Talking Scared

• Off Book #8 – Kyle McConaghy & Dead Mail

  Back to the 80s this week for one of the most singular horror movies of the year – now streaming on Shudder. Dead Mail is an ode to the era, but there are no neon fonts or leg warmers (or Olivia Newton Johns) here. Instead we’re in the drear of the decade, for a story about a synth-obsessed man who keeps his business partner captive in his flock-wallpapered bathroom. The poor victim’s only hope is the investigative ‘Dead Mail’ department of his local post office. If that sounds mad… well, it is. And I’m joined by Kyle McConaghy, one half of the writing/directing duo behind the movie. We talk about scripting the crazy, about the hands-on reality of low-budget filmmaking, replicating 80s aesthetics, and a big bucket full of rubber rats. Enjoy! Dead Mail is streaming on Shudder from Friday 18th April   Support Talking Scared on Patreon Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to [email protected]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 234 – Katherine Arden & The Devil’s Train Timetable

  In the week that the world changed, we’re talking about the last time things got this crazy.   Katherine Arden is the author of The Warm Hands of Ghosts — a novel set in the trenches of the First World War and on the borderline between horror and fantasy. It’s a Faustian pact made in No-Man’s Land, where our memories are the price we pay for keeping ourselves alive.   In this episode we talk a lot about history, about inflection points and moments of no-return. We talk about how systems of power can seem so complex that they lead only to ruin – but we also talk devils and fairies and angels and brave, brave nurses with scarred hands.   It’s a joy of a conversation, about the most hideous time to be alive.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), by Katherine Arden The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025), by Stephen Graham Jones Wasteland: The Great War and the Origin of Modern Horror (2018), by W. Scott Pool Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), by Susanna Clarke The Master and the Margarita (1940), by Mikhail Bulgakov Lud in the Mist (1926), by Hope Mirrlees Ghosts Have Warm Hands: A Memoir of the Great War (1968), by Will R. Bird Between Two Fires (2012), by Christopher Buehlman Ghost Eaters (2022), by Clay McLeod Chapman Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025), by Clay McLeod Chapman Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 233 – Tariq Ashkanani & Bloodstained Hands Across the Ocean

  This week we go from Edinburgh, Scotland to Nashville, Tennessee, in the company of crime author Tariq Ashkanani.   Tariq’s The Midnight King is a tricky, quasi-metafictional murder mystery about cursed manuscripts, familial secrets and the most heinous murders. It’s also a love letter to the kind of occult-tinged American crime epics that both he and I grew up loving.   We talk about the challenge of writing about serial killing without exploitation, about the unstable boundary between crime and horror fiction, about the allure of Hannibal Lecter and the pressure of a good twist.   But mostly we just pay homage to the messy, bloodsoaked myth of America that inspired us so much over the years.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   Welcome to Cooper (2021), by Tariq Ashkanani Red Dragon (1981), by Thomas Harris Galveston (2010), by Nic Pizzolatto The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), by Hallie Rubenhold The Devil All the Time (2011), by Donald Ray Pollock Uzumaki (2000), by Junji Ito Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 232 – Punk Goes Horror, with William Sterling, Wendy Dalrymple & Brian McAauley

  Time to throw ourselves around. We’re covering Punk Goes Horror.   The anthology of stories inspired by punk and alternative rock songs came out just a few weeks back. It brings together a mosh-pit full of authors, both new and established, to transmute their favourite songs into nasty little stories.   I invited the anthology editor, William Sterling, and two of his contributors, Wendy Dalrymple and Brian McCauley, to talk about punk, and horror and the affinity between the two.   We get into our favourite ever gig experiences, the creepy assumptions behind certain emo-songs, and why punk (and music generally) is such an important light in dark times.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk (2024), by Kathleen Hanna Victorian Psycho (2025), by Virginia Feito Blood on her Tongue (2025), by Johanna van Veen Credenza (2025), by Wendy Dalrymple Breathe in, Bleed Out (2025), by Brian McCauley Poisoned Soup for the Macabre, Depraved and Insane: An Anthology of Nostalgic Terrors (2025), edited by Wendy Dalrymple and Grace R. Reynolds Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Let Us Palaver #2 — The Drawing of the Three Debrief

  The second Let Us Palaver minisode – in which Nat Cassidy dig into the things we couldn't say about The Drawing of the Three, and give MAJOR SPOILERS about whole Dark Tower series. We're really start to wonder if Chris is punking us.   Support Talking Scared on Patreon Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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