses and The Contortionist's Handbook.

Find all podcast links on our Raised By Horror Linktree (including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and more). Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue. Support us on Ko-Fi!

In this episode we experience excitement and despair about January's lineup for streaming horror on Paramount, Shudder, Screambox, Hulu, Netflix, scary films hitting theaters, and a few upcoming horror books we think might be worth a pre-order.

Shoutouts to:

Everyone who sacrificed for The Blair Witch Project, Shudder, Amish Paranormal Activity, Terrified, Ils, Malum, Red Rooms, Werewolves Within, Horror's Greatest, Terror-Fi Film Fest, Get Away, Grafted, giallo, Super Hot, Lizzie Lazarus, Wither, Stop Motion, Humane, Sophie Thatcher, The Ritual, Adam Nevill, owning your media, Stephen Graham Jones, Presence, Lucy Liu, Companion, Cold Eternity, S.A. Barnes, Nat Cassidy, Nosferatu, Clay McLeod Chapman, Grady Hendrix, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, Eric LaRocca. 

Find all podcast links on our Raised By Horror Linktree (including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and more). Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue. Support us on Ko-Fi!

We have a special holiday episode for you this week! Rumor has it that Charles Dickens used to do public readings of A Christmas Carol every year. Now, we’re going to do our own Christmas Carol for you -- A Sandman Slim Christmas Carol. Join us in taking a sip from the Aqua Regia flask, lighting up a Malediction, and seeing what fresh mess Stark gets himself into this holiday season.

If you're -- like us -- hanging around with some time to kill this holiday season, you've probably noticed that holiday horror new releases are slim pickings this year. We feel your pain! Here are some of our holiday horror streaming reccomendations to help find something to watch that might make the outside world look not quite so bad for a minute:

Netflix: Blood Red Sky, You're Next, The Ritual, There's Something In The Barn, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities Episode 4 (The Outside)

Peacock: Krampus, Inside Look: Nosferatu, Black Christmas, Better Watch Out

Prime: The Legend of Hell House (takes place just before Christmas Eve), Violent Night, Christmas Bloody Christmas

Shudder: It's A Wonderful Knife, all the BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas, The Sacrifice Game, Rare Exports

Need some Sandman Slim ephemera? Check out Richard's Sandman Slim shop. Find all podcast links on our Raised By Horror Linktree (including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and more). Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue. Support us on Ko-Fi!

Why do so many of us love – and even look forward to – holiday horror films? Is it because we’ve always known there was something off about Santa? Maybe we’d rather scream than sing a carol, or boring feelgood Christmas films make us feel stabby?Or is it because the holidays are horrific all on their own?

In this special episode we talk about why people love holiday horror, especially us, and why we see holiday horror as much entertaining and enlightening as it can be a form of self-care. We’ve been looking forward to this show all month, we got all dressed up for you, and we handpicked a selection of films to keep you creeped out long after the creatures stop stirring. Enjoy!

EPISODE FILMS

RICHARD: Hosts, You Better Watch Out, A Christmas Horror Story

VIOLET: Rare Exports, Christmas Bloody Christmas, Violent Night

And we had to add: Anna and the Apocalypse

Find all our links on our Raised By Horror Linktree (including YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and more). Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue. Support us on Ko-Fi!

In a previous episode we talked about movies and TV that seared some of the scariest onscreen moments into our heads as young horror fans. Here we talk about a few (but not all) of our top-tier scariest film and TV we've seen as adults. 

Some are new titles and some are older, but either way these managed to do something most horror can't -- they scared us. And we loved it!

EPISODE FILMS 

VIOLET: The Haunting of Hill House (Mike Flanagan; 2018), HOST (2020), Talk to Me (2023), Hereditary (2018).

RICHARD: Audition (1999), Wolf Creek (2005), Martyrs (2008), Haze (2005).

Find us on Ko-Fi, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Libsyn, and Raised By Horror dot com. Now go smash those subscribe buttons -- and don't blow out the seance candle! Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons]. About: Richard Kadrey. About: Violet Blue.

What makes HBO's The Penguin so compelling, what are our favorite crackpot theories about the show, how is it crime horror, and why do we love to hate Oz Cobb so much? Why does a film like Strange Darling make critics so divided (while we love it so much), and why do we think its handling of power play in a one night stand is sophisticated? 

Find out in this episode where Violet dissects the juiciest bits of The Penguin (start: 1:00) and Richard walks us through the layers of Strange Darling (start 1:05:00). 

In this episode we also stan: Horror for Weenies (Emily C. Hughes), Ghost Station and Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes, The Scourge Between Stars (Ness Brown), A24's upcoming Adam Wingard/Simon Barrett film Onslaught (with Dan Stevens), and more.

EPISODE LINKS

HBO's THE PENGUIN (Start: 01:00)

• Rosario Olivia's painting "Scream Louder, Scream Twice" (seen in the office of Dr. Julian Rush)
• Cristin Milioti’s Favorite Thing About Sofia Falcone? ‘She Doesn’t Tolerate Bullshit’ [ELLE]
• The Penguin - Gotham Cinematography Reel [YouTube]
• How Colin Farrell Transformed Into The Penguin [YouTube]
• The Making of The Penguin [YouTube]
• Most Batman Fans Missed a Major Easter Egg in The Penguin That Could Change The Batman Part II [CBR]
• Penguin theory argues one unsuspecting character is secretly an iconic Batman villain that we haven’t seen since the Christopher Nolan trilogy [GamesRadar]

STRANGE DARLING (Start: 1:05:00)

• NOC Review: J.T. Mollner’s ‘Strange Darling’ is Tense, Twisted, and Terrific [Nerds of Color]
• Flipping the Script on the Final Girl: A Conversation with ‘Strange Darling’ Writer-Director JT Mollner [Script Mag]
• DP Giovanni Ribisi captured the thrilling twists and turns of JT Mollner's 'Strange Darling' on KODAK 35mm color film [Kodak]
• “It’s the Scariest Thing You Can Do” - Z Berg on Strange Darling’s Dreamy Horror Soundtrack [CBR]

Find us on Ko-Fi, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and Raised By Horror dot com. Now go stab those subscribe buttons, and stay out of the woods at night! Theme song: Pop Goes the Weasel by Kevin MacLeod [Wikimedia Commons].

Richard Kadrey and Violet Blue bring you into the world of Raised By Horror -- its origins, why we love the art of horror, how dated storytelling often fails horror, how horror is good for us, upcoming episodes on truly scary (or darkly heartwarming/delightfully bonechilling) films and books, why horror boundaries are important, what to expect with difficult content snd spoilers, and so much more. 

Upcoming shows we talk about include: Films that scared the shit out of us as kids, films that truly scare us now, horror films to watch with friends who don't like horror, and our extra special holiday horror episode!

Video version of this episode is on our Raised By Horror YouTube channel. On this episiode we have guest showrunner Scotland Symons.

Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.” He’s been nominated for the Locus and BSFA awards. Kadrey has also written for comics, film, and video games.

Violet Blue is a six-time award-winning author and journalist, having bylined for CBS News, CNN, Engadget, Financial Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, and more. Her books have sold over 2.2 million copies and translated into five languages.

Support this labor of love on Ko-Fi!

Raised by Horror logo by Quirky Circe. Theme song: Tenebrous Brothers Carnival by Kevin MacLeod

What is horror when you’re young? Werewolves and ghosts? Or is it more complicated than that? Maybe it’s more a fear of the unknown. The new and the strange. When you don’t know anything about the world, an open door or sudden shadow can be as frightening as any vampire. In this episode, we explore how we found our way into horror and it how it shaped (or deformed!) us into the obsessive fans we are today.

There are films many of us saw as kids that scared us, which we consider beloved classics, like Alien and The Thing. But there are certain films that left a mark on us when we were little, even if just one scene we still see in our heads today. That's what this episode is about.

VIOLET: Invasion of the Saucer Men (1967), Salem's Lot (1979), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Legend of Hell House (1973).

RICHARD: Tarantula (1955), The Horror of Dracula (1958), The Haunting (1963), Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Video version of this episode is on our Raised By Horror YouTube channel. On this episiode we have guest showrunner Scotland Symons.

Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.” He’s been nominated for the Locus and BSFA awards. Kadrey has also written for comics, film, and video games.

Violet Blue is a six-time award-winning author and journalist, having bylined for CBS News, CNN, Engadget, Financial Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Popular Science, and more. Her books have sold over 2.2 million copies and translated into five languages.

Support this labor of love on Ko-Fi!

Raised by Horror logo by Quirky Circe. Theme song: Tenebrous Brothers Carnival by Kevin MacLeod