3/15/2025
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At the time of this interview, Paige is an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh who worked closely with the HSWG and acted as a representative for the group. Paige has also created an amazing project and was awarded the Student Showcase Scholarship in the past. In this interview, she reflects on her experiences within the group and her passion for horror, highlighting her academic journey as well as her future aspirations.

“It's hard to be brave alone. It's easier to have a community.”
3/11/2025
At the time of this interview, Greg Siegle is a leading researcher and Director of the Program in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience as well as a professor of Psychiatry and Translational Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His work spans psychiatry, neuroscience, and, intriguingly, horror studies, where he examines the intersection of fear, emotion, and psychological resilience. Our discussion explores his research on how fear functions in the brain, the potential for horror as a therapeutic tool, and the role of immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) in mental health treatments.

​Greg Siegle is a core member of the Horror Studies Working Group (HSWG) and has contributed significantly to the academic conversation around horror, particularly in clinical and cognitive sciences.

Contributor Cassandra Gray, an HSWG content creator, DNID major at the University of Pittsburgh, and lover of horror, explores the genre's psychological effects on video games and how these immersive experiences evoke fear through mechanics, narrative, and atmosphere. She also explores the growing trend of VR horror experiences and examines how these technologies reshape the genre and influence players on deeper levels.

It's no secret that video games have long been a primary way for people to escape reality, allowing players to immerse themselves in fantastical worlds where they can fight monsters, solve mysteries, or explore digital landscapes. When it comes to the horror genre, games have the unique ability not only to transport players to another world but also to make them feel the fear and tension of that world. From how a game’s mechanics build this tension to how the game's story unfolds, horror in video games has evolved into an art form that taps into our deep-rooted fears. Immersion and player interaction play a key role in this evolution, making horror games particularly powerful in their ability to evoke emotions. At the center of this evolution lies the rapidly growing use of virtual reality (VR), which has taken video games as a whole to new heights. While traditional horror video games create a sense of unease through ambiance, visuals, and narrative, VR adds a whole new dimension, completely immersing players in worlds that feel real.

​Hello, fellow horror lovers! My name is Cassandra Gray, and I’m excited to be here at the Horror Studies Working Group (HSWG) as a content creator. I’m a Junior Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID) major at the University of Pittsburgh, where I try to blend my passion for storytelling, programming, and design to create interactive, immersive, experiences.

Contributor David Scott, Recovery Specialist for University of Pittsburgh and avid horror fan, breaks down how the genre has represented addiction and recovery in modern times and how staying spooky has helped him overcome his own personal demons

    My mother was an addict.
 
   At the age of 43 she was diagnosed with Lupus and prescribed morphine and the drug Soma for her pain. It didn’t take long for her to begin abusing her medications frequently and wasn’t uncommon for myself or my stepdad to push her awake as she nodded off on the couch with a lit cigarette in her hand…but it also wasn’t uncommon for us not to catch her in time and for her to burn a hole in the fabric.
 
   We were fortunate that the fires never spread far before she jolted awake from the burning sensation the cigarette would cause as it hit the inside of her finger. Eventually the holes took over a lot of fabric in our home and my mother would move from the couch to the bedroom where we continued to see her do much of the same with the addition of watching her physical and mental health slowly decline due to the 1-2 combination of chronic disease and drug abuse. My mother passed from Cancer at the age of 57. If the cancer didn’t get her first, the addiction would have…as it did her brother five years later…as it almost did me a year after that when I had overdosed…as it almost did my nephew that same day when he overdosed on the same purchase.
 
   “Addiction is a family disease.”
   
     It’s a common phrase, and you can take it as a meaning of an inherited trait, or you can take it as a metaphor as to how an individual’s addiction can burn a hole straight through the fabric of the family. While I have had the unfortunate circumstance of being subject to both interpretations, I am not alone in my experience. One of the benefits of recovery support groups is that you find others who’ve suffered the same fate. You can either find someone that says “me too” or you can be that pillar to another. It’s why isolation is so detrimental to an addict. The more you sit in it sober or not, the more guilt, the more shame, the more of feeling like you’re a monster.
                                                                                                                                                                      

Contributor David Scott, Recovery Specialist for University of Pittsburgh and avid horror fan, breaks down how the genre has represented addiction and recovery in modern times and how staying spooky has helped him overcome his own personal demons.
 
 Let me tell you a few stories…
 
  “Sarah is being stalked by an unseen killer as she desperately cries out for help. The cries fall deaf, however, as screams of joy and laugher drown out all other sounds in the city streets while the bars let out. She is alone and soon will be isolated and trapped by this evil as it rips apart her flesh and destroys everything that she loves.”
 
  “Sam looks at his brother Joe approaching…but this isn’t Joe. This is the walking dead. Sam starts to walk towards him. All he wants to do is help his brother, but he is reminded of the carnage done to the other families down the block and he must make a quick decision. The right decision. Sam finally gets his wits about him and runs. Hoping that soon this madness will end.”
 
   “John came to the conclusion that this was no longer a craving, but a need. If he did not have the liquid he desperately hungered for, he would be no more. “How did it come to this?” John thought. Jessica had given him a small taste of hers and, all of a sudden, here he was suffering an incurable fate.”
 
   These stories, although small, capture various tropes within the horror genre.  Each one of these has played out in some variation across the silver screen for decades. Surely Sarah’s “unseen killer” is a maniacal slasher in search of his next helpless victim, poor Dean and Joe got caught up in a zombie apocalypse, and damn Jessica for turning John into a vampire. However, while I changed names and added a bit of melodrama for flare, each of those stories have a basis in a real-life account I’ve heard in my time in mutual support meetings for addiction.

         At the time of this interview (Aug 2021) Ben Rubin (Horror Studies Collection Coordinator) and Adam Hart (Visiting Librarian) both worked for the Pittsburgh University Library System at Hillman library and were heavily involved in the George A. Romero Archive as well as further acquisitions in the Horror Studies Collection archives. Their knowledge of the collection is thus unparalleled and key to the formation and further development of the Horror Studies. Our talk spans archives, teaching, fandoms, and troll dolls—as any good conversation likely should.

Ben Rubin is the Horror Studies Collection Coordinator, Archives & Special Collections for the University of Pittsburgh Library System.  In this role he serves as the curator for the George A. Romero Archival Collection as well as working to build up research collections in support of horror studies ranging from archives and other primary sources to general collection materials including books, media, and journals.  He serves as a subject area expert for the library in assisting researchers navigate and utilize library resources.  He also participates in programming and exhibit building as a way to engage students, faculty, staff, and the public with the horror studies collections.  Lastly, he works closely with faculty to incorporate primary source literacy and engagement within their classes and provide students with an opportunity to handle and actively learn from archival and rare book collections. 

Adam Charles Hart is a curator and archivist with Mediaburn. He is the author of Monstrous Forms: Moving Image Horror Across Media and the forthcoming The Living Camera: The History, Theory, and Politics of Handheld Cinematography, and is finishing a book on the work of George A. Romero.

George Romero and Pittsburgh: The Early Years

The Horror Studies Working Group (HSWG) focuses on structuring as many opportunities as we can for academic, student, and fan work in horror because it is difficult to predict where the next great thing will come from. In our effort to help bring awareness to academic and student work in horror, the HSWG was thrilled to help premiere three student-produced documentaries on George Romero’s birthday (February 4th 2021).  The event was realized through the cooperation of Carl Kurlander’s Making the Documentary course and the George A. Romero Foundation in a private University of Pittsburgh event hosted by Pitt’s University Library System (ULS). The film received essential funding and practical support from ULS, the University Honors College (UHC), the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, the Center for Creativity, the Department of English, and the Film and Media Studies Program. The HSWG, through the generous participation of the UHC, provided some further funding aid to help students finish two short documentaries, on Night of the Living Dead leading-man legend and Pitt alumnus Duane Jones and another on making a documentary during a pandemic. These films served as informative introductions to the night’s main feature: George Romero and Pittsburgh: The Early Years. The film runs almost an hour, boasts dozens of interviews with prominent figures in the Romero universe, has thoroughly excavated archival material, and according to the students who made it, represents just the tip of the iceberg in terms of material that they found. The impressive array of documentaries were made by Carl Kurlander’s Making the Documentary course (ENGFILM 1671/FMST 1740), where students are mentored by film professionals and given access to archival materials as well as interview subjects. I was able to sit down with Kurlander to discuss the course, its history, and the journey to the Romero-based documentaries. Carl Kurlander is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh in English and Film & Media. Kurlander is the faculty adviser of Pitt in Hollywood, a student group which led to the creation of the Steeltown Entertainment Project, a non-profit which has helped Pittsburgh become a leading regional production center.  In June 2019, Kurlander helped launch the Pitt in LA film program, taught at Lionsgate Studios.  ​

Sonia Lupher has been a member of the Horror Studies Working Group since the very beginning and is intimidatingly adept at programming amazing events. Her work focuses particularly on women in horror and as a result her impressive list of contacts and interests allow her to access compelling, edgy, and extremely talented horror filmmakers and artists. Most recently, Sonia hosted an event with director Lesley Manning discussing the impact of her film Ghostwatch (1992). See my own interview with Sonia about the Horror Studies Working Group and her work. Like any good horror interview we span such topics as cookbooks and cannibal horror to teaching Psycho and Funny Games​.

A History Told in Infinite Parts: Part I

Though we would like to say the Group started one all-hallowed October 31st, the reality is that seeds of the Horror Studies Working Group (HSWG) started sprouting on an otherwise unassuming Thursday in 2016. It was at this point that Adam Lowenstein, Pitt Professor of English and Film/Media Studies, began to work on an event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) in Pittsburgh. This event would grow to be the annual Romero Lives Festival and in turn flourish into the realization that maybe the University of Pittsburgh could be the perfect site for a Horror Studies Center. The connection came from seeing that the 50th anniversary event for Night of the Living Dead would be an opportunity for Pittsburgh to fully recognize the great influence of Romero on the city and the many ways in which he had promoted it throughout his life. This strong connection indelibly links Pittsburgh to modern horror and there’s no reason why this is something that Pittsburgh can’t embrace more fully. The HSWG, then, ultimately flowered from the desire to provide a structure for horror scholarship and appreciation centered in Pittsburgh and available to the world—thus it all started with a little 50th anniversary event that pre-dated it all