Horror Joy

Brian shares spoiler-free thoughts after seeing Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil.
He argues Cregger’s work (from Barbarian to Weapons to this film) carries a sense of fun, and praises Resident Evil for evoking video-game mechanics through camera perspective, rule-bound worldbuilding, and a self-aware celebration of playing games.
He highlights effective, earned jump scares, strong movement through spaces, and accessible storytelling even without game knowledge.
The film also raises themes of parenthood and the anxiety of creating life amid wars, rising costs, social backlash, AI, and climate change, alongside class critique through a courier protagonist trapped in gig-economy precarity.
Brian ultimately recommends the movie for its music, snowy setting, Austin Abrams’ performance, sharp humor, and “dangerous look” cinematography that withholds information to sustain tension.

Jeff interviews British author Craig Wallwork about the connection between horror and joy, his early exposure during Britain’s “video nasty” era, and how his father desensitized him by explaining gore effects, creating a rare bond through film.
Wallwork describes becoming a writer via transgressive and neo-noir influences before turning to horror 17 years ago after his daughter’s birth, using horror to process fear and anxiety through a story about a sleep pandemic and a father chasing the sun to keep his child awake.
Discussing The Instruction Manual to Being a Vampire (2026, Trueborn Press), he explains rejecting vampire tropes and grounding vampirism in a blood-transfusion condition, with the vampire targeting “bad people,” and choosing a priest mentor figure for trust and access to confessions.
He also previews a possession novel, There’s Something in the Fucking Basement, and shares recent horror joys, including mainstream recognition, women creators, and watching horror with his son.

Brian and Jeff continue their camp horror series with Charlie Polinger’s 2025 film The Plague, set at a 2003 summer water polo camp where the central terror is not a slasher but toxic masculinity, bullying, and an ambiguous “plague” used to create in-groups and out-groups.
They discuss how the plague functions as scapegoating and surveillance, how Ben (a new kid with a speech impediment) and eccentric Eli become targets, and how Jake’s bully leadership reflects power dynamics and absent/ineffective adults, including counselor “Daddy Wags” (Joel Edgerton).
Finally, Brian and Jeff discuss the film’s dread-filled underwater cinematography, minimalist score, and ending centered on Ben’s blood-soaked, frenetic dance in addition to some discussions of broader plague narratives. And of course, they discuss joy.

Brian and Jeff interview Glasgow-based award-winning writer, editor, and musician Neil Williamson about the relationship between horror and joy..
Neil frames horror as the fun of “relishing the darkness” through traditions like Halloween and campy horror. Williamson recounts his path into writing via lyric-writing in a teenage band and into horror through the UK’s Carry On Screaming, Universal monster films, and authors like Stephen King, James Herbert, and Ramsey Campbell.
They discuss Neil's BSFA-winning anthology Blood and the Bricks, and how he has reworked folk-horror tropes by relocating isolation, insular communities, and mythology into urban settings. This move was influenced by his novella Charlie Says and UK public information films, Cold War fears, and post-Brexit political shifts.
The conversation also touches on contemporary surveillance anxieties, highlights stories such as “Dance Macabre” and “Hagstone,” and ends with Williamson’s recent horror-joy recommendations.

Brian Onishi and Jeff Stoyanoff continue their summer camp slasher theme with 1983’s Sleepaway Camp
They are joined by guests Jo Vallese (editor of It Came From the Closet) and T (Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies), and frame the film through queer horror, trans horror, and the queer concept of camp.
They discuss the film’s shift from idyllic opening to tragedy, its child and teen cruelty, predatory cook, and boundary violations, and how its notorious ending positions Angela as both killer and “final girl,” raising questions about identity, consent, and whether Angela’s gender is self-determined or imposed by Aunt Martha.
The panel explores reclamation and rehabilitation, audience reactions (including a NYU screening with trans and nonbinary students), the Reagan-era backdrop, a gay male gaze reading via Viet Dien’s Sontag-inspired essay, and how the film differs from Friday the 13th through accidental camp, queer rage debates, failures of adult authority, and unusual violence against children.
Dont' worry, they find joy too.