Let’s face facts: Horror is a genre that can be a little hard to explain. It’s intentionally scary and often gruesome. Plots can swing from pure dark fantasy to merely depicting cold, hard facts. Very often these films refuse to spare the audience’s feelings, much less adhere to any basic rules of daily life. What seems to be the most confusing part of Horror fandom is that we, as an audience, willingly subject ourselves to these sorts of films.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Everyone who lined up at the theater to watch Alien: Romulus on the big screen has their own reasons for being there. The same can be said for the person sitting at home streaming Hereditary, or dusting off a DVD of Night Of The Demons. These movies might illustrate a diversity of styles and subjects (which is to say nothing of the budgets!) they all hinge upon the audience buying in to get scared…or merely to have a good laugh. Probably not with Hereditary, but you understand my point. 

It was my attempt to understand Horror media, primarily Horror movies, as a genre. After some time and careful consideration, I came to understand Horror as a place where an audience can safely explore the darkest sides of the human experience. When we partake of this sort of media, we are able to experiment with the taboo and the unsavory. It was from this understanding that The Fright Lab was born.

Black Magic and Mad Science

The Fright Lab was launched by me, along with veteran podcaster and producer Joseph Wren. Our objective is to discuss Horror through a number of lenses. We analyze the genre by way of History, Science, Psychology, Philosophy, and Art. To put it another way, we are attempting to contextualize Horror, and as a result, allow ourselves to experience those less-than-savory cultural elements in a safe, but thorough way.

We also attempt to balance our show with a healthy dose of humor and human insight. We don’t shy away from stating our most basic opinions on films while trying to avoid being too judgmental. I have repeated a simple axiom across many episodes: Like what you like, and don’t let some guy on the Internet tell you that you are wrong for liking it.

With that in mind, I want to offer readers here at Horror Obsessive a short list of episodes to start with. At the time of writing this list, we have nearly forty episodes to chose from. We hope that these five episodes will give you a real sense of our show…and hopefully convince you to subscribe!

The Fright Lab Primer

Episode 31: Midsommar and the Mechanics of Cults

Ari Aster’s modern Folk Horror masterpiece, Midsommar, might be one of the most recognizable and loved Horror movies of the last decade. But beyond the sublimated grief and shocking violence is a question about how cults and other “High Control Groups” can overwhelm and destroy individuals. As a result, Midsommar ended up being a near-perfect film to analyze. 

Episode 22: “Untitled Bad Shark Movie” Episode

There is a good chance that many Horror Obsessive readers have seen Sharknado. Its absurdity can be too much for many audiences. So how many people are going to sit through a movie like Shark Side of The Moon, or worse, Shark Exorcist?

I’m sad to report that it’s enough of an audience to have its own subgenre: Sharksploitation. This episode is as close to pure movie reviewing as I tend to go with the podcast. The episode is arguably the closest to pure comedy, as Joe and I couldn’t help but crack jokes at the expense of this style of film. I included it to this list since it’s a helpful way to understand trends in filmmaking.

Episode 28: The Beautiful Nightmares of Satoshi Kon

From time to time I like to focus less on a single film, and more on the output of a particular creator. I have particularly enjoyed the work of the late, great Satoshi Kon for several years. His work is extremely abstract and often very disturbing. Whether or not you consider movies like Paprika, or a series like Paranoia Agent to be expressly Horror is up to you. But I can virtually guarantee more than one person has had a sleepless night after viewing Perfect Blue.

Episode 36: An Interview with Ben Bigelow of THINE EARS SHALL BLEED

The Fright Lab has allowed me to rekindle my enjoyment of interviewing. Ben Bigelow is an indie film director with a big future ahead of him, and I feel incredibly lucky to have chatted with him early in his career. THINE EARS SHALL BLEED is a really interesting, and genuinely creepy, view of Horror. 

 As a result of the show I get to interact with many independent artists. As a DIY podcast we have a particular love for independent artists and independent media as a whole. We are always interested in hearing from directors, musicians, actors, really anyone who is involved in the Horror world. 

Episode 25: How to Handle Cursed Media

The idea of a piece of music, film, or literature that can harm you is obviously not a new one. But how far does that go? And why is it something the audience wants to experience? I particularly enjoyed writing this episode as it allowed me to dig a number of deep rabbitholes. I can be an obscuritan at times so this sort of episode satisfied a number of my personal obsessions. 

Go Forth, My Children!

Joe and I have every intention of continuing creating episodes of The Fright Lab for the foreseeable future. We intend to launch a Patreon at the beginning of 2025 (or earlier,) and as a result, want to provide new forms of content. We would love to hear from the audience, both new and pre-existing! You can email us at TheFrightLabPodcast@gmail.com. If you have any movie recommendations, questions, or comments, we would love to hear from you. We are also on Instagram, as fright_lab_pod, as well as Letterboxd as FrightLabPod. We are available on all major podcast platforms, as well as on YouTube. You can also listen to all of our episodes on our website.