Midnight Pals: Cozy Horror (Patreon)

King: hey have you guys heard about this new thing?
King: it’s called cozy horror!
Poe: whats that?
King: I’m not entirely sure
King: but it seems to be quite the discourse
Barker: oh cool
Barker: cool cool cool

King: well do you guys remember when we had the elevated horror discourse?  Barker: no  
King: come on sure you do!  
King: it lasted a whole hot minute

King: so I learned about this new thing called cozy horror  
King: in an article from the Mary Sue  
Barker: ohhhh the mary sue  
Barker: now I get it  
Barker: why are you doing this to us steve  
Barker: this is gonna be hopepunk discourse all over again

King: now listen guys  
King: I know you might think horror is just slasher films  
King: but there’s all different kinds of horror!  
King: it doesn’t even have to be scary!  
Barker: get outta town!  
Barker: no I mean it  
Barker: get outta town  
Barker: get the fuck outta town

John Clute: [chewing on pipe] ah yes well  
Clute: what you’re thinking of there, steve, is termed affect horror  
Clute: now that should be differentiated as horror as understood as a narrative theory  
Clute: proceeding through 4 distinct stages  
Barker: oh my god shut up you nerd

King: see cozy horror  
King: is any horror without gore  
King: or sometimes its just gothic  
Poe: steve, this concept seems kind of ill-defined  
King: hold on edgar I’m just getting started   
King: or sometimes it’s a cartoon with a funny Dracula in it

King: there’s a kind of cozy horror called folk horror
Ramsey Campbell: whats this now?  
King: folk horror  
King: it’s brand new  
Campbell: I’ll have to look into this

Campbell: I need to check this out  
Campbell: [pulling out pencil & notepad] could you spell it for me?  
King: F O L  
Campbell: whoa slow down a bit  
King: F
King: O  
Campbell: [scribbling notes] F
Campbell: O...

Barker: so what is this? Just horror that’s... nice?
John Wiswell: well gosh you guys
Wiswell: I think I can help with this one  
Barker: oh christ here we go  
Koontz: [clapping] yay! John wiswell! Yay!

Wiswell: what if
Wiswell: a ghost just wanted to be your friend?  
Barker: we have that already  
Barker: hes called caspar  
Koontz: oh! I know that one!
Koontz: he’s the friendly ghost

King: could it be that we’re all misunderstanding the term  
King: perhaps the real cozy horror  
King: was the friends we made along the way