Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe? with Dylan & Dalton

The Pod Universe gang returns to the DARK for one night only! Dylan, Dalton, and Sarah review the new non-Universal monster movie, "Lee Cronin's The Mummy," which takes the basic conceit of "What if there was a mummy?" and goes in a very different direction. We don't mind different! But does this new feature hold up as either a Mummy movie or the Exorcist movie it plainly wants to be? PLUS: A snea...

If you've completed the entire Death's Door Saga, join Dylan & Dalton for their next adventure! Welcome to The Pod Universe with Dylan and Dalton , the only podcast that's creating a shared universe of original sci-fi movies, one script at a time. Dive into our saga of produced table reads of new screenplays, each accompanied by a discussion and workshop session. Check out movie pitches from e...

You didn't think we'd go radio silent for August, did you? While we toil away at the next phase of our show, we'll be keeping the party going by releasing a few of our favorite bonus episodes — usually exclusive to our Patreon — onto the main feed. Enjoy! Sign up at Patreon.com/DylanAndDalton to enjoy more goofy nonsense like this. Originally published to Patreon on February 16th, 2025. On this ep...

In the final episode before the big relaunch, Dylan & Dalton take one last look at the film that started it all, 2017's The Mummy , and try and figure out what they'd do differently if they'd been able to start the Dark Universe totally from scratch. Then, at long last, we answer as many fan questions as possible before closing Death's Door for good. PLUS: A clip from this month's new episode...

Back in April, Dylan & Dalton sat down to decide how to end their Dark Universe. This is the entire story break meeting in which the two hosts determined how to make their two separate visions for  Dark Legion: Hell on Earth into one cohesive story. IN TWO WEEKS: One last look back through Death's Door, before venturing out into a new frontier... TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 - Planning 00:22:46 - Field...

Three years ago, we resurrected the Dark Universe. Now, we're ending it. It's the finale to the Death's Door Saga, and this era for our podcast. We're so grateful to everyone who's been with us for this journey, and we're so excited to embark on a new one. In two weeks, as always, we'll post the complete story break session we recorded before writing the script to Dark Legion: Hell on Earth, then...

It's Act Two of our massive saga-ending crossover, and this time, we'll see you in Hell. Only one episode left in the Death's Door Saga, coming in just three days... There are some MAJOR SPOILERS in the cast credits below, so most of this description is going to be us warning you to stop scrolling. Last chance to avoid cast spoilers. Okay, here we go. FEATURING THE VOICES OF... Julian Ames as Larr...

Here we are, at the end of the line. The final chapter in the Death's Door Saga is being divided into THREE parts. This is Act One, with all of our usual preamble, fan predictions, and some big announcements. Act Two will be released on Thursday, June 19th, and Act Three arrives on Sunday, June 22nd. After that? Oh, we'll get there. But for now... FEATURING THE VOICES OF... Anique Evans as Emily A...

For our last guest episode before HELL ON EARTH, we've brought back two of our past guests to create our most manic creative jam session yet! Hot off their tour and in the best comedy form of their lives, author Calvin Kasulke and cartoonist Mattie Lubchansky return to pitch a remake of  Incubus , the 1966 occult horror flick starring William Shatner and performed entirely in Esperanto! Plus, a cl...

IN THREE WEEKS, the Death's Door Saga comes to an end. Since you've all been so patient, we thought we'd treat you to a little sneak peek... Featuring Frankie Starker as the voice of Ahmanet. First person to detect what song Dylan has trailer-fied in the middle chunk of the trailer gets a high five. NEXT WEEK:  Incubus with Mattie Lubchansky and Calvin Kasulke!

As we inch ever-closer to  Dark Legion: Hell on Earth , journalist, streamer, and video producer Patrick Gill joins us to pitch a fresh, modern take on the cult classic monster movie  C.H.U.D.! What compelled Patrick to rent this movie from the old mail-order Netflix? What does this high-end B-movie have in common with  Jaws? How will Patrick, Dylan, and Dalton reimagine it to speak to modern New...

Back in 2024, we appointed Welcome to Night Vale co-creator Joseph Fink to be the Dark Universe's Head of Television. Now, he's returned to the show to pitch Dylan & Dalton FIVE new TV ideas that run the gamut from hospital drama to reality competition show! It's a jam-packed one-hour creative jam session like nothing we've done before. Check out Joseph's new podcast The Best Worst , and find...

Nearly two years ago, Dylan announced that he'd be writing a Dark Universe take on  Field of Dreams . Now, for his last solo pitch of the Death's Door Saga, he finally has to pitch it, and it's not remotely the script he initially planned. So, is that a good thing, or a bad thing? What the Hell is Field of Nightmares , and how will it be recieved by Dalton, who has no fondness for the 1989 basebal...

Actor, writer, podcaster, and professional funny person Danielle Radford join the Dark Universe to pitch what might be our most unhinged installment yet. It's not "Waterworld," it's "Waterworld: The Stunt Show... The Movie? Learn how this beloved theme park attraction based on the maligned box office boondoggle found a special place in Danielle's heart, and how we can possible turn this into a fra...

It's Dalton's final solo pitch of the Death's Door Saga, and not coincidentally the bleakest and most disturbing! In the spirit of the original  Exorcist and their beloved  Exorcist III , Dalton's reimagining is obscene, blasphemous, but also totally sincere and even a little bit profound. Be aware that this episode is not for the faint of heart and we've included a LONG list of content warnings t...

In 1940, Universal cashed in on the success of their Invisible Man films with a spin-off,  The Invisible Woman , which was very much not a horror movie! Instead, we got an extremely slight and forgettable screwball comedy. Now, in 2025, our guest writer/video game narrative designer Stella Sacco has been tasked with creating a new darker, scarier and (if you can believe it) gayer version of  The I...

Hell has broken loose in the Dark Universe, and we could really use some levity — both there and in the real world! Fear not, for our heroes may be dead, but at least there's, uh, these guys. Time to meet Dark Universe MYSTERY MEN! For the first time, the Didactic Mr. Dylan has (mostly) stepped off his political soapbox to deliver a pure action-adventure romp whose primary objective is to show the...

Author, journalist, and co-host of the wrestling podcast  Tights and Fights Lindsey Kelk joins Dylan & Dalton to revisit a cringey teen-targeted dark fantasy from 2006 —  The Covenant , starring current Oscar-nominee Sebastian Stan! What makes this film so memorably bad, and how will Lindsey reimagine it into something worthy of our Dark Universe? Plus: Lindsey tells us about her latest novel,...

2025 kicks off Big, Old, and Dark with Dalton's first solo pitch of the season! It's a modern twist on gothic horror, based on a 1928 novel by J.B. Priestley and a James Whale Universal horror classic that was almost lost forever. How will Dalton reimagine this spooky tale to fit into the HELL ON EARTH era of our ongoing Dark Universe? We'll be real with you - this is a heavy episode, so we've inc...

ED. NOTE: At 5:04 in this episode, Dylan says that National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is "not good" and that he "watched it for Dalton," only laughing "one time." However, if you check Dylan's Letterboxd review from last year, he ADMITS he only watched the first half hour before tapping out. That, in this reporter's opinion, does not count as watching the film and I move that his comments be st...

After two years of plotting and discussing totally imaginary films and television shows, isn't it about time we got real?!?! Theme park journalist Alicia Stella of Orlando ParkStop joins us to discuss the upcoming Dark Universe land at Universal Studios: Epic Universe in Orlando Florida. Learn how she got the scoop about the Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf Man themed rides and attractions. Then, h...

Dark Legion: Death's Door unleashed Hell on Earth. Now, Dylan & Dalton are exploring their universe's terrifying new status quo with a season of standalone stories packed with new (read: expendable) characters. First up, Dylan is taking a swing at a Dark Universe reimagining of one of the most important horror films of all time:  Night of the Living Dead . The last version of this script was k...

Dylan needed an extra week to get his Night of the Living Dead script up to code, so as a consolation we're releasing this month's bonus episode to the main feed, plus we're making the video version available to all paid subscribers. Dalton Deschain & Dylan Roth answer a challenge from Studio Executive Birras to come up with a Dark Universe version of the 1977 comedy Smokey & the Bandit! T...

It's the crossover nobody asked for, least of all Dylan & Dalton! And yet, in this FULL VIDEO, SEASON 4 premiere of AYADU, guest Abe Goldfarb (Beetlejuice: The Musical, First Time Caller) sells our hosts on a Suicide Squad-style romp in which Otis and Baby Firefly bring their bloodlust into the Dark Universe's new status quo! This episode is available as a video podcast on our YouTube channel:...

Here it is at last: The complete story break conversation in which Dylan & Dalton determined when, how, and why the Dark Legion would meet their terrible fates in  Dark Legion: Death's Door ! How much did our storytellers know before they broke ground on their sadistic sequel? How much of their plans changed between this initial discussion and the final draft? Have they let any clues or crumbs...