Monstrum with Dr. Emily Zarka

Episode Transcript
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James Jay Edwards (00:25):
Welcome to eye on horror, the official
podcast of ihorror.com this isepisode 137 otherwise known as
season seven. Episode 18. I amyour host, James Jay Edwards,
and with me, as always, is yourother host, Jacob Davison, how
you doing? Jacob, doingall right, just kind of getting
over getting my COVID and fluvaccines, like it kind of winded
me. It wasn't as bad as before,but slept. Slept a while last

(00:49):
night.
Did you get them at the sametime? They would be same?
Oh yeah, no, I did both at thesame time.
Yeah, that'll knock you out.
Also with us, as always, is yourother other host, Jon Correia,
how you doing Correia?

Jonathan Correia (01:04):
Oh, doing fantastic. I had some very a big
hubris last night, and was like,I can stay up for one more
thing, and it was out cold onthe couch. Went directly to bed.
So there's dishes from lastnight that need to be done that
I'm staring at from across theapartment and not doing right
now so that we can record thispodcast. I

know how you feel. I actually on Tuesday,
which means nothing to thepeople listening, but you guys
know my wife and I actually wentto Disneyland and, Oh, nice. And
I hadn't been since she and Ifirst started dating, so it's
been like 17 or 18 years. So Igot to see Galaxy's edge, nice
Star Wars section, which I hadnever seen, which was totally

(01:47):
awesome. Now Chewbacca had theday off, so I didn't get to get
a picture with Chewbacca, whichreally breaks my heart, because
that was one of the things Ireally wanted. But I did get to
go on on rise the resistance andSmugglers Run. And I was a pilot
on Smugglers Run, and and mywife was the other pilot. And
let's just say we crashed a lot.
The engineers were getting thisbecause they had to repair a

(02:09):
bunch. But I really could handlethat Light Speed Stick. And, you
know, I was taken to lightspeed, yep, but yeah, taking

you to light speed, God, just say, Well, no,
we're not supposed to go tolight speed. Radio, no, we're
going to light speed now.

Light Speed now. Nope, it tells you when to
do it. And I actually didn'ttry. I wonder if I could have
done it just randomly. I don'tthink it would have done it,
though, but yeah, it was. It wasa long day, and my Fitbit told
me I walked 10 and a half milesnice over the course of the day,
walking around, and, Yep, I gotto see the Haunted Mansion

(02:43):
decorated for Nightmare BeforeChristmas Bucha, which was also
one of the points of goingbecause, yeah, I had never seen
it done for and I think I likeit better as the Haunted
Mansion. But it was interestingto see because, you know, you
zeros down the hallway insteadof a candlestick, and that was
kind of fun. But, you know, itwas cool.

It's always go. It's always great hanging
out with the grim, grinny Ghost,especially when they come out to
socialize, yeah, you know,

but yeah, enough about my Disney trip.
What's been going on? Therehasn't been a lot of new stuff
coming out.

Well, there's one that I think we've all seen
at this point, Heretic? Yeah,

I talked about heretic last episode, but
let's hear what you guys said.
What do you guys think? Ithought I really liked it. I
thought it was interesting. And,yeah, no, you were right,
though, just like Hugh Grantreally stole the show, just
being kind of like a horrorversion of the beta. Reply, Guy
and I, although I think wouldreally set the movie for me, was

(03:46):
the product. It was the sets,you know, like from the cozy
living room to like the deeperinto the layer and all the
mishmash of different artifacts.
But, yeah, no. Like, I lost itwhen Hugh Grant did that jar,
Jar Binks impression,

I didn't know I needed that in my life. And
then it happened, and it'salmost like when there's a piece
of your heart that's missingthat you didn't know what that
was missing, and then suddenlyit's there, and you feel a bit
more whole Hugh grants, jar,jar, big suppression, not the
movie that is, but I am thankfulthat we have that. I dug it for

(04:30):
the most part. It's one of thosethings, one of those type of
movies where, like, one of yourworst horrors is realized, so
it's not the most comfortable.
And my worst horror is beingstuck at an Afters party with a
theology major, uh, ranting atme, and that, because that's
what it came down to. It's oneof those like mid 2000s Tim
Minchin, Russell Brand, orDawkins type theology. There's

(04:53):
someone who watches a lot ofthose videos and then is, is.
Spewing those at you. It's like,Well, if God existed, what if
this? Why does this happen? It'slike, you just sitting there
being like, Jesus Christ, man, Ijust needed to, like, have
another beer. I don't want this,but it's Hugh Grant doing it.
And so there is a bit of, like apull. There is a bit of, like, a

(05:17):
Ah, you're making some goodpoints. But what I really Doug
is that the movie gave themissionaries, especially so
Sophie Thatcher's the time to,like, go like, Yeah, but also
like, you didn't even thinkabout, like, there's one point
where he compares, like, for themajor religions to monopoly
games and Sophie Thatcher'slike, you didn't even take into

(05:37):
account with, like, Judaism,like, you know, the Holocaust,
or anti semitism, or anythinglike that with this. And it's
just, like, completelyobliterates his comparison. And
she's like, and your comparisonis, frankly, quite insulting,
comparing religions to monopoly.
And so, like, I don't know if,like, the movie was trying to

(05:58):
make points, and I do kind offeel like that third act was a
bit, it kind of lost me a littlebit. It wasn't, but overall, it
wasn't bad. It was a good movie.
It was just, it's just one ofthose ones where, like, I saw it
in theaters, and I'm okay if Idon't see it again. You know
what I mean, where it's likethat, I had a good time, but I'm
all set

that scene with soapy that you're talking
about at that point they, theykind of realize what his gig is
and that they're in trouble. Sotheir whole point is, you know,
they have to challenge him, youknow, to to keep him around. So
that's where that comes from.
And you're right. She, shebasically turns the tables on
him. It's like another theologyor an anti theology major,
almost, yeah, riti, which isfunny, because she's supposedly

(06:42):
one of the believers and andshe's, you know, kind of spewing
back to him, you know this, youknow, it doesn't take into
account that, you know. So,yeah,

I'm just, like, really worried about
encountering the theology filmBro, that's gonna, like, start
going, this is the best movieever, because it says everything
that I'm saying, and it's like,that was the point of it, but,
but okay, because, you know,they exist.

I have a friend who's, he's a film critic
in in Salt Lake City, and he,he's a former Latter Day Saint,
and he, he his review of it wasreally interesting. I'll send
you guys a link if you want,because he basically approaches
it from a former church membersgo, you know, he actually went

(07:33):
on one of these missions wherehe had to do this kind of thing.
And it was, it was a prettyinteresting take on the movie
that, you know, I wouldn't havehad because I wasn't, you know,
a Mormon. You know, I'm, I'venever been a Mormon, but he, as
a former church member, had areally interesting take. I

would love to hear more takes like that,
because I did read one articleabout, like, what they got right
and what they got wrong aboutbeing missionaries, and like,
how, especially a lot of thethere was, there's some really
interesting takes out thereabout, like, what it is like,
especially being a femalemissionary going to stranger
houses and like, what, what thekind of, like, anxieties and

(08:14):
terrors that go with that. So Ido appreciate those takes a lot.
That's how

I actually started my written review of it.
I'm like, you know, these peoplego to strange lands and knock on
people's doors. I'm like, whyhaven't? Hasn't anyone done a
horror movie about this in thepast? I mean, it's a terrifying
concept. Yeah,a friend of mine reviewed the
movie saying it was like, if youif, uh, Jigsaw from saw was
Ricky Gervais and trap andtrapped you, that's,

(08:43):
that's pretty accurate. Yeah, Ihave been pretty much buried.
We're getting into awardsvoting, so I've been buried in
screeners. And I got mySubstance screening screener the
other day, so I'm gonna get tosee it. But I've been mainly,
you know, diving into, like,awards stuff I did see, which

(09:04):
isn't really horror, but it hasa lot of cool blood. Gladiator
II, which opens, it'll it willhave opened after this episode
posts, it's funny, it's moreit's not as serious a movie as
Gladiator, and for the firsthalf of it, maybe, maybe first

(09:25):
third, I thought it was justgonna be a rehash of Gladiator,
and I was kind of bummed, butthen they do this cool little
twist that is actually a prettyobvious twist, but it ties it
back to the first movie. Andthen it got kind of fun, but the
the fight scenes are almosthysterically inaccurate. Like,
like, they Well, first I thoughtit was kind of cool, because

(09:45):
they have one scene where theywhere they flood the Coliseum
with water, and then they haveboats out there, and they react
the naval battles, which issomething that the Romans did.

I was about to say, if you say that didn't
happen, no, I've been fightingpeople online about that. Like,

No, it did.
It did. But here's, here's wherethey went wrong. At least, I
think they went wrong. I wasn'tthere, obviously, but this
scene, there were sharks in thewater. So like if people got
knocked off the boat, there wasa Hungry Shark there to tear
them apart. And I am doubtingthe fact that they had hungry
men eating sharks in theColiseum for that, I mean, but

(10:22):
it did make for a good battle.
It was, it was awesome to watch.
That's

forgivable, because here's the thing, they
might not have been able to dothat, but if they could have,
they would have,

this is, actually they did put sharks in
the Coliseum. Did they? I knewthat should have happened. Wow.
Okay, well, I read about thatback in elementary school.
Wow. How did they catch thesharks? I wonder. I mean,
that's a double check on that.
But no, like, they went crazywith, like, some of the glad
editorial games, like, they'dget all kinds of crazy ass

(10:58):
animals to throw in

there. Yeah, you got to remember they didn't
have TV or anything like that.
So this was, like, their SuperBowl, their what this was their
Sunday Night Football. This wastheir Thursday night M*A*S*H.
You know, new episode of M*A*S*Hand stuff. But like, what's
beautiful about hearing thatfact is, you got to remember
that, yes, they, they prettymuch invented plumbing for the
Roman Empire. At least othercultures had plumbing as well

(11:22):
too. There were irrigationsystems, but they invent for for
the Roman Empire, they inventedplumbing for the purpose of
flooding the Coliseum, not sothat people could flush and poop
and all that stuff. No, no, no,the peasants in their and their
feces. We want to see glad. Wewant to see naval ship battles
at home. We don't want to go tosea to watch it. We want to
watch it here. And like, justthe amount of effort, like, is

(11:43):
insane. I'm

gonna have to do some hardcore research into
that, because knowing that theshark thing is real really
raises a lot of questions, howthe hell, what kind of sharks
did they use? I'm imagining onesthat were from, like, the sea
that was, that was near there.
But also, how the hell do they?
One, catch the sharks. Two,transport them and keep them

(12:09):
alive long enough, maybe that'show they got them hungry. Was to
not feed them. But oh, oh yeah,now I'm going to have to do a
deep dive. Yeah,

we, we are currently proving that all men
think about is the Roman Empire.
Like, how often this thing

about it?
This is true often. But also,another thing I saw for rewards
viewing is called Nickel Boys.
Have you guys heard about this?
No, this one. And this isn'treally horror. I don't want to
spend too much time on it, butit's, it is pretty horrific.
It's about a pair of black boysin the late 60s, Tallahassee,
who get sent to this reformschool. And this reform school

(12:47):
is very racist and very brutal,and these poor kids, they're
just subjected to all this, youknow, torture from the school
itself. And it's reallyinteresting, though, because it
is the way it's presented, isfrom your literally, the point
of view of one or what both ofthem, but at different times,

(13:12):
the you're in these kids heads.
So the and the only way that youcan tell, and this takes some
getting used to, which kidyou're in the head of is by
someone calling him by theirnames are Elwood and Turner, and
you you know one at someonearound them goes, Hey, Elwood.
Then the camera will look atthat person. Or if you see the
other one, like, if you seeTurner, you know you're seeing

(13:33):
through the eyes of Elwood. Ifyou see Elwood, you know you're
seeing it through the eyes ofTurner. But it's a really
interesting way. It reallyimmerses you into the terror of
this reform school. Yeah,

that's awesome. That's a that's like
what they did on the Britishshow, peep show, where it was
all from someone's point ofview, and so, but with that, you
heard a lot of the innermonologs. So there was a lot of
that comedy. Of like, you theywould say something, but maybe
they would think something else.
So like, kind of flipping thatfor for more dramatic effect
rather than comedic. Is, isreally interesting. Yeah,

they didn't, they didn't have the inner
monolog part, but, um, but itwas still, yeah, it was still
very immersive. Another thing Isaw for awards that I can't talk
about yet, but I can just tellpeople I saw it. I saw
Nosferatu, boom, and I can't theit's under embargo, so all I can
tell you, and let's see if youcan tell what I thought from my

(14:26):
from telling you this, I can'twait to talk to you guys about
it.
Okay, copy,

so Jay hated it. You heard it here first. Jay
thinks Nosferatu is the worstmovie of the year. No,

I get I'm gonna go on the record and say,
No, I absolutely did not hateit, but I can't go into a
review. All I can do so theembargo lifts on December 2. So
our next episode, I'll get totalk about Nosferatu just so
but, but for now, just know I'veseen it, and that's a that's a
pretty good teaser for nextepisode. Well, speaking

of A. Cryptic comes out in the future. Can't
really talk about it. Jacob andI went to a very early screening
of the upcoming movie.
Companion, Yes, Jake Quaid,Sophie Thatcher, Jacob, Jack
Quaid, why do I keep thinkingit's Jake? But anyways, Jack
Wade, Sophie Thatcher, and itwas written by, written by and

(15:19):
directed by Drew Hancock and boyhowdy. That first and foremost,
they already released thetrailer, and that trailer,
especially once you have seenthe movie you were you can see
they purposely just picked themost out of context shots
possible to not let you knowwhat the fuck this movie's

(15:42):
about, and like

with Barbarian, when they said the
new Justin Long movie even even

more cryptic, and they need to keep it that
way, because not knowinganything other than those facts
made that movie so incredible.
What do you think, Jacob,without giving anything away, of
course,

there's some good stuff, and I'm saying it
now. It will be the movie ofValentine's Day. 2025

Yeah, yeah. I there was a point in that movie
where I was like, Man Jackquaids Going for his mom's Crown
of the romance comedy mantle.
And then I ate those words, andthen I and then I was given
those words back. It's, it'sreally just twisty turny, and in
the best ways possible, likeit's, oh man, there's just it's,
there's so much good in it, withit that I can't talk about

(16:32):
because it gives it away. Ithink the worst part about that
movie is the fact that we saw it10 weeks early, and now I have
to wait now nine more weeksuntil the end of January to see
it again, because I genuinelywant to see this movie again.
It's there's so much in therethat revisiting it will be fun.
And the other thing that reallyupsets me about that movie is
because of the type of movie itis, because of the type of

(16:53):
performance. Sophie Thatcherdeserves awards for that
performance, like she wasabsolutely phenomenal with what
she did, and she's killing it,man. I'm so excited about her
career. She's picking somereally great roles, speaking

of 10 weeks early, another thing I saw, and
this is more like for myweirdest movies of the year
list, not so much horror, butanother thing I saw for awards
screening is better man, this isthe monkey movie. Yes, this is
the movie. It's the, it's thethe biopic of Robbie Williams.

(17:31):
But the twist is Robbie, and itsays at the beginning, he's like
narrating it, and he goes, Oh,I'm going to show you me the way
I see me. And then he is a chimpfor the entire movie. And we
were joking as we left thescreening. We're like all, well,
I'm going to tell my kids thiswas a planet of the apes movie.
It seems like a remake of one ofthose later Planet of the Apes,

(17:54):
later 60s, you know, type planetapes movies. It was, it was
really, it was crazy, and itdoes. There is one point when it
turns into a full out ape brawl,which is interesting because
Robbie Williams is the onlychimp character. But when you
see it, you'll get where, whatthat is, but it, yeah, it is

(18:17):
definitely we it's pretty much astandard biopic. You know,
there's nothing crazy in it thatyou either don't already know,
or you know, haven't seenbefore, except for the chimp
angle, which is kind ofhilarious.

Now, for someone like me who isn't super
on know about Robbie Williamsand his boy band years or his
solo years. Like, like, I mightrecognize a song or two, is it
still worth checking out? So,yeah, really very,

it's very much a musical. It's, it
reminded me a lot, thepresentation kind of of Rocket
Man, where they do break intosongs, you know, quite
frequently. But it's not likeBohemian Rhapsody, where it's
it, where it's organic. It islike a musical where, like, all
of a sudden there would be thishuge song and dance number
that'll happen. And I think, Imean, I don't know much about

(19:07):
Robbie Williams, either, but Ithink it sticks pretty close to
his career, like he at onepoint, he, um, it actually is
kind of heartbreaking at onepoint, it goes over his
relationship with this, thatsinger for All Saints, that the
girl singer, and then she kindof left him for Liam Gallagher
and who Liam Gallagher and him,it's weird. It's like he wasn't,

(19:30):
I guess Liam Gallagher is kindof a dick, but if you can put up
with that, you can be hisfriend, at least. That's how it
came off in this but, but, yeah,it's, it's kind of because it
goes through this point where,like, she gets pregnant, and
then her record company, herrecord company, because her band
is taking off, kind of pressuresher into getting an abortion.

(19:51):
And it's very subtle, the waythey handle it in this but when
you pick up on the clues andrealize what happened, you're
like, Oh, fuck. This isterrible. Are, oh, this is just,
it's horrifying, but, yeah,it's, it's weird, but it does.
It's, it's a 2025, releasethey're just doing, like the
early awards voting screeningsnow. So that one, you know, you

(20:14):
were talking about 10 weeks inthe future. This one's pretty
close to that. No, it

looks interesting. I did a lot of
retro watching, filling holes offranchises that I've maybe seen
one film and watched the rest.
One of those revisits was theHostel movies, because I've only
ever seen the first one, likearound the time when it came
out. I've always not liked it.

The second one, I think is better see
that's

the thing, and re watch. I was like, let me
revisit the first one. And itwas reaffirmed. I mean, there's
a lot of the franchise as awhole has some really
interesting ideas, and I thinkonly the second one really
explores them. Well, that firstone, it was like, all I could
think of is how many times wasbro said in that pitch meeting

(21:01):
for the first hostile movie,because, like a lot, the first
30 minutes or so is like areally bad American Pie movie
that just drops the F word everytwo minutes, and it's just
extremely homophobic. And Iunderstand with Eli Roth,
especially Green Inferno and theHostel movies, like he likes to
have very unlikeable characters,so that when they it feels

(21:24):
earned later when hits the fan,but at the end of the day, it's
there's still the protagonists,and so there's just like,
hardly. I still don't like thefirst one, but the second movie,
I was very surprised in how muchI liked it, because, like, the
very beginning of it, I waslike, oh, so we're kind of doing
the same thing, but it's womennow, and now it's, yeah, gender
swapped. But it's the guy whowrote all those gay bashing, uh,

(21:47):
dialog in the first movie nowwriting for women. And it always
like, so I was already, like, onedge of, like, wanting to hate
it, but once they especially gotthings going with, like, the
hostile and like, it takes toper the story and perspective
of, like, two guys who are apart of the hunt, and then also
the people who are the forcevictims. I was like, really into

(22:10):
it. And I was like, All right,cool. Eli Roth made another
movie. I liked. It shows

the other side because it goes with the
three women, and then it goeswith the two guys who have
purchased this, and one of themis on the fence about it, yeah?
So, so that it gives you kind ofthe, you know, yeah, let's do
this. Let's do this. And theother guy's going, I'm not so
sure,

you know, and then and else, and I'll spoil
it, because it's, you know, it'san older movie. But then there's
that very interesting swap withthose two where the guy who's
like, very like, has a boner forit. Basically, it's like, yeah,
we're gonna kill some people, orwe're gonna be much more better,
like I said. And then, like, theswap is like, whoa, okay. And
that ending felt a bit moreearned than the first one. And

(22:53):
then I gotta say, the thirdmovie, which was directed by
Scott Spiegel, undoes all ofthat. Dude,

the third Hostel. I Yeah. I don't like to
talk about the third Hostel, the

third and again, the third Hostel
introduces a lot of interestingideas of like, what an American
version of this huntingorganization would look like,
especially in Vegas, there's alot more bedding, there's all
these things. There's, again, alot of interesting world
building that's there, and not awhole lot is done with it. And
not only that, but I think justbudget and like, otherwise,

(23:27):
like, there's a lot of thingswhere shooting itself in the
foot, where it's like, wait. Soyou have the super secret
organization, but now you'rerevealing this wing of it that
kind of opens the door to a shitton more witnesses and people
being a part of it, and you onlyhave two security guards and,
like, the whole thing, andthey're like, We got
compromised. I'm like, I wassurprised you weren't
compromised years ago. The bestpart of that movie, the opening

(23:52):
of that one, I really enjoyed.
There's a nice fake out on,like, what it's going to be,
where they make it seem likethis American Taurus is about to
be taken by these, again,Eastern European folks, but then
it's, there's a flip. So thatwas fun. But other than that,
the best part of the movie isthere's one part where the guard
is watching Black Dynamite wheneveryone starts revolting, and
it's the scene where blackdynamites like coming down in

(24:14):
the parachute and shooting andstuff. Other than that, there's
no reason to watch it.

I got something fun that I did. I got
this VHS with like these oldStephen King Dollar babies. And
for those of you don't know,like the dollar babies, or like
Stephen King would let collegestudents or young filmmakers do
like little adaptations of hisshorts or stories for $1 and it

(24:43):
was like this 80s night shiftcollection that had Disciples of
the Crow and The Night Waiter,and both disciples of the Crow
was the first actual Children ofthe Corn adaptation. Have either
of you guys seen it? Yeah?

It's on the 4k disc for arrows, children of the
core and release. So nice, worthpicking up that release. It
looks gorgeous. Oh

yeah, I gotta check that out. But now it is
interesting to kind of see wherethat type of stuff began, and to
see it in kind of short form,because actually, like the angle
they went with disciples of thecrow where, like every time they
do like the He who walks behindthe rose stuff, like there's all
these flocks of crows, and theykeep it ambiguous whether there
is a supernatural element ornot. And the night waiter was

(25:29):
more of a horror comedy, becauseit's basically about this guy
who gets a job as a night waiterat a haunted hotel, and his
manager is a total dick andkeeps on messing with him and
tells him all these storiesabout, like, hauntings and
supernatural stuff, so it likereally riles them up. So kind of
has a bit of a same Ramy qualityto it. But, yeah, I dug it. And

(25:50):
again, it's just interestingkind of look back at this type
of horror.

Oh, absolutely. And the dollar
babies, I think Frank Durban gotto start doing $1 Baby. Oh,
really it. I know there's, like,a couple of names that got big,
but they only just recently shutdown the program, and it was
because they just, it wasliterally king and his wife
running the whole program. And,you know, the there's only so

(26:16):
much you can do in the legalesewith it and all that, like they
even said from the beginning,like kings, agents and lawyers
and everybody hated the programbecause they're not making any
money off of these, but it was areally cool program to give
people a start. I wish I haddone it same. I tried to do one

(26:36):
in college, but had zero money,so even if I could afford to do
the dollar thing, like Icouldn't do anything outside of
just buy I didn't even have thedollar. No, I had the dollar,
but couldn't do anything elsewith it. Uses

up your whole budget, and then it's just your
face with a campfire below you,telling the story, just

reading like the reach or something. Yeah,
yep.

And now let's bring in our special guest. This
is one that I'm really, reallyexcited for. We have the host of
PBS Monstrum. Dr, Emily zarka,hey. Dr, z how you doing?

Dr. Emily Zarka (27:12):
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for
having me.

Oh, thanks for being here. This, this is,
this is as soon as Korea told mehe had this book, I'm like, Yes,
I'm a huge monster fan. Let's,let's start at the beginning.
Um, have you always been intomonsters? How did you when did
you discover you were intomonsters

at a very young age Actually, I think I was
under 10, and I rememberwatching like, terrible, you
know, like B horror sci fimovies with my mom, and then
watched Night of the Living Deadand The Lost Boys and Scooby Doo
on zombie Island. And so I wasjust exposed to, like, all these
different types of monsters.
Now, always thought there wassomething so fascinating about
them. And oddly enough, Ithought that was something maybe

(27:51):
just a little girl growing up inthe 90s like that I had to hide
in some capacity. So my initialconsumption of horror was kind
of more private. And like, youknow, just in privacy of my own
home, like, not something Ireally talked I really talked to
my friends about. And then whenI went and did my undergraduate
work at the University ofColorado Boulder, I started
taking literature classes thatdealt with horror in a way that
was, like, really smart andintentional. And I was like, Oh,

(28:14):
so this thing that I've beenkind of thinking about and a fan
of for a really long timeactually does have, you know,
academic weight and meaningbehind it, and took off from
there. What is your

PhD in? I would love to hear about this,
because once you get to thatlevel of graduate work, they're
very specific. What's your PhDin?

So my PhD is in British Romantic literature with
an emphasis on the Gothic, and Iwrote my dissertation about the
undead in that time period. Sothat was really where I started
leaning hard into the monsterexpert thing. So yeah, very,
very specific, but looking atrepresentations of undead bodies
in particularly female authorsin the Romantic period. And in

(28:53):
doing that, I was being exposedto all different types of
folklore and monsters ingeneral. And I was like, Okay,
maybe it doesn't have to besuper specific, and maybe I can
make this broader. And that'skind of where the initial idea
for Monstrum came from. Cool

and speaking of, how did Monstrum begin, or
what was the origins at PBS, it

was my little Frankensteinian love child. So
it was kind of this idea that Ihad when I realized that I love
I teach at ASU, and I loveteaching in the classroom, but
I'm also really passionate abouttaking education outside of the
university and making it moreaccessible, because I think that
inherently, people are curious,and there's a lot of people out
there who want to learn. So Ipivoted a little bit to public

(29:33):
scholarship, and was writing forsome websites and doing some,
you know, talks locally, thatkind of thing, going to comic
cons and talking about monstersin that capacity. But what
really changed is ASU actuallyfeatured my work as, like a grad
student, and I had to give like,a little five minute Ted style
talk, kind of about my researchand where I wanted to take it.
And I remember pitching that Iwant to do for monsters, what

(29:56):
Anthony Bourdain did for food.
And so I started, like, really.
Marketing. Thank you. Marketing.
My research, which I think is anacademic that's something a lot
of, like old school scholarsdon't want to think about. You
know, again, like you said, it'slike a super niche thing, and
like, only people in your fieldcare about it, and I think that
that's not as effective as othermethods. So I had this idea for
Monstrum, and I had, like, mylittle tagline, and I was really

(30:18):
inspired by Crash Course andcomplexity, who PBS has worked
for, worked with before, and Iwork with now, which is wild.
And I was given 15 minutes to,like, cold pitch the head of
digital programming. I had zeroidea what I was doing. I didn't
have a pitch deck. I just, like,went into the call and, you
know, was passionate about it,and talked about this idea of

(30:40):
human history is Monsterhistory. And luckily, they were
looking for more humanitiescontent. And PBS is all about,
you know, that idea ofaccessible education. So I think
we really merged in that regard.
And it was supposed to be justone episode about dragons. And
while we were filming that, wegot the call, like we want you
to do more. And it becameMonstrum, the YouTube channel in
2019 and then that morphed intostoried, which is PBS is, you

(31:04):
know, Humanities hub online. Andso I'm just really grateful to
work with them, and they give mea lot of creative control, and
like, let me lean into some ofmy crazy ideas. So I'm very
fortunate that that

kind of brings me up the creative
control you have. How big of ateam do you have? Because these
are pretty slickly produced. Imean, they're the animation is
pretty impressive on these. Imean, it's simple, but it is so
effective. What kind of a teamdo you have? I have

an incredible team. So PBS paired me with
spots in which is based out ofAustin, Texas, and they're
incredible. So I work reallyclosely with three other people
who kind of do, like thecreative director, we two other
producers, and then they have ateam of editors. So I would say
probably we have a team of aboutfive people, six, including me,

(31:52):
that are, you know, behind theseepisodes. We have a fact checker
that comes in and then, yeah,sorry. Our illustrations are
done by the fantastic SamuelAllen, who's actually based in
the UK, and he's been with usfrom the beginning too. And so
it's very international andcollaborative. But now spotson
is incredible, and they do greatwork.

That's That's awesome. And I love that the
Genesis was dragons, becausethat's always like, the big
thing for me, when I'm like,everyone's like, cultures are
very same, similars are alwaysthere's always things like, Why
does every culture have adragon? Yes, always the Ancient
Aliens explanation, which ishonestly kind of racist, their
interpretations, yeah, but,like, interesting, but it is a

(32:33):
cool thing to think about. Like,why are there so many
similarities between differentcultures? And that's when you
when you and I think that's agreat introduction. Is like, how
we look at myths, how we look atmonsters, and the stories we
tell that we start to see, like,there's the there's a
pessimistic view of like, wow,we're not original at all. But
then there's also the wow, we'reall really united under this
weird thing that we all thinkthat there's a creature out

(32:55):
there where it's a human thattransforms into a into an animal
like that. So it's really cool.

That's the realist view of it. It's like,
okay, if everybody's got adragon, people in, you know,
Europe, Asia and North America,how wrong can they be? You know,
same thing. You know, like,you've got Bigfoot in North
America, and then you've got inthe Himalayan, you've got the
Abominable Snowman. How do youknow it's not the same thing,
the same species? No, those arethe

questions that I ask in the episodes, right? So
I kind of approach it definitelyfrom the realist point of view,
but also from the power ofimagination. Again, I think that
I I believe that humans areinherently storytellers. I think
that's one of the things thatseparates us from like other
species and other animals. And Ithink that monsters are the
things that we're scared of.
We're all scared of something,and we all want to make these
social constructs of like, whatis good and who is bad, and

(33:45):
monsters really fit into that.
But I think what's reallyinteresting, and maybe this is
just the academic in me, is, forme, a lot of the time, it's not
even the monster that I findreally fascinating. It's who is
claiming that monster, or, youknow, pointing the finger at
that person. Because the otherthing that pops up a lot too up
a lot, too. Something like adragon is very animalistic. And
does it exist? Does it notexist? What can, you know,

(34:07):
explain it? But things likechanglings, or, you know,
vampires or werewolves that havelike that human component, I
think, is really fascinating.

Who's being charged as a changeling, who, in
history, yeah, exactly, who's

being demonized or other, because that's what
comes into a lot of the playwith these and I've seen that
across the board, and a lot ofmonsters, especially those like
more human esque ones, andthere's things like religion and
colonialism and all these otheraspects that come into these
creatures. And yeah, I lovetracing those lines and
basically this web that we'vecreated monsters across the
globe. And

on that subject, I was wondering, what's
your process from choosing amonster for the topic to
research to production?

Yeah, great question. So we have a couple
different things that how wechoose monsters. So one is just
what's interesting me at themoment, to be quite frank, I
also keep a running Document. Ofall the monsters that are
suggested on YouTube, I am. I'mthe only person I know who does
does this, and I wouldn'tnecessarily recommend it, but I
read every single comment onevery single video on the

(35:11):
storied channel, which I've felta little bit of a tough skin
with that, but I do that becauseI really like to engage with our
audience, and they have somegreat ideas and great
perspectives. So I keep thatrunning document, and then we
are always very conscious oftrying to balance out, I would
say, like the Westernpopularized monsters with things
that are lesser known, again,because we are educational at
the end of the day, and I wantpeople to be exposed to all

(35:34):
these different cool creaturesthat people have created. So
once we choose the monsters,then I get on my research hat.
So I research and write theepisodes. And that process can
take days to weeks, depending onthe monster. I try to pull from
sources that are peer reviewedand academic, but also looking
at things like digital folklore.
And I might end up going down aweird rabbit hole about like

(35:55):
horses in China or something,but because I'm really pulling
from lots of differentdisciplines. So then I write the
first version of the script andshare it with my production
team, and we go through,probably, I would say, at least
three versions of every script,table read, and then, yeah, we
batch film. So I'll film acouple episodes at once, since

(36:16):
they are in Texas, and we thenhands over to behind the scenes
production. And, you know, getthe couple versions of the
episode, and PBS takes a look,and then we launch it and cross
our fingers and hope for thebest. I

love the balance of that you have here,
because it's everything fromlike you'll do crypt a cryptid
one episode to an Easternfolklore the next. And then
you'll do, like, a popular popculture one, you know, so there
isn't like, it's all under thegeneral umbrella of monsters.
And I think that's so greatbecause, yeah, I mean, you go

(36:51):
from talking about the manticoreand its influence in D&D, and
then, most recently, you guysdid an amazing episode on
slashers, which you know as bighorror fans. Here, it's one of
those things where it's like,oh, the topic, we all hear about
the topic that's like, superdiscussed, but you do a really
amazing job of packing a lot ofinformation into it's a 32

(37:14):
minute episode, which isincredible. And what I what I
really loved about is so manytimes when people talk about
slashers, they talk about it indefinites, you know, like, it
started with Halloween. This isjust a proto and you went into
like, this is the this is theinfluences here, and especially
when it came to the protoslashers you talked, you made

(37:36):
the best point I think possible,which is all these proto
slashers weren't financially orcommercially successful until
Halloween. That was the bigturning point with it was the
marketability, and that's whythat one's so influential, which
I really appreciated. But howdaunting was that? Because
you're not just talking aboutone specific type of myth,

(37:57):
though you're talking about anentire genre of film. Yeah,

it was something we hadn't really
tackled that scope before infilm. And we've done, like, a
classic, universal Hollywoodmonster episode, and, you know,
things like that, which has beengreat, but I was nervous. I'm
not gonna lie that was one ofthe ones that took me a lot
longer to research. But again, Ihave to, you know, give a shout
out to PBS and spotson because Icame to them. I'm like, wait, I
have this like, weird idea,like, let's do a long episode

(38:23):
about slashers for Halloween.
Let's do it on like a set.
Let's, like, film these littlethings. So we really, was really
fun to do because of somethingout of our element a little bit.
And again, my incredible teambuilt that entire like bedroom
set, like in the back wall. Soit was so immersive and so fun.
And my got to show off myterrible acting skills, so we

(38:44):
but that was important because Iam such a fan of slashers, and
for me, it's like my little loveletter to the genre. And I agree
with you. I think that a lot ofthe time it's not just about
like, oh, well, this is thefirst movie, or this is the
first time this happened. It'slike, this is the first female
killer, like, this is the first,you know, final girls, or final
guy. And I think that that sortof that rigidity isn't as what

(39:05):
the genre is about. For me, Ithink it's a fun, flexible
genre, and so I wanted to showthat in the episode. But I think
that rigidity also speaks to howit's interpreted. I mean, of
course, as you all know, theseare things that have been
considered high everything fromhigh art to torture porn and
everything in between. And Ithink that there's a space in
the conversation for the thingsthat are great about the genre
and the things that areproblematic about it, and how

(39:26):
we've sort of evolved over time.
So I wanted to show thatevolution of, you know, yeah,
here are the things thatinspired this genre, and now
we've taken it in so manydifferent directions. I did get
so many comments on the slasherspecial that I didn't bring up
Terrifier, which I regret, butthat was honestly one of the
hard things too, is we had thesehuge conversations about, like,
which slashers we would include,and, you know, legally, like,

(39:47):
how much of what we can show.
And of course, it is PBS. So howdo we get around a slasher
episode without showing too muchGore or blood? So we had to be
creative in that way. But I'mreally proud of that. Episode,
and hope we get to do a littlebit more, maybe those like
horror film type critiques inthe future. How

do you show any of Terrifier? You even did
the disclaimer at the beginning,there will be blood, but
Terrifier, you Yeah, even withthe disclaimer. How do you do
that. What I loved about theslasher one, and this was
something that when you wereshooting, you know, yours things

(40:27):
on the set and with thedifferent costumes, it's almost
like they they use a filter thatit basically, especially when
you're hiding under the bed withthe footsteps going by. I'm
like, is this Dr Z, or is thisfrom the movie? Like it just
emulates the actual slasherslime bite. I found myself
going, I haven't seen this. Ohwait, no, that's her. Yeah, I

love that.
That's we were trying to do, iswe wanted to, like, sort of
situate the audience in like aslasher movie. And of course, we
joke like we need to make afull, full length version of
this, like fictional film, sothat a lot of the camera work
was all for my director, David.
He's incredible. And again,we're used to shooting like
static on the monstrum set, sohe, I think, really embraced

(41:08):
this idea of, you know, being alittle more creative and doing
those kind of tracking shots.
And, yeah, we had a really,really fun time with it.

You did a little of that with the
Universal Monsters. Went towhere you got the dress all, you
know, yeah, classic Hollywood.
And there was a little moreacting on your part with it.

Yeah, that was super fun, too. And, like this,
very creative filming wise forthat, because I was incredibly
pregnant at the time, so we kindof had to film around that and
use some classic tricks to coverthat up. But so that's a special
episode for me, because, youknow, my little one was, that
was his first

time on set.
Oh, that's awesome. I love theuse of hair makeup, like,
especially with the slash photo,I was just like that, that
classic hair, the outfit, younailed it. Thank

you. That was all me. That was like, what, you
know, I just wanted to do it. Itwas fun. And, yeah, the
ponytail, and we just again,leaned into it. So imagine had
such a great time. Well,

that was great. It's like when you went
from the 70s to the 80s, all ofa sudden, there you are, you
know, night where you went fromHalloween to night right now?
Yeah,

and not everyone noticed, but the set
actually changed. So we tried toupdate the bedroom to be more
representative of like thatgenre, or like more modern. So
we spent way too much time onthat. And I was like, we have to
have a caboodle. And, yeah, itwas really fun.

So hard question, I know we said no hard
questions, but here's why,what's your favorite slasher
film then? Or three, like, threethat, like, off the top of your
head, these are my favorites.

So Halloween, I think, is perfection. Like,
that's the first slasher Ireally remember watching, and I
watched it when I was ateenager, so I think there was
something that really spoke tome about this man, like stalking
a teenage girl. So that's when Iwas like, Huh? Like, this is
interesting. So Halloween forsure. I mean Scream. Scream is a

(42:55):
comfort watch for me. It's sogenius in so many ways. And I
also really like The Burning. Ijust think it's like fun. Not
enough people talk about it. Ithink that there's some really
creative kills. I think thekiller is cool. It has like the
signature, you know, weapon. Sothose will probably be my top
three, off the top of my head,nice and

actually segueing off of The Burning and
the subject of the show. Ialways think it's interesting
when folk or mythologicalcreatures or monsters kind of
bleed into pop culture in thereverse. And I feel like that's
the case with a subject likecropsy, because originally,
cropsy was an urban legend fromI think I believe it was Long

(43:38):
Island New York. And I waswondering just, do you think
it's one way that keeps thesemonsters alive, or is it just
kind of both sentiments of bothpop culture and film, or, yeah,
or is it like a cycle?

I think it's not necessarily a cycle. I think
it just shows like The Power ofhorror to tell stories like, we
keep returning to these devicesand, you know, tropes, because
there's something that works forthem and that they're comforting
to a degree. And as I talkedabout that in the slasher
episode, that the reliability ofkind of like, you know, this is
going to happen. They're goingto separate, like, there's
something and comforting withthat, which I know it's crazy

(44:16):
that people think, like, Wait,slasher movies are like, your
comfort genre. I'm like, yeah, Idon't know what that says about
me, but I think that when youhave that crossover between,
like, folklore and monsters, andespecially seeing them in pop
culture, I do think that'sreally, really interesting,
because it's kind of like, whatis about that thing that's
speaking to us at that moment intime. So, yeah, something like

(44:36):
Cropsy is really interesting. Orthere's that just came out. I'm
blanking, it's on Hulu. But thiskind of, like the Terrifier,
this terrifier too, this idea oflike, a creepy kid show, right?
Like, Mr. Crockett, yes. Thankyou. Mr. Crockett, yeah. So I
think, like, Terrifier 2 and Mr.
Crockett, lean into this, like,kind of millennial nostalgia
thing, of like, the shows weused to watch and, like.

(44:58):
Actually, they're really creepyin a lot of ways. So I think
this like back and forth of likedialogs. That's how I see
horror. Is not like a one sidedconversation, but it's creators
and audiences engaging with oneanother in these stories, and
then, yeah, making like a fauxdocumentary about like a really
niche, specific thing. And Ithink that that's so cool,
because that allows us to tellmore stories, and that's what I

(45:21):
think is really, really awesomeabout horror in general. And
this is something that I lookedat way back when, and, you know,
my PhD with the Gothic, but Ithink horror has always been a
space for marginalized voices totell stories and share
experiences in a way that makesit seem more accessible, or
there's like, a certain level offreedom to talk about some

(45:42):
really difficult subjects inhorror. And I think that that's
still true today. And I think alot of like, this new wave of
slashers that we're seeing islike that films in general. I
think the more voices we havecontributing these
conversations, the coolerstories we get. So I've been,
personally, as a fan, very happyto see horror evolve and take
on, you know, differentperspectives,

absolutely.
And I always found the thefunniest critique when it comes
to especially slashers, isthey're like, they're promoting
violence, they're promotingthis. And it's like, no one's
really relating with the slasherkiller. Because at the end of
the day, it's the classic goodversus evil, and it almost
always ends with good triumphingevil. It's like, how is that any
different from classic storiesof mythology, or, yeah, even

(46:25):
biblical stories? You know, it'svery similar. It's just, yeah, a
bit more gratuitous,

yes. But again, I think that there's something
about that gratuitousness thatreally makes it that kind of
doesn't promote violence,because it's like, no one's
going to be sliding someone'shead through, like a bread
slicer, like that. Just doesn'tmake sense. So for me, it
almost, I like the camp aspect,I guess, of slasher and I think
what's really cool too, withslashers and that level of gore

(46:56):
and kills is things aredifferent now, obviously with
special effects, but like someof the practical special
effects. Some of them arechintzy, for sure, but some of
them are, like, reallyeffective. So again, I think
that slashers could be done lowbudget, and you could get really
creative with them. And I thinkthat that's another reason that
they had that sort of, you know,boom in the 1970s and 80s wasn't
just a commercial success, butit's my personal opinion. I

(47:16):
think it really like fedsomething to the creators too.

They get very Tom and Jerry sometimes, which

I'm always surprised when people say that
slashers are misogynist, becauseto me, they're almost feminist,
because especially the example Ilike to use is Nightmare on Elm
Street. Nancy Thompson, everymale in her life. Fails her her
dad, her boyfriend, her friends.
She has to take on this guy onher own, basically. And where

(47:46):
all of the men fail, shesucceeds. So when people say, I
mean, sure, a lot of women getkilled in these movies, but a
lot of men get killed in thesemovies. A lot of people get
killed in these movies. Sowhenever people say that
slashers are misogynists, I'mlike, do you watch them?

I think it can go both ways. Like, don't get me
wrong. I think that there,especially, there's some really
problematic aspects ofrepresenting both male and
female characters in thesemovies. Yes. So I mean, I see
that there again, are problems,but I think that there are
problems with any genre.
Problems with any genre. It'sabout having those
conversations, and, again,changing things, which what we
see and, like, that's Nightmareon Elm Street. The entire

(48:28):
franchise, I think, is all aboutwomen, educating women, because
Nancy is involved in, like,training the next ones. And,
yeah, so I think that there'spotential for slashers to be
feminist. I mean, again, that'skind of one of one of the
reasons I love the genre, as yousaid, is there's some really
kick ass, like, femalecharacters in there, and I know
that sometimes that evensubverts expectation. I'm

(48:49):
thinking of something like,You're Next Aaron, one of my
favorite final girls, isincredible in that movie,
because they assume that she'sgoing to be an easy kill, then
they don't know that she was,like, raised in, like, the
Outback and like, is actuallycrazy in like, the best way
possible, or even something likethe new Scream movies, this
concept of having the Final Fourright, that's full of queer, non

(49:10):
white final people, I thinkthat's also really awesome. So
again, I think that we canappreciate the good things that
slashers do, and point out thethings that maybe aren't so
great and change them in futuremovies. And I think we've been
seeing that, especially in the21st

century, well, even early in the in the sub
genre. As you can tell, I lovethe Slumber Party Massacre
posters in the back that thosefilms went so far with the
critiquing that some peopledidn't even pick it up because
it was just doing it in such anover the top and silly manner.
I'm gonna

add that to my list of highly recommended
slashers, all directed andwritten by women. Yes, which,
again, makes a difference. Imean, they literally the idea of
the giant drill is like soobvious

the way it's defeated by cutting it in half.

Yes.
Absolutely. We

always joke that the Slumber Party Massacre
movies, it's not subtext, it'stext. Really, they're really
hitting you over the head with

it. And also has one of my favorite horror
movie moments of all time iswhen they're eating the pizza
like over the dead deliveryguy's body. It's just chef's
kiss. He's great. But again, Ithink that's speaks to the
importance of having differentvoices behind the camera and,
like in the script writing, Ithink, yeah, that text, as you
mentioned, is so overt and soobvious. And I mean, obviously

(50:31):
the creators were, like, leaninginto what they knew would be,
like, commercially successful,and like what the studio wanted
to see, but then doing somethingreally progressive and, like
feminist, which a lot of peopledon't really see, which, again,
as you said, is crazy, given howobvious it is.

Oh yeah. I chatted with the director of
Slumber Party Massacre 2 at asigning recently, and she was
like, yeah. Corman made surethat we had the things that were
marketable, the violence, theboobs, and then we were allowed
to do what everyone had outsideof that. And it's so great
because there are parts in allfour of those movies really,
where it's like, this is whatyou wanted, right? And it's

(51:05):
presented in such a way it'slike, you wanted this. Look how
ridiculous this thing that youwanted is, and it's turning

this, like male gaze idea on its head by making
it so, so obvious that it'slike, Y'all, this is ridiculous,
but like, Sure, we'll give it toyou anyway.

And at the time, people didn't realize that
they were parodying this slasherconcept. You know. People were
like, oh, cool, another slashermovie,

yeah, yeah.
They got people to show up, andthen they did something, you
know, different, and made, youknow, I think again, those
conversations happen. Which isreally

cool, yeah?
Which is another thing that Ifeel like that the slasher
genre, lends itself to parodyfrequently, or parody, satire
and spoofs, because on top of ontop of that, you know, there's
been stuff like scary movie ormore recently, and one of my
favorites, Dude Bro PartyMassacre 3. And why do you think
that slashers tend to have, ortend to lend themselves to

(52:03):
comedy like that, because

I think they're comedic and like, the sense of,
like, some of the kills andlike, even some of the dialog,
especially in those earlymovies, is like it. I don't know
if it's intentionally funny, butit is hilarious because of that.
You know, leaning so hard intothe extremes of the genre, I
think that obviously makes itreally easy for parody and
satire. And I think it'sfascinating that they're going
to reboot scary movie. I think,oh yeah, they just announced

(52:29):
that. So that's going to befascinating, because Scream does
this right? It's like, how doyou operate when it's like,
you're a parody franchise to adegree that or satirical one.
And kind of leaning into that, Ithink is really cool. So yeah, I
think it's because theridiculousness of slashers. And
because of those extremes, youcan have extreme characters,
Extreme Kills, extreme villainsthat that lends itself perfectly

(52:53):
to

parody. And the Wayne brothers are back,
thank God.

So great.
Parodying slashers is kind ofeasy because, and you go into
this in your episode, there arethat the tropes are there, the
the nine, you know, things thatyou find every slash week. So
they're they lend themselves toparody. Because all you have to
do is follow those, yeah, likeall those tropes

in that pattern, absolutely, yep. Um,

now I, before we go, I we need to talk about
cryptids, because I lovecryptids and and I was excited
when I was scrolling through themonster ones. I, you know,
they're you've got episodes onClassic Monsters, on
mythological, you know, all thatkind of things. But then you've
got the cryptids. And first off,what's your favorite cryptid?

(53:42):
Jackalope?
That's a cute little crypt.

It's a cute but it's like, again, it's so I
think because when I wasyounger and I moved from Vermont
to Arizona, and like, sawrabbits for the first time,
like, out in the desert, I waslike, oh, like, and they do.
There's some explanations of,like, for the sightings that I
think are really fascinating.
But, yeah, there's somethingabout like, cute monsters that I
think gets me like, yeah, afanged horned rabbit is
hilarious.

So when you do the the cryptids, it I
noticed with moth man, youactually traveled to Point
Pleasant. Do you try to do thatwith the cryptids? Like you go
to their hometown to get thefirst hand accounts when we can.

Yeah, so that's something that we did not with
the crypto but with thedocumentary Exhumed, looking at
the history of zombies in theUS. That was so important to get
certain perspectives that whenwe can film and person for
cryptids, it's, I think, ideal.
That's one of the reasons whywe've delayed some things, like
Jersey Devil we haven't doneyet, because we really want to
do that in the location, becausethere is something about telling
those stories in the placeswhere they first evolved. Like

(54:46):
the woods and Point Pleasant arescary. Like we filmed there a
little bit at night, and I,like, refused to do it in
darkness, because I'm like, It'screepy. Like, if you grew up in
the northeast, like those woodsare really, really creepy. Yeah.
So I think when we can sort ofget that vibe and experience
what maybe the people who sawthese cryptids were
experiencing, that's definitelyideal.

Thank you for lending to the argument that New
Englanders were, we tend to I'mfrom New Hampshire originally at
Jacobs for mass. So we we know,like you stay out of the woods,
like it's almost ingrained in ussome of these, even if we're not
super conscious about it. Mypartner, I took them to New
England a few times, and they'realways like, oh, let's go hang
out in the graveyard at night.
I'm like, Fuck, no. Oh, youbelieve in this. I'm like, I

(55:33):
don't know about believing it,but I don't want to test it.
Man, it's too ingrained in ourblood. Man,

better safe than sorry. Yes, I'm totally
with that.

Yeah, no, I actually made a short found
footage film in the hauntedwoods at dogton, and every fiber
of my being as a New Englanderwas saying, Yeah, this is a bad
idea. Yeah,

Lauren stain, yeah, over here.

And yeah, I don't remember someone telling
me that like the woods. I guessit must just be like folklore
and stories that I heard when Iwas a kid that, like, make me
feel that way, plus, yeah, likethe inherent creepiness of the
environment that, yeah, it doesfeel very ingrained. It

was The Blair Witch Project. Oh, really, I
wasn't allowed to watch that,but I was, oh no,

we didn't have that when I grew up in a very in
a log house in the woods, so,like, it was very disconnected
from media, but even so, justlike the emptiness of like
humans and hearing the noisesand it being so bright with the
stars and everything, so you cansee everything, but you don't
see everything. There's shadowystuff, and it's usually just
animals. But still, yourimagination goes wild

(56:38):
Absolutely, and that's the basisof most monster stories,
something shadowy happened overthere,

yeah? Or some behavior we can't explain, like,
let's make a monster out of it.
Yeah, had to be a jackalope.
Yeah? Had to be a jackalope, ofcourse.

Well, that's what I think cryptos are. A lot
of it is, you see something thatyou can't explain, and you're
like, Oh, it's a monster, youknow, which? Hey, that works for
me. It gives me it. It feeds myimagination. Before we go. I do.
I have, I have two requests foryou. One of them we talked about
off before we started recording.
Do the hodag, Rylander,Wisconsin. The hodag is an

(57:12):
amazing cryptid, agreed, kind ofrelated to the hodag, the Slide
Rock Bolter in Colorado.

I'm not which is interesting, because I went
to school there. Yeah,

that will be a very short one, because it's
that William T Cox fearsomecritters of the lumber woods,
the same book that did the hodagand basically the slide rock
bolter is a land whale who hookshimself up on the top of one
mountain, and he unhookshimself, slides down, eats
someone, and then flips aroundand hooks himself up and waits

(57:46):
for his next victim. It'sawesome,

hilarious, fascinating. I'm always looking
for excuse to go back toColorado. So it is

it is great.
It is great. So those are my tworequests for Monstrum, and I'll
be waiting for them.

Perfect. I'd

like to request the Gloucester Sea
Serpent.

Okay, okay. Sea Serpents are really interesting.
Yeah,

the the Gloucester Sea Serpent is, is,
is a fun one too. Yeah, oh,yeah, they shot at it. You got
to go to Gloucester to do it.
Though I would

love that. I mean, this one, I think is so
fun. And one of the things Ilove so much about this show is
I think that initially PBS, andeven my production team was
like, how is this going to be aseries that lasts for more than
one season? Right? Like theyjust didn't think that there
were enough monsters. And I'mlike, trust me around season six
and planning for season seven,and hope I've seen no reason to

(58:38):
slow down anytime soon, becausethere are so many of these, like
cryptids and folk tales and, youknow, modern things. And again,
digital folklore is a space I'mreally interested in right now,
too. So I'm gonna keep going foras long as I can. I saw

you, you had an episode on Slender Man, which
is the digital folklore. So,yep, we've

done Slender Man. We've done siren head.
We've done the SCP Foundation.
So yeah, I'm always looking for,again, that balance between old
and new. Because, again, mytheory is that human history is
Monster history, so I gotta talkabout the new stuff too. Yeah,

right on way, putting it when you get more
episodes under your belt and youwant to come back anytime, come
back anytime, we would love tohave you anytime. And everybody
watch Monstrum with Dr. Z andyou can find it I was watching
on YouTube. Is that the mainplace it is the YouTube channel?

Yes, we have the YouTube channel. It's also
available on the PBS app andpbs.org Okay,

okay, awesome. Now, before we take
off, what are you working onnow, is there anything other
than Monstrum that you're doingthat you want to plug?

Yes, so in addition to Monstrum, I know we
have a couple of really excitingepisodes coming up, including
one on change lanes, which wasthe fan voted episodes that's
been it's a long script rightnow, pushing my director doesn't
love but it's gonna

be good two part like the werewolf. Yeah,
exactly.

So I have that coming up. But I also recently
did a audible series aboutserial killers, real and
imagined. That came out in July.
So that's a little bit of adifferent take. So looking at
how both real killers andfictional ones have kind of
blurred over time, and whythat's happened. And then the
other thing I don't have detailsI can speak about yet, but I
will be appearing on televisionsoon, and then I'm actually

(01:00:16):
shopping a book around right nowthat would be like a modern
bestiary for cryptids. Nice,

James Jay Edwards (01:00:23):
nice. Oh, I can't wait for that. By that
book,perfect. Any of these come to
fruition, just reach out andwe'll have you back on I'd love
to be back. I feel like we'vejust scratched the surface of
your knowledge here. We need to,we need to explore more. But for
now, we are out of time. Sowhere can people find you? Or do
you have, like, social mediapages that people can look

Dr. Emily Zarka (01:00:47):
up? So I have the Monstrum PBS Instagram
account, as well as a personalDr. Emily Zarka Instagram
account. And then for all mylatest stuff, you can find
information on my website,www.dremilyzarka.com,

okay, great.
And as far as we are concerned,you can find us @eyeonhorror
and all the socials, or atihorror.com which is the website
we call home. Our theme music isby restless spirits, so go check
them out. And our artwork is byChris Fisher, so go check him
out, and go check out MonstrumWith Dr Z and come on back
anytime. And you know, we loveto talk monsters, um, and we

(01:01:23):
will see everybody in a coupleof weeks. So for me, James, Jay
Edwards, I'm Jacob Davison.

Jonathan Correia (01:01:30):
I'm Jonathan Correia.

Dr. Emily Zarka (01:01:31):
I'm Dr. Emily Zarka, keep

Your Eye on horror.

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