Xenomania

Always check your candy. Never blow out the jack-o'-lantern. And whatever you do, don't disrespect Halloween. Jon, Ryan, and Kearns close out Xenomania's Halloween celebration with Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat, a wickedly entertaining anthology packed with werewolves, murderous neighbors, vengeful spirits, and one unforgettable little monster named Sam. We explore the film's tangled stories,...

The night HE came home. In 1978, John Carpenter unleashed Michael Myers on an unsuspecting Haddonfield, and horror was never quite the same. This week, Xenomania celebrates the original Halloween, the low-budget masterpiece that helped define an entire generation of slasher films. Jon, Ryan, and Kearns explore the origins of The Shape, Carpenter and Debra Hill's vision, the franchise's increasingl...

Some zombies want flesh. These ones want BRAAAINS! This week, Xenomania resurrects The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Dan O'Bannon's outrageous blend of punk rock, black comedy, and undead mayhem. Jon, Ryan, and Kearns revisit the unforgettable cast, legendary soundtrack, practical effects, and zombies that completely rewrite the rules established by George Romero. We also unpack the legal cont...

This week on Xenomania, we return to Ti West’s X trilogy for Pearl, the story of a young woman desperate to escape the farm, become a star, and outrun the suffocating life closing in around her. We talk Mia Goth’s incredible performance, Pearl’s Technicolor nightmare aesthetic, the Wizard of Oz influence, the scarecrow, the audition, the dinner-table tension, Pearl’s mental decline, and the unforg...

Poltergeist: The Movie That Changed Haunted House Horror They're here. This week, Xenomania heads back to 1982 for Poltergeist, the supernatural horror classic that made television static terrifying and suburban homeownership seem like an exceptionally poor life decision. We revisit the Freeling family, our childhood memories of the movie, its iconic scares, supernatural effects, surprisingly grou...

A podcast receives mysterious audio recordings from an unknown sender. What begins as a man recording his girlfriend talking in her sleep becomes something much darker. Meanwhile, skeptical podcast host Evie is caring for her dying mother, and something inside her own home may be listening. This week on Xenomania, we're diving into Undertone, a strange, minimalist horror film that weaponizes silen...

Resident Evil FINALLY Got the Games Right... Sort Of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City promised fans something they'd been waiting decades for: a Resident Evil movie that actually feels like Resident Evil. So why did they make Leon an idiot? In Part I, we're heading back to Raccoon City to talk about our history with the games, the characters the movie absolutely nails, the ones it completely...

In Part I of Xenomania's The Faculty, we're heading back to Herrington High to talk Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Williamson, the extremely '90s soundtrack, and one absolutely stacked cast. Does The Faculty still hold up? Are any of these teachers believable? Why is Usher here? Is Zeke actually cool? And would you really buy drugs from Josh Hartnett? Plus, we put Robert Rodriguez's filmography through S...

Sex, murder, alligators, and one extremely questionable farmhouse. Welcome to Ti West's X. This week on Xenomania, we're heading back to 1979 for Ti West's X, where a group of young filmmakers arrive at an isolated Texas farm hoping to make an adult movie and leave with considerably fewer cast members than they started with. But underneath the blood and grindhouse aesthetics is a surprisingly stra...

The Deadites are back. The blood is flowing. And apparently someone decided a chainsaw wasn't enough anymore. This week on Xenomania, we're digging into Evil Dead Burn, the latest descent into the wonderfully deranged world of The Evil Dead. With a new female lead stepping into the nightmare and a jackhammer joining the franchise's increasingly ridiculous arsenal of improvised demon-killing hardwa...

This week on Xenomania, all aboard for Train to Busan (2016)—the South Korean zombie phenomenon that took a speeding train, filled it with the undead, and created one of the most relentless zombie movies of the modern era. Ryan experiences the movie for the first time, while Jon and Kearns return to a film that somehow manages to make its confined train setting feel bigger and more dangerous with...

This week on Xenomania, we're heading into Insidious, James Wan's supernatural horror hit that helped reshape mainstream horror in the early 2010s. When Dalton Lambert suddenly falls into an unexplained coma, his family begins experiencing increasingly disturbing supernatural activity. But the problem isn't the house. Dalton has wandered into The Further, and something on the other side wants his...

This week on Xenomania, we're stepping into Pan's Labyrinth (2006)—Guillermo del Toro's haunting masterpiece that blends fairy tales, war, and horror into one of the most unforgettable films ever made. Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the story follows young Ofelia as she escapes the brutality of Captain Vidal and discovers a mysterious labyrinth where a Faun claims she may be the lo...

This week on Xenomania, we're revisiting Puppet Master (1989)—the direct-to-video horror classic that helped define an entire generation of late-night VHS rentals and launched one of horror's longest-running cult franchises. What began as a modest Full Moon release quickly became the face of Charles Band's studio, introducing audiences to Blade, Pinhead, Tunneler, Jester, Leech Woman, and a bizarr...

This week on Xenomania, we're diving into Obsession, the breakout indie horror film from Curry Barker that's been generating serious buzz among horror fans. Made on a modest budget but packed with ambition, Obsession proves that creativity and atmosphere can outshine massive studio productions. Barker crafts a psychological nightmare filled with escalating tension, unsettling imagery, and the kind...

This week on Xenomania, we're diving into Evil Dead Rise, the franchise reboot that trades the cabin in the woods for a crumbling apartment building... but does it still feel like Evil Dead? From Danny discovering the Necronomicon beneath the building after an earthquake to Ellie's terrifying transformation, we break down what makes this entry unique while asking the biggest question of all: does...

This week on Xenomania, we’re heading into the woods for one of the best horror-comedies of the 2010s: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. What looks like a backwoods slasher setup quickly becomes something much smarter, bloodier, and funnier, as two perfectly nice hillbillies are mistaken for killers by a group of extremely doomed college kids. We dig into the movie’s brilliant reversal of horror tropes, t...

This week on Xenomania, we’re heading back to summer camp for one of the nastier entries in the 1980s slasher boom: The Burning. Before Jason owned the woods, Cropsy was stalking campers with garden shears, Tom Savini was delivering some of the gnarliest practical effects of the decade, and the summer camp slasher formula was still being carved into horror history. We dig into the film’s legacy, i...

This week on Xenomania we revisit Jaws, the film that didn't just create a blockbuster franchise, but changed Hollywood forever. When a great white shark begins attacking swimmers off the coast of Amity Island, Police Chief Martin Brody finds himself caught between public safety and the town's dependence on summer tourism. What follows is one of the greatest suspense films ever made as Brody, ocea...

This week on Xenomania we dive into Hokum, one of the strangest horror films we've covered in a long time. What begins as a seemingly straightforward backwoods horror story quickly spirals into something far more bizarre. Packed with eccentric characters, dark humor, unexpected twists, and a healthy dose of Southern Gothic weirdness, Hokum constantly keeps viewers guessing about where it's heading...

This week on Xenomania we step into the mirror and revisit Candyman, one of the most intelligent, unsettling, and enduring horror films ever made. Based on a story by Clive Barker, Candyman follows graduate student Helen Lyle as she investigates an urban legend tied to Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing projects. What begins as academic curiosity quickly becomes a descent into obsession, folklore, an...

This week on Xenomania we dive into Dangerous Animals, a survival horror thriller that proves the scariest thing in the ocean is not always the shark. The film follows a free-spirited surfer who finds herself trapped by a sadistic killer obsessed with sharks and the terror they inspire. What begins as a shark movie quickly transforms into something much darker as predator and prey become tangled i...

This week on Xenomania we dive into George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the zombie classic that helped define modern horror. Set almost entirely inside a shopping mall during the collapse of society, the film blends brutal zombie horror with sharp social commentary, dark humor, and some of the most iconic practical effects ever put on screen. Decades later, it still feels grimy, chaotic, and stra...

This week on Xenomania we get into Oddity, a horror film that builds dread in a way most modern horror movies do not even try anymore. The story follows a blind medium connected to a brutal murder and the strange wooden figure she brings into an isolated house afterward. From there, the movie leans hard into atmosphere, tension, and the feeling that something is deeply wrong long before anything a...

This week on Xenomania we dive into Basket Case, one of the strangest and most unforgettable cult horror movies of the 1980s.   The film follows Duane and the mysterious creature hidden inside the basket he carries everywhere he goes through New York City. What starts as a grimy revenge story quickly turns into something much stranger as the movie mixes body horror, dark comedy, sleaze, and pure e...