Sidney Prescott, Salem Honeymoons, and Why Horror Heals

In this episode of Horror Heals, Corey and Kendall sit down with psychotherapist and horror enthusiast Candis Green. From her childhood obsession with Halloween and witches to her professional use of Jungian dream work and archetypes, Candis shares how horror became both her passion and her therapeutic lens. She opens up about why she watches horror movies alone in the dark, what dreams reveal about the psyche, and how horror conventions create space for sensitive souls. The conversation also dives into her podcast, Mental Health is Horrifying, and why Sidney Prescott from Scream remains her all-time favorite final person.

What We Cover:

• How Candis merges psychotherapy with her love of horror
• The role of Jungian approaches, archetypes, and dream work in her practice
• Why watching horror alone can be a form of self-care
• Horror on a spectrum: from Hocus Pocus to Terrifier
• The healing power of horror conventions and community
• Her lifelong love of Halloween, witches, and Salem (including her honeymoon there!)
• The inspiration behind Mental Health is Horrifying
• Her favorite witch in pop culture and her dream aesthetic
• Why Sidney Prescott is the ultimate final person

Guest Bio

Candis Green is a Registered Psychotherapist in Toronto, Canada. Drawing from Jungian approaches, she integrates dream analysis, archetypes, and creative tools into her practice. She’s also the host of Mental Health is Horrifying, a podcast exploring how horror movies act as modern-day collective nightmares, helping us confront and process our deepest fears.

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals. 

Share the show with someone who loves horror and someone who needs a little healing.

If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

You can also listen to our sister podcast Family Twist, a show about DNA surprises, identity, and the families we find along the way.

Horror Heals is produced by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello, Boils and Dudes. It's your old Val, Jacket Dear, the voice of the Crickkeeper. And I want to welcome my good Fiend of the Horror Heels Podcast. Is horror good for mental wellness? But of course it is. I delight in the delicious deaths of pitiful people on the silver screen. So get ready for a hell of a good time with my new fiends, Corey and Kendall, on the Horror Heels podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Welcome back to Horror Heals, the podcast where horror and healing collide. I'm Corey, and I'm Kendall. Today we're thrilled to be joined by a guest whose professional world of psychotherapy and personal love of horror come together in a really unique way.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Yes. Our guest is Candace Green, a registered psychotherapist based in Toronto, Canada. She specializes in young and inspired approaches like dream work, archetypes, and even tarot. And she also hosts the podcast Mental Health is Horrifying, where she explores how horror films mirror the human psyche.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

We talked with Candace about why horror is such a powerful tool for self-reflection, how her clients respond to horror and therapy, her lifelong love of Halloween and witches, and why Sidney Prescott is her ultimate final person.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Hey Candace, welcome to the Horror Heals podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

We're excited to have you. And right off the bat, I just want to know like how much psycho is going into your psychotherapy these days.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

From which end? From my end? Are you asking about that?

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Sure, why not?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

A fair amount, I would say. I was even just thinking, you know, I I don't see clients on Friday, and I was asking myself, oh, you know, what do I want to do after this interview today? And what I do to relax is watch horror movies by myself in the dark. So maybe some people might think that that's psycho, but it's really how I relax and just kind of set all my anxieties and problems aside for the day.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Same for us. We'll watch them in the dark, and usually at least you know, three or four of our dogs are there watching with us.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I think the piece about enjoying watching them alone in the dark, it's something about like not feeling like I need to perform or react a certain way when I'm watching something maybe scary or that's intense. I can just kind of like react or feel however I want and not be witnessed in that. It's something that I find very soothing.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

You know, it didn't bother me until, and this was a couple of years ago, I was at a horror convention by myself. So back at the hotel, midnight or something like that, and I'd been hearing about this independent movie that just happened to be on YouTube called Found. It's not the kind of movie you want to watch by yourself. Let me just say several of the characters would be ideal patients for you.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

I would imagine so. Yeah, and I guess like in terms of watching movies alone in the dark, I kind of refer to myself as a bit of a horror baby. I really do believe that horror exists on a spectrum and there's something for everybody. I maybe tend towards the more milder end of things. You know, for me and my nervous system, I don't really go for something like a like a terrifier is really not for me. That's something that I don't find relaxing or anxiety quelling at all. So anything that would be maybe more extreme, I would like to watch that with somebody else if I were to give it a try.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Gotcha. Well, you know, we already know that you align with our theme of horror being good for mental wellness, but I'm curious, was there an aha moment for you, and how far back did it go that you started to think that horror and mental wellness they kind of go together?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I'm sure as most of the people you speak to on this podcast, I've always loved horror, spooky stuff, Halloween. And I think for a really long time I felt like the weirdo in that, like I'm weird or I'm doing something wrong, and I maybe kept it to myself a bit more, but it really wasn't until I was doing my my graduate training in psychotherapy and learning, in particular about Youngin approaches to psychotherapy. Like I'm trained in numerous different modalities, but in Youngin' approaches, you know, we're really talking about the different layers of the psyche and the shadow and how we can work with those pieces through things like dream work, archetypes, tarot cards as well, are a really great way to work with symbols and archetypes. And when I was doing that study and learning about archetypes and sort of emotional compensation, it just sort of clicked in my mind like this is exactly what we're doing when we're watching horror movies. I really see horror as collective nightmares and as projections of our deepest anxieties and fears that we all have. And just sort of even noticing in myself what was happening to me when I was watching horror movies, how it was helping me to explore things or to feel better. I market myself as a therapist, obviously, who loves horror and all of these things, and just the number of people who are attracted to that who also find healing in that. It's been such a lovely process.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Awesome. Yeah, I really fascinated actually with the the style of therapy that you provide because Kendall and I, we talk about our dreams all the time. He tends to dream more realistically about stuff that's happening or could be happening in the next day or so, whereas mine are twisted, violent, I mean insane dreams.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah. I'm sorry that they're violent and insane. I hope they're not too distressing to you. But what I like to tell people about working with your dreams is that um they're all here to help us, whether they're enjoyable and happy and realistic, or whether they're really dysphoric and scary. All of the elements in our dreams represent our feelings. And it's really interesting to sort of parcel different dream elements out and feel into each person or animal or the setting and not focus so much on its literal representation in the dream. Like that's not really a cat. What does that cat feel like in the dream and how it is represent something representing something that you are going through at the moment? It I love it in my work because it really is like taking a side door into the psyche in therapy or working with emotions as humans. We're so good at we have defenses and we rationalize things away and we say, oh, that's not a big deal. But the dreams are just like the raw goods. And that's why I love working with them so much.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

So I'm curious, do you tend to be a more realistic dreamer or a more fantastical dreamer?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I would say my dreams are really a mixture of both. I have a lot of recurring dreams, recurring themes that do have a lot of realistic people in them with a light mixture of fantastical elements. I keep a dream journal. I write them all down and work with them to understand what's going on. It's it's so illuminating. It's a practice I kind of encourage everybody to do. Just keep a little book next to your bed when you wake up. It doesn't matter how weird your flying spaghetti monster dreams are, just write it down. Doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense. You can figure it out later.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

What percentage of your patients are into horror movies and stuff when they come in the door, or is that something that you kind of slowly introduce into the therapy?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Um, I would say it's about 50-50. Being into horror, I really see it as a spectrum. I do have some people who, you know, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they've seen all the Halloween movies, they can tell you all of horror history, and then some people who scare more easily are a bit more sensitive and were maybe like hanging out in the hocus pocus realm, which I appreciate too. Like that there's something to be found on either end of the spectrum in the middle. I find horror to be a very inclusive genre in that way.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Definitely, yeah. And I think you know, just going beyond the movies, um, just that like the people, like the horror community, very, very accepting. And I I've certainly seen and had conversations with people who are dealing with anxiety and depression and things like that, you know, within the horror community. But usually when they're in the environment of like a horror convention, you don't really see that too much on their faces.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Because it's a joyful experience. But I mean, that's actually was the impetus of this podcast was I saw a young man in distress and you know was about to say, Hey, if you need to step away, I know it's really crowded in here, you know, we'll hold your space for you. And but somebody talked him before I had the chance, and he made a new friend, and all of a sudden all that anxiety was gone immediately, and a smile was on his face.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

That's so lovely. And yeah, I did know that that was sort of how your your podcast began and that you're both really into conventions. In a past life, I actually used to work for Fan Expo. So I got to see a lot of the behind the scenes and the planning and marketing for that show. There were some secrets that I will never tell. It's interesting to see a lot of the behind the scenes of that show. I did really notice that a lot of the fandom that would attend were like sensitive angels who were just coming to share in a joy and a love for this weird thing that they all enjoy. And then it's like, you know, here I am thinking I'm like too cool for school. And then a couple of years ago at Fan Expo in Toronto, the cast of Scream came and I went and I bought my little photo op with them, and just like I kept it together when I met Skeet Ulrich and Nev Campbell, but just like completely burst into tears after because I was so excited.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I love that, yeah. My cousin before he moved overseas was kind of my Horacon buddy, and so I made him come along with you know on like several photo ops. So we've got one of us together with Skeet and Matthew Lillard all clutching our pearls, like we're terrified. But I think my all-time favorite, and I always like to do something a little quirky, was it was I think the only time the craft reunion happened with all four witches there. Girls. And I yeah. And so the photo was uh, you know, like I wanted them to be the strong force in there, so I'm like, I'm just gonna lay down on the ground and put one of your feet on me. Like you were on me. And Farooza Balk wearing boots put her a shoe on my head, which was, I mean, I'll send you the photo, it's my favorite one. They were all into it, and it was just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Oh my god, what an honor. Like Farooza Balk could stand on me any day.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

I would say 99% of my experiences meeting creators at horror conventions have been extremely positive, which is a pretty good percentage, I think.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah. Well, I think like horror kind of attract weirdos and people who are sensitive and different, and it really is a lovely community.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

And we rewind a little bit, and what was Halloween like for you as a kid? And how early into it did you discover that you had a thing for witches?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Oh man. People always ask me that question, like, how did you get so into Halloween? Like, what's the story? And I don't really have a good answer because I think I just came out of the womb, spooky. Like, I I don't remember a single moment in my life when I wasn't completely obsessed with Halloween. Like it was just, I was always like, What do you mean we're not doing this year-round? This is the best thing in the whole world. And I remember, like, I loved it so much that I would start planning, you know, as a kid for Halloween in like June. And my parents would kind of be like, Okay, like, you know, we need to slow it down a bit. Like it's summer, maybe go to summer camp and let's revisit this in October. Like, I I was kind of given like an October 1st okay, but I really wanted to celebrate it the whole year. And that went along with witches too, in in wanting to like celebrate and like learn more about Halloween the whole year. Like I would spend my summer in the public library, like as a kid, like as a 10-year-old kid, like taking out books about witches, witchcraft, like Satan, the history of all of this. Like, I really it was just so fascinating to me. Like, I would just take books out and want to learn about this all the time. And thinking back, I'm like, it's so nice that my parents didn't pull me aside and was like, Are you okay? Like, they just let me. So, yeah, it's really been a lifelong passion.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Love that. Have you had the opportunity to visit Salem Mass?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Oh my gosh, I had my honeymoon there.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Oh, awesome!

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yes, bless my husband, bless his soul. He I wouldn't say so. We've been together for 18 years now, and I wouldn't say that when we first met, that he was also a spooky ghoul. I would say through our relationship, he has come to tolerate and mildly enjoy it. And he was very nice in agreeing to have our honeymoon in Salem, and we went around to all the hocus pocus filming locations, and oh my gosh, just that feeling when I saw uh the Dennison house for the first time, it was just like it was truly incredible. Yeah, Salem is such a fun place.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah, we love visiting, although, you know, we try to avoid it in October now just because it's insane.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Yes, well, yeah, we got married in October, and I guess I didn't really Salem, October, and so we went the second last weekend of October for our honeymoon, and it was wild. Wouldn't recommend to others, you know, it's like that all year. Just go like in March or something.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Right. Now, I think staying there actually for your honeymoon, that's probably a little bit different. Like I wouldn't recommend a quick day trip to Salem on a Saturday in October just because it's gonna be nuts. But if you're there and you're staying there, just being around all that energy and people and stuff like that was had to be pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, it was incredible. At this point, I've been there three times just because it's like Disneyland for spooky people.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about mental health is horrifying, the podcast, because I love that it's an interesting take where you're taking like one horror movie and sort of examining the the psychotherapy elements within. Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah, again, I feel like that is just how I always saw horror movies when I was watching them. I would just kind of think, oh, like this is so representative of this, or like, oh, this ghost is a metaphor for having poor boundaries. And it just sort of made perfect sense to me. And I'm a very creative person. And being a psychotherapist, you know, obviously I'm I'm very there for my clients. It's not about me during those sessions. And it's like, you know, I'll do like 20 sessions a week. So that's like 20 hours of output on my end. And it just felt really nice to be able to create a creative outlet for myself, or I could be as weird as I want and explore these things that I like and sort of marry my knowledge of psychology with horror movies. It's just so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Is there a witch in literature or pop culture that you relate to the most?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Oh, what a great question. The first witch that is coming to my head is Elaine from The Love Witch. I'm just like totally obsessed with her. Have you seen that movie by Anna Biller? I need you to end this podcast right now and go watch it. Done. So Anna Biller.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

I can see Kendall writing it down right now.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Yes. Oh my gosh. You will love it. It's like nothing you've ever seen. So Anna Biller is, she's not only the director, she was the writer, she's the producer. She made all the costumes and sets. Like, she's just this creative force. And it's this movie about this woman, she's a witch, and it's a bit of a satire on womanhood, femininity, and the witchcraft community. And she's very murderous in the movie. Her emotions are always at the very top of everything she does. But the movie is just so beautiful. Her entire apartment in the movie is designed in the same colors as the Hoth tarot deck. So it looks like she lives inside a tarot deck. And I just really relate to it on that aspect. Like I'm a very aesthetic person. Like beauty in my surroundings, and even in my horror movie preference, honestly, is very important to me. And this movie, like every shot is like a picture you could frame and put on your wall. And it's just gorgeous. Highly recommend The Love Witch to everybody on this planet.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Awesome. Yeah. We'll definitely add that to the top of our list for sure. So, Candace, the question that we ask every guest on Horror Heels is who is your favorite final person in a horror movie? And we say final person because we're all inclusive here. Oh, but we love the final girl tro absolutely, but we want to make sure everyone's included on Horror Heels.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

I love that. The inclusivity. I love it. My favorite final person, I would say, is Sydney Prescott. Like I, first of all, Nev Campbell, Canadian girl. I can't not love her. I can't not love that. She's from Guelph, Ontario, which is a small town very near where I live. So like shout out Guelph. But there's just something about Sydney Prescott. And I think the moment that she came into horror, like with Scream in 1996, it just felt like we needed her so much. Even though the term final girl, I think it was coined like 92, 93 in the book Men, Women and Chainsaws. But like for me, Sydney Prescott is the ultimate final girl in that moment in horror history when she hit in 96. A lot of women in horror before that, unfortunately, I think were portrayed as kind of floozies or not sure what they're doing. There were great final girls before her for sure. But for me, Sydney is just, I wanted to be her. She was so strong. She was so cool. She was so smart. I've just love seeing her evolution in the Scream movies and then just seeing Nev Campbell and other things like The Craft and even shows like House of Cards. I just love her so much. And I'm really excited that she's coming back for Scream 7.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

What are you hoping to see Sydney's Triumphant Return be like? And it's also been revealed that Matthew Lillard is returning. And we thought he was dead in the first one. So what are you hoping for for Sydney's arc?

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yes. Well, for Sydney's arc, I'm I've read and I agree with, you know, the the tidbits of what I'm reading of kind of what they're planning for her. You know, if if they're true, like who knows if if they're like trying to lead us off the track. But I think it's I'm hoping that we get to see Sydney experiencing a bit more peace in her life. You know, every time we see her, it's like, can this girl catch a break? Like this poor woman, just she's trying to live her life. She's trying to, you know, like have a husband or like have some kids or, you know, just write a book or whatever. And this dumb idiot comes every time and ruins everything. I kind of because the whole point is that she's in the drama, but I just hope Sydney Prescott is somewhere relaxing with a glass of Chardonnay.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

I mean, if they really wanted to go off the rails, they could have Sydney kill ghost face in the first scene, come to the credits. And the rest of the movie is just Sydney like going to Pilates.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Mimosa brunches.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Honestly, for the next hour. Honestly, I would love that. Just Sydney like having a girl's day, like getting a pedicure, mimosa. I would be the first person in the theater to watch that.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

That's awesome. Well, we love what you're doing with your therapy work. It's really fascinating. And so please stay in touch because we would love to maybe dig into some of the aspects a little bit deeper next time around. But this has been so fun.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yes, thank you so much for having me on. And I'm such a fan of your podcast, too. And it really comes through how much you love horror and the horror community and conventions, and I just really appreciate it. So thank you for doing this. Oh, thank you so much. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Candace, we really appreciated you joining us on Horror Heels. Your blend of psychotherapy and horror is fascinating and honestly pretty refreshing.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Totally. We could have kept talking about witches, dreams, and horror conventions for hours, but we'll save some of that for your next visit.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

And to our listeners, if you're curious about how horror movies can help you understand yourself a little better, definitely check out Canvas's podcast. Mental health is horrifying.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Thanks for tuning in. And remember, whether you're journaling your nightmares or just watching Sidney Prescott slay Ghostface for the 15th time, Horror Heals. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

We'll see you next time. And in the meantime, remember when someone asks, is horror good for mental wellness? You tell them, of course it is. The Horror Heals Podcast is produced and presented by How the Cow Ate the Cabbage LLC.