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To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Wicked, we bring you something rare and unexpected. Years ago Corey sat down with Gregory Maguire for a candid, hilarious and deeply thoughtful conversation about the moral complexity of Oz, the origins of Elphaba, the impact of politics on fantasy, and the loose ends that make his work feel so human. The original audio has been lost to time. But with the help of AI we rebuilt the conversation from Corey’s transcript. And because it is Horror Heals we could not resist adding a twist. The recreated Corey voice is performed as a British woman named Imogen, which gives the entire interview a surprising charm.

What makes this conversation special is how timely it still feels. Gregory speaks openly about public rage, war, art under pressure, and the ways fantasy helps us process the truths we cannot face directly. He talks about readers who misinterpret his work, fans who adore his characters, and the younger audiences who discovered Wicked through the musical and wanted more. He also shares early and often painful stories from his first book signings, which proves that even bestselling authors start small.

Corey opens the episode by explaining why The Wizard of Oz has always carried a streak of horror. Baum’s original books, the classic MGM film, and the darker modern retellings all share unsettling elements. Flying monkeys. Bewitched forests. Shifting reality. Dreams that turn against you. For many of us, Oz was our first exposure to the uncanny, long before we had the vocabulary for horror. It is no surprise that fans of Wicked often overlap with fans of the horror genre.

This special episode blends nostalgia, literature, Oz lore and the darker emotional themes that make Wicked endure. Whether you came for the witch, the musical, or the monsters under the yellow brick road, this conversation shines a light on why Gregory Maguire’s world continues to resonate.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse, it is.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Send us a text

Women in Horror are reshaping the genre, from the lingering dread of The Exorcist to modern Final Person heroes like Naru in Prey. In this episode, Kimberly Ramsawak, creator of Horror Concierge and founder of Horror and Her, joins us for her first podcast appearance to talk empowerment, representation, and why horror is the most emotionally honest genre around.

We explore Kimberly’s horror origin story, including The Exorcist at age six, the rise of women-led horror commentary on Substack, how identity and empowerment show up on screen, and why original storytelling matters more now than ever. We also talk Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Predator Badlands, and Jordan Peele’s upcoming remake of The People Under the Stairs.

If you love smart horror conversations, slow burn dread, women finding their power, and creature feature nostalgia, you will love this one.

Who is Kimberly Ramsawak

Kimberly is the creator of Horror Concierge, a Substack newsletter for women horror fans and creators. She is also the founder of Horror and Her, a coaching business that helps women build powerful newsletters and communities centered on their unique horror perspectives.

What we talk about in this episode

• Kimberly’s horror origin story and how The Exorcist became her lifelong favorite
• The link between horror and empowerment for women
• Why Substack is becoming a home for horror voices and creative community
• How to turn horror writing into a movement
• Why horror fans were more resilient during the COVID pandemic
• The growing diversity in the horror world
• The need for original storytelling and fewer remakes
• Kimberly’s favorite final person and why Naru from Prey stands above the rest

Favorite moments

• “I was six when my dad sat me down to watch The Exorcist and Thriller. He told my mom, ‘They are going to learn not to be afraid of anything.’”
• “Everyone writes reviews. What is your hill to die on? That is your horror voice.”
• “Horror fans already survived the zombie apocalypse in our minds. That is why we handled COVID better than most.”

Why this episode matters

Kimberly shows how horror can be both a creative outlet and a path to healing. Her approach reminds us that when we confront what terrifies us, whether it is societal expectations or personal fear, we make space for growth, power, and reinvention.

Listen if you have ever

• Hidden your horror fandom at work
• Wanted to write about horror but did not know where to begin
• Needed a reminder that fear can be fuel
• Wished more women and creators of color shaped the horror landscape

Connect with Kimberly

Substack: https://horrorconcierge.substack.com?utm_source=horrorheals

Horror and Her: https://horrorandher.com?utm_source=horrorheals

Follow Horror Heals

YouTube Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@horrorhealspodcast?utm_source=buzzsprout

Instagram: https://instagram.com/horrorheals?u

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

What happens when an actress who played make-believe among the stars helps real astronauts reach them?

In this special tribute episode of Horror Heals, Corey honors the life and legacy of June Lockhart, who passed away at 100 after a century spent balancing the light of Hollywood with the wonder of the cosmos.

For most of us, June will always be the fearless matriarch who kept her family safe aboard the Jupiter 2 in Lost in Space, or the comforting mother who taught generations of kids kindness through Lassie. But her reach extended far beyond television screens and soundstages.

In 2013, NASA awarded June the Exceptional Public Achievement Medal for her decades of advocacy and inspiration. Her fascination with space was not an act, it was part of who she was. She spoke with astronauts, attended launches, and became a true ambassador for curiosity itself.

June also made her mark in the worlds that inspire this show: science fiction and horror. She brought heart and humor to the cult favorite Troll (1986), blended domestic warmth with cosmic dread in Lost in Space, and carried the poise of old Hollywood into the age of aliens, monsters, and magic. She proved that even in the strangest worlds, empathy matters most.

Corey shares his family’s personal connection to Meet Me in St. Louis, a Lockhart classic that his grandparents introduced to him and his siblings on SelectaVision, and reflects on how June’s artistry linked generations through story and imagination.

• June’s evolution from Broadway debut to interstellar pioneer
• The Lost in Space legacy that launched real-life dreams
• Her forays into horror and fantasy, including Troll and other genre-bending roles
• Why NASA called her one of its brightest stars
• How she turned compassion, curiosity, and courage into a century-long career
• The enduring power of imagination as both escape and healing

June Lockhart’s story reminds us that horror and science fiction are never only about fear, they are about possibility. She showed that the same spark that lights a campfire ghost story can also ignite a rocket.

Her legacy is proof that curiosity can be sacred, that kindness can exist in the face of the unknown, and that our best stories, the dark ones, the cosmic ones, and the human ones, are all connected.

Join Horror Heals for a heartfelt journey through the life of June Lockhart, the actress who helped us face the void, love the strange, and look to the stars.

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Beatrice Boepple (Amanda Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5) joins Horror Heals for one of the most powerful conversations we’ve had about horror, trauma, empathy, and why these stories matter so much.

Before the interview, Corey shares what happened at ScareFest: Beatrice had her entire day’s earnings stolen, money earmarked for her son’s college fund, and was later targeted by an extortion attempt. But the horror community showed its true colors. Fans, staff, vendors, and fellow guests rallied around her and helped recover nearly every dollar. This is what our horror family looks like: compassion over cruelty, solidarity over selfishness.

Beatrice opens up about being a lifelong empath who once avoided gore, how yoga and horror unexpectedly intersect in her life, and why so many fans connect to Amanda Krueger’s trauma and survival story. She talks about her book The Krueger’s Curse, the deeper backstory she created for Amanda, her experiences playing Pamela Voorhees in fan films, and the surprising impact of convention culture.

We also discuss her close friendship with Mark Patton (Jesse from Elm Street 2), his health challenges, and how listeners can help support him during treatment.

This episode digs into bullying, survival narratives, final-girl empowerment, horror community acceptance, and how characters like Freddy and Jason resonate so deeply with fans who grew up as outsiders. Beatrice’s insight is raw, warm, and profoundly healing.

Horror isn’t about cruelty; it’s about community. And Beatrice Boepple is proof.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

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What happens when the VHS kid who found safety with scream queens grows up and becomes the cosplay that inspires the original star?

If horror has ever been your coping tool, your comfort movie, or your mirror when life got loud, Gregory’s story shows how channeling fandom into creativity and community can lift your mood, build resilience, and connect you to people who truly get it. This episode turns nostalgia into a wellness practice you can actually use.

Key takeaways:

Turn comfort watches into creative fuel: how Gregory transformed Friday-night rentals into cosplay, commentary, and connection.

Community heals: ways conventions, photo shoots, and creator shout-outs can reduce isolation and boost self-worth.

Own your origin story: reframing “outsider” energy into confidence, boundaries, and an everyday wellness ritual.

Gregory Van Abelar joins Corey to talk horror as therapy, community, and art. We dig into Gregory’s famed Angela cosplay from Night of the Demons, including the moment Amelia Kinkade herself cheered him on and later collaborated with him for charity events. Gregory traces a throughline from being a horror-loving loner who found friends in scream queens, to creating shoots at sacred genre sites like the Monroeville Mall, to landing on the Night of the Demons 3 Blu-ray commentary. We also hit Night of the Living Dead lore, the new Tom Savini director’s cut, and why revisiting classics can feel like checking in with an old friend. Most of all, Gregory shows how horror helps you survive the hard chapters and celebrate the weird, wonderful you.

Highlights:

• Angela forever: first cosplay, junior-high courage, and navigating homophobia without dimming your shine
• The Amelia effect: meeting Kinkade, instant kinship, and teaming up for animal charity work
• Community as medicine: why creator recognition and con culture can be life-giving
• Monroeville Mall memories and keeping horror landmarks alive
• Night of the Living Dead talk, the Savini cut, and why remakes can heal too
• Final people we love: claiming Angela’s last line as a “final girl” crown
• Practical ways horror fandom supports mental wellness

Press play to hear how Gregory turned VHS-era comfort into real-world courage and community, and steal his rituals for making horror part of your mental wellness toolkit today.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

The world feels heavy. Anxiety is high, headlines are grim, and creative burnout is real. This week, Horror Heals host Corey Stulce sits down with Lee Murray ONZM to talk about how horror can help us process the darkness instead of drowning in it.

Lee Murray is proof that horror can wear a crown and still draw blood. The Aotearoa-born author, editor, poet, and screenwriter has snagged five Bram Stokers®, a Shirley Jackson Award, and the Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction. Her monsters whisper truth, her ghosts quote poetry, and her stories remind us that terror and tenderness often share the same heartbeat. Learn more: leemurray.info

Lee has built a global reputation as one of the genre’s most thoughtful voices, writing about grief, loss, and trauma with honesty and heart. In this conversation, she and Corey explore how creating (and consuming) horror can actually make us kinder and more resilient. They talk about writing from anxiety, building community in a chaotic world, and how fear can become a tool for healing.

This episode isn’t just for writers or horror fans. It’s for anyone who feels overwhelmed, disconnected, or creatively stuck. Lee’s message is clear: the monsters aren’t here to hurt us. They’re here to help us understand ourselves.

• How horror storytelling can serve as emotional processing for grief, fear, and anxiety.
• Why confronting darkness creatively is healthier than avoiding it.
• How Lee Murray’s own experiences with anxiety fuel her award-winning work.
• The role of community and connection in healing through horror.
• How to balance creative ambition with mental wellness.
• Why horror fans might be the most emotionally self-aware people on the planet.

Between global uncertainty, collective burnout, and the constant churn of bad news, conversations about mental wellness are everywhere. What sets this episode apart is its focus on how horror, a genre built on fear, can actually bring comfort, clarity, and community.

Lee Murray’s perspective feels especially relevant as artists, writers, and fans look for ways to stay grounded while the world feels unhinged. Her reminder that storytelling can transform anxiety into empathy lands like a lifeline in uncertain times.

Lee Murray is an award-winning author, poet, and editor from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She is a four-time Bram Stoker Award winner and the co-founder of the HWA New Zealand branch. Her work includes novels, short fiction, and anthologies that blend horror, fantasy, and the deeply human experience of fear and loss. Her collections and collaborations have inspired a generation of writers who view horror as both art and medicine.

Learn more at Lee Murray’s official website or follow her on social media.

00:00 – Corey welcomes Horror Heal-iacs and sets the scene: the world feels dark, but horror can help.

03:42 – Lee Murray introduces her philosophy of “writing from a dark place.”

09:10 – How horror offers emotional rehearsal for real-world fear and grief.

13:26 – Anxiety, creativity, and the myth of the “tortured artist.”

20:15 – Building inclusive, compassionate...

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and what better way to celebrate than to explore its legacy as a queer lifeline.

In Part Two of our conversation with the creator behind Queer for Fear, we dig into how "Rocky Horror" is more than a midnight movie. It is a rite of passage, a community builder, and a warm blanket for queer horror fans across generations. For Heather, "Rocky Horror" is a personal comfort film she revisits again and again. For Kendall and Corey, it was their very first Halloween together, one dressed as Eddie, the other as Frankenfurter. And for countless others, it was the first time they walked into a theater and felt truly seen.

We also talk about the power of camp to transform trauma, the complicated legacy of "Sleepaway Camp," the evolution of horror conventions from exclusionary to inclusive, and the dream of a traveling queer horror convention where the spirit of Rocky Horror lives on.

In This Episode, You’ll Hear:

• Why "Rocky Horror" still matters 50 years later and why it feels just as transgressive today
• How camp helps queer fans reframe trauma into joy and survival
• The push and pull of problematic texts like "Sleepaway Camp" and why nuance matters
• Conventions as healing spaces for fans and celebrities alike
• The fantasy of a traveling queer horror convention with sequins, karaoke, and midnight screenings

Why This Episode Matters:

Half a century later, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" still has the power to shock, unite, and heal. Part Two celebrates how horror, and "Rocky Horror" in particular, creates spaces where queerness, trauma, and joy collide into something unforgettable.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Send us a text

In this episode of Horror Heals, Corey sits down with Heather, the force behind Queer for Fear. Part One of this two-parter dives deep into the queer relationship with horror, the villains we secretly love, and how the genre became a lifeline for outsiders looking for a mirror in pop culture.

Heather shares her personal journey of grief and discovery, from the death of her brother to finding both healing and community through horror. We talk about growing up as queer Gen X kids obsessed with VHS covers, discovering horror through films like Fright Night and Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and why the Wicked Witch of the West may be one of the greatest queer icons of all time (sorry Dorothy, but stealing shoes off a corpse is a bad look).

This conversation is funny, heartfelt, and full of chills—the perfect reminder that horror isn’t just about monsters on screen, it’s about survival, identity, and connection.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Why Heather started Queer for Fear and how horror became the center of her academic and creative work
• The Wicked Witch as a queer villain icon—and why Glinda might actually be the real monster in The Wizard of Oz
• The healing power of horror as a trauma processor
• The messy joy of growing up in the 80s horror aisle, when VHS covers were pure nightmare fuel
• Reclaiming films once mocked (Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Fright Night) as part of queer horror canon
• How horror conventions evolved from “black-shirt bros” to radically inclusive spaces

Why You Should Listen:

If you’ve ever felt like the weirdo in the room, this episode will feel like home. Heather’s insights are sharp, hilarious, and deeply moving—a reminder that horror heals not just through screams, but through belonging.

Links & Resources:

• Follow Heather on Instagram: @queerforfear
• Check out Heather’s book: Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals.

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.