On this episode of Horror Joy, Brian Onishi and Jeff Stoyanoff unpack the discomforting narratives of John Darnielle's Universal Harvester and A24's Heretic, examining how faith fuels both profound peace and unsettling horror. We'll trace the emotional arcs of these characters, exploring the role of belief in their lives and in our own.

We’ll discuss:

· The role that expectation plays in what we are willing to believe and what we reject

· The impact narrative has on meaning, community, and discourse

· The horrors of manipulating someone’s beliefs for the sake of power and control

· The sweet sadness of family, loss, and time

· And the nostalgia for a time organized and documented by VHS tapes

So, light your favorite candle and join us as we dig deep into the world of faith and belief. But check the tapes before we go, lest you get lost in the labyrinth of iterations.

03:17 Heretic

35:55 Universal Harvester

57:30 Finding Joy in the Mundane

01:07:01 Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Heretic

Universal Harvester – by John Darnielle

Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages by Rita Copeland

Horror Tropes and Human Sadness in Universal Harvester by Carmen Maria Machado

Horror and the Death of God by Simon Marsden, in Horror and Religion – New Literary Approaches to Theology, Race, and Sexuality

Dan Maclellan

Shock Induction by Chuck Palahniuk

Chekhov’s Gun

Hermeneutics

The Call of the Eco-Weird in Fiction, Film, and Games – edited by Brian Hisao Onishi and Nathan M. Bell