In the first half, bestselling author Rebecca F. Pittman joined host Rich Berra (email) to discuss the eerie tales surrounding the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, a house she described as one of the most haunted in the world. The mansion's history dates back to the 1880s and is steeped in tragedy, particularly for the Lemp family who faced numerous personal losses there, including the death of their firstborn son. "It's like a soap opera," Pittman noted.
The sudden passing of Frederick Lemp, who was poised to take over the family brewery, plunged his father William into a deep depression. "He spiraled out of control... he was a nervous wreck," she explained. This culminated in William's suicide just before Valentine's Day in 1904, with the coroner noting some strange details in the autopsy. William's wife and later his other son, Billy, eventually took their own lives as well.
"It was like a curse," Pittman observed, noting the sense of melancholy that seemed to envelop the property. She shared her own eerie experiences during overnight stays at the mansion, particularly in the attic room where she felt a child's presence. "It felt like something was kicking the side of the bed," she recalled, later discovering two distinct shoe prints near her feet. "That scared me more than anything," Pittman admitted. She also reported lights flickering in the Lavender Suite and hearing unexplained gunshots in the hallway.
The conversation also touched on the infamous Stanley Hotel, which was the inspiration for Stephen King's novel The Shining.
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In the second half, director and horror film expert Chris Alexander explored the genre's bloody history, tracing its roots to a dramatic incident involving Eadweard Muybridge, a pioneering photographer. "Film itself was begun in horror," Alexander stated, recounting how Muybridge's groundbreaking work in motion photography overlapped with his tumultuous personal life, including a murder trial for killing his wife's lover. Alexander also credited the 1932 horror movie Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, as shaping the genre with its provocative themes and imagery. "People fainted in the audience... it was completely controversial," he explained. The shocking scenes ultimately influenced the establishment of the Hollywood Production Code.
Discussing horror films from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Alexander remarked, "There's such a realism to them, an urgency to them." He attributed this to filmmakers who grew up watching visceral news footage from Vietnam, which shaped their storytelling approach. Alexander emphasized that horror continually reinvents itself, echoing themes from earlier works.
He described the film The Substance as "one of the most revolting, transgressive motion pictures" currently in theaters. The movie explores themes of aging and identity through body horror and, according to Alexander, effectively taps into societal fears. "You don't need big stars... you need a great concept, a great title," he stated.
The conversation also addressed the psychological depth of horror, particularly in classics like The Exorcist. "It's all music and mood... a slow burning feeling that something is wrong," Alexander observed.