SHRINK CHAT: Bly Manor, The Invisible Man, Excision & Urban Legend

Why did The Haunting of Bly Manor make us cry harder than Hill House ever scared us?

Trigger warning: About 22:37 to 23:27 covers the true story behind the poisoned Halloween candy legend: a father who murdered his own child. Content notes: the 1950s babysitter murders, John Wayne Gacy, a teen psychopath in Excision, and crude humor.

It’s Shrink Chat, our weekly horror roundup, from the week before Thanksgiving 2020. Our buddy watch is Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, start to finish. Then we recommend the documentary Killer Legends, take on three Joe Bob picks (Hatchet, Dead Heat and the 1989 cult classic Society), review Excision with AnnaLynne McCord and Traci Lords, and revisit Urban Legend (1998). Plus Cathy’s Horror Facts lead to The Invisible Man (2020), and we preview a winter horror episode.

Therapists Shannon and Cathy talk about Bly Manor’s grief and the danger of remaining hidden in a memory, anticipatory grief and why we always survive the losses we fear, the existential fears horror lets us face, The Queen’s Gambit as a trauma and addiction story, a teen psychopath in the making, and why we all need a palate cleanser after a 150-movie October.

Covered in this episode:

• The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Mike Flanagan
• The Invisible Man (2020) in Horror Facts with Cath
• The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
• Killer Legends (2014): the babysitter murders, John Wayne Gacy and clowns, and the man who killed Halloween
• Hatchet (2006), Dead Heat (1988) and Society (1989) with Joe Bob Briggs
• Excision (2012), AnnaLynne McCord, Traci Lords and Malcolm McDowell
• Urban Legend (1998) and its sequels
• A winter horror episode is coming: Silent Night, Deadly Night, Krampus and New Year’s Evil

Clinical themes: grief, anticipatory grief, being stuck in the past, existential fear, learned helplessness, trauma and addiction, emerging psychopathy, bad mothers in horror.

Corrections: The Haunting of Bly Manor is based on Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and other James stories, not a book of the same name. Excision came out in 2012. Ronald Clark O’Bryan poisoned his son on Halloween 1974 and was executed in 1984.

Related episodes:

• SHRINK CHAT: Hubie Halloween, Spiral, Bly Manor & Evil Bong
• SHRINK CHAT: All Hallows’ Eve, Art the Clown, Baby Jane & Housebound
• PSYCHOLOGY: The Babadook as Depression & It Follows as Trauma

If you enjoyed this episode, follow Terror Talk and leave us a 5-star rating. It’s the single biggest thing that helps new listeners find us.

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

Until then... sleep safe. 😴
🎧 Follow Terror Talk wherever you get your podcasts and join us on Patreon for bonus content and access to our private discord: patreon.com/terrortalk
📸 Instagram: @terrortalkpodcast | 🎥 YouTube: Terror Talk Podcast | 📘 Facebook: Terror Talk Podcast | 🎵 TikTok: @dark.psychology.girls
🎶 Music by Mannequin Uprising