Staring Into the Abyss: A Podcast

This week, we're drilling deep into Adam Nevill's "Yellow Teeth," as printed in his story collection Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors. Our Week in Horror discussion centers around John Lees's comic book Mountainhead, Andrew J. Stone's All Hail the House Gods, and John Wayne Communale's Mage of the Hellmouth. Then, we discuss the premiere episode of WandaVision! Along the way we also solve a lot of the world's biggest problems and tackle the thorny issue of ebook pricing and digital bundling. (Recorded Jan. 17, 2021)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Recorded in the aftermath of the January terrorist attack on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., Richard, Matt, and Michael reflect on recent events and the legacy of the Trump presidency, which culminated in an attempted coup and the overthrowing of the November 2020 presidential election results. Then, we move onto our Week in Fictional Horrors and talk about the Chainsaw Man manga, Nico Bell's Shiver: A Chilling Horror Anthology, Max Booth III's bathroom horror novella We Need To Do Something, Starving Ghosts in Every Thread by Eric LaRocca, and our experiences playing Cyberpunk 2077. After that, we discuss our Story of the Week, The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper! (Recorded Jan. 10, 2021).

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Authors Chad Lutzke and Tim Meyer join us for a spoiler-filled discussion about their novel, Wormwood, what their collaboration was like, and the influences behind their dark coming-of-age tale.

Before all that, though, we discuss Junji Ito's Remina, J. Blake Fichera's Scored to Death 2 More Conversations with Some of Horror's Greatest Composers, Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana, Ronald Malfi's Mr. Cables, and various works from Stephen King, including the premiere of The Stand miniseries. (Recorded Dec. 20, 2020)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Author Jeremy Robert Johnson (The Loop) joins us in the Abyss to discuss Jack Ketchum's wicked and potent short story, "The Rifle," as well as the connections between violence and mental illness. Our weekly round-up segment includes reviews of Nemesai by Brian Keene and John Urbancik, Repo Virtual by Corey J. White, Villimey Mist's Nocturnal Farm, HBO's comedy series The Righteous Gemstones, Keith Rosson's Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson, and Ronald Kelly's Season's Creepings. (Recorded Dec. 13, 2020)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Author Eric LaRocca joins us in the Abyss to discuss Clive Barker's short story, "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," from The Books of Blood Volume 2! We also discuss the Shudder films Anything for Jackson and the Castlefreak remake, the sci-fi novel Space Station Down by Ben Bova and Doug Beason, Nocturnal Blood by Villimey Mist, and Steve Stred's The Future in the Sky. (Recorded Dec. 6, 2020)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

This week, reviewer, podcaster, and one of the Ladies of Horror Fiction, Tracy Robinson joins us to discuss body horror and her work on the forthcoming release of the Sci-Fi & Scary charity anthology, Twisted Anatomy: A Body Horror Anthology, benefitting the Pulmonary Hypertension Association and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

We also talk about the Shudder exclusive film, May the Devil Take You Too, Matt gives a progress update on his reading of Laird Barron's Worse Angels, and Hallmark Christmas movies. (Recorded Nov. 29, 2020)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Author Hailey Piper (The Worm and His Kings) joins us in the Abyss for an in-depth discussion of masks, identity, and control as we explore Eugie Foster's Hugo Award-nominated and Nebula Award winning story, "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast."

We also talk about DC Comics's The Three Jokers, Stephen Graham Jones's The Only Good Indians, the anthology Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, and Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. Plus, Matt's latest revelations prompt us to reopen The X-Files! (Recorded Nov. 22, 2020)

"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" can be read online for free at Apex Magzine, or listen to Lawrence Santoro's narration of this story on episode 682 of Escape Pod.

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Author Jessica Guess (Cirque Berserk) joins us in the Abyss to discuss Gwendolyn Kiste's feminist recontextualization of Dracula's first victim in the short story, "The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra's Diary)." We also discuss Brandon Cronenberg's feature film Possessor and why Matt is so afraid of Cool Whip, Ronald Malfi's latest novella Mr. Cables, the works of Christopher Pike and RL Stine, and the folk horror novel The Five Turns of the Wheel by Stephanie Ellis. (Recorded Nov. 15, 2020)

"The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra's Diary)" can be read online at Nightmare Magazine.

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

It's our super-sized 50th Episode and we celebrate with a special Listener Mailbag. This week, the Abyss gazes back! You asked, we answered. We also discuss the Halloween release of the Creepshow animated special, the latest Benson & Moorhead film, Synchronic, the non-fiction book Behind the Horror, Chris Sorensen's trilogy capper The Messy Man, and Gemma Amor's Girl on Fire. (Originally recorded November 1, 2020).

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring

Author and podcaster Matt Wildasin joins us this week to discuss the children's classic, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! Along the way, we also talk about the Shudder Exclusive movie, The Mortuary Collection, Castle of Sorrows by Jonathan Janz, Jonathan Raab's The Crypt of Blood, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Borat 2. (Recorded Oct. 25, 2020)

The theme music, "Insidious," was created by Purple Planet Music and is used here under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Follow Staring Into The Abyss on Twitter: @intostaring