Our First Fears

Episode 27 of Our First Fears is a chat with author, Aaron Starmer, about the Satanic Panic of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. We get into our own memories of the cultural paranoia surrounding the supposed existence of murderous cults and the myriad ways talk show hosts and news reports assured us that they would corrupt our young minds . . . and SOULS.  Aaron Starmer is the author of many books for youn...

In Episode 26, author Mar Romasco-Moore talks about their love for the cult classic Disney film, Return to Oz and how it influenced their latest young adult novel, Deadstream . This is one of our favorite films EVER, and if you haven’t seen it, you absolutely must. It’s got Dorothy Gale escaping a psychiatric hospital, a talking chicken side-kick, the Emerald City in ruins, a headless princess wit...

Bestselling author, Grady Hendrix, joins Our First Fears for Episode 25 to talk about growing up as a cold-war kid, terrorized by constant reports in the 1980s of threats of a nuclear strike. He found strange solace in certain books and movies at that time, specifically Warday , The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun , Special Bulletin , and Threads . We chat about these titles and others, along...

Episode 24 of Our First Fears has creepy middle-grade author, Lorien Lawrence chatting with Dan about Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real life “ghost hunters” who were played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in James Wan’s 2013 film THE CONJURING and its many sequels and offshoots. Lorien’s childhood experiences growing up near the Warrens’ infamous Connecticut home has inspired her own work about...

In this bonus episode, your host, Dan Poblocki, reads another creepy story, this time from his recent novel MORE Tales to Keep You Up at Night , and talks again about the story’s origins. “Imogen’s Skeleton,” is about a shy girl named Imogen who realizes that she may have a few things in common with the model anatomy skeleton that hangs at the back of her middle school classroom. But when she push...

In Episode 23, author Jeramey Kraatz joins Our First Fears to chat about urban legends. If you’re intrigued by tales of killers lurking at lover’s lanes, weirdos hiding under beds who like licking your hand in the middle of the night, creepy calls that come from inside the house, as well as creepypastas and terrifying memes, this episode is sure to send the right kind of shivers up your spine.  Je...

In this bonus episode, Dan reads a chilling and chilly story from his novel Tales to Keep You Up at Night , and talks a bit about the story's origins. “The Psychopath’s Tarot,” is about a trio of teenage friends who trek to a wintery cabin in the middle of nowhere for a weekend of fun and relaxation. But when one of them discovers a strange deck of cards that appears to foretell a frightening...

Episode 22 of Our First Fears brings you author Sam Rebelein, whose fear of Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride runs through his veins, deeper than he even knows. We talk about the creepiness of the Hudson Valley in New York State, where we both live, and how our hometowns have influenced both of us, as well as the Disney artists who went looking for haunted places and found them among the architecture...

In Episode 21 , celebrated author, Adrianna Cuevas, joins Our First Fears to chat about “The Raft” segment from the 1987 anthology film, Creepshow 2 . If you’re intrigued by body horror, questions of morality in scary stories, the science of decomposition, and badly behaved teenage boys getting what they deserve, this one is for YOU. Adrianna Cuevas is the author the middle-grade novels, The Total...

Episode 20 of Our First Fears brings to you horror-author and all-around super-star, Clay McLeod Chapman, as we chat about how he discovered Jason Vorhees as a kid.  YES, we’re finally tackling the 1980 slasher classic, Friday the 13th !  Together, Clay and I wonder if Camp Crystal Lake is a kind of metaphor for America. I get to posit my theory that there are TWO killers in the film, while Clay s...

Episode 19 – Author Eliot Schrefer joins us to talk about James Cameron’s 1986 action/ horror classic, Aliens , which is the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien from 1979. We get into themes of motherhood, survival, isolation, and kick-ass female action heroes, as well as how, as kids, we reacted to the grotesque images of body horror on screen, and then, how we asked questions about what, and who, is...

On episode 18 of Our First Fears , NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, Daniel Kraus joins me in a conversation about Fangoria Magazine – the tentpole horror movie publication that debuted in the late 1970s and quickly became a shocking staple on magazine stands and in bookshops due to the gory horror makeup effects and grody titles displayed on its covers. Daniel Kraus is the co-creator of...

On episode 17, WE ARE BACK . . . this time, chatting with writer and horror podcast-rock-star, Neil McRobert about a movie that made him cry when he was just a wee lad -  James Cameron’s 1984 science-fiction classic, The Terminator . Our conversation runs from ideas of cyborg body horror, to the trope of the unkillable thing that chases you, relentlessly. We poke around in notions of how time-trav...

On episode 16 of Our First Fears , NY Times bestseller, Tracey Baptiste reveals the map of her childhood village where her friends and family banded together to protect themselves from jumbies, the creepy creatures that haunt the Caribbean nation, Trinidad and Tobago, in the dark of night. We discuss the secret things that hide inside the stories we write, how tales of monsters help keep people in...

On today’s episode, author Sara Farizan chats with me about the 1982 cult film  Halloween III: Season of the Witch.  We also tie the film’s themes pretty tightly to her recent YA horror novel, Dead Flip, which is set in the late 80s and early 90s and revolves around a possibly haunted pinball machine.  We get into the pop-culture of cursed objects and cursed capitalism, how nostalgia can be used f...

On episode 14 of Our First Fears , author and illustrator, Derrick Chow joins me in appreciation of the genius and creativity of beloved actress Shelley Duvall’s possibly-accidentally-terrifying television show from the 1980s, Faerie Tale Theatre . Together, we explore the connection between slasher-film final girls and faerie tale heroines, what makes a great faerie tale villain, and whether or n...

We’ve reached lucky episode 13 of Our First Fears , and today, I get to talk with author Russell Ginns, or R. U. Ginns, about the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Together, we dig into how artists use elements of unease to create a sense of paranoia for their audiences. We talk zombies versus pod-people, cults of the 1970s, how much we love actress Veronica Cartwright, and finally,...

Episode 12 of Our First Fears is a conversation with Bram Stoker Award finalist Ally Malinenko about Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and several other classic terrors. We talk about unreliable narrators, teaching horror to kids in classrooms, childhood perception of time, and what truly lies behind Poe’s “pale blue eye,” as well as his Raven’s refrain of “nevermore.” We get p...

On episode 11 of Our First Fears , Pushcart Award nominee, Joe Vallese shows me the path beyond Stephen King's Pet Sematary and up into the haunted hills where the buried-dead have a tendency to rise and wreak havoc on the living. Together, we explore how certain aspects of stories that frightened our childhood-selves can end up being quite different from what gets to us as grown-ups. We talk...

On episode 10 of Our First Fears , debut novelist and creator of monsters, Trevor Henderson and I head to the rear section of the video rental stores of our youths to paw through some of our favorite, and freakiest, VHS horror movie cover art. Specifically, Street Trash, Zombie, The Stuff, The Gate, Suspiria, Alligator, and Fright Night.  We talk about what these poster images have in common, abou...

On episode 9 of Our First Fears , Bram Stoker Award Finalist, Lora Senf and I explore childhood memories of our early love for John Bellairs’s classic novel, The House With a Clock in its Walls , how this book inspired us to tell our own kinds of stories, why Bellairs’s work has sparked a modern cult following, and how writing horror - for kids in particular - is a powerful kind of magic.  Lora’s...

Today, rockstar author Lamar Giles joins me to explore one of the most notorious neighborhoods in all of horror cinema. Elm Street! With this episode, we've begun Our First Fears 's first discussion of Wes Craven's classic film series, but with the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors . Wait . . . What? We talk about how we both came to discover the lore of Fre...

Have you heard of Ophidiophobia? The fear of snakes? Tough-guy action hero, Indiana Jones had it, and so does my wonderfully funny friend, author Elizabeth Eulberg, who is more scared of snakes than anyone I’ve ever met. Throughout her life, she’s somehow managed to continuously encounter dangerous snakes in places where they’re not supposed to be. And yet, she survives still! Thankfully.   In Epi...

In Episode 6 of Our First Fears, novelist and illustrator Ethan M. Aldridge shares their own personal tales of growing up in a supposedly haunted house in Utah. And I chime in with some stories about my own experiences as a haunted pre-teen in north-central New Jersey. We talk about ghosts as metaphor, visit some familiar haunted tropes from favorite fantastical fiction and film, as well as how an...

In Episode 5 of Our First Fears, designer and bestselling author/ illustrator Jay Cooper takes us on a tour of his night-terrors, which leads us down some dark paths of 1970s and 80s children’s entertainment. He takes us through the magic of Smurf-land, into a Labyrinth haunted by David Bowie’s goblins, past the island where Maurice Sendak spent time with his Wild Things, and into Jay’s own office...