Before the MCU became mainstream and before horror films won Oscars, Horror Hosts helped create the Monster Kid Culture and legitimize fandom and genre conventions.

My guest, John Stanley, was not only the legendary host of Creature Features on KTVU-2 from 1979-to 1984, but also a novelist, film critic, and horror film director (NIGHTMARE IN BLOOD).

Join us as we talk horror host history straight from the source, what it was like to be there when ALIEN, PHANTASM, and even STAR TREK first premiered, and how fans resurrected the horror host culture!

Get John Stanley’s newest book, “The Career that Dripped Horror” and any of his books and DVDs here:

I hope you enjoy the show!

Films, folks, and shows discussed:

NIGHTMARE IN BLOOD (1977)

CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)

CREATURE FEATURES- KTVU (1971-1984)

ALIEN (1979)

PHANTASM (1979)

ROBERT BLOCH

RAY BRADBURY

STEPHEN KING

LEONARD NIMOY

Music and Horror are kindred spirits. And many of us love it when music and horror meet in the shadows of our imaginations. 

Join my guests, the hosts of the excellent DISCOVER THE HORROR PODCAST as we look at how we were attracted to the dark side of music, our influences, and how many different ways music express that darkness.

This is a joint podcast with my good friends from Discover the Horror and the music conversation, focusing on horror movie soundtracks, continues on their podcast. Listen here: https://bit.ly/3Biup3H 

What do Rupert Holmes and Black Sabbath have in common? Listen and find out!

Just when you thought all the festivities were over...

There's one more gift under the horror tree for you!

Keeping the old British tradition going, I've been reading ghost stories for Christmas over the last few years. Because Christmas and horror go together like cookies and milk and Santa!

So, here are two stories for 2021!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed Yule to all of you!

I hope you enjoy the show!

Stories Performed:

"The Kit Bag" by Algernon Blackwood

First published 1908 in Pall Mall Magazine

"Dark Christmas" by Jeanette Winterson

Published December 24, 2013, in The Guardian as part of the “Guardian Weekend magazine’s Christmas ghost stories” series.

You can read the entire story on the Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/24/christmas-ghost-stories-dark-jeanette-winterson

Passion makes us do crazy things.

For many lifelong horror fans, the love of the genre is so intense that being a spectator is no longer enough. These fans are compelled to have their creative voices heard. Some paint, others start podcasts, or they write articles and books.

And then there are the really crazy ones who decide they want to make their own full-length horror movies!

In this episode, we speak to Hope Madden and George Wolf, the creative team behind the Fright Club Podcast as they prepare to shoot their feature film, OBSTACLE CORPSE!

Join me as we talk about their lifelong love of horror, from their "First Kisses" to their long-standing careers in radio and television as film critics in Columbus, Ohio, and what they think are the ingredients that make a horror movie memorable! 

Watch the OBSTACLE CORPSE feature trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/477691195

Here is a link to the OBSTACLE CORPSE Indiegogo link:

https://vimeo.com/598451526

Follow Hope and George at Maddwolf:

https://www.facebook.com/maddwolfcolumbus/

Skinwalkers! Psychic Vampires! Desert Gods! Cat People! Pagan Sex Beasts! Sentient Forests! Witchcraft! Ancient lands that Feed on humans! Mountain and Snow Goddesses!

The Weird Fiction of the 19th and 20th Centuries paved the way for modern horror and science fiction, and one of the greatest voices was Algernon Blackwood, whose work inspired none other than H.P. Lovecraft.

Join my guest, Scarlett Amaris (H.P. Lovecraft's Color out of Space, The Theatre Bizarre, and the Saurimonde book trilogy) as we look at some of our favorite Blackwood short stories and discuss his amazing life (he said all his stories were "autobiographical") and his influence on modern horror!

For some of us, going a little crazy is just the time when life starts getting fun.

Madness? Mania? Fanaticism? Call it what you like.

I call it passion, and I am drawn to people who need to create something out of their mad love. The creation might seem crazy to the average person, but to those it speaks to, it is a beautiful gift.

My guest is Jay Michaels, independent stage and film producer, director, and actor, who is also the host and executive producer of Phoenix FearCon, Arizona's Largest Independent Horror Film Festival and Convention Since 2006.

Join us as we discuss our lifetime loves of the horror genre and the gift of mad passion!

And…join us LIVE in Tempe, Arizona, on October 15th and 16th at the Sun Studios of Arizona! You can get tickets here: https://phoenixfearcon.com/box-office/

The woods are nature at its most feral. The deep, dark forest is the original home of the boogeyman, long before there were dark closets and basements and that space under your bed.

The Folk Horror subgenre has gained a new audience as more young filmmakers exploit the fine line between the natural and the supernatural...and openly ask if there's a line at all.

In honor of Kier-La Janisse's fantastic and masterful documentary, "WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR", I welcome writer/producer/author/editor/and horror journalist, KAT ELLINGER (Editor-in-Chief of Diabolique Magazine) to discuss Folk Horror, the history of Heathenism in England, and several other obsessions!

Summer isn't over yet!

And neither is my discussion of the passion of fandom and how it makes us do crazy things for what we love!

In this episode, I talk with Joe Gaudin and Matt Masters, the owners of the Skyline Drive-in in Shelbyville, Indiana about how they took a dying drive-in and turned it into a movie-lovers paradise!

They specialize in a two-day Dusk-To-Dawn Show of horror movies, and gourmet food to die for!

This is the "official" 100th episode of Hellbent for Horror!

In this episode, I want to discuss PASSION, the driving force behind creativity, and the mad devotion to movies, art, and pop culture we call fandom.

Fandom can make us seem crazy, but that mad passion can change lives, and I discuss the amazing story of the resurrection of The Mahoning Drive-In and the way their passion for movies enchanted a worldwide community.

Bela Lugosi got it right all those years ago when he said that it was women who truly love horror.

My guests, The Spinsters of Horror, prove it with every episode of I Spit on Your Podcast, one of the sharpest, passionate, and fun shows around.

Deserts are the natural world at its most supernatural.

They are dangerous and merciless reminders that everything, including civilization, is temporary. Deserts remind us that we are one worldwide crisis away from entropy.

This year we are offering you William Hope Hodgson's THE DERELICT to chill your bones! It's a creepy story about the unknown dangers of the open sea and I think you'll realize how this story might have influenced the works of H.P. Lovecraft!

Halloween is NEVER over! Listen to Part Two of our Horror Double Feature with filmmakers Amy Lynn Best and Mike Watt as we give the devil his due with movie recommendations and tales of real horror, 2020 style!

I think we all deserve a little more Halloween this year, so H4H is doing a Horror Double Feature with two podcasts of extended conversations with horror enthusiasts and creators!

Part One is a fly-on-the-wall conversation between Jon Kitley (Kitley's Krypt, Discover the Horror: One Man's 50-Year Quest for Monsters, Maniacs, and the Meaning of it All), Bryan Martinez (Film Deviant, The Giallo Room), and S.A. Bradley.

In the world of genre and fandom, the universal currency is passion. Fans of different genres normally would not mix, but there are areas of overlap, LIKE a GENRE VENN DIAGRAM. Join me and H4H producer, Lisa Gorski, as we discuss the overlap between two of the most passionate fandoms, HORROR AND SCIENCE FICTION. (shock: Lisa is NOT a horror fan!)

2020 is the 100-year anniversary of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari', the German Expressionism film that created the visual and thematic template for the modern horror movie.