Hellbent For Horror

Hellbent For Horror

This is S.A. Bradley, and I’m a life-long horror lover. This podcast combines horror history, personal observations, common themes, and cultural trends to tell a story with each episode. Here we talk about all things horror. Horror movies, books, comics, hosts, conventions. The door swings wide here, and all types of horror are welcome. Each episode covers some aspect of horror with lots of viewing or reading suggestions for you to check out. I want to start conversations with people about all types of horror. I’ve been a fan all my life, and I love all the different styles: Classic Universal Monsters, Slasher Films, Found Footage, French Extreme, Asian Extreme, Korean Ghost Stories, J-Horror, Hammer Horror Films, Amicus Films, Glass Eye Pix, EC Horror Comics, Creature Features, Horror Hosts, Italian Zombie movies, Spanish Zombie movies, George Romero Zombie movies, Giallo, Silent Horror Films, Nature Run Amok, Atomic Age Horror, Roughies, Exploitation, Horror Literature, Serial Killer, Halloween, B-Movie, Splatter films, ghost stories, Folk Horror, supernatural, body horror, torture porn, VHS, Psycho.

Episodes

March 10, 2024 77 mins

The 96th Academy Awards Ceremony is upon us, but we fans know that the only award that matters is if you recommend a horror movie to your friends and they love it!

In reality, 2023 was such a good year for horror movies that I needed two episodes to cover my favorites!

Join me as we celebrate PART TWO of the "Killer Elite," a list of horror movies that surprised me and that I recommend to horror fans!

I hope you enjoy the show!

Mov...

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The 96th Academy Awards Ceremony is in a few weeks, but the annual outrage over the lack of horror movie nominations is in full swing. We fans know that the only award that matters is if you recommend a horror movie to your friends.

In reality, 2023 was a damn good year for horror movies, with diverse styles and subgenres to satisfy any horror fan's tastes, and I have so many recommendations I needed two episodes to cover them!

Joi...

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It's Time for our annual Christmas Ghost Story!
 
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Horror movie collectors live to find those rare movies that eluded us. These are the movies that are so obscure and bizarre that it becomes a quest to see them and pass them on to other fans.

Join our guest, Roxanne Guarino (Cinema Insomnia with Mr. Lobo), author of the ...

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poster with large VHS cassette tape with bloody fingerprints on it.

Welcome to "Tape Two" of S.O.V. (shot on video) movies that prove that Horror is the Punk Rock of Cinema!

For decades, fans made movies without Hollywood, money, or distribution deals. Following the DIY ethos, regional horror movies s...

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Horror is the Punk Rock of Cinema, and S.O.V. (shot on video) movies prove it!

For decades, fans made movies without Hollywood, money, or distribution deals. Following the DIY ethos, regional horror movies sprung up everywhere and told crazy, original, and personal stories and created a subculture.

Just like punk rock did! 

Join me on "Tape One," where I discuss the long history of renegade moviemaking outside the system, some of m...

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Happy Halloween!

Join me as I talk about all of the little annual "rituals" I do around Halloween, including books, movies, decorations, old memories of Samhains gone by, and new "ritual bits" added this year!

I hope you enjoy the show!

Books Discussed:

Ghost Story -Peter Straub

Books of Blood- Clive Barker

The Year’s Best Hardcore Horror- Edited by Randy Chandler and C...

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Legendary Filmmaker William Friedkin died on August 7th, 2023, a few months before the 50th Anniversary of THE EXORCIST.

As his legend would dictate, Friedkin was a bit of a demon himself to those who worked with him and opposed him. "Hurricane Billy" would do anything for a shot, even at the risk of life and limb. 

Join me as I take a personal look at my utter fascination with the director, whose work captivated me at an early age...

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Three years of the pandemic is enough. We stared into the abyss, and it changed us. And horror movies got us through.

Horror movies also told us the scary and ugly truth about how monstrous we were. As we spent our Seasons in the Abyss, here are some trends I noticed... and NO ZOMBIE MOVIES INCLUDED!

PART ONE OF TWO.

Movies Discussed: 

SYNCHRONIC (2020)

ST. MAUD (2021)

DEMENTER (2021)

THE VIGIL (2021)

RELIC (2022)

HIS HOUSE (2020)

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Here's my Postmortem on the 2022 Christmas Holiday Season, where I discuss Killer Santas, Trolls, Yule Logs, and the death of "The War on Christmas!" 

Movies Discussed:

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983)

TROLL (2022)

CHRISTMAS, BLOODY CHRISTMAS (2022)

THE MEAN ONE (2022)

VIOLENT NIGHT (2022)

ADULT SWIM'S YULE LOG (2022)

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Happiest of Holidays to you! 

Just in time for Christmas Eve is the Hellbent for Horror Annual Christmas Ghost Story!

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!

This year's story is M.R. James' "Casting the Runes," which is the story that was adapted into the excellent 1957 film directed by ...

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Join acclaimed horror author Vince V. Cava (CREEPYPASTA, JUST A LITTLE TERRIBLE) as we look at how comedy and horror work together (or not). We discuss Bizarro horror, Creepypasta, crazy Anime, and "the Amazon Smut Illuminati."

This is a pre-recorded live podcast from the FAN EXPO-SAN FRANCISCO performed on Black Friday (11/25/2022).

I hope you enjoy the show!

MOVIES:

SCANNERS (1981...

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November 1, 2022 62 mins

It's no surprise that I love Halloween and that I love decorating my place into a haunted House for Trick-or-Treaters to enjoy. 

But there is a specific history behind my love of Halloween, and in this episode, I'm going to "open a vein" and give you more insight into what makes me believe that horror brings people together and, for some of us, frees us and gives us purpose.

Special Edition: I read my short story, THE RELEQUARIANS....

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Every town has ghosts and the late George Romero is Pittsburgh's beloved boogeyman!

Romero still looms large there, and I was honored to visit the George A. Romero Archival Collection (1962-2017) at the Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh.

Horror Studies Collection Coordinator Ben Rubin sat for an interview and gave me a tour of the vast collection that documents his career through the ups and downs and how Pittsburgh b...

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Freddy's glove! Jason's machete! Jigsaw's mask! Leatherface's Chainsaw!

Like any religion, horror and sci-fi movies can be such a spiritual experience for fans that props and costumes can become holy relics.

Join my guests, James Azrael and Ernesto Avina, partners, and curators of The Horror & SciFi Prop Preservation Association (HSPPA), as they discuss ...

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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 1979-1984, 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 b...

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February 12, 2022 103 mins

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, focus...

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December 27, 2021 68 mins

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:

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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 ...

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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 ou...

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