The Horror Heals Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Thomas Lennon spends plenty of time making people laugh. When he’s choosing something to watch at home, though, he’s more likely to reach for horror. "The State" and "Reno 911!" star joins Corey to talk about Christmas at the Kringles, working with director Kevin Lewis, and the fun of improvising alongside a cast that includes Arden Myrin, Rachel Bilson, Ron Li...

Send us Fan Mail For S.A. Bradley, scary movies offered comfort during a childhood filled with fears that followed him offscreen. Growing up in a fundamentalist religious group that predicted the end of the world, he found something unexpected in horror: room to question what he had been taught and characters who understood what it meant to be an outsider. The author of Screaming for Pleasure: How...

Send us Fan Mail You’re awake. You can see your bedroom. You can’t move, and something appears to be standing in the corner. What happens when the psychologist who studies sleep paralysis experiences it himself? Dr. Brian Sharpless joins Corey for a conversation about the strange places where horror movies, psychology and human experience meet. A clinical psychologist, researcher and lifelong horr...

Send us Fan Mail A romantic trip to Italy. An adoption match. A dinner that goes horribly wrong. For the couple at the center of I Don’t Understand You, becoming parents means surviving the vacation first. Kendall talks with married filmmakers David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano about turning experiences from their own lives into a bloody horror comedy starring Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells. Behin...

Send us Fan Mail We’ve spent decades rooting for Heather Langenkamp to survive. Now she gets to be the reason everyone else runs screaming. It’s about time. Heather joins Corey and Kendall to preview "Last Chance Motel," the new slasher directed by and starring Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton. Their characters are getting married at a secluded desert motel, where Heather’s matri...

Send us Fan Mail The Amityville house has been revisited so many times that it’s easy to forget there’s a real town around it. Robert P. Ottone grew up about 20 minutes away. In his new novel, "Amityville Awakens," he imagines the house being torn down and asks what happens next. Robert joins Corey and Kendall to talk about his connection to the case, including the night his father annou...

Send us Fan Mail Haunted house season is here, and we are talking with a man who has been paid to scare people for nearly 50 years. Leonard Pickel has designed or consulted on more than 300 haunted attractions. His résumé includes work for Universal Studios Florida, Six Flags and Madison Square Garden, along with creating Hauntrepreneurs, Haunted Attraction Magazine and HAuNTcon. Leonard gives Cor...

Send us Fan Mail Nicole Davis loves horror. Kendall loves horror. But neither one wants anything to do with a home invasion movie. In Part 2, we compare notes on the horror we simply cannot handle. Home invasions are a big one, but caves, claustrophobia and a few other nightmare scenarios make the list, too. Just because you host or appear on a podcast called Horror Heals does not mean you have to...

Send us Fan Mail Writer Nicole Davis grew up afraid of haunted houses, but not necessarily because of what might jump out at her. She didn’t trust the people inside them. Nicole grew up adopted in rural Alabama, at the end of a road where anyone showing up had a reason to be there. Kids came down specifically to mess with her family. Wild dogs roamed farther back on their property. News of an esca...

Send us Fan Mail In Part 1 with Ash from Dead Puppy Studios , we heard how someone once terrified of horror ended up making human-skin masks and scaring the hell out of people for fun. Part 2 gets even more personal, with a lot of laughs along the way. Ash talks about finding a home in Salem and a horror community where the people who might look scary to outsiders are often some of the warmest and...

Send us Fan Mail Ash from Dead Puppy Studios makes human-skin masks, special effects, creepy props and the occasional skin lamp. Ash has also worked as a scare actor, including a memorable turn as a Southern cannibal grandma. Naturally, Kendall and Corey had to know more. But, Ash’s relationship with horror started in a very different place. For much of Ash’s life, scary movies and haunted attract...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you grow up loving horror in the town that gave us "Night of the Living Dead?" Filmmaker and actor Robert Oppel joins Kendall for a trip through Pittsburgh horror history, beginning with George Romero, "Dawn of the Dead" and the Monroeville Mall. Robert remembers being so obsessed with Dawn that he recorded the Goblin soundtrack from the movie...

Send us Fan Mail Timothy Waldron wanted to be a scream queen. The problem? People in the film industry kept telling her it wasn’t going to happen. She had other plans. Timothy joins Corey for a funny, candid and occasionally very bloody conversation about carving out her own place in indie horror as a trans actress. She talks about discovering horror as a kid, her obsession with Sarah Michelle Gel...

Send us Fan Mail What do donor conception, horror movies, therapy, and horror conventions possibly have in common? More than you might think. In this special crossover episode of Horror Heals and Family Twist , Corey and Kendall welcome psychologist, author, and donor-conceived advocate Dr. Jamie Marich for a conversation that goes far beyond scary movies. Jamie shares how discovering they were do...

Send us Fan Mail On the surface, Demon Twink is exactly what the title promises: a stylish, campy queer horror film packed with demons, dark humor and a deal with the devil. Underneath, it is something much deeper. Filmmaker Steven George joins Corey to talk about creating horror that entertains while exploring identity, aging, love, chosen family and the emotional baggage we all carry. Along the...

Send us Fan Mail What if horror isn't about escaping reality, but facing it? Author Alex Grass joins Horror Heals to discuss his new short story collection, Infernal Tramps , a wildly imaginative blend of unsettling, darkly funny and deeply human horror. Our conversation goes far beyond the page. Alex opens up about recovery, why honesty is essential to healing, and how horror gives us permis...

Send us Fan Mail Can a horror movie become part of your wellness routine? For artist Heather Wagner, it already has. Living with an arthritis-like condition affecting her hands, Heather discovered that creating art while watching horror films became much more than a hobby. Sculpting twisted trees, haunted cemeteries and her signature "soulmate" ghosts helps keep her hands moving, quiets...

Send us Fan Mail When we launched Horror Heals , there was one guest we knew we had to have: Adrienne King. Best known as Alice Hardy, the original final girl from Friday the 13th , Adrienne gave horror one of its most unforgettable survivors. But her most remarkable story happened after the cameras stopped rolling. Following the film's release, Adrienne endured years of trauma after being st...

Send us Fan Mail What if the thing that scares us most isn't lurking in the shadows? Filmmaker Shal Ngo joins Corey and Kendall for a conversation that starts with horror movies and ends somewhere much deeper. They explore why fear can be healing, how horror creates space for empathy, and why understanding the monster might tell us more about ourselves than the monster ever could. Shal discus...

Send us Fan Mail Happy 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks! To celebrate one of the greatest storytellers of all time, we're opening up the Horror Heals vault and sharing one of Corey's favorite interviews. Long before Horror Heals, Corey had the chance to spend an hour with the legendary Mel Brooks. While the conversation covers Mel's remarkable career, horror fans know his impact goes far...

Send us Fan Mail Doug Jones has spent four decades bringing some of the most unforgettable characters in film and television to life. From Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy to Hocus Pocus , The Shape of Water , and Star Trek: Discovery , his performances have helped define modern fantasy and horror. But who is the man beneath the makeup? This week on Horror Heals, Corey sits down with Doug Jones an...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest people to face aren't the monsters? They're family. This week on Horror Heals , Kendall sits down with actor, writer, and producer Rae Jones to celebrate Soul Sisters , a Halloween-set horror short that proves family reunions can be every bit as terrifying as the darkest haunted house. The film follows three estranged sisters who come together hoping...

Send us Fan Mail Let's do the Time Warp. This week, Corey speaks with filmmaker Linus O'Brien, director of Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror and son of Richard O'Brien, for a conversation that feels like hanging out in the lobby after a midnight screening. They talk about Tim Curry's impossible-to-replicate charisma, the magic of Frank-N-Furter, growing up around Rocky...

Send us Fan Mail In part two of our conversation with Spooky Kisses, the discussion shifts from haunted attractions and horror conventions to something even more interesting: the people who make these communities feel like home. We talk about why horror fans are some of the most loyal and passionate people you'll ever meet, the friendships that form inside haunt casts, and why so many scare a...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when horror fans sit down and just start talking? In part one of our conversation with Spooky Kisses, we go everywhere, haunted attractions, horror conventions, scare acting, creepy abandoned places, terrifying childhood memories of secretly watching The Exorcist, and why horror fans always seem to find each other. We talk about iconic haunts like Pennhurst Asylum, Ha...