Join hosts Aureo, Sam, and Sierra and special guest Sequoia Simone (Fanatical Fics and But Make It Scary) as they delve into what would happen if Harry Potter was Horror.
In this episode:
- We all grew up not watching horror
- AJ Holmes is the Best Sweeny Todd
- Horror books are cool – we barely read them
- Shoutout to Harry Potter actors in other movies
- Ron dies. Ron’s already dead.
- We remember Twilight exists
- Everyone is swallowed whole
- Thanks to Sam, Ginny is now everyone’s favorite character
For more from our guest Sequoia:
- @sequoiasimone on Instagram and TikTok
- But Make It Scary Podcast – a comedic horror movie podcast that twists romantic films into horror movies
- Fanatical Fics and Where To Find Them – a Harry Potter fanfiction podcast
Horror recommendations:
- Books/author:
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica
- Frankenstein
- Goosebumps
- Horns by Joe Hill
- NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
- The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
- Steven King
- Tananarive Due
- Movies:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Jordan Peele
- 10 Cloverfield Lane
- Cabin in the Woods
- Get Out
- Nosferatu
- Psycho
- Shaun of the Dead
- Silence of the Lambs
- Split
- The Conjuring
- The Menu (Ralph Fiennes)
- Woman in Black (Daniel Radcliffe)
- Zombieland
Types of Horror movies:
- Found Footage
The point-of-view takes place from the perspective of a camera.
Examples: The Blair Witch Project and Rec - Lovecraftian
Cosmic horror. Monsters are beings beyond our comprehension.
Examples: Alien and The Thing - Psychological
Horror of the mind. What is real? What is madness?
Examples: Silence of the Lambs and Jacob’s Ladder - Science Fiction
Horror and consequences of technology. Monsters are often aliens or machines.
Examples: The Blob and War of the Worlds - Slasher
The monster is a psychopath with a penchant for bloody murder. Often focuses on the punishment of promiscuous teenagers.
Examples: Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street - Supernatural
Focuses on the afterlife. Primary creatures include ghosts and demons.
Examples: Poltergeist and The Exorcist - Torture
Similar to slasher; focuses on the punishment of people. The villain takes pleasure in the physical and psychological torment of victims.
Examples: Hostel and Saw - Vampire
One of the oldest horror sub-genres in which icons like Dracula feed on human blood.
Examples: Nosferatu and Interview with the Vampire - Werewolf
When a full moon is out, beware of these beastly shape-shifters.
Examples: An American Werewolf in London and The Wolf Man - Zombie
A group of survivors is usually attacked by a horde of flesh-eating undead.
Examples: Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, and Shaun of the Dead
Big huge shoutout to Patrick for the awesome sound editing!!!
Patrick is definitely the true wizard of our show!
A random thought – maybe Harry was deliberately given the less-informative version of the letter. Given the example of Riddle, Dumbledore’s wasn’t keen on an independant, muggle-raised magical child.
This topic of horror really got me thinking about inferi. During the episode, inferi are referenced many times and the discussion always seemed to insinuate that inferi are made from any dead body that a dark wizard kills. I dont think this is the case.
We know that an inferius is a “dead body that has been bewitched to do a Dark wizard’s bidding” but let’s think about what that actually means. To become an inferi, one would need to not only be killed, but their body would presumably never be found/recovered by their allies or loved ones. If the dead body was receovered, it would be buried and the dark wizard would not have a chance to enchant it to become an inferius.
What I’m trying to say, is that Voldemort’s army of inferi are not just dead bodies, but rather hundreds to thousands of murdered victims that their families and friends are likely still wondering what happended to them. Image getting attacked by the inferi army, only to see a famliar face right before your demise.
Creepy…
Creepy is definitely the right word! But I have to say since we don’t actually learn that much about inferi and they never actually got as big players as dementors, we often don’t end up talking too much about them… but now you’ve raised this point, I honestly don’t see how else it would work. Kinda glad now that inferi never got a bigger role in the series, but maybe another example of the horror element was there but because it’s a YA series, we don’t truly dive into it.
That’s an impressive array of ways to make the series more horrifying (which I would not want to read/watch)!
I like the idea of Bart-eye (great nickname, by the way!) killing several other people over the course of GoF, though my mind went to a Fish Called Wanda-style black comedy: he keeps trying to kill Harry and getting someone else by mistake (e.g. pushes a stone off the roof which instead crushes Cedric just after he’s told Harry to take a bath).
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Something I find interesting is that the way that a scene is portrayed can tune it towards whichever genre/style you want. The series has enough horror elements to work with already. As the hosts mention, PoA was tuned away from horror (adding more slapstick, for example) to keep it kid-friendly, but it’s a story where a school is surrounded by soul-sucking monsters and the main character is (apparently) being stalked by a mass murderer.
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Some other random ideas:
Oh now I am thinking of a version of Among Us set in Hogwarts, that would be so much fun, but also very hard assuming you’d have about 250-300 players and you know the whole castle and grounds to explore.
Also beast inferi… now that’s a scary thought!
I can only repeat from the episode, not a horror fan but coming up with horror plots/ideas is very fun. So love this idea, definitely do not want to watch a Harry Potter movie/show with acromantula inferi!
Agreed – I’m not a horror fan, but it’s fun to play with ideas
I’m not a horror fan, but would 100% watch a slapstick Bart-eye accidentally killing Triwizard champions! (Love Fish Called Wanda btw, what a gem!)
I gotta enthusiastically second Sam’s recommendation of the Scholomance trilogy – a friend foisted it on me a year ago and it blew my mind, the whole premise is “Hogwarts, but it’s trying to kill you.”
I love Sam’s idea of a Mirror of Erised that can entrap you, and it honestly does not seem like a big stretch from HP. It’s very much Jo’s style. I think if the Mirror of Erised showed up later in the series, like anywhere in the back half, that’s exactly what it would be: a magical entrapment as well as a regular danger of addiction. It’s just that SS was a bit early in the series for something so gruesome.
Also jumping off that – what if Quirrell ended up trapped in the Mirror at the end! Then we could have six more books of a very cranky Magic Mirror type (a la Snow White). Maybe Harry would have to go talk to it in HBP to find out about horcruxes! Or a very cranky Harry would try interrogating it in OP about what’s going on, only to get even more sass than Phineas Nigellus gave. The more I think about it, the more fun I think this would be. (It all goes back to Quirrell being kinda shortchanged as a character cuz it’s Book 1; it would’ve been nice to see more of him!)
Literally every single book: “Okay, so the first thing is there’s a lot more deaths in this story…”
It is terrifying to think how many people could have died in this universe. Although I don’t think Hermione would of killed Luna.