SHRINK CHAT: Hail to the Deadites, Theatre of Blood, Carrie & Haunt

What would you do if your Halloween haunt got shut down and quietly moved to a hillside in the middle of nowhere?

Content note: The Cursed Films discussion (about 27:30 to 30:30) describes real on-set deaths, including Brandon Lee and the two children killed filming Twilight Zone: The Movie.

It’s Shrink Chat, our weekly horror roundup, recorded the day before Halloween 2020. Cathy tells the story of a limo ride to a haunted maze that felt exactly like the opening of Haunt, and Shannon reports from Joe Bob Briggs’ Halloween Hideaway on Shudder (Haunt and Hack-O-Lantern). Cathy’s Horror Facts lead to a 1976 classic, then we review the Evil Dead fan documentary Hail to the Deadites and Vincent Price’s Theatre of Blood, go deep on Cursed Films, and work out exactly who dies first in a horror movie.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about how expectation sets up disappointment, why we cast ourselves in horror roles the moment something feels off, how fandom builds community, and why real tragedy behind a film changes how we watch it.

Covered in this episode:

• Carrie (1976), Sissy Spacek and Carrie Fisher’s joint audition with Star Wars
• Hail to the Deadites, the Evil Dead fan documentary, with Bruce Campbell
• Theatre of Blood (1973) with Vincent Price
• Haunt (2019) and Hack-O-Lantern (1988) on Joe Bob Briggs’ Halloween Hideaway
• Cursed Films on Shudder: The Crow, Brandon Lee and Twilight Zone: The Movie
• The Telluride Horror Show, shelter-in-place edition
• Black Christmas (1974) and the remake
• Vincent Price classics: House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax and The Comedy of Terrors
• Fright Night, Scream and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• Prime’s Halloween picks: Nosferatu, Hereditary, Midsommar, Cabin in the Woods, Starry Eyes, The House of the Devil, Hell House LLC, The Houses October Built, Bone Tomahawk and Night of the Living Dead
• The final girl and the rules of who dies first

Clinical themes: expectation and disappointment, threat appraisal and horror schemas, fandom and belonging, grief and public tragedy, the final girl trope.

Related episodes:

• HALLOWEEN: Devil’s Night, Samhain & the Real Origins of Halloween
• SHRINK CHAT: The House of the Devil, Ginger Snaps & Stingy Jack
• PSYCHOLOGY: Michael Myers, Laurie Strode & Every Halloween Movie

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Two licensed therapists, one forensic psychologist, one clinical LMFT, take apart the minds behind the crimes.

Until then... sleep safe. 😴
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