SHRINK CHAT: We Summon the Darkness, Freddy vs. Jason & Phantasm

Is telehealth changing therapy for the better, or making it too easy to stay home? Plus a heavy metal after-party that goes very, very wrong.

It’s Shrink Chat, our weekly horror roundup. A patron’s question opens a frank conversation about doing therapy during the pandemic: telehealth versus the office, new boundary conversations, and therapist burnout. Then Cathy’s Horror Facts lead to a 1979 cult classic, and we review We Summon the Darkness, Monster Party, Harvest Lake and Freddy vs. Jason.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about what gets lost through a screen, how clinicians negotiate boundaries and breaks, and why some films lean on brainwashing to take agency away from their female villains.

Covered in this episode:

• Telehealth vs in-person therapy during COVID-19
• Phantasm (1979), the Tall Man and the flying sphere
• We Summon the Darkness with Alexandra Daddario, Johnny Knoxville and Keean Johnson
• Monster Party with Robin Tunney and Julian McMahon
• Harvest Lake (2016)
• Freddy vs. Jason, Kane Hodder and the Crystal Lake Memories documentary
• Ratched with Sarah Paulson
• The Telluride Horror Show and Hail to the Deadites, the Evil Dead fan documentary
• The Friday the 13th box set and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Clinical concepts: telehealth and therapeutic presence, clinical boundaries, therapist burnout, dependency and taking breaks from therapy, nonverbal communication, brainwashing and agency.

A correction: Kane Hodder first played Jason in Friday the 13th Part VII (1988), not Part 4 or 6, and Ken Kirzinger played Jason in Freddy vs. Jason. Monster Party is from 2018.

Related episodes:

• SHRINK CHAT: 1BR, One Dark Night, Flatliners, Slaxx & Hunted
• SHRINK CHAT: The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Fade to Black & Followed

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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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