Collective Nightmares

MaXXXine (West 2024) Creating a successful horror trilogy that isn’t full of toxic messaging (looking at you James Wan) has proven to be a historical rarity. The original Scream trilogy is Marshall’s gold standard for a progressive, innovative, cohesive, beautifully executed trilogy. While leaving the possibility of a sequel open has been standard practice since horror films started re...

Pearl (West 2022) Ti West apparently shot this on the sly at the same time he was making X (2022). It is a prequel to X , and the second film in the MaXXXine trilogy, just to be confusing. As with X this film is expertly crafted and Mia Goth’s performance is absolutely stellar. Ultimately we decided that the ideologies of the trilogy will greatly depend on how the story arcs are carried into...

Barbarian (Esterhazy 2021) A movie with twists and turns, some of which were awesome, some of which were at best confusing, at worst problematic. The film definitely has tension and moments of suspense and horror. We always appreciate a new, innovative film even if we don’t think it completely hits the mark. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your f...

Laura hated it, Marshall loved it. One of the most divisive films in the history of the podcast. Laura was bored and disconnected. Marshall thought Cronenberg was not only bringing up fascinating topics of technology, bodies, and art, but also layering in a metaphor for an artistic oeuvre. This made for a great discussion.

Scream (Bettinelli-Oplin and Gillett 2022) This fifth Scream film keeps much of what has made the Scream films so successful, and does well to leave behind or update those parts that needed to be changed. Overall it strikes a good balance between homage and renewal. It’s a fun film that will please Scream lovers and slasher lovers. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, su...

Slumber Party Massacre (Esterhazy 2021) This film is so fascinating for so many reasons. It is a brilliant satire of slasher films and accomplishes so much of the feminist messaging that the initial Slumber Party Massacre was not able to do … for an hour and five seconds. The last half hour or so the film just falls off a cliff in terms of message, ideology, and representation. While I don’t think...

The Slumber Party Massacre (Jones 1982) This film is a cult classic. Written by Rita Mae Brown who also penned Rubyfruit Jungle and was an avowed feminist and civil rights advocate it was supposedly written as a feminist response to the first wave slasher films of the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, Amy Holden Jones who directed the film may have been more interested in producing something su...

Titane (Ducournau 2021) One of the more bizarre films we have ever watched, and that is saying something! Docournau has managed to produce a film that transcends most hegemonic  categories and divisions. This effectively disarms viewers pushing them into experiencing the film emotionally rather than analytically. This is no small feat. The deserved winner of the 2021 Palm d’Or at Cannes. Let...

Squid Game – Season 1 (Dong-hyuk 2021) Join us for the full discussion. Our first foray into television. This was recorded when Squid Game was at peak popularity. The show is brilliant in execution and rife with sociological content. The series especially excels at drawing connections the show makes between structural circumstances and individual agency, which is the foundation of the sociol...

Violation (Mancinelli and Sims-Fewer 2020) We spent much of this episode confused as to details of this film. Please don’t come after us for this confusion until you listen through to the end. We do finally clarify our understanding of the film and respond to the text as it stands. It’s quite something to have the interpretation of a film hinge on ice cream and sleep. It was a journey to get to th...

There’s Someone Inside Your House (Brice 2021) We thought we could finally be done with Wan, but we ended up watching one he co-produced. Still conservative in ideology, the film does show some advances in diversity and representation. Could this be a shift in the baseline expectations of inclusion in horror films and if so what does that mean for the genre? Also, we definitely have to give...

Malignant (Wan 2021) Join us for the full discussion. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Malignant (Wan 2021) TOPIC INDEX –  Malignant   (Wan 2021) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 4:15 – Movie discussion begins 5:00 – overall takes – NO SPOILERS 6:00 – Laura’s over it...

The Blackening (Story 2022) The Blackening takes the baton from films such as Get Out, The First Purge, and Candyman and runs with it. Both tense and scary as well as uproariously funny, this is a fantastically fun horror film viewing experience! Join us for the full discussion. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The...

Candyman (DaCosta 2021) Marshall still vividly remembers seeing Candyman (Rose 1992) in the theatre. A rare horror film to take on issues of race, sexuality, and poverty. Even more rare was that it was done with intersectionality. When Peele announced he would be producing a remake, and Nia DaCosta would be directing we had high hopes. DaCosta achieved a historic first as a black woman to have her...

The Forever Purge (Gout 2021) The Forever Purge is the fifth film in the Purge-iverse. The fourth film, The First Purge , was a highpoint in this series. It was followed by a TV show that was destined to fail because it had to be sanitized for USA network. I wish they would have put it on HBO, Showtime, Netflix, or somewhere with teeth! Anyhow, The Forever Purge returns triumphantly continuing to...

Smile (Finn 2022) Led by an exemplary performance by Sosie Bacon, Smile (Finn 2022) is a well constructed horror film. It is a very rare example of using jump scares effectively and in support of a larger concept to produce fear. Where The Babadook (Kent 2014) meets Fallen (Hoblit 1998), Smile steps in to push the sub-genre of physical manifestation and transmission of horror forward. Unfortunatel...

The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It (Chaves 2021) The Conjuring 3 , so much conjuring!  Please go back and listen to our episodes on the first two Conjuring films if you haven’t already. This is released as a double episode with The Conjuring 2 , and so listening to that first will be helpful. Sadly, we also ask you to prepare yourselves to be disillusioned with Wan and the Conjuring-verse. U...

The Conjuring 2 (Wan 2016) Episode 100!!! We are more in love with horror now than when we started. We are looking forward to the next 100. We hope you join us for the ride. Safety in numbers! More of what you Wan! The Conjuring 2 is the film for this week’s episode. Wan is one of the most accomplished horror filmmakers of the 21st century and of all time. He has established multiple horror film u...

A Quiet Place Part II (Krasinski 2020) This episode we return to the preposterous but highly entertaining world of the super hearing monsters. A Quiet Place Part 2 is a fun watch, but constrained by pained efforts to avoid controversy. It has some positives and even the pro-family ideology is pretty banal. Join us for a lighter discussion! There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review,...

Spiral (Bousman 2021) We cut into the most recent Saw film in this episode. The first Saw film after the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd and the movement in response in the summer of 2020. Featuring Chris Rock and Samuel Jackson, both with long histories of progressive activism including highlighting the racist actions of police, those messages don’t come through a...

Fresh (Cave 2022) Soup to nuts this film has it all! It is so good, we are releasing this episode out of order. We just can’t wait to share such a spectacular feast for aficionados of fine horror. It is a perfectly balance plate of critical ideology, tension, terror, and visceral revulsion. Daisy Edgar-Jones absolutely shines! There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscri...

Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) What a fascinating film! Technically well made, story and characters that are well crafted, ideologically supremely toxic. This film was reminiscent of Summer of ’84 in how it was entertaining and at first glance, not particularly problematic. However, once we dove into a detailed analysis the rot just kept getting deeper. The contradictions also led to quit...

Freaky (Landon 2020) Get your freak on? Another simple but genius blend of 80s comedy premises with the horror genre. This horror comedy is Landon’s follow-up to the excellent Happy Death Day (2017). This was a welcome reprieve when we watched in the spring of 2020. Landon’s film feels like a well-intentioned good faith effort to be responsible with the content. While not always succes...

His House (Weekes 2020) We return to haunting and possession films because this film is such an extraordinary new entry into this sub-genre. Bol and Rial flee South Sudan and find their way to England. The film expertly uses symbolic and real struggles to to reveal the complexity and difficulty of what these characters face. A wonderful step forward in the vein of The Babadook (Kent 2014) and Reli...

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Glosserman 2006) A serial killer is a serial killer is a serial killer is a serial killer. We kill off this mini-series on serial killers with another meta satire film. Seemingly well intentioned, Behind the Mask wants to be better than it is. Our discussion moves into meta-meta commentary and stays there. How do you deconstruct tropes? How do you escape...