PODCAST · tv
Still Scared: Talking Children's Horror
by Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray
A podcast in which one film lecturer and one scaredy-cat discuss creepy, spooky and disturbing children's books, films and tv.
Episodes
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Robert Cormier Megamix
Ee-i, adio spooky kids, and welcome to our Robert Cormier episode, in which Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray discuss three books by the American writer known for his 'deeply pessimistic novels'. We talk about I Am The Cheese from 1977, Fade from 1988 and The Rag and Bone Shop from 2001 (published...
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John Wyndham's Chocky
Happy new year, spooky kids! In this episode your hosts Adam Whybray and Ren Wednesday return to John Wyndham with his last book, Chocky from 1968, and the TV adaptation from 1984. We talk about Chocky's unusual parental perspective, Wyndhiam masculinity and possession horror, and digressions...
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Stone Cold and Hydra
Happy belated 8th (!) anniversary to Still Scared, spooky kids! In this episode, your hosts Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are returning to the British children's author Robert Swindells, and his novels Stone Cold from 1993 and Hydra from 1991. These two very different examples of children's…
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Y Mabinogi (The Otherworld)
Jump off the fishing boat into the mythology pool, spooky kids, because today we're going back to the twelfth century via 2003, with the animated film Y Mabinogi! For this whirlwind introduction to Welsh mythology, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are joined by returning guest Mattie Dogrose to…
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit & Terrorvision
Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are joined by returning guest Ava Foxfort (veteran of our Deptford Mice episodes) to talk about the beloved 80s masterpiece Terrorvision, and also some film called Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The Bob Hoskins Appreciation Society is fully represented, and the adjective...
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Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
We've got a sequel on our hands, spooky kids, and you'd better believe it's disquieting and unsatisfying! Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are back to discuss Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Roald Dahl's hodge-podge of a sequel to his beloved classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hotel...
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The Promised Neverland
It's been a while since we've talked about Japanese children's horror, but your co-hosts Adam Whybray and Ren Wednesday are back this month to chat about the anime of The Promised Neverland. Don't go past the fence or through the gate, because this story goes darker faster than you might expect.…
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The Honeys
Buzz buzz spooky kids, this episode Adam Whybray and Ren Wednesday are discussing some apiary horror from 2022, with Ryan La Sala's The Honeys. Your cohosts chat substances, state senators, and everything sweet and sticky, with a Texture of the Week that is truly skin-crawling. Content warning:...
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The Black Cauldron
Happy Halloween, spooky kids! In this seventh anniversary episode, Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and special guest Mattie Dogrose chat about a 1980s Disney horror curio that lost the studio a hell of a lot of money: The Black Cauldron! We discuss moderate peril, oracular pigs and the films liberal...
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The Mouse and his Child
Sometimes family is a few battered wind-up toys, a dubiously-reformed rat, and some birds you've persuaded not to eat you. In this episode Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and special guest Stuart Young discuss The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban, published in 1967, and the animated film released...
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Bonus Episode: Madness At The Mall!
In this off the cuff, spur of the moment, spontaneous and unresearched bonus episode, a Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray located in the same georgraphical location entertain you with a book: Madness at the Mall, the 36th installment in M.D. Spenser's Shivers series. No transcript for this one, but...
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Return of Goosebumps 2023
Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are back with their discussion of part two of the Goosebumps TV series from 2023, and they won't be satisfied until they get their puppet carnival! This is a Slappy-centric set of episodes, covering the territiory of Night of the Living Dummy, Night of the Living...
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Goosebumps 2023
Hello millennnials, zoomers and sundry other generations to look out for, and welcome to the Goosebumps of 2023! In this nostalgia-defying episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray talk about the first half of the reinvented Goosebumps series for Disney Plus, covering Say Cheese and Die, The…
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Bonus Interview: Horrifying Children
In this bonus episode, Adam Whybray interviews Lauren Stephenson and Robert Edgar, two of the editors of the recent anthology Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children's Television, published by Bloomsbury. They chat about anologue horror, public information films and intent vs...
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The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Hail, O eaters of Toadstools! Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are back with returning guest and standing-stone correspondent Ali to talk about Alan Garner's debut novel from 1960, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen. This episode may venture further into fantasy than usual, but there's still plenty of...
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Casper (1995)
Happy festives, spooky kids! Ren's brain is fully on holiday already for this episode about the 1995 mixed live-action and CGI film Casper, directed by Brad Silberling, and perhaps more pertinently, set decorated by Rosemary Brandenburg. In this not particularly thorough episode, Ren Wednesday…
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The Haunted Mansion(s)
Hello and happy halloween spooky kids! For this sixth anniversarry (!) episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are joined by special guest Ailish Brassil to talk about three different filmic adaptations of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. Excpect the classic elements of comedy tombstones, extending...
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Angela and Diabola
In this episode Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray go back to Ren's childhood to talk about a dark comedy: Angela and Diabola by Lynne Reid Banks. A different twist on the Omen trope, this book gives the evil child a twin of corresponding pure goodness, and a couple of long-suffering parents who do...
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Frozen Charlotte
Don't go chipping any dolls out of the plaster in your cellar, creepy kids, or open any ouija board apps! And definitely don't go and hunt your woebegotten cousin's ghost on a rainy Scottish island! It's not worth it! In this episode Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray discuss the 2015 Young Adult…
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The Scarecrows
Enter into the turnip-filled darkness this episode, as Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray discuss Robert Westall's Carnegie medal winning 1981 novel, The Scarecrows. Or, more accurately: The Very Angry Young Man and The Scarecrows That Represented His Anger. It's chewy, it's problematic, it's really...
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar & Sundry Others
Buzz buzz, creepy kids, today Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are tackling a stack of short stories by Roald Dahl, focussing on his collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar And Six More. In this episode they discuss the horror of boarding schools, make predictions about which stories Wes...
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The Hole (2009)
Hello creepy kids! Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are back again to discuss the Joe Dante film The Hole (2009), not to be confused with The Hole (2001), which makes much less use of its titular hole. In this lemon-and-ginger tea powered episode, your cohosts discuss skewed suburban aesthetics,...
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Revenge of the Toffee Monster & Killer Mushrooms Ate My Gran
In this warty-textured episode, Adam and Ren are joined by returning guest Willow to talk about two books by Susan Gates: Revenge of the Toffee Monster and to a slightly lesser extent, Killer Mushrooms Ate My Gran. In this wide-ranging episode, this gang of 90s kids chat about the Millennium…
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Wendell & Wild
Happy new year, spooky kids, and welcome to our episode on Wendell & Wild (2022), in which Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray gawp at beautiful stop-motion and wrangle unruly plot into submission. Featuring textural interruptions, a squirm of worms and the ultimate MacGuffin, this episode is one for...
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Moondial (Book)
Welcome back, spooky kids! In this end-of-the-year episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are talking about a suitably wintery ghost story - Moondial by Helen Cresswell. Impressionistic, atmospheric and philosophical, Moondial is a book rich in language and ideas, and in this episode your…
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Children's Horror Games
In this episode, Still Scared finally venture into the genre of video games! In this round-up episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray chat about children's horror in games over the last thirty years, contemplate the inherent eerieness of early 3D, and do a quick deep-dive into Psy High, a...
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Creeped Out Season Two
In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray finally dive in to Creeped Out season two, from back in 2019. Exploring this collection of curious tales, they detour into creepypastas and garmonbozia, and discuss the importance of checking the reviews to see if an app will steal your face. As…
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Grinny and Monster Maker
In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray talk about two books by English writer Nicholas Fisk - Grinny from 1974 and Monster Maker from 1979. In this episode, your brave and bionic co-hosts chat about slurks and ultragorgons, wimshursts machines and UFOs and ask the question: what kind of...
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Nightbooks
In today's episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are reconnecting with the modern era of children's horror, to discuss Netflix's 2021 film Nightbooks, which they think is alright! Ren and Adam chat intergenerational horror, squeecore and gunge, and of course, reveal their favourite textures…
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Watership Down
In this episode, Still Scared tackle one of the heavy-hitters of children's horror: Watership Down! Ren and Adam are very excited to be joined by Catherine Lester, an academic who has published a book on children's horror films and is editing a forthcoming collection on Watership Down, and is...
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Wilder Girls
In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray welcome in a new year of children's horror with Wilder Girls, a Young Adult novel by Rory Power, from 2019 (but not before going on a diversion about forgotten children's TV oddity Whizziwig). Topics include The Blob, Playstation 2-era Japanese...
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Burton's Hansel and Gretel & Selick's Slow Bob In The Lower Dimensions
In this casual, end of the year episode your co-hosts Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray chat about two short films from early in the careers of Tim Burton and Henry Selick, respectively Hansel and Gretel from 1983, and Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions from 1991. Topics include the candy equivalent…
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The Drifting Classroom
Get settled in, spooky kids, because we're going on a trek across the desert wasteland into the wild and winding world of Kazu Umezu's epic manga The Drifting Classroom (and the even stranger associated film!). In this sprawling episode Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray discuss everything from…
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The Tulip Touch and The Devil Walks
Tread carefully, spooky kids, because today Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are discussing one of the most memorably disturbing books of their childhoods' - The Tulip Touch, by Anne Fine, and finding out that as adults... well, it's even darker. We talk about the trend in the '90s for gritty…
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The Haunting of Cassie Palmer and The Monster Garden
Gather up your tendrils, creepy creatures, and join Adam Whybray and Ren Wednesday in the desaturated '80s for some low-key but charming horror from prolific British author Vivien Alcock. This week we meet spirits, scientists and low-down male chauvinist pigs, and digress about whether you can...
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Out of Salem
In this episode, your millennial hosts Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray chat about a recent book, Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve (although it's still set in the 90s so don't worry). We discuss queer representation, body horror and imaginary zines, and one of us comes out as a zombie?? Content notes…
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Eerie Indiana
Happy Halloween, spooky kids, and happy three years podcast anniversary to Still Scared! In this episode, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray grab their oversized props and delve into the fishbowl lensed world of early 90s TV series Eerie Indiana. We chat ever-fresh tupperware, fourth-wall breaking…
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Monster House
Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are back to discuss the 2006 animated film Monster House and be floored by the progression of time. Talking about a film that has been described as 'Shirely Jackson for kids', your co-hosts discuss concrete entombed skeletons, smelly carpet tongues and digress more...
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The Demon Headmaster 2019
This time Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are safely ensconced in their respective houses to chat about the 2019 reboot (or possibly sequel?) of The Demon Headmaster. In full-spoiler detail for the 10 episode season we talk resistance and hypnotism, and hypothesise the existence of a super-being…
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The Watcher in the Woods
Well, it's no Return to Oz, but 1980's The Watcher in the Woods is an interesting if flawed curio from Disney's dark-fantasy live-action back-catalogue that hosts Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are keen to dip their fingers into in this episode. Featuring a brooding Bette Davis, a dog called…
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The Final Reckoning Part 2 (Deptford Mice Book Three)
Blood and thunder! It's a showdown for the ages. Join Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and Ava Foxfort as they discuss the final part of The Final Reckoning, the last book in the Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis. Your hardy crew discuss ice textures, brutal character deaths and mouse-based metal...
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The Final Reckoning, Part 1 (Deptford Mice Book Three)
Hang onto your mouse-knees, spooky kids! In this episode Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and Ava Foxfort discuss the first part of The Final Reckoning, the last book in Robin Jarvis's sublimely horrifying Deptford Mice series. Your co-hosts talk star-milking, blood-frenzies and of course, textures…
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The Crystal Prison (Deptford Mice Book Two)
Mouselets and Corn Dolllies! Join Adam Whybray, Ren Wednesday and Ava Foxfort as they discuss Robin Jarvis's The Crystal Prison from 1989, the second in his Deptford Mice series. Featuring Green Mouse fundamentalists, gods of the fields and Starwife the astrology squirrel, The Crystal Prison…
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The Dark Portal (Deptford Mice Book One)
Put on your welly boots, spooky kids and join Adam Whybray, Ren Wednesday and returning guest Ava Foxfort as they go beyond the Grill into the murky sewers of Robin Jarvis's novel The Dark Portal from 1989. Featuring jerk-ass bats, dad mice and notable hazards of the murdering profession, fans of...
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Mini Episode: Picture Books
Join us this time for a mini-episode, as Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray gleefully chomp on a monstrous spread of picture books from Maurice Sendak, David McKee, Beatrix Potter and Neil Gaiman. Featuring undulating midnight oceans, trembling patchwork elephants and the existential crisis of a...
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Room 13 & Nightmare Stairs
Once again, spooky kids, Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray are here to take you into the world of children's horror literature with Room 13 from 1989 and Nightmare Stairs from 1997, both by Robert Swindells. This time, Ren and Adam are at the seaside, enjoying the fresh air, the pier treats, and the...
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
What's that haunted tune whistling through the calliope? Find out with Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray as they take a tour of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Circus and explore the whirlingly evocative, if admittedly morally confusing world of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. We talk...
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The Garden of Darkness
In this episode Ren Wednesday and Adam Whybray talk about the post-apocalyptic Young Adult novel The Garden of Darkness by Gillian Murray Kendall from 2014. We discuss what makes a horror, look at the early modern influences on the book, and despair of our own chances in a post-apocalyptic…
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Children of the Stones
Happy day, spooky kids! In this episode Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and returning guest Ali Kay delve into the brain-washing, time-looping world of the 1977 BBC TV series Children of the Stones. Join us for Morris dancing, Solar Serpents and educational asides into the history of surgery, as we…
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The Box of Delights
What's up, spooky kids? Join Still Scared for their Christmas-or-thereabouts episode about the 1984 TV series, The Box of Delights. This time, Ren Wednesday, Adam Whybray and special guest Willow discuss whimsical kidnapping, dolphin chariots and 1930s slang, and Willow really gets some...
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