"Cut to the bone": An Interview with Grady Hendrix

Abstract: Grady Hendrix is the best-selling author of Horrorstör (2014), My Best Friend's Exorcism (2016), We Sold Our Souls (2016), The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020), The Final Girl Support Group (2021), How to Sell a Haunted House (2023), and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (2025), most of which have been developed or optioned for film and television. His book Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction (2017) won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction. In this interview, Hendrix discusses personal experience as a starting point for horror and the ways research enhances the writing process. The interview covers comedy in horror, setting in horror, and why you can't find any videos of his unique book-signing shows on the internet. (Plus, Hendrix has a lot to say about witches.) The following interview has been edited for length and form.