The Scariest Things

If it’s January, you know it’s time for our Top 10 Horror Movies of 2025. You might think there is a group consensus, in a year that had so many good horror movies… but you’d be wrong! The best part of having a great sampler platter of movies to pick from is that there is something for everybody. This year, the box office and the awards programs agree, 2025 had a lot to off...

Astra Award-winning actor, Indy! He won for his performance in Good Boy (2025) Who’s a good boy? Why, you are, Indy! In a monumental achievement, Indy the dog’s performance in Good Boy   earned him the Astra Award for Best Performance in a Horror or Thriller, beating out his esteemed human competition. In a year that has started off with so much social friction, it is amazing news like...

Ready or Not (2019) is one of our favorite Feel-Good Horror Movies Consider Feel Good Horror as a palate cleanser for those of you looking for a bit of optimism and good vibes in your horror movies. For those of you who may have followed up on our recommendations from Episode 205: Mean Horror , we’re making it up to you now. Triumph over evil! Protagonists for the win! Fist pumps all around....

Matt Dillon is Jack in The House that Jack Built (2018), a seriously mean movie. Great Horror movies can often be a bummer. Vicious, unrelenting, and cruel films that deny us the happy ending and the victorious fist pump. Many horror fans, and a couple of the podcasters for The Scariest Things in particular, seek these films out. We are crossing bridges too far. No punch pulling. Beware and behold...

Richard Jenkins, Kurt Russell, and Matthew Fox go searching in Bone Tomahawk (2016) Upon second thought, that movie was better than I remembered. How often do you tell yourself that? Or, alternately, “What was I thinking? This movie was awful!” We’ve all been there. The movies don’t change, but we do. We get older. Our tastes change. Sometimes we weren’t in the right...

Take a good look… we’re going to recast these characters! Horror movies love sequels and reboots. So, a recast is always around the corner. The Scariest Things is going to do what everybody fears: recasting movies that really shouldn’t be rebooted. BUT WE’RE DOING IT ANYWAYS! Redoing A Nightmare on Elm Street with blockbuster casts. Check! A reboot of Jaws with women in the...

Dom (Jake Horowitz) makes a blind bargain with Dr. Gruder (Crispin Glover) in A Blind Bargain (2025) Intensity : 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Directed by Paul Bunnell Betrayal. At its core, A Blind Bargain is a movie about the worst kind of betrayal you can imagine. Desperation and greed convince a young and troubled Vietnam veteran to submit his own mother to the schemes of a mad scientist. This groovy &...

That’s a big alligator: Lake Placid (1999) Are you afraid of reptiles? Horror movies suggest that you just might be. There is an abundance of movies with reptile and amphibian horror themes. Snakes? Lots of you. Betting odds would suggest that you either fear spiders or snakes, or both. Alligators and crocodiles? Probably not something that applies, unless you live in Florida or Egypt. But,...

Art the Clown in Terrifier (2016) If you hear squeaky shoes, run away! The very popular trope of coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, taps into childhood fears and manages to go to almost unthinkable extremes. With the rise of Art and Pennywise, the horrorverse knows there is a vein that taps into real, deep-seated fears. Join Heather, Mike, and Eric in our breakdown of some clown-themed films for yo...

The magnificent Gene Jones is “Father” in Ti West’s mockumentary: Sacrament (2007) Horror Mockumentaries succeed because of the implied truths they pretend to offer. The authenticity, tangibility, and verisimilitude all convey that what you are watching actually happened. And, it could happen to YOU. Because it is a MOCKumentary and not a DOCumentary, this is all fiction, though,...

We have reached a milestone recording episode, and also a good milestone date for horror movies. The first 25 years of the century, nay, the millennium, have passed. It is an opportune time to look back at the first quarter century and show our favorite movies of the past 25 years. We like our lists and rankings here at The Scariest Things! It is a testament to the breadth and depth of modern horr...

Amna Vegha and Betsy Sligh in Dooba Dooba (2020) Intensity : 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Written and Directed by Ehrlend Hollingsworth How is it that babysitting, traditionally the lowest common denominator flexible starter job, is so dangerous? Dooba Dooba is a lo-fi found footage film exploring the perils of a woman babysitting an odd girl full of tricks and dark secrets. If you think you know babysi...

A close-up of Raquel Lebish in It Needs Eyes (2025) Intensity : 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Written and Directed by Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano It Needs Eyes  examines the link between the dangers of obsessive and addictive behavior when coping with g rief. “It”, in this case, is the dark web. Brutal social media requires people to watch the dreadful material to have any power. It has...

Ethan Embry and Li Jun Li in Alma and the Wolf (2025) Intensity : 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Directed by Michael Patrick Jann Written by Abby Miller Alma and the Wolf spins a strange and surprising story that weaves themes of unfulfilled dreams and dark secrets. Ethan Embry, Li Jun Li, and the rest of the cast provide an emotionally poignant and ultimately tragic fable. Part psychological thriller, pa...

For much of the Scariest Things crew, we are discussing horror movies from our backyard. This is our home turf. The Pacific Northwest is a suitable backdrop for horror, with its often gloomy weather, quirky urban cities, and history of cryptids. Famously, we keep it weird in the PNW, and the movies reflect these tastes. Perhaps it is the reputation of the Pacific Northwest as being a bit quirky an...

Jump Scares are the foundation of so many horror movies. This blast of adrenaline keeps horror fans coming back to the cineplex. Great horror movies, awful horror movies—they all use them. The Scariest Things team discusses our favorite use of the easiest and perhaps most essential trope in the genre. I scream. You scream. We all scream for jump scares! Properly executed, this is the trope that wi...

Overlook, the great New Orleans Horror Film Festival , has delivered its goods. Long-time Patreon supporter of The Scariest Things, Robyn Marcotte, joined us to share her experiences with Eric and Liz on the festival. More than ever, I found that I didn’t have enough time to see nearly enough of the movies. Still, I was able to catch eight feature films and 23 short films. You have to pick a...

Eric Li, Luke Zwanziger, CJ Arellano, Adam Murray, Benedict Chiu, Jordan Pfeifer, James Oxyer, Sam Das, Danny Broussard, and Erin Broussard at Canal Place food court for the Overlook Film Festival horror short filmmaker roundtable. Horror Shorts are often the heartbeat of horror film festivals. They are frequently overlooked by audiences, but not at this year’s Overlook Film Festival. Each s...

Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, and Noah Toth are lost in It Ends (2025) Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Written and Directed by Alex Ullom It Ends travels with four college students on a road trip as a last hurrah before sending one of their own into the working world. What was meant to be a simple food run becomes a doomed trip down a dreadful, endless road. As the miles add up, the group strugg...

Indy is on alert for ghostly activity in Good Boy (2025) Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Directed by Ben Leonberg Written by Alex Cannon and Ben Leonberg Good Boy is a ghost story told from a dog’s perspective. If you have ever wondered why your dog has been barking at shadows or unheard sounds, you will understand the mechanics of this film. Our furry best friends know things that we can&...

We’re Guessing Here! Every year brings great expectations. As we roll into the peak of festival season, we are given a glimpse at what movies are coming to try and scare you. In January, the announced movies are usually known commodities. Your sequels. Your reboots. A couple months in now, and we have a better sense of what offerings are on the table. In Episode 196, The Scariest Things talk...

Gung hey fat choi! It’s the 2025 Lunar Zodiac Year of the Snake! Happy New Year! It’s a little late, but the Lunar New Year celebrations go on for weeks, so we’re still in celebration mode, even as the calendar turns from February to March. 2025 marks the year of the snake, and one of our fans, John Foley, suggested that we do a snake-themed horror movie podcast. We’ll do t...

Wes Craven’s iconic grindhouse film Eaten Alive (1978) Who needs your fancy schmancy elevated horror?!? Turn the page back to when real horror villains had no feelings or emotional depth other than deep blood lust. These are the horror movies your mother feared you might be watching. Get ready! It’s grindhouse time at The Scariest Things Podcast! Grindhouse as a method isn’t gone...

It’s time to reveal our selections for the Worst Horror Movies of 2024. Sigh. Here they are, our Worst Horror Movies of 2024. It’s an annual obligation. You can’t win em all, and it is time to reveal the losers from 2024. The Scariest Things had disagreements about how we felt about the horror offerings from 2024. Some thought it was a strong year; others thought it was weak. We...

Well, that was fun! The Scariest Things presents to you the Best Horror Movies of 2024. Though it started slow, the year managed to pack in quite a few worthy films. The six critics of The Scariest Things debated who deserved a spot in the top 10, and there was a wide spread of picks. There were a few standouts most of us agreed to, but to find out, you’ll have to listen to the podcast! The...