Certified Forgotten

It's Italian-American Heritage Month, so we at Certified Forgotten decided to... lol, well, have a little fun. You see, co-host Matthew Monagle publicly skeeted that there's only one good horror-comedy. That prompted CF's other half, Matt Donato, to join forces with superstar guest Michael Varrati for a lil' punishment episode. That, plus their Italian-American bond, meant there was only one title...

We're playing a little post-festival rewind here at Certified Forgotten, which means the Matts are finally tackling Resident Evil (2026). On paper, Zach Cregger's horror-comedy take on Capcom's nightmare franchise should divide your co-hosts. Matt Donato loves horror-comedies; Matthew Monagle is the opposite. But is Resident Evil a rare funny-scary title that can unite the two Matts? Spoiler alert...

It's been a decade since Na Hong-jin directed his last feature film, The Wailing, and it's been two weeks since we recorded our episode on his recent Neon release, Hope. Blame Donato, and blame film festivals. But better late than never, your two Matt hosts are digging into this oddball sci-fi creature flick for all its worth. Big thrills, exciting action, terrible CG execution—it's all on the tab...

Every time film critic Rob Hunter returns to Certified Forgotten, he brings the weirdness. This time, he's got a Spanish horror film that focuses on a movie-within-a-movie ... within another movie? Bigas Luna's Anguish stars Michael Lerner as an eyeball-obsessed killer who strikes fear in the audience watching the movie he's starring in, The Mommy. The camera pulls out, and we see we're not the on...

This week on the podcast, the Matts are digging into what some are calling the best dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park. David Robert Mitchell's The End of Oak Street features a 1980s family trying to survive against the law of the jungle, with carnivorous dinos at their doorstep. It's a good-time popcorn flick with a thin script, but plenty of thrills. Can the Matts agree on turning off your think...

"You can't keep a good cop dead." The tagline for Dead Heat, this week's selection for yet another Certified Forgotten guest episode. We welcome Noel Bartocci of the CultPOP! podcast, who's here to champion a 1980s buddy-cop flick with an undead twist. Does execution meet the hype of the concept? Not always. But do Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo have to fight off reanimated Peking duck zombies? Yo...

Once upon a time, Blumhouse planned an entire M3GANVERSE. Then M3GAN 2.0 bombed at the box office, and the concept was scrapped. Kate Dolan's companion-bot spinoff, SOULM8TE, vanished from the release calendar. You hate to see any film become a casualty of business decisions, but here we are, with SOULM8TE unceremoniously dumped on digital instead of its planned theatrical run. Could it be as bad...

Hey, two guest episodes in the same month! Certified Forgotten is back on track, and with that, we're pandering to the mall-culture millennials out there. This week, the Matts are joined by writer and podcaster Louis Peitzman, who brings a Phantom of the Opera riff born from the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge pulls Morgan Fairchild and Pauly Shore into a shopping mall h...

Welp, there's a new Evil Dead movie, and horror fans have their opinions. Sébastien Vanicek's Evil Dead Burn is turning out to be one of the more divisive Evil Dead titles, which makes it a layup for an Uncertified episode. Join the Matts as they chat about where Evil Dead Burn ranks in their franchise takes, the film's volcanic rage, and most of all, if the kills deliver. At the end of the day, i...

Have you really lived until you've seen a Damon Packard film? That's the question this week's guest asks us, Certified Forgotten, and you, our devoted listeners. Filmmaker Mike Mendez brings Reflections of Evil to the table, a two-plus-hour endurance test described as a full-blown mental breakdown put to screen. It's nothing you've ever seen, which is either a blessing or a curse. But that's why w...

Just recently, Certified Forgotten celebrated its 7th anniversary as a podcast. In thinking of ways to celebrate, I convinced my co-host Matthew Monagle to record an episode where we look back on everything we've accomplished, and talk about our favorite movies that we've covered over 100+ guest episodes. Not to say we're playing favorites or anything—we love our guests equally! But we're two film...

It's that mid-point time of year, so we decided to take stock of 2026's horror crop (so far). The Matts discuss their favorite first-half flicks and highlight a few titles still to come that have them most hyped. We've got guest episodes on the horizon, but for at least one more consecutive week, you're stuck with us. Don't worry, we'll make it up to y'all soon enough! You can follow Certified For...

Horror has been killing it at the box office these last few weeks, with A24's Backrooms being the second punch after Obsession. Kane Parsons, who rose to fame for his viral "Backrooms" YouTube videos, brings his uncanny creation to life on the big screen. But does this liminal psychological thriller live up to the hype that comes with being the first feature-length Backrooms adaptation? It's a pon...

Obsession fever is sweeping the nation. Look at what you've done, Curry Barker! On the podcast this week, we had to dive into what's the talk of Horrortown these days—and with good reason. Inde Navarrette is a powerhouse in Obsession, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Hit the episode to hear our thoughts on why Navarrette should be in awards conversations come the end of the year, and more o...

Last weekend, Curry Barker's Obsession was the talk of Horrorwood. But, it wasn't the only twisted relationship tale (nearly) new to audiences. BT Meza's Affection sticks Jessica Rothe in a horrible scenario of either amnesia or entrapment. It's horror by way of interpretation and perception: either a wife and mother has truly forgotten her family, or a woman is being gaslit into believing a life...

Looks like we have a This Ends At Prom takeover! On a rare special episode, Matt Donato is joined by both BJ and Harmony Colangelo, with BJ serving as co-host and Harmony serving as guest. The film? Resident Evil: Damnation. Why? For SEO purposes, of course ... no, jk. Harmony makes bold statements, claiming that the second animated Resident Evil movie features some of the best franchise footage e...

In the Certified Forgotten podcast lore, there are constants. Donato is the horror-comedy gore guy. Mongle is the Irish folklore obsessive. Enter Lee Cronin's The Mummy. A stealth Evil Dead movie under the guise of mummified terrors, from the filmmaker behind The Hole in the Ground. You'd think, given the information above, you know which Matt is here to defend Cronin's latest, and who had a frust...

Is there such a thing as an anti-slasher? If not, then Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei might have justed invented it. In this week's episode of Certified Forgotten, Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle team up to talk about Faces of Death, the remake-slash-reimagining (sorta) of the classic 1978 video nasty. Faces of Death draws inspiration from some of our great slashers, but does it get the job done...

Here's the reality. We Matts—Monagle and I—are dorks. Worse, we're corporate day job dorks. We sit at desks sending emails, handling meetings, and going about quarterly business reviews ... which inspired this episode. We decided, since the first quarter of 2026 is behind us, to look back and do a little "review" of the output so far, but, most importantly, give you a recap of horror films you mig...

The film festival life is not for everyone, especially when you cover as press. Luckily, here at Certified Forgotten, we have two individuals who push their bodies and sanity for the sake of screenings, reviews ... maybe a party or seven? This week, Matt Donato is joined by columnist Molly Henery to chat about their favorite horror films from 2026's SXSW slate. There were, my gosh, so many genre f...

One of the best things about horror sequels? They’ll often surprise you if you let them. In this episode of Certified Forgotten, Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle sit down to discuss Ready or Not: Here I Come, sequel to 2019’s Ready or Not. With more bloodshed and a lot more bickering, the new movie certainly dials up the formula the second time out. But is it better than the original? About Ready o...

In the canon of Final Destination imitators, Whistle is a gift. Corin Hardy's ode to teen slashers is a nifty blend of "artifact horror" and young-adult perspectives. There are many films based on the inability to cheat Death, but writer Owen Egerton finds a unique twist to keep us hooked. It's a cozy late-night programmer that fits alongside other Shudder titles like Clown in a Cornfield, one tha...

Didn't ever think we'd cover a Criterion Collection release on Certified Forgotten, didja? That's what makes our podcast so special, and why we love these guest episodes. Journalist and Brooklyn Horror's own Tori Potenza returns with a 1960s Czechoslovak "dark comedy" that too succinctly predicted today's alt-right basement-bro uprising. Juraj Herz's "dark comedy" (emphasis on DARK), The Cremator,...

Can a science fiction thriller about exploding, bile-bloated corpses and intergalactic spores be described as delightful? Well, Cold Storage had us grinning like kiddos on Christmas morning. Filmmaker Jonny Campbell helms this whacked-out fungal horror-comedy written by the prolific David Koepp, adapted from his own novel (of the same name). It’s begging for a bigger budget, with some underwhelmin...

"Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die." Is it the mantra we're repeating to get through 2026? Absolutely. Is it also a wickedly entertaining and intensely relevant sci-fi comedy about the horrors of artificial intelligence? Also correct! Gore Verbinski returns to the big screen after almost a decade with his fantastic warning against algorithms, datacenters, and mind-rotting technology. We'll dive into...