Certified Forgotten

In this week's minisode, The Matts chat about what they agree is one of the year's best horror films (so far). Jang Jae-hyun's Exhuma is available now on Shudder, climbing to the top of the streamer's 2024 catalog despite including bangers like Stopmotion and Infested. South Korea flexes its horror muscles yet again in a culturally rich story that Matt Donato wrote: "bobs and weaves in ways Americ...

How many genres is too many genres? For Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, the sky itself is the limit. Writer-director Jenn Wexler (The Ranger, The Sacrifice Game) joins Certified Forgotten to discuss her path through the film industry and Maury and Bustillo's Livid, a vampire/fantasy/steampunk/slasher/something that left an indelible mark.

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is without a doubt one of the most talented horror filmmakers of the 21st century. But would you sign up for a new NFT service just to watch his latest 45-minute movie? Matt Donato and Matt Monagle did, and they're here to tell you that Chime is, shockingly, very worth the effort.

In this latest episode of the podcast, the Matts look into an existential void to celebrate Matt Monagle's birthday! No, seriously. Mr. Monagle has chosen this episode's title flick, and it couldn't be more of a "Monagle Movie" (broody period vibes, religious overtones, Silent Hill parallels, slow-burn devastation). There will be horror genre talk in the back half like always, but to start, both M...

If you've seen one slasher, have you really seen them all? Chris Nash's In A Violent Nature begs to differ, which is the topic of our latest Uncertified conversation. Imagine Friday the 13th shot exclusively over Jason's shoulder. It's an experimental take on undead killers stalking victims through the wilderness, sure to divide audiences with its abstract horror approach. Let's discuss!

What does it mean to be the best movie in the Wrong Turn franchise? In our latest podcast episode, The Matts are joined by horror journalist and author Ariel Powers-Schaub, whose upcoming book (Millennial Nasties: Analyzing a Decade of Brutal Horror Film Violence) examines the many films in the torture porn movement -- including Joe Lynch's cult classic Wrong Turn 2: Dead End.

In the first episode of Uncertified, Certified Forgotten's new series of 30-minute movie discussions, Matt Monagle and Matt Donato take on Radio Silence's Abigail. Does it get the balance between horror and comedy just right? Or does it stumble in its goal of being the best horror-comedy about ballerina vampires since, well, ever?

In horror's illustrious history of films built around unwanted phone calls, When A Stranger Calls Back might be the oddest. This week's episode is about stalkers, sequels, final girls, and ... ventriloquism? We welcome horror journalist Gem Seddon (Vulture, Fangoria) onto the show for a discussion about a franchise continuation that is most unexpected. Our latest episode was destined to happen eve...

What's that, no guest? It's the dawn of a new era at Certified Forgotten, and Matt Donato and Matt Monagle are here to explain their vision for new episodes of the show. But new ideas doesn't mean saying goodbye to old favorites, which is why we've also got a full-sized conversation about Steven C. Miller's Under the Bed. Did Monagle like this old-school Donato favorite? Listen for yourself to fin...

Are you a fan of Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Cold Sweat? Late Phases aka Night of the Wolf? Here Comes the Devil? Maybe even Scherzo Diabolico? Well, then you should heed The Sacrifice Game co-writer Sean Redlitz's recommendation and watch 2018's Black Circle, a more underseen Bogliano winner. Sean brings the Matts a low-budget, high-concept thriller about vinyl records, hypnosis, and doppelgängers t...

Did anyone have Chow Yun-fat on their Certified Forgotten bingo card? We didn't either! But here we are, welcoming Bloody Disgusting's Meagan Navarro back to discuss Lam Ngai Kai's Hong Kong horror actioner The Seventh Curse. The film, based on the widely popular Dr. Yuen series, has a little bit of everything: blood curses, wriggly worm monsters, bleeding statues ... and that's just in the openin...

There are many perks to hosting a podcast, one of which is that you can demand certain episodes. Hi, this is Matt Donato, and I demanded BJ Colangelo return to cover Darren Lynn Bousman's Devil's Carnival sequel, Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival. Everything is bigger, the stars are brighter, and we get more musical religious mayhem — but this time in Heaven. Tech N9ne, David Hasselhoff, Ted Neeley,...

Whenever Harmony Colangelo pops in for a guest spot, you're in for a treat. What did they bring us this time? Oh, just "undoubtedly the only vampire snooker musical in cinema history" — a sports drama, a rock musical, and a vampire affair all rolled into one. Join Harmony and the Matts for an exquisitely 80s journey into career-defining tournaments and sharp fangs, spotlighting what will surely re...

In this week's episode of Certified Forgotten, the Matts are rejoined by Film School Rejects head film critic Rob Hunter, who last appeared on Episode 5 to talk about Cold Prey. In this episode, Rob weighs in on award season, his lackadaisical approach to release dates for year-end lists, and, of course, Winston Azzopardi's The Boat.

In this week's episode of Certified Forgotten, dig into the terrifying trenches of wartime horror. The Matts are joined by industry professional John Torrani to go head-to-head with Nazi ghosts in 2008's Outpost, paying respect to the late Ray Stevenson. The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi, so when they get back up, someone has to put them back down.

In this week's episode of Certified Forgotten, we turn our sights to Christmas horror and mumblegore! Filmmaker Tyler MacIntyre (Patchwork, Tragedy Girls) returns to the podcast for an in-depth discussion about his new film It's a Wonderful Knife and the importance of Hallmark Christmas movies to his own career. Then, MacIntyre joins The Matts for a discussion about Adam Wingard's A Horrible Way T...

Inevitably, when one of your podcast co-hosts is Matt Donato, all roads lead to Doom. Not in an existential way, but in rants about the 2005 video game adaptation. In this episode, the Matts are joined by the esteemed William Bibbiani to talk about 2018's Doom: Annihilation and how the underrated reboot stacks against not only the prior film, but video game movies as a whole.

If you're like us, you were probably surprised to find out that Anthony DiBlasi's Last Shift has less than 10 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But despite being one of the formative indie horror releases of the 2010s, it turns out that Last Shift falls prey to many of the same challenges faced by other indie horror titles. Join the Matts and special guest Rachel Reeves ( @VinylGrrrl ) as we discuss the...

Horror anthologies are a mixed bag by nature, which makes them a harder sell to audiences. No one knows this better than our latest guest, a Canadian import who you've heard and read on Daily Dead, Scott Drebit. He wrote the book on underseen horror (literally), and is bringing us an 80s horror anthology that hopefully will have more of you reaching for the subgenre after another splendid Certifie...

Direct-to-video horror sequels aren't exactly known for their staying power, but then again, most direct-to-video horror movies aren't directed by horror royalty Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary). In this episode of the podcast, The Matts are joined by Kim Morrison to discuss rape-revenge horror, parenting, and the dangers of CGI spiders.

Here at Certified Forgotten, we've seen some shit. Our guests love bringing us challenging genre films with varying amounts of "weird" and "obscure." Enter our guest Drew Dietsch and this week's focal title, 1988's Pin. You know, the one with a sexualized medical dummy who can "talk" and encourage murder? From Canada with love, baby.

Before he earned accolades for directing The Fugitive - hell, before he turned the heads of action fans with Steven Seagal's Under Siege, director Andrew Davis directed a 1983 low-budget wilderness slasher called The Final Terror. In this episode of Certified Forgotten, the Matts talk with novelist and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill (Sinister, The Black Phone) about the challenges of leaving film...

If we've learned nothing over the past few weeks, it's that the ocean is a dark and terrifying place, home to crushing depths, revenge-fueled killer whales, and.... Santa Jaws?! That's right, in this week's episode, we're celebrating Christmas in June with screenwriter Michael Varrati (The Boulet Brothers' Dragula, Christmas With You) and discussing Misty Talley's Christmas cult classic, Santa Jaw...

Dropping a Father's Day podcast episode in May, the month of mothers? That's how we roll here at Certified Forgotten. Join the Matts and their esteemed guest Josh Hurtado as they go head-to-head with Astron 6's goretastic Troma collaboration and live to tell about it.

If you like your coming-of-age films to be both queer and vampiric as hell, then you'll probably be a fan of Alice Maio Mackay's 2021 film So Vam. Joining the Matts for a conversation on the Australian horror film is Blayne Waterloo , Contributing Editor at Fangoria. How does So Vam compare to other queer vampire movies like Bit? And will Monagle ever get over having his childhood fashions mined f...