Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join us every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top experts in the field.

If you consider yourself a dedicated fan of contemporary art, then you’re probably no stranger to watching things onscreen that the average person would find bizarre, upsetting, or even downright gruesome.

So it should come as no surprise that the art world—and the Artnet News staff—contains more than a couple diehard fans of horror movies, too. But what’s more surprising than the contemporary art world taking an interest in Hollywood horror flicks, is that Hollywood horror flicks increasingly seem to be taking an interest in the contemporary art world.

Over the past few years, big-name studios and production companies have released multiple hair-raising feature films with—you guessed it—an art angle. And while each one of these movies has sunk its claws into different aspects of the art industry, the fact that screenwriters and directors keep coming back to it for spooky material suggests that something larger is afoot in the broader culture’s perception of the strange little cult we call the art world.

In honor of Halloween, Artnet News reporter and horror aficionado Taylor Dafoe wrote a piece that offered up some ideas about why, exactly, contemporary art has haunted so many recent releases. Through the cursed app known as Zoom, Taylor joined art business editor Tim Schneider to talk about three recent films featured in that piece: Candyman, Velvet Buzzsaw, and Hereditary. A haunted housekeeping item before we begin: If you haven’t seen those movies but want to, be advised that there are spoilers scattered throughout the episode.

Lock your doors, turn out the lights, and follow us into the dark…if you dare.

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