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Promotional art for Horror Nerd
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Comedy Dynamics

Horror Nerd

Samantha Hale

Prime Video · 2025 · 45 min

Stand-up on slashers, dead parents, and growing up spooky.

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Released , on Prime Video.

Samantha Hale grew up wanting to be Morticia Addams rather than Barbie, and spent her adolescence returning to the movie theater over and over just to stare at Skeet Ulrich in Scream. Her material treats that slasher obsession as a shield against actual tragedy, like her parents divorcing and her mother promptly moving them directly across the street from the house used in Poltergeist.

Recorded at the Hollywood Improv, the set draws directly from the monthly horror-themed stand-up show Hale ran at the venue for years. Comedy Dynamics released the 45-minute set in the fall of 2025.

Between reading absurd one-star IMDb user reviews and detailing bad dating encounters, Hale talks openly about losing her father in her early twenties and her mother a decade later. The jokes treat grief as an unavoidable monster movie, letting horror fandom serve as the vocabulary for dealing with loss.

Notable bits & set list

4 bits

  1. Developing a love for horror movies and watching Scream

    Recounts falling in love with horror before the age of ten thanks to her father, and returning to the movie theater repeatedly to watch Scream because of an intense crush on Skeet Ulrich.

  2. Moving across from the Poltergeist house

    Reflects on the emotional strain of her parents' divorce, puncturing the gravity by joking that she at least got to move across the street from the house from Poltergeist.

  3. Grieving the loss of her parents through horror

    Confessional storytelling exploring the loss of her father in her early 20s and mother in her early 30s, explaining how horror movies provided comfort, catharsis, and survival through grief.

  4. Carrie White and the Supreme Court

    Delivers political commentary wishing Carrie White would use telekinetic powers against the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, dark, witty, and unexpectedly poignant.
On stage
Brash, bold, irreverent, and self-described 'horror nerd' and 'Morticia Addams disciple' who finds humor in dark spaces.
Pace
Builds tension similar to horror setups and releases it with unexpected twists in punchlines.
About
Horror movies and culture, Family history and Hollywood lineage, Divorce and grief, Single life and dating, Social and political commentary

What the critics said

Praised as a delightfully entertaining, laugh-out-loud tribute to the horror genre that skillfully blends confessional storytelling, poignant vulnerability regarding grief, and biting punchlines.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, rottentomatoes.com, tomdolby.com, horrorbuzz.com, letterboxd.com, dreadcentral.com, macabredaily.com.

Backstory

Autobiographical material rooted in her childhood as the granddaughter of Alan Hale Jr. and great-granddaughter of Alan Hale Sr., navigating her parents' divorce, and dealing with the loss of her father in her early 20s and mother in her early 30s, using horror as a coping mechanism and survival tool.

Details

Released
Taped
Hollywood Improv
Runtime
45 min
Where
Prime Video
Director
Tom Dolby
Topics

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