Ryan Murphy and Grace Murphy (no relation!) join Lauren Spear on the HorrorFam.com Podcast to discuss their IGTV horror anthology series Welcome to the Horror Show!
Welcome to the Horror Show Links:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/yourhorrorshow
Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourhorrorshow
Facebook: https://facebook.com/yourhorrorshow
FULL Written Transcript:
*Intro music from FreePD.com*
Lauren Spear: Hi, Everyone! My name is Lauren Spear, and you’re listening to the HorrorFam.com Podcast!
Today’s guests are the creators of Welcome to the Horror Show — which is a horror anthology series on Instagram! IGTV!
And, so far, they have three episodes out… And I have watched ALL of them! Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd… I’m super excited!
So, this is Ryan Murphy and Grace Murphy — no relation — and they’re the writers, directors… actors, in some cases…
Ryan Murphy: *laughs*
Lauren: …of Welcome to the Horror Show!
And, to you guys, I say: Welcome to the HorrorFam.com Podcast! How you doin’ today?
Ryan: Doing great, Lauren. How are you?
Lauren: I’m great! *laughs* And you, Grace? How are you doing?
Grace Murphy: I am great. Thank you for asking. Thanks for having us!
Lauren: Oh, I’m really excited! You know? You guys…
Well, Ryan approached me and asked if I was looking for more podcast guests… And I said, “Yeah. I’m always looking for more podcast guests!” And he said that you guys were working on your own sorta independent horror anthology series on Instagram.
And I thought, “Oh wow! That’s really cool!” Y’know? I’m always looking for independent creators, you know? Like the “little guy” horror creators… ‘Cause y’all don’t get enough attention!
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: And then I was like, “Oh shoot! What if I don’t like it? What if it’s really terrible?!” *laughs*
Ryan: *laughs harder*
Lauren: But then I watched it! And I was like, “This is… AMAZING! This is so awesome!”
*laughs* I was so relieved! Oh thank God! Thank God their stuff is amazing! Because I wouldn’t want to go back to you and be like, “Ooh. Well… actuallyyyy…”
All: *laugh*
Lauren: But, yeah. I’ve actually watched all three episodes that are out of Welcome to the Horror Show several times at this point. And, first of all: Thank you SO much for including closed captions with every episode! That’s SO nice.
Grace: Of course! We want to include everyone.
Lauren: That was something we were talking about pre-show: that you guys are really trying to focus on telling horror stories that are inclusive — that include the POC community and that focus on women and tell stories from angles that sometimes aren’t focused on as much.
And the fact that you also have closed captioning just shows an extension of that attitude of wanting to include everyone in a genre that’s just SO fun.
Ryan: Grace actually, to her credit, was one of the people that really pushed the closed captioning. I remember when we originally released our first episode and it didn’t have it… She was like, “Ryan! We HAVE to get closed captioning on this!!” And I was like, “Okay. I’m gonna work on it.”
And, just like you said right there… It just helps! Already. Like, for hearing impaired or for people that might not speak a certain language. It’s really important.
Lauren: I agree! *laughs*
Ryan: *chuckles*
Lauren: I just thought that that was awesome. Because there’s so…
Ah, man. *laughs* In one of our previous conversations [via email], we were talking about how things without closed captioning are like “Arrrrggggghhhhh!! No! I want to like this, but I don’t know what’s happening!!”
Ryan: You have a hearing…? You have a hearing issue, right, Lauren?
Lauren: Yeah… It’s not super terrible. It’s just…
I don’t know. Everything on my right side is kinda weird. My… Like, technically, I could wear a monocle.
Ryan: *chuckles*
Lauren: But, I wear eyeglasses, because, you know… *laughs* That would be kinda weird? But, yeah. My right eye has bad vision, my right ear doesn’t hear very well, I was born without my right hip, and just… *mouth fart noise* I don’t know what happened on my right side, but my whole right side’s kinda funky.
But, yeah. So!
I… *exhales* This is going to be hard to talk about things without spoilers. And I don’t want to spoil anything because people need to go to your Instagram — which is Instagram.com/YourHorrorShow Or, for people who’re already on Instagram, just: @YourHorrorShow is the handle — and they need to go and watch these because they’re just so FUN.
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: That’s awesome.
Ryan: We really appreciate it, Lauren. That means a lot. We definitely…
Grace and I both put a lot of time and effort into these and we are really proud of these first three episodes. We obviously want to make more, but these three are…
With the state of the world right now… And I’m sure this will be time capsuled with the “quarantine podcasts,” but, with the state of the world right now [creating more episodes immediately is] obviously not possible. But we are extremely proud of the first three episodes that we DID do.
And we think that people who… Yeah. People who enjoy horror and especially enjoy horror anthologies are really gonna love it.
Grace: Yeah. And we also just had the BEST crew, y’know? We had so many brilliant, hard-working people surrounding us. And, so, they also contribute to a large part of why these episodes are so awesome.
Lauren: How’s the lockdown affecting you all? I guess that’s halted production for the time being?
Ryan: Yeah. Unfortunately, with the lockdown…
Grace and I both live in California — out in Los Angeles, specifically — and, you know, it’s looking like this is going to be locked down for probably, at minimum, until June at the earliest.
Lauren: Yeah.
Ryan: So this is just gonna affect everybody. I mean, there’s multi-million dollar productions that are halted at this point because of this and then…
And we would never — like Grace was saying too! Our crew is absolutely amazing and we would never want to endanger them in any scenario on set, so…
We’ve got ideas! Y’know? We’ve got stuff that we want to, obviously, do… But [new episodes of Welcome to the Horror Show are] definitely on the backburner at this moment. We’re just hoping that everybody’s safe and just doing okay.
Lauren: Aw, yeah. Absolutely. I’m in Los Angeles as well and… *exhales sharply* Man!
Grace: Yeah? How are you?
Lauren: Oh! Uh… Well… I haven’t been out of… I haven’t left the house since the 13th of February and it’s now April 3rd, so…
Ryan: WOW.
Lauren: But I’m okay! *laughs*
Grace: *chuckles*
Ryan: So you’re doing your “social distancing” part is what you’re saying?
Lauren: Hah. Yeah… Yeah.
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: But you guys are still updating your Instagram page with other things though! You’re keeping the [horror-related] content coming even though…
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: …even though the SHOW episodes are stalled!
And, oh gosh. Yeah. I was thinking… Maybe, with your cast and crew at home… I don’t know how much you could do, but maybe you could all connect on, like, a stream or something and record that? Like each do your parts separately at home?
Grace: Totally!
Ryan: Y’know? Yeah! It’s something we’ve definitely kind of talked about and we don’t know yet how we’re going to kind of proceed with all this. I mean, people are trying to be creative, obviously. Y’know? In this time, in terms of figuring out what we can do, but… yeah!
Grace and I both have ideas though. Of stuff that we can kind of do moving forward. And, yeah. We wanna…
We try to keep our Instagram at least horror-related, in terms of giving our thoughts on what our favorite horror movies are, and kind of who our kind of icons in horror are, and we both just really have a lot of respect for the horror community. And we really wanna…
We made [Welcome to the Horror Show] to specifically cater to the horror community’s needs for more digital content. Because I think… Grace and I both are really big fans of the upcoming digital revolution that’s happening with content in general.
And I think you’re kind of seeing it right now with just what’s happening. I mean, with stuff being quarantined, it’s like you can’t really do a lot. You’ve gotta be really creative in the ways you’re trying to do things!
Lauren: Yeah! It’s a challenge! You’ve gotta come up with new and creative ways to get the content out to people.
And, fortunately, with this digital revolution, more and more ways to do that are opening up! So, that’s a great thing.
Your show, [for example], is on Instagram and people all over the world can see it! And I think that that’s just awesome. Like, you’re able to…
Like you, Ryan, are… You run the Welcome to the Horror Show Twitter — which is also @YourHorrorShow — correct?
Ryan: Correct!
Yeahhh. Also, our Facebook too. Which is at “yourhorrorshow” as well.
Lauren: Oh! Okay. I’m not on Facebook [as of August 2019], so… *sheepish laugh*
Ryan: Don’t worry about it! Yeah. It’s all good.
Lauren: And you guys are always engaging with people, and… *laughs*
Like, I was very amused. I didn’t want to look at any of the comments on the episodes when I was watching them fresh because I was afraid there might be spoilers or hints or… You know. *laughs*
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: But, after I’d finished watching them all, I went back and was looking at some of the comments. And people were really into it! It was really cool.
And you guys were answering everyone. People were diggin’ it! It was fun.
Grace: Oh yeah! Totally.
That’s the great part about being online, right? That we just… We’re able to communicate with our new friends so easily!
Lauren: Yes!
Grace: *chuckles*
Lauren: And… Oh, God. Okay! Well! NO SPOILERS, but let’s go through the three episodes that are up now… Just, kinda, as little as possible as we can say about them…
Ryan + Grace: *laugh*
Lauren: …because each episode is very short as it is. So, I almost feel like saying ANYthing would be saying too much!
Grace: *laugh* I know!
Ryan: *laughs harder*
Grace: Just TRUST US, Everyone!
Lauren: Yeah! Just go there. Just go there! *laughs*
Well…
The first episode was “Ping.” And I really connected with that episode because I live in Los Angeles, but I don’t have a driver’s license. So, I Uber everywhere. And “Ping” stars an Uber driver.
Ryan: *chuckles*
Lauren: *speaking slowly/choosing her words carefully to avoid spoilers* And… things… get… uhhhh…
Grace: Hairy!
Lauren: Well… yeah! *laughs* “Hairy!”
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. *chuckles* Exactly.
I mean… I don’t… I don’t want to give too much away for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. I don’t want to give too many spoilers.
But, “Ping” was… Like you said, Lauren: We live in Los Angeles. Everybody takes Uber and Lyft!
I was an Uber driver — Lyft driver, really, primarily — for ahhhhhhhhhh… God. Almost two and a half years?
Lauren: Oh my gosh!
Ryan: Yeah.
Lauren: I wonder if you ever gave me a ride somewhere! *laughs*
Ryan: It’s very possible! It’s very possible!
The thing is, I just really looked at ride sharing as something that’s universally… We all do now. It’s really, you know, not uncommon for everybody to go out on a Friday night and they take a Lyft or an Uber. Or, just like you, who doesn’t have a driver’s license and wants to go around.
And, for me, I just really wanted to explore: What if somebody got into your car and they were…not right? And, kind of, what would happen at that point? What would a story be that would involve something like that?
And it was… My girlfriend and I — Samantha — we were at a pizza shop one night and we were kinda going through the beats of what this would look like and how we would do it. And [“Ping”] stayed pretty true to the original vision, actually!
And credit Grace helping me… Kinda helping to rewrite and reshape the script a little bit. And we kinda gave it a little more beats at some points.
But I was really happy with how it turned out. And our two… Our THREE actors in that one, technically — Jared, Shannon, and [John] Bingham — are all just really, really amazing. And the crew! Especially Michael [Ojeda], our DP, just absolutely killed it in terms of getting the shots for the driving. I mean, it really looks like…
For a lot of it, when me and Grace were in the editing room, [Grace] was like telling me, “This is, like, one of the first Uber horror things. Let’s REALLY show it! Let’s really showcase it.” And so we showed, like, the whole idea of them getting into the car and your Uber driver asking what your name is, y’know? All that. That whole thing.
Lauren: Yes!
Ryan: Yeah.
Lauren: That was… *laughs* That was a touch that I noticed! I’m like, “Oh, wow! That’s exactly how it is! That’s so real!”
Ryan + Grace: *laugh*
Lauren: You gotta confirm that that’s the person you’re picking up! *laughs*
Ryan: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
And, obviously, what happens throughout the episode… I don’t wanna give, like you said, give too much away. But, you know, some strange things start happening.
And we were… I was really happy with how that episode ended, especially. With out little, kind of, ending little capper for that. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Lauren: Ah, that’s so cool.
But… whew! Yeah. My husband… He’s originally from a very, very tiny town in Ohio and they did not have Uber and Lyft and all that stuff. And, when he moved here last year, to Los Angeles, this was like a whole new world to him. He was like, “WHOOOOA! I can just call a ride and go ANYwhere?!”
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: “And I don’t schedule it like a day or two hours in advance like a Taxi?!? They just show up IMMEDIATELY??” *giggles*
Ryan: I know! It’s pretty wild. It’s honestly a very new world.
And, like, yeah… Having done that for two and a half years, the amount of stories I have is just kind of insane. There’s a lot of… *chuckles* There’s a lot of people out there! *laughs*
Lauren: Oh my goodness! *laughs* Well… Write what you know, right?
Ryan: Exactly.
Lauren: I’m sure we’ll be seeing some of those other, uh, kooky characters from your real-life adventures turning up in a horror context [soon enough].
Ryan: *laughs* Exactly. Exactly.
Grace: *laughs* Definitely.
Lauren: Annnnnnnnnnnd… Okay! Well. Yeah. I don’t want to give anything more away about “Ping.” People should just go see it.
And then the second episode was “Turkey Slay!” Which is…
That was sort of your “baby,” right, Grace? Like… that was all you?
Grace: Yes. *giggles* Well… Nothing is, like, “all” me or “all” Ryan in this process, I have to say! That’s why I love working with him so much.
But, yes! I did write and direct [“Turkey Slay”].
Lauren: Yeah! There you go.
Grace: *giggles*
Lauren: That’s awesome. I love that you guys are shouting out your crew and your significant others and everyone. Like, there’s just so many people that are involved in making even the smallest productions! And it’s great that you guys are acknowledging everyone as much as you possibly can.
Grace: Mmhmm. It’s such a collaborative form.
Lauren: Buuuuuut… Grace! “Turkey Slay!”
Grace: *laughs*
Lauren: I have to say… There was like a little… Kinda hint? In the video. Of what was gonna be coming…
Grace: Uh-huh. *giggles*
Lauren: I don’t know if I should even say, like, where this little tip-off is, visually, but…
Grace: *chuckles*
Lauren: …there’s a hint that you can see, visually, and then comes up again later, verbally, after…the fact. And it’s like, “Ah, yeah… Okay.” *laughs*
Grace: Yeah. I guess all we can say about [“Turkey Slay”] is… It’s pretty gross.
All: *laugh*
Lauren: Yeah! Well…
And, my goodness, I guess this is kind of your “found footage” episode, yes?
Grace: Yes! Exactly. I really wanted to play with that.
And it was kind of perfect because we had this time crunch and we had three episodes going up and so we wanted to show some diversity in how we filmed it. And, again, just shoutout to our DP, Michael [Ojeda], who ran with anything and came up with perfect shots…
*helicopter noises*
Lauren: Ooh. Wait a sec. There’s… a helicopter or a motorcycle or something…
Grace: Yeahhh… That’s flying over my apartment.
Ryan: *laughs* Gotta love LA!
[Note: It actually took several minutes before the helicopter left and we were all just gabbing about our pets and stuff to kill time. I left part of the helicopter section in because I thought Grace said some nice things, through the chopper sounds, that I didn’t want to remove. And I tried to tone down the noises a little because it was originally MUCH louder and I thought it might hurt people’s ears. Anyway… Grace was able to pick up the conversation again like a champ, even though, in reality, there was a very large gap in the conversation originally. Props!]
*helicopter noises die down*
Lauren: Okay… *relieved sigh* I’m sorry. Would you mind repeating what you were saying…?
Grace: Yeah! W-where were we? Uhhh… yes! So, we wanted to play with found footage and, again, yeah. Shoutout our DP, Michael, because… We got through “Turkey Slay” SO fast! And he came up with some gorgeous shots along the way.
And again, like, I keep repeating myself, but it was such a team effort.
And, of course, the actors were so amazing too! Because, as you know, one of the shots is pretty difficult. *laughs* Without spoiling anything! So… I’m really grateful to them too.
Lauren: There is one part where a character gets…injured…
Grace: Mmhmm.
Lauren: And I thought the effects on that injury looked… really cool. Like very… “Oooh! Ow! That had to hurt!” Y’know? *laughs*
Grace: Yeah, well, shoutout to makeup for that!
Lauren: Yeah!
Ryan: Yeah. Tiara, our makeup artist, was really, really great. I mean, the makeup work she did throughout the entire thing was pretty phenomenal. The narrator character that we created, that was played by me, her makeup on that was just absolutely insane. And she did that throughout all three of the pieces. And, yeah. So, shoutout to her — she was incredible.
Lauren: Yeah! Your… Does your character, Ryan… The narrator character: Does he have a name?
Ryan: He actually doesn’t! That’s something that Grace and I have, like, thought about and we just… We haven’t been able to come up with something yet for him. We don’t know! We don’t know what his name is yet.
Grace: We’re waiting for it. For the right moment.
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: For now he’s just referred to as “The Monster”…
Ryan: *laughs harder*
Grace: I think that’s how…? I think that’s what I wrote. *laughs*
Lauren: Maybe that’s something that… I don’t know if you guys have a Patreon or, just, something that you guys could [use] to open [the discussion] up to the community…? Be like, “Hey! Got any suggestions?”
Since you’re all already interacting with everyone so much already… That might be fun! *laughs*
Ryan: Yeah. No. I mean… Yeah. Like, crowdsourcing it might be really cool. Yeah.
Grace came up with “The Monster.” I like “The Monster!” I think it’s fun. I think it’s a good name for him.
It’s… It’s a hard thing because, like, Tales from the Crypt had the Cryptkeeper, obviously. And, y’know, The Twilight Zone had Rod Serling. And I love both of those shows…
And it’s hard to figure out what this name for [Welcome to the Horror Show‘s narrator] character is. But, yeah. Like Grace said. We’ll… we’ll find something. We’ll figure it out. We’ll find something.
Grace: Yeah. Well, I love the idea of some audience members naming him! I think that’s rad!
Lauren: Yeah. It’s hard to find that balance between…
You don’t wanna, like, give away your creative control. But, at the same time, it would be so exciting and fun for the audience! *laughs*
Grace: Exactly.
Lauren: But then, if they pick something really… Ooh. Cringe! Then it would be like, “Uhhhhhh…”
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: “Yeahhhhhh… Let’s pull back on this! Noooooooo!” *laughs*
Ryan: I think our friend Allie picked out or said the name “Gory Feldman.”
Lauren: HAH!
Ryan: And I laughed. I thought that was really good.
Grace: Put it in the hat!
Ryan: Yeah. Exactly.
Lauren: Yeah, your character looks kinda like a… like a Grinning Man, y’know? Just like a…
You know?? Like the… I can’t think of the right… I guess they’re just called grinning men! *laughs* Those really kinda ghostly creepy guys with the huuuuuuuuuuuuuge smiles and everything?
Grace: Yeah?
Lauren: Very unnerving!
Ryan: *amused chuckle* Yeah! We wanted to play with that character doing this kind of…
Grace and I originally had the idea of making it almost like a speakeasy. And we found a great location for those three intros! And that location played a really big role in just, like, really giving it the ambiance and the look that it deserved.
And Grace wrote all three of those monologues for the character — which are just friggin’ amazing!
Lauren: Yeah!
Grace: *giggles*
Lauren: Yeah, it’s very fun! You can tell that you’ve got those Tales from the Crypt and Twilight Zone influences in your segments there.
Ryan: Yeah. Appreciate it.
Grace: Yeah. Yeah.
Lauren: And… yeah! Oh! *laughs* “Turkey Slay!” Ah!
Grace: *laughs*
Lauren: There’s, like, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh… There’s one part where I was, like, starting to get a little nervous. Like uh-oh!
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: This features, like, a psycho *guitar pluck/censor sound*
Lauren: *horrified* NO! Shhhh! I’m cutting that out, Grace! No! Shhh!
Grace: Oh, no??
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: You gotta take it out?
Lauren: It’s a big spoiler!!
Grace: Oh! Okay. Okay! *laughs*
Lauren: *laughs*
Grace: Fair enough!
Lauren: No, but… Yeah! There was one part where I was starting to get a little nervous [because I wasn’t familiar with you guys or your show yet] like, “Ohhhhhh gosh. Where are they going with this?”
Grace: Mmm. Oh yeah. Yeah…
Lauren: Like, my palms were sweating little bit [dreading/anticipating the all-too-common sexual violence that turns up in many modern horror films]. And then I’m like, “Wait. This was written by a woman. Maybe it’ll be okay?” *nervous laugh*
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: “Maybe it won’t go in a direction that sets off my PTSD.” Y’know?
Grace: Oh gosh! No. I don’t want that! *sympathetic chuckle*
Lauren: Yeah! But… But it all turned out okay! *relieved laugh* And it ended up being… Gross! I guess? But really funny. So… *laughs*
Grace: Okay, good! *laughs* Okay!
Lauren: And, yeah. I was just very relieved. Because, you know… The end or so of the second… I think it was the second segment [of “Turkey Slay”] and it was just like “Ohhhhhhhhhh gosh!” *nervous laugh*
Grace: Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine how that left you a little unnerved!
Ryan: I remember when Grace sent that script to me and I read it! The first time I read it I was like, “This is so… freaking PERFECT!” I was like, “This is EXACTLY what we envisioned the show to be!” Which is kind of, like, playing with things that we know and kind of turning them on their head a little bit.
And the fact too, like you said, that it’s written by a woman and it’s directed by a woman… It gives it a different perspective as well.
And, hopefully… Yeah. When people watch it, they’ll get an idea of, like, yeah. We’re trying to play with these tropes a little bit. And I think Grace did a fantastic job of that.
Lauren: She did! Good job.
Grace: *laughs*
Lauren: *laughs*
Grace: Thanks, y’all!
Lauren: And then… Oh gosh. Forgive my whiteness… “La Calavera?” La… Cala…
Grace: *repeats Episode 3’s title, but better* “La Calavera.”
Lauren: Thank you! *laughs* I’m sor… I can’t… I can’t roll those Rs! I’m so sorry! Forgive me, Everyone??
But… That episode… It was written by Martin…
Grace: Martín Julio Castillo!
Lauren: Martín! Ohhh! Okay! Mar…
Would you mind saying his name one more time?
Grace: Sure! Martín Julio Castillo.
Lauren: Nice! Thank you for saying it! I’m… I’m working on… You know? I’m trying. *sheepish laugh*
Ryan: *laughs* You’re good.
Lauren: And [“La Calavera”] played with… It was very…
Well, for me, I lived in the Valley for almost a decade and it was very… familiar. To me.
Grace: Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
Ryan: Mmhmm.
Lauren: And it was cool seeing the [Mexican] culture presented in your show. And… I’m hoping that other people who aren’t from LA [who might not be as familar] can also relate!
Grace: Yeah! Definitely. I think that’s what so special about Martín’s work.
Not only is he a fantastic writer, but he does specialize in writing Mexican folklore and writing about traditions and bringing [them] into this age. And… yeah. I can’t say enough about him! He’s really incredible. And, obviously, his piece speaks for himself.
Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. It was great.
Grace: Speaks for itself! *laughs* Sorry! I have Quarantine Brain!
Ryan: *chuckles* Y’know, it’s funny… Martín… When he wrote… When Grace sent me his script that he wrote… When I read it, I immediately thought of Tales from the Crypt! I mean, that was where I went to immediately.
Because those episodes of Tales from the Crypt that we remember so much usually have to deal with some type of trauma and vengeance of some type of kind and something will happen that’s kind of unexplainable. And that’s where the horror comes in.
And I just thought Grace directed [“La Calavera”] beautifully. I mean, it really looks amazing! And I really think it gives a great essence of Christmas, y’know?
We obviously wanted to fuse that episode with a very, like, kind of “holiday spirit” type of thing. And I don’t feel like there’s enough Christmas horror out there! So I think, like, we were trying to add to that.
Lauren: Oh yeah.
And, there was one aspect… The grandmother is… She’s using the Loteria cards…
Grace: *with better Spanish pronunciation* Lotería. Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah.
Lauren: *giggles* Thank you, Grace. Helping… Helping my Spanish!
Grace: There are much better teachers out there! *laughs*
Lauren: [The grandmother] is using those cards and it’s… The way that she was using them is almost like she was using them as… Not quite tarot cards, but…? You know. As a [form of divination]. Like fortune-telling!
Ryan: Yeah. I think, you know… Grace? You can probably speak on this a little better than I can in terms of Martín’s whatever emphasis…?
But, yeah. I just wanna say this real quick: Virginia Montero, who plays the grandmother in this piece…
Grace: Yeah!
Ryan: …she was actually in Breaking Bad! She played Tuco’s grandmother in Breaking Bad. So, if any people are listening to this and like Breaking Bad… Yeah. In that first season, I believe, she was in, I believe, two episodes of the first season of Breaking Bad. And she’s just an absolutely phenomenal actress! Just incredible.
Lauren: Yeah! She was! She was great! *laughs* Well… everyone was great, but…
Grace: Yeah. But Virginia just has that, like, experience, y’know? And she brings that gravitas to the set. And I think we were all just kind of like in awe of what she does.
Lauren: Rightly so!
All: *laugh*
Lauren: But… A lot of people hear “indie film” and they’re like “Ooohhhhgg… Indie?” and they equate it with, like, “amateur” and “bad” and just *cringe noise*
But… Seriously. [Welcome to the Horror Show] is great. And I’m so sorry about the virus and the quarantine and everything because… GRRRAWR! I wanna see more episodes!!
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: That’s lovely. Us too!
Ryan: Yeah! You know it’s all a blessing in disguise, I think, at the end of the day. Because we’re not the only… You know, this is a worldwide thing. We’re not the only people in this situation. And there’s a lot of creators that, you know…
Like, I feel so bad for the people at South by Southwest and those big film festivals that didn’t get their stuff screened because of this. It just sucks for everybody.
But, at the end of the day, if we can provide entertainment for people at this point: Cool. Y’know? You wanna have 30 minutes to spend to watch something new…? We love that and we’re obviously here for that.
Lauren: And do you guys have a website other than Instagram…? Like, I know that you’re on Instagram. You’re on Twitter. And I just found out you’re on Facebook! But, do you have an official website? Like a hub where all this is contained or are you…?
It’s so unusual to see!
Grace: *giggles*
Lauren: You have this wonderful property and it’s just kinda floating around on social media!
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: It’s so strange that you don’t have sort of a “home base” of your own! Like, everything is on third-party websites! Or… Did I… Did I just miss something?!
Ryan: *laughs harder*
Lauren: Or is that really how it is? And, if so: Why?
Like, what made you guys go for that idea?
Ryan: Grace, you wanna take this one?
Grace: *laughs* I was about to say: Do YOU want to take this one?
Ryan: Okay, sure!
Grace: Yeah, okay!
*Ryan and Grace both start to talk at the same time, then stop*
Grace: *laughs*
Ryan: Either or!
Grace: Go ahead, Ryan!
Ryan: Okay. I’ll take it. I’ll take it.
So, Grace and I, when we approached this project originally…
For sure, a website is coming. We’ll have that sooner rather than later. We’ll have a Welcome to the Horror Show website. We’ll have everything there. For sure.
The main aspect, I think, for both of us though — for Grace and I — when we approached this project and what we wanted to do was to showcase…
Artists, at this point, you know… We have a few ways to get our stuff out that’s not, obviously, like, major distribution, right? Like, you can go through YouTube, you can go through social media, you can go through [your own] website. And those are usually the parameters of you doing that.
Obviously, we have all of the episodes on our computer harddrives and whatnot.
Grace: *chuckles*
Ryan: We have those! And, to be honest too, we were going…
We have, actually, full versions. So, the ones you can see on Instagram or, actually, anywhere… Everything is chopped up.
Grace: Right.
Ryan: Essentially, as a serialization. Like a cliffhanger.
So, each short is give or take around eight to ten minutes long. Or each episode, I should say, is eight to ten minutes long. And then we chop each episode, usually, into four or five chapters.
And those chapters will have a cliffhanger at the end of each one. That’s kind of our serialization of this show.
And, I think, when Grace and I both were talking to each other about this idea, we were like, “Well, let’s put it on social media. And let’s have it be free to watch. And let’s grow a community of people!”
Because, my thing is, and I really believe this wholeheartedly still, is that we’re just… The world is changing very quickly.
And I know that for people that listen to your show and, Lauren, I know that you, with HorrorFam[.com] are really big on just highlighting people in the horror community. But I think that, you know, entertainment is changing rapidly in terms of how we consume things.
And, you know, while you can have everything on a streaming service or have it on a premium network, what have you… At the same time, there are so many hours in a day where people just want to watch anything and everything! And they wanna watch really good stuff.
And you have a platform like Quibi, which is coming out in a couple weeks, which is gonna be showcasing kind of high-quality short-form entertainment. And I really believe we’re going to see a rise in that type of content.
And Grace and I, we’re both in agreement with just, like, yeah. We wanna make something like this for the horror community.
Lauren: I was going to say… I think it would take away from it almost to have it all in one chunk.
Grace: Right?
Lauren: Because it becomes so interactive and fun with those cliffhangers!
And, also, I was telling my dad about [Welcome to the Horror Show], and…
[My dad, Rob Tharp] was our guest on Episode 5 [of the HorrorFam.com Podcast]. He was talking about his effects work on Beetlejuice.
And, I was telling him about your show and how each lil segment is, you know, about three minutes long. And he’s like, “Oh, great! The same as my attention span!”
All: *laugh*
Grace: That’s awesome.
Lauren: He thought that that was just great! That you’re coming out with little miniature episodes and people only have… *exhales* Sometimes people only have three minutes to watch something! Like, I know I do!
Sometimes, I get so bogged down with stuff that it’s just… *frustrated noise* “I need a break, but I can only take a three-minute break! Ahhhhhhhhh… Welcome to the Horror Show.”
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: Nice! I see what you did there!
Ryan: That should be our slogan right there, Lauren. That was great!
Lauren: And then, for me, I ended up… Since I came in a little bit late and I wasn’t coming on when you guys were putting them up, I didn’t have to wait until the next day or the next week for the next episode. So, you know, the three minutes were over and I was like, “Well, I gotta see what happens NEXT!” *laughs*
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: And I was able to! So I was, like, binging your episodes.
Ryan: That’s awesome! I love that.
Lauren: But when the new episodes come out I’ll be like *frustrated noise* “Nooo!”
Ryan: *laughs*
Lauren: Now I’ll have to wait like everyone else! Booooooooooooooo. *laughs*
Ryan: Well, it’s just like your dad said: I think attention spans are really getting lower and lower. And I think that we are going to see a rise in this shorter, more succinct, content that will come out. And it’ll be really high quality still! You can watch it and be like, “Damn. This is really cool!” But it’ll just be built for a generation that’s not used to watching hour, hour and a half, things!
I mean, I don’t know if you know this, Lauren, but, like, there’s a whole YouTube community that doesn’t even watch movies! They just watch people’s explanations of movies!
Grace: *chuckles*
Ryan: You know what I’m saying? So, it’s like… We’re getting into a world where I don’t know if everybody is gonna want to sit down to watch a two-hour movie all the time.
Lauren: Oh my gosh. Well… yeahhhhhhh. I mean… *laughs*
I love movies, but… Oh man. I tend to lean more towards the older movies. Like pre-2000s era movies. Where they’d be like an hour and a half, two hours tops!
And once we got into the 2000s, we were having these three-hour-long epics and it’s just like… Oh man. My…my butt can’t take this!!
Ryan: *laughs*
No, no. I agree with you. And, I mean, Grace can also speak on it more if she’d like to too, but I just think the world is very much changing.
But we love the horror community. And I think that there’s a very specific opportunity for horror because of just how much we want to consume. You know? You know this too, Lauren! You just mentioned independent creators and it’s like, look, how many independent creators have horror?
And, like, you know, some of it is obviously not as good as other stuff. And that’s okay. But I think that we, as horror fans in the horror community, just love watching it. We want to consume it.
Lauren: Yeah. Absolutely. chuckles I know I do.
So, do you guys have anything else that you want to say without spoiling anything?
Grace: *laughs* No…? I just… Again, thanks for having us! And check out our show!
Ryan: Yeah. Please. Yeah.
Grace: Say hi! Let us know! We’ll definitely say hi back.
Lauren: Yeah, I know Ryan is very active on Twitter. He’s constantly answering mentions and DMs and just interacting with everyone on there and…
I’m not sure who runs your Instagram account, but that is also very active.
So, for those who want to — and you should all want to at this point! *laughs* — go to Instagram.com/YourHorrorShow for the episodes on Instagram.
And you can interact with Ryan on Twitter at @YourHorrorShow — both accounts have the same handle, so just…
Grace: Yeah! I’ll be on Instagram! I live there.
Ryan: Yeah! Yeah, Grace is a master at Instagram.
Grace: Oh my God, no! Don’t say that! *embarrassed laugh* Don’t say that!
Ryan: *laughs*
Grace: I just… I’m on it a lot! That’s not the same thing!
Ryan: But, seriously, for everybody, for the horror community that’s listening to this: If you guys do want to check us out please, please, follow us. And we love following our horror people back. Like, that’s the main accounts we want to “follow back” and interact with. We really enjoy talking to you guys. And we want it to be an interactive thing.
Like you were saying, Lauren: We want it to be something we can talk to everybody and…
Grace: Yeah.
Ryan: …communicate with them.
Lauren: Yeah. It becomes almost like a game! Like, people were trying to guess, like, what was going to happen and…
Grace: Totally!
Lauren: The community engagement on even just the first three episodes was impressive. And I thought that was really fun that [Welcome to the Horror Show] brought the community together like that.
And, once again, just to make sure I said it right the first time: Both accounts are at @YourHorrorShow
And the name of the series is Welcome to the Horror Show.
And, today, I was talking with Ryan Murphy and Grace Murphy. No relation. Maybe we’ll get a story on how they met some other time!
All: *laugh*
Lauren: How two Murphys came together and created a horror show!
Ryan: *laughs harder*
Grace: For sure.
Lauren: Though, I think, like your show and keeping things spoiler-free: Some things are best a mystery.
Ryan: Agreed! *laughs* Agreed!
And, Lauren, I want to say thank you again for having us on! I also want to say I’m really excited to listen to your interview with “Darcy the Mail Girl” as well! I’m going to listen to that today. So I’m very excited!
Lauren: Woo! *giggles* Awesome!
Oh yeah! For those of you who didn’t listen last week: I interviewed Diana Prince from The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs!
Ryan: Awesome! So cool.
Lauren: Thank you, Ryan! Thank you, Grace!
Grace: Thank you!
Lauren: And I can’t wait for the next episodes! I hope that they’ll be up soon!
Ryan: Thank you so much, Lauren! We really enjoyed being on with you!
Grace: Yeah. Thanks, Lauren.
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