Longlegs — Intrusive thoughts, brought to you by Nicolas Cage

I don’t know what the deal is with all of you who didn’t find Longlegs scary, because this movie straight up gave me intrusive thoughts! This episode talks about those thoughts, how I learned to challenge my Nicolas Cage-related intrusive thoughts, and how you can challenge yours too through cognitive strategies and (seemingly paradoxically) through horror. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Show Notes:

Want to work together? I offer 1:1 psychotherapy (Ontario), along with tarot, horror, and dreamwork services, but individually and through my group program, the Final Girls Club. 

Send me some Ghoul Mail!

I love hearing from you spooky ghouls! Want a chance to have your story read on a future episode of Mental Health is Horrifying? If you’d like to share what horror movies mean to you, how they have helped you with your mental health, or about a particular horror movie that you have thoughts and feelings about, send me some Ghoul Mail.

Podcast artwork by Chloe Hurst at Contempomint.

Effects of suppression of personal intrusive thoughts by Anita E. Kelly and Jeffrey H. Kahn, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 66, Iss. 6

Covering Up What Can't Be Seen: Concealable Stigma and Mental Control by Laura Richman and Daniel M. Wegner, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(3): 474-486

A comparison of thought suppression to an acceptance-based technique in the management of personal intrusive thoughts: a controlled evaluation by Brook A. Marcks and Douglas W. Woods, Behaviour Research and Therapy, Volume 43, Issue 4, April 2005, Pages 433-445

Neuroanatomy, Parasympathetic Nervous System by Jacob Tindle and Prasanna Tadi in National Library of Medicine

Osgood Perkins Explains How ‘Longlegs’ Is an Ode to His Celebrity Parents’ Dark Backstory: ‘A Mother Can Lie Out of Love’ by Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

Transcript

Welcome ghouls to today’s episode of Mental Health is Horrifying. I’m your Horror Barbie host of darkness — Candis Green— Psychotherapist and all around spooky bitch podcasting from my bat-filled cave in Toronto, Canada. 

LISTEN I am just as shocked as anyone that I am doing an episode on Longlegs. Why? Because after returning home from the movie theatre after seeing this movie, I made my husband check every square inch of our home to ensure that Nicolas Cage was not hiding somewhere, and when he checked behind the shower curtain and told me it was all clear I said I DON’T BELIEVE YOU and had to check myself because of hysteria. 

I found this movie to be VERY SCARY. So why on earth would I want to spend more time thinking about it? Because I care about you and because this movie truly gave me intrusive thoughts and I figured if it did that to me, maybe it did that to other people. Or you know, maybe not because I am fully aware that even though I have an entire horror podcast, I am a huge baby. NEVERTHELESS, there is a helpful point I am trying to make here! 

Even though horror movies can absolutely terrify us and give us intrusive thoughts, they paradoxically can ALSO help us explore and challenge these thoughts. They are like mirrors into the deepest, darkest depths of our psyches and once we can hold them at a distance and say none of this is actually real… it’s just a movie… they become a little less scary. You can start seeing horror movies for what they are – just fabrications. And when you can learn how to do that with intrusive thoughts… well, that’s pretty powerful. 

Okay — so let’s get right into it. Let’s talk about Longlegs (2024) and how I learned to challenge my Nicolas Cage-related intrusive thoughts, and how you can challenge yours too… not Nicolas Cage, just whatever kind of intrusive thoughts you’re having. 

Movie synopsis:

Okay so here’s a quick drive by of the plot of Longlegs that gave me intrusive thoughts!

It’s the 70s so kids were allowed to randomly wander outside alone and one little girl does so and encounters the creepiest man alive outside her home. He’s just like randomly there with his creepy face looking like a whole episode of Botched.

Fast forward to the 90s! FBI agent Lee Harker — who is possibly clairvoyant? — is assigned by her supervisor William Carter to a case involving a series of familicides, where a father kills himself and his whole ass family, each time leaving behind a letter with Satanic coding signed "Longlegs", whose handwriting belongs to none of the family members. Lee discovers that each family had a 9-year-old daughter born on the 14th of the month, the murders all occurred within six days before or after the birthday itself, and the murders form an occult triangle symbol on a calendar, with one date missing. 

While talking to her mother Ruth, Lee receives a coded birthday card from Longlegs, warning her that revealing the source of the code will lead to her mother's murder. 

Following a clue, Lee and Carter find a doll with a high-energy metal orb inside which will become relevant later. Then, Carter begins suspecting that Lee has a personal connection to Longlegs upon discovering that her mother Ruth had filed a police report of an intruder approaching Lee on her ninth birthday (that was the first scene from the 70s). Carter encourages Lee to talk to her mother to find out what’s going on. So she visits her and she’s a little weird, and in the house Lee finds a polaroid that she took of the creepy Botched-faced man outside her house, connecting that Longlegs did in fact visit her and now she probably has to shower for the rest of her life. BLERGH. 

They somehow magically track down Longlegs and arrest him but when Lee tries to question him in the interrogation room, he talks about how much he loves Satan, hints at Ruth's involvement in the crimes, and then smashes his face repeatedly into the table until he dies a lot.

Lee returns to her mother’s home where her mother murders Lee’s FBI colleague who was just trying to help, then she destroys a doll resembling young Lee, causing Lee to lose consciousness. Lee connects that her mother has been Longlegs's accomplice since Lee's childhood. 

Longlegs forced Ruth to choose between her daughter's death and his bidding, leading her to comply and spare Lee. And here’s the worst part everyone – Lee learns that Longlegs had been living in her mother’s basement FOR HER ENTIRE LIFE. Oh my god, so many more showers this time possibly with acid. While in the basement her whole damn life, he made Satanic dolls that Lee’s mother was tasked with giving to families while posing as a nun, and then somehow Satan like comes through the dolls and influences the dads to kill their families because that’s what Satan wants apparently. This whole time, Lee's doll blocked her memories of Longlegs while influencing her with his evil.

Lee awakens in the basement and hears a demonic voice on the phone warning her about her boss’ daughter Ruby's ninth birthday party, which had been scheduled for that day. Lee rushes to save the Carters, whose deaths would complete Longlegs's triangle. She finds the family already possessed, with her mother having already delivered the doll. MoooOoooOOmm! After William kills his wife Anna, Lee shoots him to protect Ruby. Ruth attacks with a dagger, forcing Lee to kill her. Lee tries to destroy the doll but her gun does not discharge. She tells Ruby they need to leave but remains staring at the doll.

THE END. THE END OF THIS HORRIBLE NIGHTMARE. I’M SO SORRY FOR RECOUNTING THIS TO YOU. I’m going to go wash my brain with bleach. 

Movie background info:

This horrible nightmare of a movie was directed by Oz Perkins, which I didn’t realize until after I saw the movie. The whole time I was watching it I was like this movie feels a lot like The Blackcoat’s Daughter and duh it’s the same director! If you haven’t seen the Blackcoat’s Daughter, I highly recommend that one – it has the same ominous, deeply unsettling, Satanic kinda vibe where right from the get go you’re like something totally horrible is going to happen and I’m not going to sleep for weeks am I omg I’m so excited let’s do this. 

Fun fact – Oz Perkins is literally the son of Anthony Perkins who is freaking Norman Bates in Psycho. THEE Psycho! If that’s not horror royalty, then I don’t know what is. Anthony Perkins was a closeted gay man his whole life, who sadly died from AIDS in 1992. His mother was Berry Berenson, a model and actress who stayed with Anthony Perkins until the end, keeping her husband’s sexuality (and illness) a secret from her children. They married in 1973 after Anthony tried conversion therapy. Berenson sadly died on September 11 in the first plane that hit the World Trade Center. 

For Oz Perkins, Longlegs was a meditation on his own family tragedies, most notably the precarious secret his mother maintained, and the generational tensions that bloomed out of lying for a long time to her children about her husband’s sexual identity. 

Longlegs is set in 1993, the year after Perkins’ father passed away and during a time that was rife with other murder mystery classics which heavily influenced the film including The Silence of The Lambs and Seven.

Through what may be a synchronistic act of the collective unconscious, Cage had actually intended all along to base his character of Longlegs on his own mother. His terrifying, ghostly makeup was inspired by the cold cream his mother used to wear that would frighten him, and his high-pitched voice was inspired by hers as well. 

So a lot of complicated maternal energy in this movie! Is this perhaps why Longlegs is terrifying to so many of us? His twisted maternal undertones? Could this be why I personally found the movie so terrifying? Did this touch on my own mother wound, keeping me up at night? Interesting to think about! 

The marketing for this film was genius to say the least, creating massive buzz around the film before its release. With a marketing budget of $10, promo materials at first did not even include the film’s title or any mention of its star Nicolas Cage to build buzz. These included a cryptic trailer with Satanic symbology, a billboard with a phone number, and  pre-recorded messages in spots from "the man downstairs" aka Satan. A paid advertisement featuring a cipher was published in the Seattle Times, a reference to the Zodiac Killer. The ad directed readers to an in-universe website, titled "The Birthday Murders," detailing murders committed in the film.Viewers could combine hints from the clips and content to solve clues and cyphers on the website and unlock downloadable bonus content for the film, or lead the viewer to additional content, such as the promotional phone number.

Once more information about the film was shared in promo spots, Longlegs was heavily marketed as the scariest movie of the year, of all time, goodbye sleep, you will have nightmare forever, etc. And it all worked, because as of the beginning of September, Longlegs has grossed over $103 million worldwide. 

Reception wise – people were very mixed on this film! Especially after such genius marketing and heavy promotion as the scariest movie of the year, some felt that the marketing oversold and overpromised on the film and felt let down. 

Prior to seeing this movie, I had seen all the marketing and as a giant baby wasn’t sure if I should go see it, so I asked my friends online who had seen it what they thought and if I could endure it. And I was TOLD that it’s not that scary, no big deal, you’ll be totally fine, the marketing blew it out of proportion, and some even questioned if it was a horror movie! So I was like cool amazing I’ll go see it and I learned on that day that all of my friends ARE LIARS and/or serial killers because THIS MOVIE IS TERRIFYING!! Like… is everyone okay?! If you’re not scared of this, what exactly are you scared of?! What happened to you?!

To be honest, part of me wanting to do an episode on Longlegs is a selfish effort to reduce my own intrusive thoughts brought about by this movie. By being able to examine it for what it is – a really good horror movie and a genius piece of marketing – my aim is to reduce the emotional charge I have associated with Longlegs and its terrifying imagery.

So – let’s talk about what happened to me after I saw this movie, how I dealt with the intrusive thoughts, and how you can challenge your own intrusive thoughts too. 

What are intrusive thoughts?

But first – what are intrusive thoughts?

Intrusive thoughts are characterized as strange, disturbing thoughts or troubling images that can pop into your mind. The thoughts may be violent, frightening, or reflect a recurrent fear that you will do something inappropriate or embarrassing. Whatever the content, these thoughts are usually unsettling and may trigger feelings of worry or shame. 

Intrusive thoughts can be more pronounced with certain mental health disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, where thoughts become so bothersome that they can prompt repetitive behaviours, like checking, or compulsions to try to prevent them from occurring. They are also common in post-traumatic stress disorder, or hormonal shifts such as during pregnancy or postpartum, but intrusive thoughts can occur for anybody really – most of us have had them at some point in our lives – I know I have – because intrusive thoughts are often triggered by stress or anxiety, and who among us doesn’t get stressed or anxious? And hoo boy was i STRESSED after I saw Longlegs. Let’s go back to immediately after the movie.

As I walked back to the car with my husband, I was immediately skeptical of the underground parking garage. LONGLEGS WAS LIVING UNDER THE GROUND IN LEE’S BASEMENT FOR HER WHOLE LIFE; WHO’S TO SAY HE WASN’T IN THIS UNDERGROUND. I scanned the entire parking garage as we walked and upon arrival to our car, I demanded that we must do a full scan of the car and the trunk to ensure Nicolas Cage was not hiding in it, preparing to sing that FREAKY song he sings to baby Lee at the beginning of the movie.

We made it home alive, and I requested that we check every square inch of our home to make sure Nicolas Cage was not hiding there either. Every closet, behind the shower curtain, under the bed even though he couldn't’ even fit there – doesn’t matter! Better safe than sorry, right?! The paranoia had already started – I needed to check check check and I was bringing my husband with me – with stress and fear coursing through my system, preparing my nighttime thoughts to be intrusive ones.

My intrusive thoughts

We went to bed and staring into the darkness of my bedroom, my mind began to race. What if Nicolas Cage is in here right now? Does this condo unit have a basement? Is the plush turtle I sleep with possessed by Satan?

I became consumed with this intrusive thought – convinced that Longlegs was in my condo and that he was coming to get me. The specific trigger for this intrusive thought you ask? Pampas grass.

I have this tall vase of pampas grass in my office, which is just off my bedroom. It’s a pale, hay-colour, and in the dark, my mind morphed it into that scene from the movie where Longlegs is at the hardware store talking to that poor girl at the cash, pretending he was a deranged coo-coo clock or whatever. And he puts crosses his arms over his face, with his terrifyingly long fingers, and pretends to be a coo-coo clock, and his also hay-coloured hair behind him – well, in the dark, this scene mapped its way onto the pampas grass in my bedroom and basically there was Longlegs – staring right back at me. 

(If you’re interested in seeing a comparison of Longlegs and my murderous pampas grass, I’ll post a picture on my Instagram account so you can see the type of horrors I was dealing with.)

Obviously I was too scared to get up and fight the pampas grass. I lay there, frozen in terror, imagining Longlegs pampas grass saying creepy stuff to me, singing weird songs, pretending to be a clock, living in my basement like a nightmare. His face just kept popping up in my mind, his horrible Botched face, and I just couldn’t sleep!

It doesn’t help that I have also suffered from night terrors throughout my life which – and sometimes those manifest in me projecting the face of a terrifying monster onto my sweet husband’s face sleeping next to me, so… NO CHANCE was I turning over in bed to be comforted by him at the risk of him ALSO transforming into Longlegs on top of the pampas grass. 

This went on for several nights. I slept fitfully, and became fixated on the pampas grass every night – staring at it in the dark, waiting for it to come alive and murder me. 

I knew I was being ridiculous, and I knew that I needed to do something to challenge this intrusive thoughts if I ever wanted to sleep again. So I followed the steps I knew that would help me.

Challenging Intrusive Thoughts

The first step in challenging intrusive thoughts is acknowledging that you are having them. Like – yup, I am having an intrusive thought about Nicolas Cage teleporting into my pampas grass, coming alive, and murdering me as I lay here in my bed. That is happening. 

It’s important to acknowledge when you are having intrusive thoughts because of what is called the rebound effect of thought suppression. With any thoughts that are difficult, and particularly intrusive thoughts, the more you try to tell yourself not to think about it, the stronger the thought tends to persist.

The reasons for this are complex, but have a lot to do with shame and stigma. Shame and stigma are really common experiences around intrusive thoughts, because we worry that by having them it means that we are a bad person, or that other people will think that we are bad for having them, which causes them to persist and dig their heels further into our psyches. By acknowledging the intrusive thoughts – both to ourselves and to someone like a therapist – we remove the shame and stigma, and allow it to just be what it is – an intrusive thought — an outcome of normal outcome of stress, anxiety, or trauma — and not a reflection of our morality. 

After acceptance, however, we don’t necessarily want to validate or dwell on the intrusive thought too much. In therapy, I tend to take a depth or relational approach – which means lots of empathy, validation, and deep understanding – and those things are all important when working with intrusive thoughts to a point. It’s important to understand the underlying cause, and to empathize with the experience of the person having intrusive thoughts – but when we assign too much emotional relevance to intrusive thoughts, and ruminate on them, they can become stronger, and more persistent, so it can be helpful to have boundaries with intrusive thoughts, and doing a bit of cognitive work to challenge them is helpful. 

So that’s the next thing that I did. I said to myself okay Candis you’re having an intrusive thought that Nicolas Cage has transformed into your pampas grass and he is in your bedroom right now and he’s going to kill you – but also take a step back girlfriend. Longlegs is a horror movie. And a very effective one given how shook you are right now! And Nicolas Cage is an eccentric millionaire living in Hollywood or in one of his castles. He is probably drinking wine in one of those castles right now. He is not disguised as Longlegs – that would cost too much to hire him to do that – so I am safe in my beautiful condo and I bought that pampas grass from a boho hippie retailer in Vancouver.

Additionally, before bed I started Googling and looking at pictures of Nicolas Cage from Moonstruck. Moonstruck is LITERALLY one of my FAVOURITE movies of all time. Like hello it stars friggin Cher and baby Nicolas Cage being the most clueless and adorable one-handed bread baker in the history of the world. 

This further helped to challenge my intrusive thought and remind me that this was just a horror movie, and that Nicolas Cage is just a really gifted actor! He can play both an adorable Italian bread baker AND a terrifying serial killer living in your basement. I tried to go to bed thinking about Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck, or just a person in a variety of roles. I didn’t want to move the pampas grass for some reason – I didn’t want it to win.

Now this wasn’t the only intrusive thought that I had related to his movie. As someone who has been afraid of basements my whole life, the basement element to this movie did not help that fear. I also started having intrusive thoughts about the beautiful, state of the art gym located in my condo basement, and began to have images of me being in the weight room (which is usually pretty empty), and Nicolas Cage suddenly appearing and killing me where no one could see. I dealt with this intrusive thought in a similar way I did my other one – accepting I was having it, challenging its reality, and replacing it with a different scenario. 

I told myself I had been in this gym dozens of times and that I always felt better after I did a workout down there. I avoided the gym at first, but I knew that this was a ritual or compulsion that was potentially giving the intrusive thought more power. The more I avoided it, the stronger the thought became, and the more emotional validity I was attaching to it. I put on my favourite playlist with Nicki Minaj and Doja Cat, and I told myself well, it’s unlikely that Nicolas Cage is down here but if he is, I might as well lift these weights and become really strong so I could totally take him. It kind of made me laugh to imagine having a face off with Longlegs, and it helped to make the basement a little less scary. 

With intrusive thoughts, it’s important to think about long term goals instead of the immediate anxiety if intrusive thoughts are holding you back from participating in your life. Accept that you are having the thought, and don’t avoid it. Challenger yourself to make an empowered choice by widening your window of tolerance if you notice it has decreased. 

Spooky Scary Spectrum of Horror and Window of Tolerance 

So what does the fact that I got these intrusive thoughts, which disrupted my life not massively but enough – what is that an indication of?

Well, it’s an indication that I watched a horror movie that was likely outside my window of tolerance, which is an optimal state of nervous system stimulation in which we are able to function and thrive in everyday life. When we exist within this window, we are able to learn effectively, play, and relate well to ourselves and others.

It may seem paradoxical to throw on a horror movie when you are anxious, but there are actually numerous mental health benefits to watching horror movies.

Some of these benefits include practicing nervous system regulation through things like jump scares and tension release, being able to explore fears in a safe environment that you are in control of, bonding with co-viewers, boosted mood and adrenaline, and can actually help you challenge intrusive thoughts, which I’ll talk about in just a minute. 

For this reason and many more, I absolutely believe that horror is for everybody. And it is for this reason, my ghouls, why I created the Spooky/Scary spectrum as it relates to horror and the nervous system. I’ve talked about this before, but let’s review again, shall we?

The Spooky/Scary spectrum acknowledges that everyone has a different comfort and thus level of accessibility when it comes to horror. What I enjoy, feel comfortable with, find scary but still fun within my window of tolerance, will look totally different compared to someone else.

The Spooky/Scary spectrum of horror looks like this. Imagine a horizontal line. At the beginning of the line on the left-hand side is the word “spooky” and at the other end on the right is the word “scary”. Movies that you would place on the “spooky” end of the spectrum are ones that are cozy, cute, fun, and generally not scary. They have themes of the macabre, or they might take place during Halloween, and when you watch them they sort of give you a warm and happy feeling. Your parasympathetic nervous system is online here — meaning that your body feels safe and knows that it’s okay to relax. I would place something like Sleepy Hollow or Hocus Pocus here, but maybe this is a bit different for you. Maybe you’re one of the countless people online who doesn’t find Longlegs scary at all and you would place Longlegs here! Which is… fine! Very perplexing to me… but totally fine!

As we begin approaching the middle of the line or spectrum, things begin getting a little bit scarier. Movies you would place here challenge you a little bit. The themes and imagery in the movies are scarier, to the point where maybe you even want to look away at some points. You get that buzz — it’s a mixture of fear, excitement, and curiosity. You still want to watch — but maybe you want to watch with a friend under the protection of your favourite blanket. Your nervous system is more active here, and you are practicing nervous system regulation. This means that your nervous system is trying to find a baseline between parasympathetic (relaxed) and sympathetic (fight or flight). You may — consciously or unconsciously — be trying to regulate your nervous system at this time by snuggling up to your co-viewer, eating a snack, laughing, or releasing tension by screaming!

Moving further down the line juuuuuust before you get to the very end of the line — that’s the most you can tolerate. You really have to work up your courage to be able to watch movies here, and maybe you want to watch with the lights on and chase it with a few episodes of The Office. You might have trouble sleeping after watching one of these movies, but it’s still worth it to you — there’s something you want to explore here.

At the very end of the line, the far end of the spectrum we reach “scary”. These are movies that are outside of your window of tolerance, and would really dysregulate you were you to watch them. Watching movies you would place here would leave you feeling distraught, upset, panicked or even angry. This is an indication that you have moved past your own boundary and that your sympathetic nervous system is activated. This is your “fight or flight” response that is perceiving your environment as threatening. When you are in sympathetic nervous system activation, it can be more difficult and take for your nervous system longer to return to its baseline.

This was clearly me after watching Longlegs. Instead of punishing myself, or beating myself up thinking I should have know better, or thinking I’m a baby and that I’m not a real horror fan for being so scared, I gave myself some grace here. I told myself it was okay to be scared – because even though I was upset, working with these fears was also a little bit fun and silly too. I sought comfort, and I did things that helped (over time) let my nervous system know that it’s safe and that Nicolas Cage is not going to threaten me with his messed up face to distribute Satanic dolls to local families. 

How horror movies can help with intrusive thoughts

Noticing intrusive thoughts as an externalization of a fear you are having can be a helpful way to work through them. Watching horror movies is much the same, and can work as an exercise for navigating intrusive thoughts. The next time you’re watching a horror movie (like Longlegs), if you’re getting really scared and you start looking over your shoulder, here are some questions you might like to consider:

• What is it like to know that this feels scary, but isn’t real?
• What is it like to notice that this feels scary, but I’m actually safe?
• What is it like to notice that his is separate from me?
• What is it like to notice the taste of this popcorn, or the feeling of this cozy blanket while smoothing spooky is happening over there? 

Being able to externalize our fears and experience them in a safe environment that we can control can be an empowering way to navigate through the experience of having intrusive thoughts. 

Conclusion

My intrusive thoughts haven’t entirely gone away. I’m still skeptical of my pampas grass, and I think I’ll always be scared of basements. 

I have other non-Longlegs related intrusive thoughts that pop periodically too. I’m familiar with them at this point, and because I’ve worked with them for so long they have less of an emotional charge associated with them. I can pretty quickly notice it happening, and switch my mind to focus on something more supportive. And that’s kind of how it goes over time – the more familiar you are with an intrusive thought, that more quickly you can kind of say to yourself that’s so weird that my mind is doing that, but I’m not going to dwell on this too much, let me think about this other happy thing and have my attention flow there. And research on intrusive thoughts supports this too – the more familiar the thought, the more thought repression and cognitive switching can be supportive. With newer intrusive thoughts, however, it is important to talk about them at first to reduce the powerful hold that shame and stigma can have over the thoughts, understand potential triggers, underlying causes, or any related rituals and compulsions, and THEN work with cognitive strategies to challenge the thought. 

I don’t think I’ll ever watch Longlegs again because of how unsettling I found it, but I have really found solace in the horror community and all the different memes, hot takes, and insights that everyone has been sharing about one of the biggest horror movies of the year. I love you spooky ghouls for that. I will, however, be watching Moonstruck again and again, forever. 

Ghoul Mail: 

Let’s read some Ghoul Mail, shall we?

Blegh – Longlegs was so scary! And I find it so interesting the different reactions people have to horror movies, and people’s personal experiences with them so I’m started this portion of my podcast called Ghoul Mail, where listeners are invited to share what horror movies mean to you, how they have helped you with your mental health, or about a particular horror movie that you have thoughts and feelings about.

I received some Ghoul Mail from Bryan who lives in New Hampshire. Bryan is actually the host of the amazing horror podcast Bring Me The Axe. Bring Me The Axe is a bi-weekly podcast for fans of horror movies old and new. It is hosted by brothers Bryan and Dave White, two dudes who grew up on the spooky New England shores, scouring the horror section of every video store that was within a bike-ride's distance. Where most people see trash, they find treasure. From the classic Universal monsters, to Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, to Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger and beyond! The Bring Me Axe Horror Podcast is a celebration of this treasure, a genuine love affair with horror movies and a celebration of cheap thrills.

Bryan shared with me what horror means to him and how monsters were a comfort to him from a very early age. He wrote:

Hi Candis! It's Bryan from Bring Me The Axe. I've been following you for a while and you have a really interesting angle that I don't see anyone else doing. Like a lot of people, I came to horror movies when I was a little kid. Like LITTLE. My dad took me to see Empire Strikes Back in a movie theater that was also showing Friday The 13th and that poster ignited something in me that I never really got over. I was a frightened little kid, like, all the time, but monster movies and spooky stuff fascinated me and ultimately came to be a weird sort of mental comfort food, particularly the movies of Vincent Price. 

Thank you for sharing that Bryan. I can absolutely relate to spooky stuff being like mental comfort food. I love imagining you as a little kid going to that movie theatre and seeing the Friday the 13th poster and feeling something light up inside you. I know that feeling so well – it’s a mixture of fear and excitement, but like, the kind you want to follow. Like what is this? It seems sort of forbidden, but like those treasures you are enticed to following for your podcast, treasures can sometimes lead us down a road less traveled, off the beaten path, away from our everyday, mundane lives that maybe feel unsatisfying, scary, or lonely. And when you get there, your prize is discovering that there are other spooky ghouls out there just like you, and that you’re not so alone after all.

For me and all the other fans of your podcast, I’m so glad you followed that spark to find your love of horror.

Be sure to give Bryan’s podcast a listen, and you can find him on Instagram at bringmetheaxepod.

Do you want the chance to have your story read on a future episode of Mental Health is Horrifying? If you’d like to share what horror movies mean to you, how they have helped you with your mental health, or about a particular horror movie that you have thoughts and feelings about, send me some Ghoul Mail by visiting manymoonstherapy.com/mentalhealthishorrifying. 

Outro:

And that my ghouls is the story of Longlegs. I literally can’t believe I did a podcast on this nightmare of a movie. Here’s hoping this helps to reduce my intrusive thoughts brought on by Longlegs and not give them more fuel. It’s like intrusive thought roulette! We’ll see what happens! 

Mental Health is Horrifying is entirely researched, written, edited, and produced by me, Candis Green, Registered (and spooky) Psychotherapist, with artwork by the ghoulishly talented Chloe Hurst. If you like this podcast, please consider rating and reviewing on your preferred listening platform. It really helps the show to reach all the other spooky ghouls out there and I will be eternally grateful – and an eternity is a very long time for a vampire, okay? 

If you live in Ontario and are interested in psychotherapy with me, I offer talk therapy mixed with the magic of tarot. I offer other services too around tarot, horror, and dreamwork including through my group program, the Final Girls Club. You can follow me on Instagram at @manymoonstherapy and you can also learn more about me and my services through my website manymoonstherapy.com.

OR you can also howl at the moon and I will hear your call.

Bright blessings.

I don’t know what the deal is with all of you who didn’t find Longlegs scary, because this movie straight up gave me intrusive thoughts! This episode talks about those thoughts, how I learned to challenge my Nicolas Cage-related intrusive thoughts, and how you can challenge yours too through cognitive strategies and (seemingly paradoxically) through horror. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.