Scary Thoughts

Julia Ducournau’s 2017 film Raw is French and it’s extreme, but is it French Extremity? We discuss this gnarliest of horror subgenres as well as American film in general. We both quite enjoyed this one, so get ready for a sprawling conversation about body horror, misogyny in interviews, and what foreign films get right about fear in the modern age.

The subject of our first live episode is the new version of Stephen King’s IT (2017). We are joined by Philip K. Dick Award-winning horror writer Meg Elison (The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, The Book of Etta) and editor and publisher Jeremey Lassen (Borderlands Books, Nightshade Books). Just like the film, this episode is fun and loud. In fact, if this is your first listen, don’t despair at the noisy café sounds, our audio quality is usually top-notch thanks to Marc’s chronic audiophilia.

This episode takes up Netflix's sort of controversial take on Death Note. We discuss appropriation, adaptation, what we'd do with the shinigami powers and whether or not Kraftwerk's eradication from history would stop techno in a Terminator franchise sort of way.   

Clive Barker's Nightbreed hit theaters in 1990. Some would say this version suffered from major studio interference, but it might have been a bit too ambitious for its time. Over the decades there have been multiple edits of the film, short story collections, video games, comic books and all kinds of other tie-ins. We talk about why this "franchise" has endured, what works, and what doesn't, in the 2014 director's cut.

In episode 23 we talk about the highly requested 2017 film by Jordan Peele, Get Out. We both loved this film, but knew it deserved some deeper thought, so we took time doing our research (which mostly included listening to Jordan Peele tell you exactly what everything meant in his Nerdist interviews with Chris Hardwick). We hit everything from genre fandom to wokeness. It’s an important and fun film, though despite all the praise, maybe not a future classic (though we believe Peele will soon create an all-time great film).

This episode is a little different because it's  our first attempt at tackling a book. Horrorstör is a 2014 horror comedy novel that was written by Grady Hendrix and illustrated by Michael Rogalski. Unlike our usual show, there are only mild spoilers (so you can enjoy the book). We get into horror adaptations, representation in genre and the ever present specter of Capitalism.  

The Babadook came out in 2014, but 2017 has been an exciting year for the titular monster of Jennifer Kent's Australian horror masterpiece. Mr. Babadook is now officially an LGBT icon and we brought in a special guest, Andrew Sheets AKA Meredeath, to discuss what this all memes.

  Fright Friends, this is a delightfully dark discussion drilling deep down into the films The Conjuring & The Conjuring 2: Judgement Da..er..,The Enfield...Case? Anyway, we discuss Ed & Lorraine Warren, cinematography, franchise juggernauts, and extended universes and overextended universities.

Our extra special guest for this abjectively (no, not a typo) excellent episode is Monique Jenkinson, AKA Fauxnique. She is a multi-genre performing artist and choreographer whose work uses drag to consider the performance of femininity as a powerfui, vulnerable and subversive act. She has a background in ballet and does an incredible Slavoj Zizek impression, both of which we make a lot of use of in this conversation about Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 film, Black Swan.

Is John Goodman’s character insane? Is he hypersane? Is he right? When does it pay to believe in conspiracies? We ask all these questions and more in our 10 Cloverfield Lane episode and explore the larger Cloververse and whether or not this expanded universe makes the actual movies any better.

Cabin in the Woods is one of those horror films everyone seems to love. It's smart, funny and for the purposes of this podcast, epically intertextual. Listen in to find out more than you ever wanted to know about horror tropes and the way your hosts, Marc and Chad, would prefer to be killed if a hundred nightmare creatures were suddenly released into their office space.

With so many excellent horror movies to cover, Boo! A Madea Halloween is a bit of a strange choice for an episode. Fear not fright fiends, it's a better film than you might imagine. Even if it sort of sucks. We cover the Illuminati's desire to see male black actors wear dresses, what it means to be outside of Hollywood, and the future of YouTube stardom.

Eugene S. Robinson, writer and dapper tough guy, joins the show for a discussion of the 2016 punk rock thriller, Green Room. The conversation covers neo-Nazis in the early punk scene, what it means to be ready for violence, what is and isn’t authentic, and the best choice for desert island albums. Eugene is a great storyteller and shares great tales from his time in the art rock band Oxbow.

Is Forrest Gump a pathological liar with an unhealthy obsession with a lost soul or a sweet and heroic man gifted with an absence of ennui? We go deep into the psychology of Robert Zemeckis' enduring Vietnam War epic to find out what horror makes a man give up everything and travel America as a derelict. We also try to answer the enduring existential question, "is life really like a box of chocolates?"

Fair warning, this episode is thick with weirdness. Marc and Chad discuss the 2008 Canadian film Pontypool. It’s about a language virus, which invites us to infect the discussion with William S. Burroughs, semiotics, pataphysics, Quebecoise separatism, and altered states. Strap your headphones on and get ready to look for Honey the Cat.

In this highly requested Phantasm episode Marc Kate and Chad Lott explore the boundaries of low-budget dreams, sci-fi horror, and follicle normativity. This is a well-loved movie with lots of original ideas, but it has some real issues, too. All this makes for a great episode for girls and BOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYS alike.

In this episode Marc and Chad answer the question posed by 1985's punk rock horror comedy masterpiece Return of the Living Dead: Why Bother? The dynamics of slow vs fast zombies, great soundtracks, amazing character actors, and more are on the autopsy table this time around.

In this episode we do something a bit different. Marc and Chad talk about how they met, how they found horror, and why they think about it the way they do. There's no specific films talked about, but this is a long, funny look at how a new friendship grew. Featuring more cursing and rambling than usual.  

In this episode we are joined by DJ Nako to discuss Tim Burton’s 1988 film Beetlejuice. The conversation gets away from the film, but goes deep into music and the gothic subculture. If you’re of a certain age and your closet is full of black clothing, this is the episode for you. No need to send hate mail regarding Chad’s dislike of A Nightmare Before Christmas, Marc is slowly poisoning him with arsenic for his adoration of Tom Hanks and Mark Wahlberg.

In this special Yule Time episode, the ever jolly Chad Lott, and the ghost of Christmas future Marc Kate, revisit Gremlins. The perils of nostalgia, the joys of puppetry, and the intoxicating 80s can-do spirit are just some of the topics of conversation.