Why has the nightmare become such a fertile form for narrating the body, desire and power relations? What happens when the everyday becomes strange, oppressive or monstrous? The works of Elaine Vilar and Anna Starobinets often begin with situations pushed to the extreme: bodies that transform, suffocating family ties and worlds governed by absurd or cruel rules. Drawing on different registers, imaginaries and geographies, both authors use darkness to take a closer look at everything we would rather not see. In this conversation, they reflect on literature’s capacity to turn horror into a tool for exploring power, vulnerability and the forms of control that shape contemporary life.