Staring Into the Abyss: A Podcast

The walls of sanity begin to collapse as our hosts, Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and author Michael Patrick Hicks discuss the film adaptation of Dr. Sleep, Weird Westerns, Dean Koontz's Nameless series, the media tie-in novel, Alien: Prototype, by Tim Waggoner, Baby Yoda, and the apocalyptic delivery boy simulator, Death Stranding, where you can poop your way across America! Then our hosts launch into a spoiler-filled discussion of Jeff Strand's comedy-horror novel, Clowns vs Spiders!

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

Special guest Nadia Bulkin steps into the Abyss to discuss Kelly Link's short story, "The Specialist's Hat," and the debt horror writers owe to urban legends and superstition. Nadia also makes a special pledge to our readers and listeners! Before we dive into our spoiler-filled discussion, though, Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and Michael Patrick Hicks discuss the Boom! Studios comic book Something Is Killing The Children, the season finale of Creepshow Season One, Robert Eggers's The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, Muzzleland Press's anthology, Behold the Undead of Dracula: Lurid Tales of Cinematic Gothic Horror, and Daniel Kraus's Blood Sugar.

You can read Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat" on her website at https://kellylink.net/specialists-hat

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

On this episode of Staring Into The Abyss, a very tired Scott Kemper tells us about his late, late night seeing The Misfits play at Madison Square Garden and hitting the cinema to see the debut of Robert Eggers's latest film, The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Co-hosts Matt Brandenburg and Michael Patrick Hicks discuss Betty Rocksteady's short story collection In Dreams We Rot, episodes four and five of Shudder's original series, Creepshow, Nicole Cushing's The Half-Freaks, as well as Daniel Kraus's Halloween thriller, Blood Sugar, from Hard Case Crime, and news on his upcoming collaboration with the dearly departed George A. Romero for Tor's Summer 2020 release of The Living Dead. Our intrepid hosts also briefly talk about HBO's debut episode of Watchmen and Adam Nevill's latest folk horror novel, The Reddening. Then, the group breaks out into a spoiler-filled exploration of John F.D. Taff's third installment in his serialized novel, The Fearing, and how it stacks up against 2019's other big apocalyptic event-novel, Chuck Wendig's Wanderers.

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

Join us by the fire and carve off a slice from the Yule Log - it's Christmas in the Abyss! In this special holiday episode, Scott, Michael, and Matt discuss X-Mas horror, like Valancourt's Victorian Christmas anthologies, Krampus, and Hark, The Herald Angels Scream. Then, they settle in, all cozy and warm, for an in-depth, spoiler-filled conversation about the 2017 holiday flick, Better Watch Out! Happy holidays!

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

This week, our hosts Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and Michael Patrick Hicks discuss the Merrimack Halloween Book Festival and its panels on foreign cinema and horror versus thriller, as well as Stephen Chbosky's Imaginary Friends, Shudder's Creepshow episodes two and three, One Cut of the Dead and Hulu's Starfish, the director's cut of Midsommar, and John Hornor Jacobs' latest release, A Lush and Seething Hell. Then, it's on to a spoiler-filled discussion of Joyce Carol Oates's 1966 short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have Been," its connection to the Pied Piper of Tuscon serial killer, and whether or not you can drive if you have hooves.

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, Scott and Michael pressure Matt into buying Jeff Strand's Clown vs. Spiders, go off on book buying binges of their own, and talk about library sales and vintage movie novelizations. Then they launch into an in-depth, spoiler-filled discussion of The Latham-Fielding Liaison, a just-released limited hardcover collection of four stories co-written by Matthew M. Bartlett and John Padgett, and available exclusively from Nightscape Press. The gang also discusses Todd Keisling's The Smile Factory and corporate horror, The Serial Murders of Mars, Batman: Damned, and the perks and perils of trade waiting for comic books.

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

Hosts Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and Michael Patrick Hicks take a deep, spoiler-filled dive into Books One and Two of John F.D. Taff's apocalyptic serial novel, The Fearing, its potential legacy in the years of horror to come, how it stacks up against 2019's other big apocalypse novel, Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, and the insanity of Big 5 publishing. Other topics include Matthew M. Bartlett's If It Bleeds, the movies Us and IT: Chapter Two, click-bait articles, and Michael shares his special theory on plagues and daycare.

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

John F.D. Taff, author of the apocalyptic serial novel, The Fearing, joins hosts Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and Michael Patrick Hicks for an in-depth, spoiler-filled discussion of Clive Barker's short story, "Dread." Find out how "Dread" shaped Taff as an author and inspired his own work in horror. Also discussed: Brent Michael Kelley's Doomsday Furnace, Junji Ito's manga book, Spiral, the cosmic horrors of John Langan, and the box office hit, Spider-Man:Far From Home.

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

Staring Into The Abyss hosts Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and author Michael Patrick Hicks discuss their favorite horror stories and influences. This week's round-up of the films, books, and TV shows they've been consuming include Amazon's original series, The Boys, the director's cut of Midsommar, and Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing's anthology of pizza horror, Tales From The Crust, and other new releases like Monster, She Wrote and Hunter Shea's slasher book, Slash! Plus, Scott goes to Necronomicon!

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

Episode 1 introduces listeners to the Staring Into The Abyss podcast. Join hosts Scott Kemper, Matt Brandenburg, and author Michael Patrick Hicks as they discuss the many troubles they've had in launching this podcast before launching into spoiler-filled discussions of Shudder's first episode of their new horror TV series, Creepshow, the classic Joe R. Lansdale short story, The Night They Missed The Horror Show, and more!

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