Horrorspiria

In this episode, May sits down with Ariel Baska, founder of the film festival Access:Horror and accomplished horror filmmaker. Ariel and May explores the topic of medical gaslighting in horror through Ariel's own film, Our First Priority, as well as The Entity and A Cure for Wellness. There is also more information on Access:Horror in the episode, which takes place on July 8 & 9 virtually. Buy your tickets at accesshorror.c...

In this episode, May sits down with Dr. Valeria Villegas Lindvall, Senior Lecturer in the Aesthetics Unit at the University of Gothenburg. Valeria's dissertation, Wicked Women and Witches: Subversive Readings of the Female Monster in Mexican and Argentinian Horror Film, explores gendered monstrosity in Mexican and Argentinian visual culture: La Llorona and the bruja (witch), respectively. In this episode, Dr. Villegas Lindvall expa...

In this Spotlight episode, May sits down with Final Girls Film Festival Berlin founders, Sara and Eli, to learn more about the groundbreaking festival. Final Girls Film Festival showcases horror cinema that’s directed, written, or produced by women and non-binary filmmakers. The festival and its team is committed to creating space for female (trans-inclusive) voices and visions, whether monstrous, heroic or some messy combination o...

In this episode, May sits down with Amber, creator of the HornBloodFire podcast and a horror critic from the UK. Amber and May discuss one of their favorite foreign horror movements -- the J-Horror wave. In this episode, some films discussed are Onibaba, Hausu, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Ringu, Ju-On: The Grudge, Battle Royale, and more.

The episode is currently streaming on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Poc...

In the first crossover episode for Horrorspiria, May interviews Jonny & Aileen, creators and hosts of  ¡UY QUE HORROR!, a Latinx horror movie podcast.  In this episode, Jonny & Aileen discuss the inspiration behind the podcast, their backgrounds spanning Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Honduras, and as a group, Jonny, Aileen, & May discuss the joys, traumas, and triumphs of studying Latin American horror and w...

In this episode, May sits down with Amy Harris, PhD researcher and teacher from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Amy specializes in women-made British horror, a topic she has written about in the new anthology, Bloody Women: Women Directors of Horror, and what she studies as part of her dissertation. In this episode, Amy discusses the shifts and shapes of women-made British horror, including films like Black Lake, Prevenge,...

In this episode, May talks with actor and aspiring filmmaker, Jazz Echevarría, about werewolves and werewolf films. Inspired by Craig Ian Mann's 2020 book, Phases of the Moon: A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film, May and Jazz try to grow an appreciation for the werewolf and their depiction in cinema since the 1940s. They discuss The Wolf Man, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The Werewolf in Washington, An American Werewolf in London, ...

In this episode, May sits down with Tuğçe Kutlu, PhD candidate, writer, and researcher from Ankara University. Tuğçe specializes in studying grief in horror, particularly Anglophone films, which is what she wrote her dissertation about. In this episode, Tuğçe explains her dissertation in depth, which looks at Midsommar, Hereditary, The Woman in Black, Pet Sematary, and The Babadook through the Kübler-Ross grief framework.

The episo...

In this episode, May sits down with Horrorspiria's first international guest, PhD candidate from University of Liverpool: Rhys Jones. Rhys specializes in studying the abject in horror, which has led him to many intersections of queer theory, psychoanalysis, and horror. In this episode, May and Rhys look at The Lighthouse, Raw, The Dragula Brothers, and Martyrs, to discuss queer sensibilities in horror and queerness within the genre...

Black horror is Black history. In this episode, May gives a brief rundown of that history before sitting down with Black genre filmmaker and professor, Nikyatu Jusu. They talk about Nikyatu's upcoming work on her feature film, her Sundance-nominated vampire short, Suicide By Sunlight, but most of all, Nikyatu provides a unique perspective of actively working to make Black genre films in the 21st century. Together, May and Nikyatu e...

On this episode of Horrorspiria, Lisa comes back on the pod for an in-depth look at the film business. Also an academic at George Mason, Lisa is an independent film producer with a background ranging from anti-piracy law for major studios to microbudget productions, which is the majority of her work now. We discuss the nooks and crannies of all those complicated terms we creatives aren't super fond of while looking at various model...