Horror Joy

<p>Brian Onishi and Jeff Stoyanoff discuss Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Beloved as a haunted house and ghost story that forces readers to reckon with the historical traumas of chattel slavery, racism, and the...

<p>Jeff is joined by Scottish writer Jane Flett, whose debut novel Freakslaw is out from Doubleday (UK) and Zando (US), with a forthcoming novel Welcome to the Chaoskampf (May 14). </p><p>Flett describes how horror and...

<p>On this episode of Meet Your Maker, Brian is joined by Aimee Pokwatka to talk about her novel Accumulation and the link between horror and joy. </p><p>Pokwatka distinguishes pleasure from deeper joy and argues horror...

<p>Brian and Jeff continue their haunted house series on Horror Joy with guest Ally Malinenko, discussing her middle grade novel This Appearing House alongside R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps debut Welcome to Dead House...

<p>In this episode Jeff and Brian welcome award-winning writer and editor Dan Coxon to discuss his new book, Come Sing for the Harrowing (Clash Books, April 2026), and how it interrogates and reshapes folk horror’s...

<p>In this episode of Horror Joy, Brian and Jeff examine Zach Cregger’s 2022 film Barbarian as a haunted house story without the supernatural, arguing the “haunting” comes from misogyny, capitalism, and systemic failure...

<p>Brian and Jeff interview horror author Rachel Harrison (The Return, Such Sharp Teeth, So Thirsty, Black Sheep) about the relationship between horror and joy, her writing origin story, and her novel Play Nice...

<p>Jeff and Brian continue their Horror Joy exploration of haunted houses by discussing the 1982 classic Poltergeist.</p><p>They ask whether the film functions as a conservative celebration of the nuclear family's...

<p>In this episode of Horror Joy, Jeff talks with author Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold, about the relationship between horror and joy</p><p>Sullivan links the joy of horror to subverted expectations...

<p>Jeff and Brian begin a Horror Joy mini-series on haunted and haunting houses by discussing Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining and the Overlook Hotel as a possibly sentient...

<p>Brian and Jeff are joined by author A.C. Wise to talk about joy in horror, her books The Ghost Sequences (2021) and Out of the Drowning Deep (2024), and her new novel Ballad of the Bone Road (Jan. 26, 2026)...

<p>In this Horror Joy episode, Jeff and Brian discuss the 1992 film Candyman as the final entry in an “academic horror” course, focusing on how the movie links urban legend, the university, and racialized violence...

<p>Jeff and Brian are joined by director Rod Blackhurst about his forthcoming independent horror film Dolly, releasing in theaters only on March 6, 2026. </p><p>Blackhurst explains how horror can produce joy by...

<p>This episode of Horror Joy turns to academic horror through Mariama Diallo’s 2022 film Master, set at the fictional elite Ancaster University. Our discussion treats the film’s central claim that what haunts is not...

<p>In this episode of Horror Joy, we dive into the intertwining relationship between horror and joy with guest Daisy Pierce, author of 'Something in the Walls,' 'The Missing,' and 'The Silence.' </p><p>Daisy shares her...