Talking Scared

What’s even real anymore?   Some of the best horror writer’s ask that question. Some, like Michael Wehunt, live in the spaces in between.   Michael’s new novel, The October Film Haunt bends reality in fascinating ways, in a story about online legend, digital demons and analog horror  – all the stuff that keeps me awake at night.   We talk about all of it, as well as formative found-footage movies, and whether we need a new ethics for online storytelling. It’s a deep, intelligent chat (just like the book).   Enjoy. Don’t open strange emails or watch unmarked VHS tapes. WhiteFace Explained - Bloody Disgusting I'm A Search and Rescue Office For the US Forest Service...   Other books mentioned: Greener Pastures (2016), by Michael Wehunt Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman Last Days (2012), by Adam Nevill Horror Movie (2024), by Paul Tremblay The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), by Carl Sagan If You Knew Me (2025), by S.P. Miskowksi Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week brings a bumper episode, cos Philip Fracassi never stops. Since he and I last spoke, in 2022, he’s published a wealth of amazing, terrifying, heartfelt horror, emerging as a major voice, and one of my favourite writers.   First we spend a good hour on Philips’ new novel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre – talking about geriatric slashers, elderly protagonists and how Phil’s own loss transformed the novel. Then we take a tour through some of his other books, including the modern classic Boys in the Valley and the nasty demonic desk romp, Gothic.   Plus, a lot of info about future books and movie adaptations.   Enjoy! Phil is fantastic company.   Other books mentioned:   St Joseph's Orphanage - Buzzfeed Article Boys in the Valley (2021), by Philip Fracassi Gothic (2022), by Philip Fracassi A Child Alone With Strangers (2022), by Philip Fracassi No One Is Safe (2024), by Philip Fracassi The Third Rule of Time Travel (2025), by Philip Fracassi Serafina (2026), by Philip Fracassi The Thursday Murder Club (2020), by Richard Osman Fahrenheit-182 (2025), by Mark Hoppus “The Veldt” (1950), by Ray Bradbury Daytide (2026), by Chris Panatier The Reformatory (2023), by Tananarive Due Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror (2025), by Ashley Cullins   EVENT LINKS Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets     Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you like your vampires slick and suave or rugged and raging? If it’s the latter, you’ll very much enjoy KeithRosson’s Coffin Moon. It’s a 70s-set bareknuckle revenge road trip of a book, with some of the meanest vampires you’ll ever meet (and love).   Keith is back in the show for the second time in a year, to talk all about it. We get into his problem with ‘classic’ vampires aesthetics, the lure of backstory, taking hard advice from editors, and violence… a whole lotta violence!   This is a joy of a book, and a blast of a conversation.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson The Devil By Name (2024), by Keith Rosson Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (2025), by V.E. Schwab King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill   EVENT LINKS Good Boy Book Launch, with Gemma Amor (October 10th) – Tickets Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th) – Tickets Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets     Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s walk or die this week on Talking Scared, as we’re joined by the screenwriter of The Long Walk.   JT wrote and directed 2024’s cult-hit Strange Darling, and now he’s brought his pen to bear, in finally bringing Stephen King’s beloved early novel to the screen. Along with director, Francis Lawrence, JT has created one of the best King adaptations EVER(!!) and he joins me to talk about exactly how they got this shuffling monster over the finish line.   JT tells us all about his journey from actor to writer and director and his feelings about creative control. We discuss the obvious structural hurdles that kept this film from being made for so many years. We acknowledge it’s strain of very dark humour, but also how seriously the movie contends with the threat of the gun in American life.   It’s a good conversation about an awesome movie.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

School is back in session. Professor Langan is here!   No-one gives good literary conversation like John Langan – and this week he returns to Talking Scared to discuss the watery influences, metafictional experimentation, and snake-legged women in his new collection: Lost in the Dark and Other Excursions.   It’s my favourite collection of John’s so far, and as ever, he merely used it for a jumping-off point into a cosy fireside conversation about all the books and stories that he keeps in his Alexandrian Library of a head!   It’s the most accessible college course you’ll ever take. Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   The Fisherman (2017), by John Langan Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies (2022), by John Langan Survivor Song (2020), by Paul Tremblay Fever House (2023), by Keith Rosson King Sorrow (2025), by Joe Hill Great Expectations (1861), by Charles Dickens Dombey and Son (1848), by Charles Dickens Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Bronte Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature (2025), edited by Becky Spratford “Lamia” (1820), by John Keats She Said Destroy (2017), by Nadia Bulkin Issues With Authority (2025), by Nadia Bulkin A Game in Yellow (2025), by Hailey Piper   EVENT LINKS  Powerhouse of Horror Party (October 24th, 2025) – Tickets Creepaway Summer Camp (June 29th – July 3rd 2026) – Tickets   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready for some rough rural Gothic?   Kailee Pederson’s Sacrifical Animals was one of my top horror novels of 2024. I missed Kailee first time round, but now the book is out in paperback, I jumped at the chance to speak to her.  I was NOT prepared for how highbrow this would go though. From a story about toxic families, American Gothic and Chinese mythology, we found our way to opera, classic Latin texts, and more.   But we also talk about violence and sex and evil. So it really does cover all the bases.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned: Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Bronte East of Eden (1952), by John Steinbeck Blood Meridian (1985), by Cormac McCarthy The Road (2006), by Cormac McCarthy Absolom, Absolom (1936), by William Faulkner Salome (1893), by Oscar Wilde   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And so this infected Summer of the Stand comes to an end. With Part Two of The End of the World As We Know It – more conversations between contributors to this epic anthology, each expanding King’s OG novel in new ways.   This time around we have 8 guests, each armed with a story, pitted together in four short burst of conversation. I’m not saying who, cos that would spoil the fun… but there are BIG names. We discuss sadness and hope, evil birds and heroic dogs, varied visions of the far far future, and we look at how the Superflu has ravaged other parts of the world beyond the USA.   This anthology really is a who’s who of horror in this golden, apocalyptic age of ours – and it’s been a privilege to put these episodes together for you.   But I am off for a nap now.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No full treatment of The Stand would be complete without a look at Mick Garris’ landmark television adaptation. In 1994 he put together an adjacent epic, transforming 1300 pages into 8 hours of prime-time viewing.   It was my introduction to Stephen King. It is one of my fondest memories with my dad.   So it’s a true honour to get Mick on the show to talk about how it all came together. The scriptwriting with King, the killer cast, the Hollywood gossip, and the traffic-stopping shoot.   Plus, we talk about how Mick’s creative life has been entwined with King’s – for better or for worse.   Enjoy   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Summer of The Stand continues!   We may have reached the final pages of the novel, but the power of its story expands ever outwards. Now we turn to the brand-new anthology of stories set in King’s plague-shocked world   In The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, editors Brian Keene and Christopher Golden have pulled together 36 of the biggest and brightest names in horror, and charged them with expanding Captain Trips and the good-versus-evil battle to new frontiers.   With so many contributors to consider, no single roundtable could ever suffice. So I’ve done something a little different, and a little more befitting of this mammoth project. It’s a lot of conversation, about a lot of very different stories.   Enjoy!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fourth Let Us Palaver Nat is all about The Stand and Randall Flagg, and how it all connects to The Dark Tower – all the stuff that Chris (and you virgin listeners) could not, should not, yet know.   We also get especially geeky (even by OUR standards) about all the easter eggs and Tower references that Nat has packed into his short story for the forthcoming expanded Stand anthology.   If you’ve been to the Tower before, enjoy this. If not, stay away or the Dark Man will get you!   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices