Drawn to Darkness

Send us Fan Mail In this Halloween episode of Drawn to Darkness , we're going back to where it all began with John Carpenter's iconic 1978 slasher Halloween . And we've brought along a special guest, Steve from Horror Makes Us Happy , to help us decide whether Michael Myers is still terrifying nearly 50 years later. We discuss the birth of the modern slasher, Laurie Strode as the ul...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness, we dive into Josh Malerman’s shiver-inducing 2024 horror novel Incidents Around the House , a deeply unsettling story about a relentless entity known as ‘Other Mommy’ who asks again and again “Can I go into your heart?”  In this episode, we unpack the child narrator, Bella and the effectiveness of horror seen through a child’s limited perspect...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we discuss Oxygen’s The Lady of the Dunes: Hunting a Cape Cod Serial Killer . For almost 50 years, the woman found brutally murdered in the dunes outside Provincetown in 1974 was known only as the Lady of the Dunes. Three generations of investigators became obsessed with giving her back her name, surviving lost evidence, institutional resistance, red herring suspects. E...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we head to the foggy shores of Widow’s Bay with very special guest Liz Sower of Ghosts in the Burbs . This Emmy-winning Apple series follows widowed mayor Tom Loftus, who is determined to transform his economically struggling New England island into the next Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately, local fisherman Wick insists the island is cursed,...

Send us Fan Mail This week, we swap fictional scientists playing God for a very real doctor doing harm as we dive into Dr. Death , the TV series based on the Wondery podcast about Christopher Duntsch, a Dallas neurosurgeon who, over roughly two years, operated on 38 people, maimed 33 and killed two. And no one stopped him. Joshua Jackson trades Pacey Witter's charm for terrifying narcissism a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we dive into Renny Harlin’s gloriously ridiculous, surprisingly good 1999 shark thriller, Deep Blue Sea . We talk genetically modified super-smart sharks, questionable science, the ethics of experimenting on animals, the film’s connections to Jaws and Jurassic Park and whether the sharks are actually the villains, or prisoners staging an elab...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we enter the unsettling world of Radio Rental , the horror anthology podcast that presents supposedly true encounters through the fictional setting of a video rental store. Presiding over the tapes is Terry Carnation, played by Rainn Wilson who breaks up stories of serial killers, possible stalkers, doppelgängers, disturbing childhood memories and glitches in real...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we continue our accidental-but-now-definitely-intentional basement series with Scott Derrickson’s 2021 supernatural horror-thriller The Black Phone , based on the Joe Hill short story. We unpack the film’s very Stephen “Kingian” mix of coming-of-age trauma, small-town fear, ghostly intervention, and very bad decisions approaching weirdos in w...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we examine David Fincher’s tragically incomplete Netflix series Mindhunter . Set in the late 1970s, the show follows FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench, along with Dr Wendy Carr, as they begin interviewing imprisoned serial offenders in an attempt to understand patterns of behaviour, develop the science of criminal profiling, and prevent f...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we dive into Jonathan Demme’s classic and deeply unsettling 1991 psychological horror-thriller, Silence of the Lambs.  We unpack the film’s use of dread over jump scares, the power of what is left unseen, the terrifying precision of Anthony Hopkins’ performance, Jodie Foster’s Clarice navigating the male gaze in a man’s world, and why Catheri...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we celebrate one year of Drawn to Darkness by raising a glass to Edgar Allan Poe’s revenge-soaked classic, "The Cask of Amontillado", a story about wounded pride, wine snobbery, and one extremely committed masonry project. Expect talk of Poe’s tragic life, literary feuds, mysterious deaths, buried-alive panic, Freemasons, creepy crypts, and why you shoul...

Send us Fan Mail Devil in the White City by Erik Larson In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we dive into Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City , a packed, fact-filled account of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and the terrifying crimes of H. H. Holmes. Along the way, we unpack Daniel Burnham’s impossible project management nightmare, Frederick Law Olmsted’s dramatic hatred of flowerbeds, powe...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we ask the important questions: Is Jurassic Park actually horror? And would not having a favourite dinosaur be a dealbreaker? We dive into Steven Spielberg’s iconic dinosaur summer blockbuster, from trembling cups of water and bloody goat legs to whatever chaos theory is, Chekov’s electric fences, and Jeff Goldblum’s unbuttoned shirt. Along t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we dive into Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas , the “glorious,” “classic” mob epic that somehow feels both iconic and unsettling. From razor-blade-sliced garlic in prison to cocaine-fuelled paranoia and helicopter chases, we unpack the rise and fall of Henry Hill, a kid who always wanted to be a gangster, and ended up a broke, bored “schnuck” in...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness , we dive into Ryan Coogler’s Sinners , a genre-bending vampire period drama set in 1930s Jim Crow Mississippi. Joined by special guest Makeda Pennycooke, life and anti-racism coach, we unpack a film that is as gorgeous as it is unsettling, layering horror, history, and music. We break down vampire lore, our favorite characters, standout perfor...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Drawn to Darkness. This week, we are joined by special guest Gillian Pensavalle from True Crime Obsessed to discuss West of Memphis (2012), Amy Berg’s documentary that revisits the case of the West Memphis Three. In 1993, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were murdered and with little evidence and rising panic about satanic rituals, police quickly...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus “Chatroom” episode of Drawn To Darkness , I (Annie) chat with horror author Josiah Furcinitti to discuss his chilling short story Bedguard , featured in the anthology Lies Beyond , a horror anthology exploring death, fear, and the unknown. In Bedguard , Anna is at first only worried about the growing distance between herself and her husband David. But when he starts...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss the National Geographic documentary Sugarcane , which investigates the legacy of St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in Canada. Prompted by the discovery of unmarked graves at former school sites, the film follows members of the Williams Lake First Nation, including Julian Brave Noisecat and his father Ed, as they search for truth about what happene...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we descend into Mexican Gothic , Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2020 bestselling novel set in 1950s Mexico. When glamorous socialite Noemí Taboada receives a disturbing letter from her cousin Catalina, who claims she’s being poisoned in her new husband’s remote mountain mansion, she travels to High Place to investigate. There she finds a crumbling English manor transplant...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Drawn to Darkness, we pivot back to true crime with Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, a three-part docuseries about the kidnapping of Steven Stayner and the traumatic ripple effect. We’ll discuss Steven’s story, how he was abducted at age seven while walking home from school and held captive for seven years by Kenneth Parnell. What makes the story...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive into Trainwreck: Poop Cruise , Netflix’s lowbrow, sensational documentary about the 2013 Carnival Triumph disaster, when an engine room fire left more than 4,200 passengers and crew stranded in the Gulf of Mexico with no power, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, and, most importantly, no functioning toilets. We begin with discussion about losing power...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we tackle Hereditary , Ari Aster’s devastating 2018 debut and one of the films most often credited with launching a new era of “elevated horror.” After the death of her estranged mother, miniature artist Annie Graham struggles to process her complicated grief. When her daughter Charlie dies in a shocking accident, the family fractures under the weight of blame, gu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers , Emily Turner’s documentary about Aileen Wuornos, a rare, hands-on female serial killer whose life is steeped in trauma, exploitation, and state violence. We discuss our views on the death penalty and then unpack whether Aileen’s childhood abandonment, sexual abuse, homelessness, and years of sex work made her into a...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss Guillermo del Toro’s gorgeous and gothic adaptation of Frankenstein, an epic, operatic exploration of creation, obsession, abandonment, and the horror of living after being rejected by the world. We discuss our own life goals and the hollowness that can follow achieving your greatest ambition, before diving into this reimagining of Mary Shelley’s  groun...

Send us Fan Mail In this Christmas special of Drawn To Darkness , we swap favourite festive films (from Die Hard and It’s a Wonderful Life to The Muppet Christmas Carol and Scrooged ) before diving into Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . We’ll discuss the plot and characters (Scrooge, Marley, the three spirits, Fezziwig, Tiny Tim, Fred), unpack life in Victorian London with its filth, disease, c...