My Horror Anatomy: Josaleigh Pollett sinks their teeth into the macabre
The singer-songwriter gives us their five transformative horror movies.
Welcome to My Horror Anatomy, a terrifying series in which artists and creators dissect their five most influential horror films.
Josaleigh Pollett‘s “Radio Player” guarantees to give the listener creepy-crawlies in their stomach. It’s a hypnotically delirious journey that captures “memory and fear,” as they put it, that pulls the essence from seeing Poltergeist (more on that below) at a very young age. “The house isn’t there anymore, and I don’t know if it ever was,” Pollett snarls and snaps their jaws. “Memory is a fickle thing when you cope with the damage like us.” The lyrical neck-snapping is enough to drive you mad, but it’s so intoxicating that you can’t stop listening.
A marked drowsiness might occur if you loop the track, especially with later passages like: “When I fell asleep, it was fine / Now the dog cries out with a feeling,” whispers Pollett, their voice oozing with unmistakable terror. “The clock stopped blinkin’ at four, and a wonderful light tries to open the door.” Their corpse-painted words act like the insidiousness that happens in many horror movies; it’s far less about the jump scares but the subtle darkness that slowly rinses the skin.
“Radio Player” is the first piece of new music from Josaleigh Pollett since 2023’s In The Garden, By The Weeds, and the first collaboration with Jordan Watko (Crowd Shy) since he moved to Japan last year. Around the single release, Pollett walks us through the five horror films that have haunted and/or influenced them the most.
Alien (1979)
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when I first saw the original Alien. It wasn’t even the first one in the franchise that I saw (that was Alien: Resurrection when it came out in ‘97). I was definitely young – probably between 10-12 – and it immediately grabbed something deep in my guts and has never let go. The sounds and lights and sets, and the absolute stunning beauty that is Sigourney Weaver had me absolutely mesmerized. I LOVED that the only two that survived were Sigourney and her cat. I LOVED Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt before I even knew why. I loved everything about the performances in this film and still do. It’s why I see every single new Alien thing that comes out. It’s why Prometheus is somehow a Christmas movie to me. The world around this film lights something up in my brain that will always be there.
Poltergeist (1982)
In my opinion, this is one of the best movies about parents in the world. The DNA of this movie and of Poltergeist 2 (which I actually think is way scarier) are all over my childhood nightmares. I think I saw this first around the age of 8 or 9. My dad has always been a horror movie guy. Being afraid equaled having fun in our house for as long as I could remember, and I have grown up into a person who believes the same thing. There is something so exhilarating about being afraid in a controlled environment. The real fear sneaks in after the movie is over. The way it works your brain into a fresh and vulnerable goo, on high alert for every sound around you. I was afraid of the blue TV light after seeing this movie for years. I felt like I could hear ghosts in the static. But it didn’t keep me from watching this movie over and over – something about the messiness of love, of family. Your mom covered in pink goo and smoking weed in her underwear – that just felt like home to me – comforting, even when something horrific is happening just inches away. When I started writing “Radio Player,” it didn’t have any references to the TV static for several months. But every time I sat down to work on it, it felt like I was viewing the memories it was about through this pink, glowing, gooey light. I realized the song was existing at this intersection of memory of things that had actually happened, things that were from this movie, and different perspectives from other people who were present in my childhood.
The Thing (1982)
I just recently caught this one on the big screen again with some friends, and my main feeling is that WOW no matter how many times I see this film, the way it drips with intensity and anxiety and mistrust and horror is UNREAL. THIS MOVIE FUCKS! It is entangled in my brain with the movie 12 Angry Men (1957) – I think both because I saw them around the same time, and they are both about the real horror being men’s anger and mistrust of each other. The soundtrack of this movie is so tense and foreboding. You don’t really take a deep breath from the moment it starts until the end. The monster scenes are so intense, I have to laugh through them every time to self-soothe. Kurt Russel is such a badass in this. Ugh, I love this movie.
Signs (2002)
I saw Signs in the theater when I was 10 with my dad and my brother, and it scared the absolute bejesus outta me. That clicky sound that the aliens made was something that existed in my organic world for years to come when I couldn’t sleep. This is one that doesn’t hold up in the same way for me – I still like it, but it doesn’t strike fear in my core like it once did. Another sad family banger.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
For the entirety of my childhood, whenever we were in a cemetery for any reason, my dad would hide behind a headstone and jump out saying, “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!” When the first zombie appears in this film after that line, there is something so deeply uncanny and horrifying and telling about what you’re in for. If you hadn’t noticed, the theme for all of these movies is that my dad showed them all to me when I was very young. Some may say too young, but I think that I was the perfect age for all of them. This film being in black and white made my young brain think that it couldn’t possibly be as scary as it is. But I was wrong. This film is so intense and so incredibly devastating. I think it was the first time where I remember a film ending without anyone making it out alive. The reality of “Sometimes there isn’t a Happy Ending” wormed its way into my brain and grew into a healthy teenage apathy that I still sometimes have to fight. I think it would have been delivered by something else eventually had it not been this film, so I’m grateful it was this one.
