(SOUNDBITE OF TOCCATA AND FUGUE, HAUNTED ORGAN AND DRACULA ORGAN'S "DRACULA BACH ORGAN")
AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE: It is I, WEEKEND EDITION Sunday's own queen of horror, maven of mystery, host of the ghosts.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ah, Ayesha, I'm glad to see it's you, but I - you do know your show is tomorrow, right?
RASCOE: It is, Scott, but today is Halloween, a high holiday for me. And I thought I'd haunt you a little bit with a series we've been working on for Sundays.
SIMON: All right. Well, then, first, let's go back.
RASCOE: Well, it starts with my own love of horror and a trip to Dickerson, Maryland. Our producer Ryan Benk is also a bit of a scream queen himself. And together, we attended, and we survived - most importantly - Markoff's Haunted Forest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAMING)
RASCOE: Wait a minute. That one moving. Oh, no, why you moving like that?
SIMON: This is your idea of fun?
RASCOE: This is my idea of fun, and I'm not the only one. Like, millions of people spend billions - and that's billions with a B - on haunted attractions like this one, horror movie screenings, costumes, candy - you know, all of the stuff. And we wanted to figure out why we enjoy aliens and vampires and werewolves and zombies. So we reached out to a few researchers. Mathias Clasen is a codirector of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark.
MATHIAS CLASEN: When you engage in recreational fear activities, you're essentially administering a fear vaccine.
RASCOE: He says that being scared can prepare us for real-world horrors, and it's also highly social. People report feeling much closer to each other after experiencing a mini managed trauma together.
SIMON: Well, I'm not convinced. And by the way, recreational fear lab, that's...
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yes. It...
SIMON: ...That's what happens these days? All right.
RASCOE: ...It exists. Well, look, Scott, let's test it out. We're going to watch a few movie clips.
(SOUNDBITE OF TYPING)
RASCOE: "Bring Her Back" opening scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRING HER BACK")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Oh.
SIMON: That's a body.
RASCOE: That person didn't look like they did well right then.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRING HER BACK")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Agh.
SIMON: So this is a party scene? I mean, you...
RASCOE: This is (laughter) - it's...
SIMON: Oh, my God...
RASCOE: Oh, my gosh...
SIMON: ...There's like...
RASCOE: ...It's like a...
SIMON: ...A grisly clown.
RASCOE: Yeah. It's like a grisly something. OK. So we got - so that was creepy. They were doing weird things. Does that make you want to see more?
SIMON: No.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SIMON: But on the other hand, I do that for a living today, so...
RASCOE: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Let's...
RASCOE: Listen. OK. Now we get to my favorite favorite.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET")
HEATHER LANGENKAMP: (As Nancy) Hi everybody.
JOHNNY DEPP: (As Glen) You believe this fog?
RONEE BLAKLEY: (As Marge) Oh, I believe anything is possible.
RASCOE: This is...
SIMON: "Nightmare On Elm Street."
RASCOE: ..."Nightmare On Elm Street."
SIMON: That's a famous film, right?
RASCOE: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET")
AMANDA WYSS: (As Tina) Looking good, girl.
LANGENKAMP: (As Nancy) Ah.
JSU GARCIA: (As Rod) Hey.
(As Nancy) What happened (laughter)?
GARCIA: (As Rod) What's going on?
RASCOE: This is the ending.
GARCIA: (As Rod) Hey. Hey.
DEPP: (As Glen) I'm not doing this.
LANGENKAMP: (As Nancy) Glen, you better stop (ph).
DEPP: (As Glen) I'm not doing it.
GARCIA: (As Rod) What's going on?
SIMON: Oh, no.
RASCOE: Oh, no.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET")
LANGENKAMP: (As Nancy) No. Mother. Mother.
RASCOE: So now, Scott, do you feel bonded? We've bonded, man.
SIMON: I - look...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SIMON: I worship you, Ayesha. but I can't say I feel any closer.
RASCOE: (Laughter) You don't feel...
SIMON: Popular horror is books and films. It's everywhere these days, right?
RASCOE: Yeah.
SIMON: More popular than ever.
RASCOE: It is everywhere these days. Bookstores devoted only to horror...
SIMON: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...Are popping up across the country. But also, horror movies have seen some of the biggest box office smashes. For instance, the movie "Backrooms," which explores this idea of a frightful liminal space - that film only had a budget of a million dollars. And yet it made back more than $400 million globally.
SIMON: Ooh, I wish I thought of that.
RASCOE: We talked to the leaders of the most successful horror studio, Blumhouse Atomic Monster. That's the studio that made the movie "Backrooms." Michael Clear heads the studio's emerging directors program and told us something that really kind of jives with what the fear lab told us.
MICHAEL CLEAR: I think that one of the recent kind of developments is people are craving collective experiences.
RASCOE: And Clear says that most of their ticket sales come from large groups buying together, watching together and screaming together.
SIMON: Look, but it can't just be any old scary story, right? It's got to have some oohm (ph).
RASCOE: It's got to be good, right? Like, a good horror story does have a bit of a formula. Not a single formula, but there are plenty of kind of mad scientists out there testing their own recipes, like horror author Stephen Graham Jones. And he says writing good horror is all about good endings and characters the reader can relate to.
STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES: You build the monster from a bad coach you had, from a, you know, a parent you're having difficulties with, from a bully at school. You build them from who you're afraid of yourself.
RASCOE: And even if those characters are villains or ghost or slashers, you got to be able to see the stuff you fear and the characters on the page, Jones says. Because fear is universal, Scott.
SIMON: My revered Up First co-host and WEEKEND EDITION Sunday partner in crime, Ayesha Rascoe. Ayesha, Happy Halloween.
RASCOE: Happy Halloween.
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