Horror craft, straight from the makers.
This Is Horror Podcast sits with horror authors and filmmakers long enough for the practical details to surface. Conversations move from new books and films into outlining, grief, violence, publishing paths, creative routines, and the strange emotional machinery behind scary stories.
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This Is Horror Podcast is a long-running interview show for people who read horror closely and care how it is built. Its center of gravity is craft. The conversations are friendly and loose, but they keep circling back to concrete creative decisions: outlining, routine, structure, influence, character dynamics, dread, violence, grief, shame, and the uncertain path from idea to finished book. Guests are given room. That matters here, because the best moments often come after an answer has had time to wander through memory, process, and hesitation. Kylie Lee Baker’s episodes move through Japanese Gothic, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, unreliable memory, chapter outlines, COVID horror, and the practical economics of becoming a full-time writer. Eric LaRocca’s appearances turn Wretch into a discussion of grief horror, ritual, shame, and endings that change during composition. Ronald Malfi’s conversation about Small Town Horror lingers on family dynamics, Peter Straub, and the way a story can keep standing even if the supernatural element is removed. Stephen Graham Jones brings a more playful spark to violence, slashers, prank-gone-wrong energy, and the question of when brutality earns its place on the page. Film coverage is part of the mix too. The Touch Me episode shifts into a three-guest conversation with Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Addison Hyman, focused on a psychosexual horror comedy about codependent friendship. The show is especially good at letting horror stay messy without making the conversation feel chaotic. A bleak subject can lead into a joke, then back into a precise question about method. It is not a polished lecture series. It feels more like sitting near a serious horror table where writers are generous about what worked, what changed, and what still unsettles them.
Made for: For horror readers, writers, and film fans who want more than plot recap. It especially suits listeners interested in process, influence, publishing, and the emotional mechanics behind dread.
What sets it apart: The show lets guests speak at length, then follows with specific craft questions instead of rushing to the next prompt. Its strength is the bridge between warm fan conversation and serious attention to how horror is made.
The This Is Horror Podcast is a show for readers, writers, and creators hosted by Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella. We interview writers, artists, publishers, editors, and creatives every week. Over 600 episodes, we have interviewed creatives including Chuck Palahniuk, Dean Koontz, Joe Hill, David Dastmalchian, Joe R. Lansdale, Charlaine Harris, Ellen Datlow, David Moody, Jennifer Lynch, Gemma Files, and Josh Malerman.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Author conversations turn horror's unsettling effects into clear, practical questions about structure, emotion, and the choices behind the page.
Michael David Wilson, sometimes joined by Bob Pastorella, builds author interviews around the decisions that make horror fiction work. The conversations move past book promotion into questions of construction: how violence earns its place in a story, how character relationships…
A wasp tangent becomes a question about violence earning its place on the page; bring your draft.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A craft-focused horror conversation about Japanese Gothic, memory, and unreliable narration.
Kylie's appearance on This Is Horror stays firmly craft-first, moving through Japanese Gothic, planning, and the uneasy line between writing enough down and letting a scene find its own shape.
A grounded horror conversation about craft, career, and the personal roots of scare fiction.
Kylie Lee Baker comes across as a writer whose horror grows out of lived history as much as craft. The discussion stays close to Japanese Gothic and Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, while tracing the heritage and time abroad that shaped the work.
LaRocca links horror craft to the shame and grief that make the writing feel unsettled.
Eric LaRocca's second part on This Is Horror turns from Wretch and the act of writing discomfort toward the emotional machinery that gives his horror its charge.
Eric LaRocca traces how grief, outlining, and revision shaped Wretch.
Wretch gives This Is Horror a clean path into Eric LaRocca's grief-driven horror novel, moving from its premise - Simeon Link, the Wretches, and Porcelain Char - into the practical choices behind the writing.
A character-led horror conversation that keeps the focus on people, craft, and family dynamics.
Ronald Melfi's visit to This is Horror keeps its attention on Small Town Horror and on the craft decisions behind it. Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella give him enough room to trace early life, career, writing influences, writing routine, and the way Peter Straub shaped…
Stephen Graham-Jones brings craft, violence, and story purpose into sharp focus in a relaxed re-release conversation.
Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella sit down with Stephen Graham-Jones for a conversation about the re-release of Night of the Mannequins, and the fact that this is his first in-depth visit in more than three years gives the episode real presence.
Ross Jeffrey's trilogy story is strongest when it stays with the books and their practical publishing details.
Michael David Wilson gives Ross Jeffrey space to talk about the books themselves, shifting the focus from earlier discussion of method and routine toward Juniper, The Devil's Pocketbook, and Only the Stains Remain.
Loose, lore-heavy Star Wars conversation.
This episode features the second part of an interview with horror author Eric LaRocca, focusing on his new novel 'Wretch'.
This is Horror Podcast host Michael David Wilson interviews author Ross Jeffery in the first part of a two-part conversation.
Marcus Kliewer, author of The Caretaker and We Used to Live Here, tells Michael David Wilson how a Protestant childhood treating horror as 'taboo' made it more alluring to him.
Max Doty says horror felt like "coming home" after years of pursuing literary fiction, and Reddit's NoSleep gave him a place to publish scary stories.
Michael David Wilson opens the second part of his conversation with Kylie Lee Baker about Japanese Gothic.
Michael David Wilson talks with Kylie Lee Baker about her forthcoming novel Japanese Gothic and her dark fantasy and horror books, including Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng.
Eric LaRocca talks about writing Wretch with morning tea, neighborhood walks, showers, and long stretches of reading “really dark, depressing books” to enter the book’s mood.
Eric LaRocca discusses Wretch, his first novel with Saga Press at Simon & Schuster, and explains how the book sold from an outline and early chapters rather than a finished manuscript.
This episode features an interview with filmmakers Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Addison Heimann discussing their psychosexual horror comedy film 'Touch Me' and its themes of codependent friendships.
Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella talk with Ronald Melfi, winner of the This Is Horror Novel of the Year 2024 for Small Town Horror.
Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella sit down with Stephen Graham-Jones.
This episode features a conversation with author Ross Jeffery about his novel 'Only The Stains Remain', the genre of grief horror, his writing challenge with Josh Malerman, and their ongoing exchange of novel manuscripts.
This episode features an interview with author Ross Jeffery discussing his Juniper trilogy, differences between setting stories in the US versus the UK, and breaking writing rules.
This episode features an interview with author Eric LaRocca discussing his latest book 'We Are Always Tender with Our Dead', the first in the Burnt Sparrow trilogy, and his approach to writing transgressive fiction.
This episode features an interview with Ross Jeffery, a Bram Stoker Award-nominated horror author, discussing topics such as writing and planning a novel, personal experiences like being homeless, and marketing strategies for authors.
Michael David Wilson is interviewed about his new horror novel 'Daddy's Boy' in a special episode of This is Horror, discussing writing, creativity, and the book's themes.