Podcast Summary – Bigfoot Collectors Club

Episode: "The Hatman" w/ Matt Roller

Host: Wood Elf Media
Date: September 17, 2025

Main Theme & Episode Overview

The episode features hosts Michael McMillian and Riley Bray in conversation with television writer and showrunner Matt Roller. They dive into Matt's experiences with the paranormal, discuss his new Netflix animated series Haunted Hotel, explore the lore of shadow entities—especially "The Hatman"—and exchange personal stories of high strangeness. The episode is a blend of humor, deep dives into folklore, creative insights, and genuinely chilling encounters.

Episode Highlights & Key Discussion Points

1. Introducing Matt Roller & Haunted Hotel Series

[02:28]–[13:23]

• About Matt: Writer for Rick and Morty, Archer, Community; creator of Haunted Hotel (Netflix show launching Sept 19).
• Show Premise: Adult animated comedy; imagine Bob’s Burgers meets every haunted/possessed/monster-infested hotel trope.
• Creative Process:
  • Show is “comedy about horror, not horror-comedy.”
  • Loaded with Easter eggs and visual references—scenery pulls from classic horror movies (e.g., Poltergeist chairs, Hereditary wallpaper, House of the Devil couch).
  • Fun visual gags and “pause moments” for sharp-eyed viewers to spot paranormal creatures and objects.
• Notable Cast: Will Forte, Eliza Coupe, Jimmy Simpson, Skyler Gisondo, Natalie Palamides.

“If you wanted to be super simplistic, it would be like plopping the Bob's Burgers family into a haunted hotel.”
—Matt Roller [05:41]

2. UFO & UAP Congressional News

[13:33]–[19:46]

• Hosts discuss recent UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) hearings in Congress.
• A new military video: an orb survives a direct missile hit—sparks debate and conspiracy.
• Matt expresses growing intrigue with UFOs post-2017 New York Times report; leans toward extraterrestrial or simulation explanation.

"It was a real existential crisis day for me... I was just fully in, like, oh, man, there's something here and it's visiting us."
—Matt Roller [17:09]

3. Matt Roller's Paranormal History

[23:43]–[41:22]

Haunted Encounters:

• New Orleans Hotel (The Omni Royale):

  • Saw a "three-dimensional shadow" in the room; another "gollum-like" shadow above the curtains—one benign, one radiating malice.
  • The shadow would disappear when illuminated, but reappear and drift toward the bed in darkness.
  • Wife, hoping to see a ghost, was shaken when she missed the actual encounter.

• Sherman Oaks Farmhouse:

  • Sensed an eerie energy at the top of the stairs; pets unsettled.
  • After respectfully “announcing” his new residency to any spirits, experienced acknowledgement: a window (propped open) slammed shut. Days later, saw the apparition of an old woman sitting at the foot of his bed.

• Paramount Lot Ghost (Community Writers Room):

  • Daytime sighting of a gray-faced little boy, peering from a window lattice; seemingly not physically possible for a normal person.
  • On research, found historical child deaths tied to the spot.

"They all took different forms... one three-dimensional shadow, one basically kind of a person with color, and then this gray figure."
—Matt Roller [47:00]

4. "Believe It or Bullshit" Paranormal Rapid Fire

[49:47]–[54:51]

• Matt says “Believe it” to ghosts, UFOs, Mothman, ESP, Chupacabra, among others—but “Bullshit” to modern Bigfoot (“feels like propaganda, marketing”).
• He’s open to pre-20th-century Sasquatch legends.

"Some of these more popular ones, it feels like it's based in marketing more than actual sightings."
—Matt Roller [52:29]

5. High Strangeness: The Hatman

[56:39]–[81:20]

• Michael presents the story and lore of The Hatman: a shadowy entity with a wide-brimmed hat, often seen during sleep paralysis.
• Origin & Folklore:
  • Experiences with "shadow people" and “sleep paralysis demons” span global cultures (incubus, succubus, ‘the old hag’).
  • Accounts often include feelings of dread, paralysis, malign presence, and tales of life disturbance.
  • Scientific explanations: hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations during sleep paralysis.
• Reddit anecdotes: Notably, one person saw the Hatman carrying a stack of board games, wordlessly asking to be let out of a room.
• Matt’s takes: Hatman is a great “background ghost” for the show; humor in the idea of shadow entities with accessories; suggesting maybe Hatman is an "interdimensional pervert"—the classic weirdo of his dimension.
• Connections are drawn to lore like the Men in Black and the notion that mass belief can give entities new power or form (tulpa/aggregror theory).

"The more we were talking about him, I have a working theory of interdimensional pervert."
—Matt Roller [79:27]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On creative inspiration:
  “It was fun to do our own [slasher episode] that’s kind of a comedy, but also embraces… a real killer, trying to kill them in this hotel.”
  —Matt Roller [06:57]

• On visual Easter eggs:
  “Most of it’s foundational, and then you find other opportunities as you go along ... Like Annie from Misery. Her sledgehammer. It’s just a sledgehammer. Like, you wouldn’t recognize it in a vacuum. But if you put the sledgehammer next to a machete... you’re like, ‘Oh, the tools of 10 different murderers are just the background of this shed.’”
  —Matt Roller [11:22]

• On shadow entity experience:
  "When I sit down in bed, I see at the foot of the bed and another like five feet beyond against the wall, this, like, three dimensional shadow. And it's just standing there... I shine my phone flashlight on it, and it goes away. Nothing there. But when I put the flashlight down, it's back and it starts drifting toward the bed."
  —Matt Roller [27:51]

• On The Hatman and sleep paralysis:
  “The hat man is a shadow entity seen at night when you were trying to fall asleep or have just woken up. Categorized by some as a common sleep paralysis demon, the Hatman is a walking silhouette that seems to appear and disappear at will, leaving his victims terrified in their beds.”
  —Michael McMillian [58:51]

• Best new theory:
  "Pro. I like it. I have a working theory of interdimensional pervert. That there's other things there and none of them think to bother us. He's the guy. He's. He's got his cool hat that no one else has. No one thinks it works."
  —Matt Roller [79:27]

Section Timestamps for Reference

• [01:18] — Welcome, show intro, joke about "dustologists"
• [02:28] — Matt Roller introduction; Haunted Hotel overview
• [05:41–13:23] — Haunted Hotel deep dive: origins, creative process, cast, and in-show Easter eggs
• [13:33] — Paranormal/UFO news, recent UAP Congressional hearings
• [23:43–41:22] — Matt Roller’s personal ghost stories (NOLA hotel, Sherman Oaks farmhouse, Paramount Lot)
• [49:47]–[54:51] — "Believe It or Bullshit?" paranormal rapid-fire game
• [56:39] — High Strangeness: The Hatman—origin, lore, and listener anecdotes
• [70:21] — Discussion of scientific explanation vs. folklore (sleep paralysis, hallucinations)
• [76:44] — Most unusual Hatman account: shadow figure bearing board games
• [79:27] — Interdimensional pervert theory—Hatman as the pervy outlier of the shadow people world

Final Thoughts & Closing

• Matt encourages everyone to watch Haunted Hotel (launching on Netflix Sept 19) and to give it a “double thumbs up” for the Netflix algorithm.
• The hosts praise Matt’s storytelling, open-minded skepticism, and the show’s multi-layered fun.
• The Hatman is left as a compelling modern myth that straddles folklore, psychology, and the paranormal.

For the Paranormal, Pop Culture, and Creative Comedy Lover:

This episode balances chills, laughs, and geek-out-worthy horror media references, ideal for fans interested in the weirder side of the unknown and the art inspired by it.

Listen for:

• Personal ghost encounter breakdowns
• Horror-comedy show production secrets
• The definitive take on The Hatman lore
• The best one-liner regarding shadow people:
  “Interdimensional pervert.” —Matt Roller