Scary Thoughts

Karyn Kusama’s 2009 film Jennifer’s Body, is finding an audience thanks to a mix of #metoo reckoning, queer analysis, oughts nostalgia, and public fascination with Megan Fox’s hematophagic pairing with male scream queen Machine Gun Kelly. This film hasn’t aged well, but our age is treating it well. We discuss whether that old-time patriarchy or a messy script with boring kills led to the initial cold reception of the film.

The second half of Stranger Things 4 was fun. Even Argyle and Lucas managed to have great moments. In this episode we talk about why this season won us over, how drugs help with the enjoyment of art, whether or not there are epochs (and if music in the 80s was one), and whether or not it makes sense to have naked heavy metal girls on a character’s wall if it upsets modern sensibilities.

We started our show talking about the first season of Stranger Things, so we are compelled to continue. Thankfully for everyone, the end is nigh. But as Marc is fond of saying, “Don’t let our yuck interfere with your yum.” There’s still a lot to like about the show, even if it is circling the drain of mediocrity on its way to the septic tank of nostalgia. Our next episode covers the finale.

The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead 2 (1987) are both unimpeachable classics of horror comedy. After our longest hiatus, we delve into the cult lore of these films and their influence on horror. This episode isn’t exactly philosophical, but it’s a fun one, especially if you grew up with Sam Raimi’s madcap brand of cabin-based mayhem. And for the first time–no major spoilers!

We started Scary Thoughts back in 2016. The years since have been–eventful. This episode rambles hard as we attempt to answer the question, “what have we learned?” Think of it as a director’s commentary. We talk about what we thought the show would be, where it’s going, our friendship, horror podcasting as a phenomenon, being rooted in the Bay Area, and we tell a bunch of bar stories, which people always seem to like. Thanks for listening.

Let us help you slide into this not-quite-new not-quite-normal-not-quite-post-pandemic with some answers to your questions. You asked about news consumption, movie theaters, horror trends, Disney character team-ups, nostalgia, algorithms, the hunt for Joe Rogan, meditation—and we answered. It’s all very on-brand for our Self-Help for Nihilists series.

Julia Ducornau’s Titane (2021) features a lot of dancing and gender theory. So who better to have as a guest than Monique Jenkinson, AKA Fauxnique? We talk about her new book Faux Queen: A Life in Drag, body horror, female violence, Sharon Stone’s directing ambitions, film criticism, tarot cards, body horror, and French flatulists. Opinions were divided on this film, so it’s an exciting episode.

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) isn’t horror. But this episode was requested by quite a few people, and we aim to please. We discuss this version, the first book in Frank Herbert’s series, David Lynch’s superior take, and Jodorowsky's Dune. There’s a little distortion in the audio up front, which is obviously Harkonnen treachery.

Halloween Kills (2021) is Blumhouse’s second film in what will undoubtedly, and unfortunately, be an ongoing series. Like many entries in this classic franchise, it is awful. We discuss where it goes wrong, the few things that work well, mob violence, the relevance of the series as a whole, Rob Zombie’s versions, slasher character actor fandom, and if you stick to the end, a story about Fabio.

James Wan’s Malignant (2021) is a lot of things. Giallo homage. Action film. 90s horror. But even when it feels familiar, it delivers some genuinely original moments and ideas. We cover the film itself, its references, seeing films in theaters post-COVD, indie fetishism, simple pleasures, and whether or not Wan is the Dave Grohl of horror.

Grady Hendrix’s Final Girl Support Group (2021) is a love letter to the golden age of slasher movies. This episode is essentially a love letter to the author—even if we do have our crusty quibbles about a few bits. We talk about the difference between metafiction and nostalgia, Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence, murderabilia, Final Girls as a concept, and a little background on how you might end up in UC Berkeley’s Rhetoric department.

We recommend pairing this listen with Peaches Christ and Michael Varrati’s third episode of their podcast, Midnight Mass. It covers Friday the 13th and features interviews with the final girl star of that film, Adrienne King; as well as a great interview with Grady Hendrix.

In this episode we take a look at Halloween (2018), the third film of the same title, in the same franchise. Yes folks, this is the age of the reboot. We discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of Blumhouses’s formula, old-timey firearms vs. modern firearms, why book clubs are lame, and we heap praise upon Jamie Lee Curtis. While this episode isn’t a direct prequel to our next episode, it does begin a longer cross-episode discussion of final girls.

Bo Burnham’s Inside (2021) is one of the most unique things you’ll see on Netflix. It’s an angsty and existential one-man musical comedy about isolation. Though COVID-19 is never mentioned in the piece, it looms large, giving it the kind of “horror” vibes one can pick up from a pandemic thriller like Contagion. Like the film, we find ourselves in a few ranty digressions that will make total sense if you listen to us frequently, but may confuse the uninitiated.

This episode we cover the 1997 sci-fi horror film Event Horizon—with deep digressions into the nature of reality, L. Ron Hubbard, QAnon, martial arts nerds, psychedelics, UFOs, and cosmic horror. 

We’re joined by Nick Gullo, AKA Nick the Tooth. His career bio is about as complex as Buckaroo Bonzai’s. To keep it short, he’s the co-host of the excellent Infinite Worlds podcast, wrote a book about the UFC, writes sci-fi, and is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Dungeon Synth is as obscure as it gets for music genres, but it might be everywhere soon. We explore the fetid foundations and eldritch evolutions of this bizarre scene with extreme music authority, Andee Connors. He co-owned the notorious Aquarius Records, curates Pandora’s unholy Black Metal station, was a member of A Minor Forest and now creates infernal music with Common Eider, King Eider, and with Marc, My Heart, An Inverted Flame. The conversation goes deep into the haunted hinterlands of culture, including digressions about hoarding/collecting, Dungeons & Dragons, synthwave, Black Metal, and performative reading of forbidden texts.

This episode follows a long and unplanned break caused by a plethora of personal calamities (spoiler: Chad got The ‘Rona). Rather than focusing on a single film or book, we use the episode to discuss the future direction of the show and gab about broader trends in visual art. We cover The Snyder Cut, The Overlook Theatre’s Unknown Film Fest, our returns to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the compelling world of Twitch, and what makes Andee Connors such a treasure.

Back in October of 2020 we hosted an online screening of the 2020 indie sci-fi film, The Vast of Night. The event was put together by Fulcrum Arts. This episode is a recording of the post-watch Q&A with the film’s production sound team: Crow and Erik Duemig and Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designer Johnny Marshall. Ironically, the sound quality of this episode is a bit rough thanks to Zoom, who are really not stepping up meeting the audio needs of our collective remote living dystopia. Fuck those guys. Enjoy the episode.

The Purge franchise’s first film was released in 2013. There are now four flicks, two seasons of a TV series, and a host of questionable fan content online. We discuss the appeal of this story, what Purge politics would actually mean in real life, why Rick & Morty’s “Look Who’s Purging Now” is the best Purge movie, and some gabbing about the current apocalypse. In other words, a classic Scary Thoughts adventure.

Jordan Peele is an important Black filmmaker and a horror nerd’s horror nerd. His 2019 film Us is packed full of references to obscure classics—but does that make it less original? Boston and J from one of our favorite podcasts, Race Trader, join us to discuss it (along with a little sidetalk about Get Out and Tyler Perry).

Glenn Danzig’s Verotika (2019) is a failure. But has it failed in an interesting way? That all depends on how much you like boobs. In this episode we discuss bad acting, bad effects, bad music, and bad films. We also touch on things we like: Tommy Wiseau, outsider art, The Mandalorian—and yes—boobs. Also, keep your ears alert for Marc flexing on the whole cast of Verotika with his own French accent.

Gather ‘round boils and ghouls, it’s our annual Halloween episode! This year we’re covering It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). Short and sweet like a peppermint patty, we talk about television, made up holidays, bad boomer ideas, belief, trash cinema, The Boys, and renting movies in the 90s.

Writer Michelle Tea, writer Meg Elison, and composer Lawrence English join us for a trio of COVID-19-era conversations. We ask them each, “Is this how you thought it would all end?” All three guests have great perspectives on the apocalyptic vibrations affecting us all, but are any of us truly ready for the end?

Rick and Morty is one of those shows people love making video essays about. It’s smart, it uses philosophical ideas to deliver dick and fart jokes, and it includes a lot of high-level sci-fi/cosmic horror. This classic Scary Thoughts adventure is just Chad and Marc. Depending on what universe you’re listening to this in, that might be a very big deal.

Shudder’s Zoom-based film Host (2020) is the belle of the COVID-19-horror-film ball. This fun and imaginative movie is a great way to spend an hour at the end of a depressing work day. But is it actually good? Or are we just starved for options? We are joined by Madeleine Koestner, the co-founder and programmer of the Unnamed Footage Festival. She’s a frequent guest on The Overlook Hour podcast and writes for a ton of horror sites. Basically the perfect guest for talking about this one.

Joe Dante’s 1989 film The ‘Burbs has been our most requested film to cover since we started this podcast. It’s great and so is our guest Nathan Thompson. He’s a writer and journalist and hosts the Yoga and meditation podcast Escaping Samsara. We get into the occult, genre films, living in the suburbs, longing for nostalgia and the joy of strong character actors.

Cormac McCarthy’s bleak, apocalyptic father-son road trip novel, The Road (2006), won both the Pulitzer Prize and the admiration of Oprah. Daniel Coffeen (Zero Books, Renegade University) rejoins us to discuss if the book deserves all the praise and whether or not the movie gets it right. We talk a bit about Blood Meridian, too, if that’s your thing.

Max Brooks nailed it with his 2006 fictional oral history, World War Z. It’s a fun book with lots of original ideas, which makes it a blast to talk about; especially since there are so many parallels with our own current COVID-19 lifestyles. We give the movie as much attention as it deserves (not much) and touch on our own survival tactics. Episode bonus: there are scrub jays chirping in the background throughout the show, so if you’ve been missing nature, this is a good one.

The Wicker Man (1973) is British folk horror at its best. It’s got weird townsfolk music, a mysterious and sexy monarch, bizarre occult practices, and nude pagan dance numbers. We’re joined by Steven Intermill, the Director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick (Cleveland, OH). We get deep into the well-researched details of the film, the history of Wicca in America, and all kinds of other high weirdness. The sound is a bit dodgy in this episode, but it’s a tremendously enjoyable one.

What better time than a pandemic to cover Safe (1995) by Todd Haynes? This illness thriller is on a lot of “best of” lists even though it’s rarely talked about now. In this episode we’re joined by author K.M. Soehnlein. We cover AIDS activism in the 80-90s, the weirdos of the wellness scene, cults, 80s yuppie decor, Christian Science, and Moore.

The Hunt (2019/20) is surrounded by political drama but is pretty mediocre. Except for our hero Betty Gilpin, who absolutely slays. We spend just about as much time talking about fake martial arts, conspiracy theories and war as we do the actual movie.

Our pandemic podcasting continues with the 2002 fast-zombie film 28 Days Later. We both loved it when it came out, but some elements of the film have aged better than others. The conversation drifts into COVID-19 talk, tactical training for actors, hotels for the homeless, and conspiracy mindsets.

Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) is his best film and Johnny Depp’s best performance. Your inner goth teen might bristle, but everything about it is near perfect. Joshua Grannell (Aka Peaches Christ) joins us again to talk about why the great weirdos of film matter and what it means to be in love with the people who create the strange and unusual. 

In the age of COVID-19 there are only two popular subjects: Trump and the Tiger King. We are tired of both. But the memes remain strong. We talk about the saga of these cat-addicted mutants, how well the story works as a doc, and the inevitable reality show dominance of streaming services. Fair warning: this is a rantier than usual episode. And our sound quality is again poor due to Zoom; hopefully we will return to audio excellence one day.

Thanks to COVID-19 caused social distancing, this is the first episode we’ve recorded remotely. With compromised audio, and fortified immune systems, we talk about life under the virus, answer a lot of listener questions, and make predictions about the future.

Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 Contagion is eerily prescient because of the filmmakers dedication to research and realism. The cast, cinematography, and script are excellent. But it’s not exactly an uplifting watch, considering the news. We recorded this episode the day before the Bay Area was ordered to shelter in place for COVID-19.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) is debut director Ana Lily Amirpour’s stylish Iranian vampire spaghetti western. It’s more or less everything we like here at Scary Thoughts: it looks cool, it has a great soundtrack, a mesmerizing cast, and it’s about the undead. We talk about why we both loved it, we disagree about Amirpour’s follow-up film, and get into why female artists are great, but can’t get behind “male feminists of Tinder.”

H.P. Lovecraft’s work has been largely poorly adapted for film. So we were relatively excited for Richard Stanley’s 2019 take on Color Out of Space. He is a legit occult weirdo with a deep love of horror. And Nicolas Cage is basically our Vincent Price. The end result is, well, not all cosmically horrible. We’re joined by Jeremy Lassen (Sci-Fi/horror book sales/publishing veteran, Editor-in-Chief of Nightshade Books) for his second appearance on the show. We hit on Susan Sontag’s concept of camp, black metal theory, psychedelia in horror, what makes Cage great, Lovecraft’s racism, and the recent rise of witchcraft in popular culture.

Our friend Daniel Coffeen (Zero Books, Renegade University) returns to help us appraise Todd Phillips’ 2019 Joker. We survey the various controversies surrounding the film while discussing class, resentment (you can use the fancy critical theory/French pronunciation), alienation, and Joaquin Phoenix’s dancerly grace and peculiar improvisations. And we make time to celebrate Marc becoming a citizen of the USA.

When the ghostly yarn, A Christmas Carol, came out in 1843, it revived Christmas traditions all over the world. There have been countless versions of the story made since then, and some of them are quite ghoulish. But is it horror? Well, not really. However, it does involve the supernatural and it’s critical of the dreary machine of modern industry. So we take a crack at it in our usual manner. This episode features talk of free will, self-improvement, and general holiday cheer.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 memoir, Eat Pray Love, is thoroughly likeable. It also represents a certain kind of 21st century spiritual journey that remains popular in Oprah book club circles, but is viewed with suspicion in today’s privilege-obsessed culture. We talk about why we love this book, why it’s not premium mediocre, whether or not failing at a relationship means it’s a failure, and as always, way too much conversation about violence.

In 1994 The Crow unfurled its celluloid wings and took flight in the imaginations of teenage Goths everywhere. 25 years later, does it still hold up? For the people who love the remarkable comic and are still ride or die for the soundtrack, the answer is a resounding yes. But the film has not aged well. In this episode we cover James O’Barr’s personal story, we spend a lot of time talking dark 90s music, and we even have a brief visit from unofficial third co-host Monique to cover women and vengeance. Also, if this episode were an album, the B-side would be our somewhat long discussion of John Wick. Afterall, The Crow is basically John Wick with Juggalo makeup and a goth soundtrack.

2019’s Child’s Play reboot took some heat from die-hard fans, but it’s fairly successful as a Black Mirror episode. It replaces the supernatural with the technological, which allows it to address modern anxieties about connected devices and AI. We talk about Shoshana Zuboff’s book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, how children play in the YouTube age, and how the 80s action figure boom might have influenced media.

Predator (1987) is a big movie. The actors are big. The guns are big. The campiness is big. Marc had never seen it; Chad is obsessed with it. And that friends, is a recipe for hilarity. We discuss 80s action tropes, masculinity, hockey violence, and whether or not Arnold Schwarzennegger is the greatest human to have ever lived.

This is the first episode of our newest podcast, Self Help for Nihilists. It’s a departure from our focus on horror, but fans of the main show, especially those caught in soul-crushing existential despair, should enjoy it. We discuss the problems associated with a nihilist worldview, some of the philosophers that helped shape it, and make some suggestions about books that have helped us navigate this bleak an uncaring universe. Plus jokes!

In this episode, we finally take a look at Stranger Things 3. With some distance from our 4th of July weekend binging, we’ve found ourselves a lot more critical of the season. Even though we both enjoyed it on first viewing, we bristle like crusty old haters at our old frenemy: nostalgia. We also discuss the film classic Predator and whether or not young actors will be safe from Hollywood predators in the future.

Drag legend and horror director Peaches Christ (Joshua Grannell) joins us for Poltergeist (1982). We talk about the effectiveness of sweetness in horror, the controversy over who directed the film, the franchise’s curse, and what makes this PG flick an iconic horror movie. Peaches also gives us some insight into what it takes to create an over-the-top haunted house.

Jim Jarmusch’s meta zom-com, The Dead Don’t Die (2019), wasn’t exactly loved by genre fans. We discuss what we liked, what we didn’t, and why watching Game of Thrones and reading Harry Potter might not be the best way to spend your few remaining years on Earth. This episode is saltier than usual, perhaps caused by the ambient dread created by polar fracking.

Zombieland (2009) is one of the more successful zom-coms. It features a great cast and a lot of fun ideas. It’s not the most philosophical of films, but we do manage to get into what it means to live life by a set of rules. And more importantly, what our zombie apocalypse outfits would look like.

In this episode we cover all things Naked Lunch: the 1959 book by William S. Burroughs, the 1991 David Cronenberg film, and all the surrounding mythology. If you’re into drugs, writing and weirdness, this is the episode for you. We’re joined by self-described sophist, Dr. Daniel Coffeen. He’s a former professor of rhetoric at UC Berkeley and teacher of critical theory at the SF Art Institute. He’s authored Reading the Way of Things: Towards a New technology of Making Sense (Zero Books).

The 2019 documentary Hail Satan? by director Penny Lane is not a horror movie. It’s more of a political comedy. But the work of The Temple of Satan and its nefarious relation, The Church of Satan, are of interest to us, and hopefully to you. We cover the film itself, a bit of the conversation around the split with activist Jex Blackmore, and as always, performance art. If you don’t have opportunity to see this doc, you can easily follow the episode by watching a few videos about the Temple of Satan on YouTube.

For fans of supernatural comedies, 1984’s Ghostbusters is as big a presence as a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. It has some of the best comedic acting ever recorded. It also has some interesting things to say about the role of government in paranormal small business development. We get into the libertarian slant of the film, whether or not Dr. Peter Venkman is a predator or a playboy, and we also cover a bit of the controversy surrounding the reboot.

Srđan Spasojević’s 2010 Serbian exploitation film joined the ranks of horror’s most controversial efforts the moment it came out. It’s not for everyone, or really anyone, but criticism of the film tends to be rather pedestrian and reactionary, even among so-called horror fans. We spend almost as much time talking about Maggie Nelson’s recent book, The Art of Cruelty; and Chris Burden’s art piece Shoot as we do the film, so if you aren’t into the ultra-graphic, you can still enjoy this episode.

Suspiria is a beloved classic no one really needed to remake, but if you have to do it, you may as well do it with some style. Lucca Guadagnino’s 2018 version is a bold vision that divided horror fans. Dance performer Monique Jenkinson (AKA Fauxnique) joins us again to discuss remakes, contemporary dance, fierce witches, Butoh (the Japanese Dance of Darkness), and other high-art strangeness.

The 2013 horror-meta-comedy This is the End is, on the surface, a great ensemble cast stoner film. But it also traffics in the kind of fart/dick/#nohomo/bro-humor the modern finger-wagging class disapproves of. In this episode, we explore the potential of a new masculinity, whether or not James Franco’s cronies are cinema’s zeitgeist, and what it means to love juvenile humor.

2003’s remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t often lauded for much beyond its presentation of Jessica Biel’s assets. So when Andrew Sheets (AKA Meredeath) mentioned it was their favorite horror film back on our Babadook episode, we were perplexed. Were we missing something? Are we now too old to understand what appeals to millenials? Is this simply a flaw in a friend’s otherwise impeccable horror taste? We ask these questions and more with Meredeath back as a guest to defend the barbaric tastes of the young.

Erik Davis (Techgnosis, Nomad Codes) joins us for a take on the first season of HBO’s True Detective (2014). We cover philosophical pessimism, cosmic horror, police procedurals, serial killers, gnostic notions, and the great state of Louisiana. We barely scratch the surface of what makes this series so thought provoking.

Mandy is way out in front as our favorite film of 2018. But not many people have seen it. It’s probably because Nicholas Cage has put out some real stinkers lately and the trailer looks way too much like Ghost Rider. Not to fear! This is Cage turned up to 11 and it works magnificently here. We also discuss homage vs. nostalgia and our two favorite topics: auteurism and violence.

Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 film Near Dark is a truly great vampire story. However, it had the misfortune of being released the same week as The Lost Boys. Though it was the superior film in every way that matters, it didn’t have the same tween star power or marketing budget, and was mostly forgotten except by hardcore genre fans. In this episode we discuss Westerns, method acting, The South, and once again, how we would live as the undead.

Chad and Marc turn treats into tricks by eating the world’s hottest chocolate bar before attempting to discuss: Hallowe’ens past and present, the true gothic of New Orleans, their best Hallowe’en costumes, Peaches Christ’s haunted house The Terror Vault, Marc (and Fauxnique’s) show ‘Girl’, and the state of horror in the wake of 43 Scary Thoughts episodes.

You should just go watch Murder Party (2007). It’s a fun Halloween movie full of laughs and mayhem. This episode also has its share of laughs and mayhem. We discuss what we like about this film, then head back into a longer discussion about conceptual art (carried over from the previous episode), the ways comedy and horror work together, and whether or not it can be funny to teach a dog the Nazi salute. We also finally talk about our fascination with the Canadian feminist horror podcast, The Faculty of Horror.

To say that Kevin Smith’s 2014 film Tusk is polarizing would be overselling it. Most people hated it. Chad is a diehard Smith fan and considers him something of a nerd folk hero, but even he isn’t completely #WalrusYES anymore. This conversation covers what makes a good-bad film successful, Kevin Smith’s legacy, and the value and legitimacy of performance art.

This episode is about Werner Herzog’s 1979 undead flick, Nosferatu the Vampyre. It features special guest Alexa Fraser-Herron. She’s a San Francisco based independent filmmaker, who was introduced to Herzog’s films by her mother at an early age. It’s an unusual and interesting film, the conversation is much the same.

Since Michael Dougherty's Krampus came out in 2015, the pagan hipster Christmas demon has only grown in popularity. We explore the ancient roots of the anti-Santa, discuss Dougherty's extended universe, and make an unavoidable turn down the road of capitalist critiques of holiday favorites. src="https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6069613/height/360/width/450/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/" height="360" width="450" placement="bottom" theme="standard"

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.

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.

Your eternally young and bloodthirsty hosts, Marc Kate and Chad Lott, take a look at an 80s classic, The Lost Boys. The discussion focuses on youth culture, tension between punks and hippies, and whether or not Twilight is a piece of crap or a gateway to darkness for a younger, softer generation.

Your perennially petrifying co-hosts Marc Kate and Chad Lott are joined in this episode by horror filmmaker and drag performance legend, Joshua Grannell, AKA Peaches Christ. We attempt to give a fair critique of the much maligned 2016 version of the beloved classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The conversation hits on race, transgender identity, cult film, and the personal touch of Rocky on the lives of its fans.

In this episode, your horrific hosts Chad Lott and Marc Kate travel back in time to the film that many believe kicked off the recent retro-horror zeitgeist, 2009’s House of the Devil. This film was well received at the time, but may be getting a bit crowded out by recent films in the same sub-genre. The discussion covers the Satanic Panic of the 80s, decisions to work with smaller budgets to retain creative control, and exposes one host’s unforgivable love for Forest Gump.

In this episode, your fiendish co-hosts Marc and Chad, get into an in-depth conversation about Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2016 art house horror film, The Neon Demon. The conversation explores what it takes to be an auteur filmmaker, the taxonomy of the current moment in horror, and whether or not beauty is subjective or objective. It’s the longest episode so far, but definitely one of the most enjoyable.

In episode 3 co-hosts Marc Kate and Chad Lott get into director David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 film, It Follows. This unique film exemplifies many of the traits of the modern, stylish auteur-horror. The conversation covers a lot of ground including all things millennial, the differences between American and Japanese horror, and what it means to use dreams as an aesthetic reference.