The Limits of Horror

Ken Lauder from The Ken and Stu Show podcast joins Pete to discuss Todd Haynes' Safe, starring Julianne Moore. Wikipedia has it down as a psychological drama film, but writer/director Todd Haynes himself described it as a "latent horror film where everyday life is the most frightening of all". So who's right? Ken and Todd, or Wikipedia? There's only one way to find out. Li...

This week, Pete is joined by director, production assistant, producer, 1st AD (she's really, really busy, and can do anything OK?) Grace Thornley to discuss Alex Garland's first feature as a director: Ex Machina. A masterpiece, maybe? A science-fiction film, surely? But a horror? Let's see what Grace has to say!  Support the show

Is Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life more horrific than many horrors? Pete discusses this James Mason-starring melodrama with Dr Francesco Sticchi, author of The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema: Witches, Zombies, and Cyborgs Re-enchanting the Ends of the World.  Support the show

Where is the line between horror film and vegan activism? In this episode, Pete speaks to writer and director Melanie Light about her short film The Herd. Synopsis: A number of kidnapped and trafficked women find themselves imprisoned in a squalid medical facility. For Paula her continued survival relies on her basic human function. Escape, on any level, is seemingly impossible as the women are co...

In the last episode of series 1, Pete talks to scholar Tugce Kutlu about why she thinks We Need to Talk About Kevin strays deep into horror territory with its tale of a mother raising a very disturbed young man. Listen and enjoy! Support the show

Do you remember the Play Safe and other public information films of the 1970s? Produced with the specific intention of terrifying young children, Professor Greg Singh, author of Black Mirror: Allegories for the Atomised and The Death of Web 2.0: Ethics, Connectivity and Recognition in the Twenty-First Century,  argues that these disturbing media artefacts should be considered horror. Support the s...

Is the Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence starring science fiction romance more "Titanic in the stars" or "The Shining on a spaceship"? Dr Reece Goodall, author of French Horror: Industry, Society and Media, joins the podcast to discuss the horrific leanings of Morten Tyldum's Passengers (2016). Support the show

Does Bond ever go full horror? Rebecca Andrews from the "Do You Expect Us To Talk?" podcast talks Bond, body horror and where the franchise borrows from the horror genre.  Support the show

This week, Pete Turner and Christine Arnold, co-host of the Minimalist Educator podcast, co-author of "The Minimalist Teacher" and "Your School Leadership Edit: A Minimalist Approach to Rethinking Your School Ecosystem", explore Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler . Is Jake Gyllenhaal's ambitious Loo Bloom too ordinary to be a truly iconic horror monster? Support the show

No monsters, no violence. Just mind-expanding psychedelics and Bruce Dern trying to be friendly. In this episode,  Pete Turner is joined by Ian Cooper, screenwriter and author of "The Manson Family on Film and Television", and the Devil's Advocates books on "Frenzy" and "Witchfinder General" to explore Roger Corman’s The Trip. Is the film an advert for taking LSD...

Host Pete Turner is joined by Dr Cat Lester, the author of "Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema" and editor of "Watership Down: Perspectives On and Beyond Animated Violence" to explore what makes Watership Down a horror film. They discuss the violence and the vulnerability of these lovable bunnies, but also the film's themes around death, leader...

What makes Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue such a disturbing film? And just because it's disturbing, does that make it a horror, or would it be better classed as a psychological thriller? In episode 3, host Pete Turner and animation expert Luke Holmes explore how the film taps into some deep fears about selfhood and identity, surveillance and performance, and disorientation and paranoia. 

Did Coppola intend to make a horror film or a gothic romance? Can horror films be filled with beauty? Do our expectations of horror change with age and experience? In this episode, Pete discusses Coppola's version of Bram Stoker's Dracula with cinematographer Jamie Laxton to try and decide if a Dracula film can ever not be horror?

Are vampire films always horror films? Does a horror film have to be scary? Does a filmmaker always know what genre their film belongs to? In this first episode, Pete sits down with Govind Chandran to discuss Gov's short film Scarlet. Do we answer any of these questions? Listen to find out. And you can also watch Gov's short film here https://youtu.be/6GoAcEwkce8?si=hbm7IzxdAvNvlK5r Enjo...

Coming soon:  a new podcast on The Limits of Horror. Where does the boundary lie between horror and other genres? Week by week, we decide! Join your host Pete Turner as he discusses borderline horror texts with a new guest each week. With thanks to Robert Church for his work on the music for this podcast.