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Dread Alert Media.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hello, my fellow Dreadites. Welcome back to the Dread Alert Podcast. Today we're joined by Dylan DeGrave, author of Heller, a novel which is hitting shelves on December 1st. This novel is absolutely outstanding. I had a blast with it. It brings a sense of hopefulness at the end, but mixed with this quiet desperation that's hard to put into words, especially without spoiling it. And you do not want to be spoiled with this novel. It is a commendable debut novel from an author who I am just excited to have on the show, and I would say a TikTok friend as well. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Dylan, thanks so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. I'm super psyched for it, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Honored my friend. I cannot believe this is your first outing. Let's just start with what is Heller? What is it about, and what should we expect when we read it?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

You know, it's it kind of started off as uh I was working this job, I got a new job, and I kind of met a new buddy through a friend of mine, and I was just kind of talking to him, and I was just sort of venting how I do to friends who don't enjoy slasher movies the way I enjoy slasher movies and different things like that. And I was like, you know what? Something that always irks me is that every every slasher film, and this isn't maybe not true for all of them, but the vast majority of slasher films all revolve around this white picket fence, HOA type neighborhood, you know, higher middle class. And I was just like, what happened to the ghetto, man? Like what happened to like the lower class, you know, what about the trailer parks and the, you know, the the like I don't want to say, you know, anything too much foul language or anything, but you know, some of the less desirable areas and of certain towns and stuff. Like I grew up, where I grew up, and and I'm just like, I I never really see that, and I would love to see a slasher story kind of take that. And I was already writing something else at the time, but I just couldn't get this idea out of my head, and it just all kind of cascaded from there. It started off as a slasher, and I just wanted it to really revolve around addiction and abuse, and and that's just kind of where that's kind of what started it all.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

I think you hit the nail on the head with that too. It feels like a lower-income blue velvet in that in the setting. And and I I absolutely feel the fingerprints of David Lynch in the Pacific Northwest location of this as well. Very twin peaksy. Um and and it has fingerprints of a few other movies that I picked up on. First of all, there is a kill early in this, which if it is not an homage to Casey Becker, it might as well be. Right? It has the fingerprints and similar DNA to Scream. I can tell that you're a horror fan. There are horror references embedded deeply into the character names, into the location names. But also, I get a distinct vibe of Lord of Illusions, the Clive Barker movie as well. And it just put me back in that movie weirded me out as a teen. And so it's it's a high compliment to say that. But again, this is something in and of itself in a complete world that you've created here, uh, which is a long-winded way of me asking you, what were your influences in terms of like the horror that that laid the ground for this book?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

So uh there's the obvious is that um a lot of it was pulling inspiration from the horror films that I grew up watching, and then a lot of it was inspired in you know, rooted more in in true life kind of horror, in in the sense that um, you know, home life, growing up in certain uh, you know, certain households, you know, my household wasn't the greatest. Yeah, I had I had friends who were of of similar upbringings, and I had friends who had who were much worse off than I was. And some of my main characters' life experiences were pulled from some of the kids I grew up with. I've been in their homes, I've seen the things that was going on behind closed doors that nobody really likes to talk about. And those kind of things were just something that I felt I just don't see explored. I I see explored plenty in certain mediums, but not in this medium, which is just my bread and butter. I love horror, I love slashers, and uh just kind of seeing that kind of creep into this genre was something I just wanted, and that's kind of really was the inspiration. I'm I just I'm a I'm a slasher fanatic, and so I just kind of thought maybe putting those two together might have something kind of fun.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

I think we have more in common than I even realized when I invited you on the show. I I I know we mentioned off camera, but my mom was, you know, my rock, and she was a nurse, is a nurse, retired, but my dad got addicted to painkillers, and then you know, it that at the time it was the next step was heroin, and maybe now it's a little different, and in the novel it's a little different. Um so those themes of addiction and watching a parent spiral. I didn't live with my dad. I visited plenty, and that household, contrasted with the household my mom crafted for me, were just so vastly different. But the way you per portray it is so accurate. The um parentification that happens whenever kids have an addicted parent. And the grief before the parent is gone, essentially, you're you're grieving the loss of a parent before they're gone. Anything could be the last thing that they do. Um, it resonates so so truly. And I think that speaks to what this novel does really well, and it's unique for a slasher, but you have more space to work in. Is it's a relationship first novel. These character relationships are the the ground of being here. Everything is built on those relationships. And you hit us hard with some early losses, which really devastated me as a reader. Uh, I was not expecting a very early loss in this book, uh, really shook me. So I was like, clearly, this is the main through line of the book. That he should be put into jeopardy to put our protagonist in harm's way. And uh that was not the case. Um, and the rest of the core group here, um, I mean, it feels it feels like the the affection I had for the the gang in Scream. I wonder, uh, is there an approach you take to crafting novels in general, like your writing process, but also specifically those relationships?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Well, usually what I do is I really try to sort of string together the commonalities that I had with people because growing up, I started off very um sort of withdrawn and sort of kind of in my own shell, and I only really would um sort of uh interact with people that I felt safe interacting with. It wasn't until I was older when I started to sort of make connections outside of that box I had created for myself and to find out that, okay, someone who grew up, how I grew up, around the things I grew up, you do have more in common with other people than you think you do, even if it doesn't seem like it. And so I just kind of drew from those kind of like revelations I have had growing up. And um when I do start crafting characters, I always sit down and I try to do a very in-depth character creation sheet. I'll go down to like I'll go, even if it makes no appearance in a story, I'll go all the way down to their childhood and just kind of think of experiences they had, losses they may have had, things that just may have may have helped shape that person as they got older. And it helps me kind of find connections for characters. Even connections for characters, and it's not something I always plan out, it's just I get to know the characters well enough so that way when I'm writing them, the the relationships kind of grow on their own. I don't necessarily always plan things ahead when it comes to relationship entanglements and whether or not this character is going to end up becoming best friends with this character or not throughout the story. Those are things that happen generally organically for me. If there's something that needs to be orchestrated that I know needs to happen, then I will try to steer those threads together. But generally, it's more of an organic process that just sort of happens depending on the character's personalities.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I can imagine there were a few that needed to be kind of guided in this. It gets a little webby at points and interconnected. Um I can also imagine that it was a bit free-flowing too. Some of the some of the smaller members of the group seem like they have just really fun relationships that felt very organic. Yeah. Um so this is this is your debut novel. Uh tell tell us about what you've written before and and if somebody really enjoys Heller, where where can they find some other stuff of yours?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

So, yeah, it is my first novel. It's the first novel that I felt brave enough to share with the world. I've been writing since yeah, I've been writing for a very long time, and um there's been a couple novels I've completed, but just never never thought they were uh high enough quality to put out into the world. I looked at those as more or less like learning experiences, and um Heller, it took a long time from concept to publication. It was about six years. But that was mainly because I didn't know where it was going. I didn't know what the ending was, I didn't know who was responsible for what was happening. And so those things I didn't outline it at all. Um and I was dealing with a lot of imposter syndrome and and all kinds of other things that really got in the way of it, but it was it was so untethered in it that by the time I I got to the point where you need to reveal who's behind this and what's going on, that's when it happened. And then so I had to go back and I had to make sure that these things could fit, that this would work for this person to be responsible for what's happening. And so there was a lot of uh lot of cleanup. So it was a it was a messy process, and I've learned from that. And so with the with part two, it's it's not that process. I've had the whole thing outlined real quick. Because I at least with Heller One, now I have a foundation. That was the big thing, is I was building this world, but I hadn't um in detail thought it out. It really built itself as I went, and now that that's done, I know what the foundation is. So good news is part two is coming along much faster.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

I'm pumped for part two, to be honest with you. I I enjoyed living in this world, I really did. And thank you. Regarding imposter syndrome, so first of all, anybody who puts themselves out on the internet, I mean, you have to deal with an immense amount of imposter syndrome on a daily basis. Yeah. But uh I I put back about 50 books a year, and I can say that you have no need to have imposter syndrome. When other readers get their hands on this, I suspect the response, especially among the people who really like your content, and there are a lot of folks out there. Thank you. I think everybody, if you like Dylan, if you like his vibe, this will 100% resonate with you. I I really think you've earned this one, man. This is thank you. It's good stuff. Do you write a lot of short fiction at all?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Or are you I've I dabble. You know, the thing is, it's actually difficult for me to write a short story because I will st I'll come up with an idea and then it just explodes into this big thing. And then before I know it, I'm like, there's no way I can fit this into 10,000 words. It's just not going to happen. So I find it actually quite the challenge to write short fiction. I do try. I have a couple that I'm working on, uh, some things that I've done that I think I plan on releasing for free, just like through my newsletter, stuff like that. I think will just be fun to release for people. No, generally I don't write a lot of short fiction. Usually when I plan things out, they tend to they seem to form into full-length novels.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

That's pretty awesome. Uh honestly, that's a good problem to have. Yeah. Uh especially if you want to be a novelist. Right. Um I know that you give some really great lists, and I've been in your comment section uh applauding your lists and and uh saying, oh, check this book out by this author that we love, that we both love. Did you have any inspiration or influences from current, you know, currently publishing authors?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah. Big time. Around the time when I was sort of coming up with the idea for Heller, I didn't really think that slashers in novels were really around much. I generally didn't read that genre of uh of novel myself. I I re I read horror, but I didn't really know that there was a lot of slashers out there. As time went on, I discovered uh Grady Hendricks, discovered um uh Riley Sager, who was he who was more in the thriller side of things, but God, I love Riley Sager. Uh obviously Stephen Graham Jones, Paul Tremblay. Um, but yeah, when it came to going back and sort of uh going over my rough draft, at that point in time I started reading Grady Hendrix, like uh the final girls support group was amazing. That's a good one. Um if anybody that that's just fun. Um, and then uh it was just called Final Girls by Riley Sager. Um and you know, I think it it just what it what honestly it helps me kind of do was and this isn't me sort of picking apart anybody else's word because those guys are all amazing, but I noticed this sort of theme is that and it made me feel good about what I was the direction I was going with Heller. The theme I kind of noticed is that a lot of the time with these kind of novels, everybody tends to kind of go the route of not necessarily spoofing on itself. That's not the right word, but it's so self-aware of the slasher entity that it points it out for the reader again and again and again. This is a slasher, this is a slasher, we know this is a slasher. We're using the we're using the terminology, we're saying the word slasher, we're saying the word final girl. We're, you know, we're kind of building on that that that trope machine that just keeps churning. And with Heller, I wanted it to feel more like it's something obviously it's based in its own fictional world, but I wanted it to feel really rooted and personal. And so I knew that I couldn't go the route these guys were going. What they were doing was great, but I couldn't do that because it just would be a disservice to kind of what I was trying to have these characters' world kind of become. Um, so yeah, there were inspirations, but more or less it was showing me what not to do. Not because it was bad, but because I saw it was working for them, but I knew I couldn't do that. That wouldn't work for me. I have to do it. It cemented what I was doing as like, okay, I'm on the right path. This is definitely the version of this sort of world that I want to tell.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

What's interesting about that is yeah, it's definitely not as like comedically self-aware as some of those other books. While they're very serious books in their own way, they do have this sort of like meta humor to them. Um but some of them explore slashers with protagonists that are not your typical slasher final person. Uh Delson is not our typical final girl, not a girl at all. Right. Um I think of the Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Ferkassi with an 80-year-old final girl. Um and and the uh the the chainsaw trilogy, Stephen Graham Jones' chainsaw trilogy, bringing in his own identity. And it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And and and done so, so well.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah. The interesting thing here is that you you mentioned it it was inspired by personal experience. And I wonder if fiction doesn't give us the ability to take a more nuanced look at slashers across a more nuanced and and broad spectrum of existence.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think so. I think it's a really can be a really cathartic tool, I think. Um, you know, it's it definitely helped me a lot in my uh formative years.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

And horror in general, in our formative years, always feels to me like, and uh my audience is probably sick of hearing me talk about this, but it feels like a rite of passage, like we're doing something that is a taboo or a too adult. Um I had another guest mention that he's chasing the the electric thrill that he got when he saw, I think it was The Exorcist. And for me, it was, you know, Halloween too. Um I wonder, was there a film in your early days or a book in your early days that kind of gave you that electric thrill, that that fear that you're chasing the dragon for now?

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah, I would say Pet Cemetery was a big one for me as a child. That scared me so bad. Uh Pet Cemetery was a big one. That left a mark. Um that was probably one of the first films I saw as a child where I was truly, truly terrified.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

I didn't see Pet Cemetery before I saw Pet Cemetery 2, which was a weird way to go about doing it. Right. We were at the mercy. Back in our day, yeah, and I'm probably a little older than you, but back in my day, we were at the mercy of cable. And so whatever was on and whatever was on after my mom went to bed uh was what I was exposed to. But that dirt bike.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

People will say otherwise, but I say nay. Pet Cemetery 2 is great. It's good.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, that dirt bike scene messed me up, man. Yeah. I don't think I've watched it. Maybe I've watched it since, but it's it's not one that I frequent. It's one of those like, yeah. It holds up, it's good. Looking at the themes of Heller, and there are some there are a few main themes that I see. Not only um socioeconomic divide, because we have some upper class homes, and next to them we have homes that are falling down. We have kids who are of means and kids who are not of means, and the way they treat Delson because of his social standing and his mother is just upsetting. Um so we have socioeconomic divide. We have a sort of paying a retribution for the sins of our parents. We have uh the the themes of addiction that run through. Um I wonder, is there anything that A that I'm leaving out, or B that you'd like the reader to leave with and consider when they finish reading this novel?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

That's a tough question. I feel like maybe better understanding perhaps of what might be going on behind closed doors is is something. Um like I said, I didn't have the best upbringing growing up, but a lot of of that paled in comparison to some of the people I grew up with. And like just seeing that other people around them just had no idea what their home life was like, and yet these kids still got up, they still went to school, and they didn't talk about it. You know what I mean? Um, and it's just it's it's incredible. And that was something that um that was, yeah, that was sort of a big kind of a big inspiration uh in writing this, and I think that was something I tried to get across. Not beating a reader over the head with it, but it was something that I definitely tried to weave in the words.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

So are you I know you're working on Heller 2 or or whatever the title shapes up to be. Are there any other projects you got in the fire that you can kind of give us a peek at?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Before I started working on Heller, I was working on another project. Um and I based that project in on my real hometown, um, which is up in the uh way up northern California in the Redwoods, and that's obviously what Heller's based off of. Um but it was literally placed in the home in my hometown. Um and it was a supernatural uh story, and I hung that up because it was one I just after it was all said and done, I was like, yeah, it's it's just not, this isn't for people's eyes. Um, and that's something I definitely want to return to, and it's something I actually just this last weekend completely plotted out the entire outline for. So that's waiting for me to get to it at some point, and that is more or less um it's very different from Heller. It's very different from Heller tonally. Um maybe not tonally, but content-wise, it's very, very different. It's more in the line of uh um like vampires, stuff like that. I don't want to say too much, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Yeah, for sure. I I know and I know we have a shared love of slashers, and I also have a deep love of found footage, and uh, you know, I wonder, are there other any other genres that you really gravitate towards? You mentioned this is a supernatural piece with vampires. I'm I'm curious what other genres get you going.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah, well, like yeah, I do I do absolutely love vampires. Um I'm also pretty obsessed with like hauntings, uh demonic like uh possessions and stuff like that. That's another story I have on the back burner as well. I am working on this haunted house story as well that I'm really, really excited to tell. I have another one that um I'm working on that is actually really um after I completed Heller and it was in the processes of getting published, all that stuff was work working itself out. I uh had it outlined and I wrote like oh God, I probably wrote like a quarter of it out, and it's so fun. I can't wait to return to that story. It's about a a writer whose uh wife has passed away and he moves back to his hometown with his daughter, and um it sort of is based on this idea of your muse, like where your muse comes from, and how sometimes when you're getting creative and you're writing, it seems like it comes from a whole other world in general. And I kind of got tripped up on that idea and was like, well, what if it did? What does that look like? What what where where does that come from? And that sort of is where that's was where that's going. And it kind of pulls into this like supernatural spectrum of that one gets kind of trippy. It's weird, it's weird, but it's gonna be a fun one. I'm excited. And everything is sort of also all based in the same uh connected world. So, for instance, that one I was just describing to Takes place in a town called Little Rock, which is just probably like 15 miles from Blackroot in the hell in Heller. Um, so there's like references to certain events and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

That is always so much fun. And I I you built such a strong and lived in and compelling world in Heller. And so I'm very much so excited to see the Heller expanded universe. The H uh the H R U, the A, I don't know, the Heller reading universe. Well, let's go with that. Um, I know it's late in the conversation to ask this, and and we may have covered a little bit of it, but what got you started writing?

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yeah. To be honest, it was probably film. So as a kid, I didn't have a whole lot of parental supervision, but what I did have was a huge cardboard box filled with VHS movies. Uh bunch, a bunch of horror films on VHS. There were some other ones that slipped in, uh, some classics like Scarface or The Big Lebowski, stuff like that. But uh the vast majority of these tapes were all horror films. And so I just would pluck these suckers out of this cardboard box and watch horror film after horror film after horror film, and that's where I fell in love with the genre. From there, one of my sisters uh let me read their Goosebumps collection. And then from there I graduated into reading Stephen King and Anne Rice, and um probably by middle school is when I started messing around with writing my own stories, and by high school I started trying to take it a little bit more seriously. And that's maybe where it started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

I love that. Honestly, right behind me is uh Monster Blood. I just picked it up at a horror flea market this weekend, and it's gonna sit there until my daughter is old enough to truly appreciate it. She's two, and she was like looking at this like this book? And I was like, Yeah, book, but like artifact. It is an original run goosebumps book, kid. Right. Um, that's fantastic. Uh, do you have any advice for for people who are young writers or writers who are looking to get their first novel into the hands of readers, however, whatever path they choose to take with that?

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Right, yeah. Um, I think, and this is so uh cliche, so cliche because it's just said over and over again. But really, the biggest thing is to just write. If I had taken that advice so many times and just pushed out the imposter syndrome that would rear its head um and just taken that advice, it's not about the thing is is I feel like a lot of people will get stuck on, is this good enough? Is this good enough to get there? It doesn't matter. Um, you just have to write it because if it's not good enough, it you're gonna learn from it. And and that's it's way more valuable than you than you can imagine. Um, and I I wish I took that advice because I probably would have been doing this quite a few years ago. Um but and and and when it comes to getting it out into people's hands, you know, I did try to initially get Heller uh traditionally published, and I did have some bites from some agents. However, the problem was is that um when they did inevitably get back to me, and by no means were people chomping at the bit to get this book, I'm not saying that. Um the vast majority of people were like, oh, thank you for your time. No thanks. But the couple that did get back to me that were interested, their big deal breaker was that I would have to change the ending because as a first-time novelist, I can't leave off on uh the way it leaves off. Um and I'm just so dedicated to telling this story the way I I need to tell it, and I cannot change the ending because that's just such a big that's just such a big part of the book is the way that it closes and how it will lead into the next one. And when you're traditionally published, there is no there is no leading into the next one. That's not a guarantee at all. Um and so it really came down to me being like, okay, I'm just gonna do all the work myself because it's worth it to tell the story how I want to tell it. And so a lot of people get overwhelmed with the idea of thinking it's too much work. It is a lot of work, but it's not impossible at all. You just have to be yourself, talk about the things you love, and people who who love the same things, they'll gravitate towards you. And if you're supportive, you'll be supported.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

I think that is hugely key. Uh two things you said that that apply not only to writing but content creation. I wish I had started sooner. I've been on a fitness journey, I dropped 100 pounds, and I thought I had to like look a certain way to get in front of the camera.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Uh it's not true. It's the your your your message, your delivery, your unique view on something, be it reviewing films or hosting a podcast or writing a novel, it's gonna be useful to someone. And if it's just one person that makes it worth it at the end of the day. Absolutely for me. So just get out there and do it. Uh but also it's not it's not impossible. I mean, it really it's a lot of work, but it's worth it. I have to say, I'm so glad you didn't change this ending. Chapter 37 through the epilogue is just one of the wildest rides. Uh you will be gut-punched uh repeatedly. You'll get gut-punched more than Delson does during the novel. And that trust me, that is a lot. But it it's it's so worth it. Not only because I can see the that there's more story there. But if this was a self-contained story, the the the actual conflict I felt within myself with this ending, and I loved it, and I felt so conflicted with where these characters were and how I was so full of hope for them. They they have a real shot at something here, but also it is entirely tainted at the same time. Right. And that just is so cool and so not done a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

And I'm yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm really, really happy to hear that because that was something I was so torn on when I was writing that epilogue. Um when I was writing that epilogue, when I finished the last sentence, I sat there and I read it over, read this, read that epilogue over and over and over again. And I was just like, it's so hopeful, yet it's so bleak at the same time. And it's such a, it's such a, it just clashes. It's these two very these two forces just clashing. And I was like, that's so it just tickled my brain in such a way that I was I was just like, man, I really hope this hits for people the way it's hitting for me right now. I so I'm really, really excited to hear that.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

It sounds like it definitely hit the same way for me. And I will also see you're not precious with these characters. I don't think anybody makes it out of this unscathed in any way. Most people are very, very scathed. So uh that is uh I commend you for that. A lot of people are pr are sometimes precious with their with their favorites, but um Right. Well, you put everybody through the ringer here. Uh so I have a few questions that I ask everybody who comes on the show, and these are hard questions, and you can feel free to hate me. You can also feel free to give me multiple answers here. You don't have to land on just one thing. Um, but do you have a favorite slasher story or slasher movie? And either are are acceptable.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Boy, that's tough. If I'm being honest, I think probably my favorite is gonna have to be probably the original Friday the 13th. Ooh. Yeah. Friday the 13th, 1980, it was just uh and I know a lot of people, especially the younger generation, hell, even some from the older generation will be like, ah once you get through that one is when it starts getting good. But like I said, I had this cardboard box full of movies, and Friday the 13th was one of those movies where I feel really lucky someone my age was able to view that series by seeing that first film before I saw Jason.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

And uh it hit me in a way that just it never let up. Um Halloween is right there with it. A John Carter. Right there. I love it. You know, absolute masterpiece, in my opinion. Um, it's a it's real hard between Friday the 13th and Halloween. I know that there would be no Friday the 13th, obviously, without Halloween, but um it's just one of those, it's one of those ones I can always return to. I I I never understand when people say it's boring or anything like that. It's that's probably my favorite slasher film, is the original Friday the 13th, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

I think that film is not shy with its Jallo influences. No, it's not. That's what I love about that. Is it's like it's sleazy, it's uh gloved killer, it's a whodunit. And that's honestly what I love about the Scream franchise is that whodunit aspect. We lose that from Halloween onward. Uh Black Christmas does it well, uh, Friday the 13th does it well. So I am like excited to hear you say that. As an adult, now as a kid, you know, I was always like, let's let's go, Jason. I love him, he's awesome. Yeah, yeah. Um but uh as an adult, I really have developed a new appreciation um for Betsy Palmer, first and foremost.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

But for the Who Done It and the Jallo aspects of that movie, it's it's so good.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. Whereas Carpenter kind of put that he kind of took that approach with Halloween and put it behind the mask, you know, but um Friday 13th was pretty pretty on brand with that. And I think I think it just nails it. Yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yeah, I I totally agree with you. And now Halloween is my favorite film of all time. I think the they they they borrowed all the right things from their predecessors, the POV shots and the Masked Killer, and all, you know, and they they stand on the shoulders of Black Christmas and just nail the genre. But um, yeah, I I've I've grown such a fondness for that 1980 Friday the 13th. I'm so glad you said that. Uh do you have a favorite slasher book? You don't have to choose one. We already we we got a good slasher film.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Oh, I'm not sure. Right now, I'd probably say My Heart is a Chainsaw is probably holding that spot. It's such a good read. Yeah. It's so much fun. And honestly, I I and I haven't read Angel of Indian Lake either yet, so I haven't finished the trilogy.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

I liked Don't Fear the Reaper. I was more invested in Don't Fear the Reaper than My Heart is a Chainsaw, but I love that Stephen Graham Jones is working out slasher theory, and that has informed me as a reviewer more than probably anything, is his articles in Fangoria magazine and the Slasher 101. So I respect that. I would I I would love to float to you. I was a teenage slasher if you haven't read it yet. I haven't read it yet, but it is on my radar. Yeah. Really interesting take on a first-person slasher with an internal monologue. Interesting stuff. Again, I love fiction doing these non-traditional things while still maintaining the purity of the genre at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

It's good. Still keeping the spirit intact, but experimenting. It's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I don't think that films are so damn expensive. Your time is expensive, sir. And I know that six years is a long time, but uh it's it's hard to get someone to sign a check with six zeros at the end or eight zeros at the end for uh for experimental slashers. Right, yeah. Um do you have a favorite horror movie of all time? Something that like what's your what's your go-to? The shining.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah. Yeah. Um special place in my heart. I love the shining. I love the shining so much, everything about it.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

You're in good company. That is the most frequently cited film as their favorite, is your favorite film on this podcast. Uh, I'd love to do like a breakout chart of this at some point. Because every time I'm on the show, I'm like, I'm gonna wear my Overlook Hotel shirt, and then I never do, and then somebody's like, The Shining. I'm like, it would have been so good. I'm just gonna have to wear it for every episode and hope.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

No, right. I know, I know, I know that it's it's up there for so many people, but um, if we're not counting the crow as a horror film, then it's the shining. Which I used to count the crow as a horror film because it would be in the horror section at the video store. However, I feel like as as the years have gone by, people have sort of pushed it more into a supernatural thriller action film, which isn't really a genre, I guess, but people have kind of weeded it out of horror, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

I appreciate that take. I do, but there's a darkness at the soul of the crow. And I think once supernatural elements come into an action film, we are dangerously close to horror. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um that movie's nearly perfect. That movie encapsulates a period of time so purely like the goth scene of the 90s is so distilled.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yeah, in that movie. Incredible fact. In my opinion, I've always kind of looked at the crow as man, this is if Jaws was on land and the movie was from his perspective. Like that's how I feel about the crow. Yeah. So good, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

He's relentless, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

He is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

And and I mean, just a beautiful love story. Well, I don't know how the the love is beautiful, the story is not. Right.

unknown 34:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

So tell me about the shining. Is there something exciting about the shining for you that really sets it apart?

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Oh. You know, I think it comes down to the cinematography, it comes down to the to the performances. I mean, it comes down to the score. It comes down to the time in my life when I watched it, it left a huge mark on me. And it's just one of those things. Maybe it's nostalgia goggles, I don't know. Um maybe it is, but I I love that film.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

As a as a Kubrick diehard, who I took a course on Kubrick in theater school. Like, I was like, I'm gonna take a film course, and then my friends are like, whatever, man, if you need the grade, I'm like, no, no, no, it's about Kubrick. Yeah, yeah. Uh like I I love him as a director. I'm even I I will even go to Bat for Eyes Wide Shut right here, right now. Like, I'll throw down that it's a fantastic film. I rarely do you see a film about male insecurity, sexual insecurity outside of Lost Highway and Eyes Wide Shut, you know, uh like that, at least that directly. Um, so no, I'm a huge Kubrick fan. I don't think it's nostalgia goggles. I think you nailed it. Awesome. Well, Dylan, I have to ask, where can people find you? Because I know you have a very robust social media output, and I think people are lacking if they're not following you because I get a lot out of your content. Where can people follow you?

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Um, so yeah, I'm doing my thing on TikTok, and then I started kind of trying to plug all that into Instagram as well. So doing that on Instagram, and um I've been considering getting back on YouTube. That's where I initially started a couple years ago. Then I kind of got sucked into the black hole that is TikTok as it is. But um so until further notice, pretty much just TikTok and Instagram is where I'd be doing my thing. Well, if you're ever on YouTube, be sure to find us over there.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

We can collaborate on a couple of shorts because uh we are over there as well. But um, yeah, what's your handle? Uh Can't Kill Dill. Oh man, I love it. I love it so much. Like, not only is your last name sick, uh Can't Kill Dill is just like I I just wit like what are you gonna do with Vince? Like, there's nothing as witty as that. It's so good. Your whole brand is on point. I'm so glad. I'm glad to know you. I'm glad we got the talk today. I'm so glad your novel's gonna be in readers' hands because I think everyone is gonna be better for it. Thank you. Yeah, it's it's just it's truly good stuff. Is there anything you want to leave us on? Um just read more horror. Read more horror. Absolutely. Support independent horror authors, read more horror. Well said. And as always, stay spooky, my friends.