This episode of Horror Joy Brian and Jeff wander the dark hallways of meta-horror and ask whether we need a genre apocalypse to get beyond tired tropes of our favorite stories. Meta-horror shines a light on the structure of horror and how this leads to questions about both the audience of horror and the genre itself.

Join us as we attempt to step back and get a broader glimpse of the house of horror:

*We’ll take a quick nostalgic trip through The Haunted Mask, an early Goosebumps title

*We’ll analyze the connections between The Haunted Mask and Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay, including the use of masks, issues of identity, and intergenerational horror

*We’ll highlight the meta-horror aspects of Horror Movie and Drew Goddard’s 2011 movie Cabin in the Woods and question whether we need to hit a horror restart button.

Join us as we attempt to exorcise the ghosts of horror past and glimpse a potential future for the genre. Come for the horror. Stay for the Joy

 Post Horror by David Church

The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stein

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

Cabin in the Woods, directed by Drew Goddard

“Watchers in the Woods” By Kristopher Woofer (in Reading Whedon, edited by Rhonda Wilcox, Tanya Cochran, Cynthea Masson, and David Lavery)

Emmanuel Levinas

G.W.F. Hegel

Etymology of the word “wood”

Capitalism song by Celine Tshika

Parched shop in Providence, RI is run out of The Matchbox

Philosophy warning by Epic Rap Battles of History