Collective Nightmares

Man Bites Dog (Belvaux, Bonzel, Poelvoorde 1992) Serial killer? How much? This episode we discuss the cult classic Man Bites Dog . After hearing about it for years, including best of lists as well as personal recommendations from others we finally watched. It is a unique entry into the serial killer sub-genre we have focused on for the series. Black and white, independent, and in French it is all...

Monster (Jenkins 2003) Serial killer? I am her. This episode is a doozy. Our longest yet for a film that is so deserving of such analysis. We discuss Jenkins’ masterful film Monster . Monster stands in stark contrast to every other serial killer film we have watched thus far or will watch for the series. Knowing nothing else, from thirty seconds in, it is clear this will be an important film. And...

Seven (Fincher 1995) Serial killer? Her who? This episode we shift a bit to take on Fincher’s iconic film Se7en. This is the third of our mini-series on serial killer horror films. It is the first of this mini-series that features a killer not based on a specific real life killer. Marshall’s nostalgia for the film clouds his judgment. Laura’s clear-eyed gaze withers the film as s...

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Berlinger 2019) Serial killer? I hardly know her! Gallows humor aside, this episode beings a new mini-series on serial killer horror films. And wow, what a failure of a film! This episode ends up being mostly a discussion of how this film failed where other films succeeded. An absolutely unnecessary additional film about Ted Bundy that squandered a brill...

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Serial killer? I hardly know her! Gallows humor aside, this episode begins a new mini-series on serial killer horror films. And wow, what a beginning! While we both were aware of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton) as a cult classic, we did not fully appreciate the astounding contributions this film makes to the culture, to horror fi...

Promising Young Woman (Fennell 2020) This episode we return to the rape-revenge sub-genre with Promising Young Woman by Emerald Fennell. This is a sub-genre for which the films, by virtue of the very topics they address, are particularly difficult to construct responsibly. It is also due to these very concerns that we have done an ongoing series devoted specifically to these films. Promising Young...

The People Under the Stairs (Craven 1991) This episode brings us out of the haunted house, possession mini-series. One of the films by Wes Craven that has solid bones, and such a strange execution. This was especially an outlier at the time for featuring black cast members as leads. Along with Candyman (Rose 1992), these films attempt to bridge the geography between urban and suburban, and address...

Saw (Wan 2004) As an epilogue to our possession and haunting mini-series we return to the film that first established James Wan and Leigh Whannell within the horror genre: Saw . Saw is one of a few films that shifted the entire horror genre. It aslo established both Wan and Whannell as members of the “ Splat Pack .” Given the very conservative ideological messaging of The Conjuring and...

Poltergeist (Hooper 1982) The fifth installment in our possession and haunting mini-series. One of the most iconic haunting films ever, with arguably the single most iconic scene in a haunting film: Tobe Hooper ‘s Poltergeist . We emphasize that Poltergeist was more progressive and less sexist than the other films from these sub-genres we’ve watched that followed it more than 30 years...

Insidious Chapter 2 (Wan 2013) The fourth installment in our possession and haunting mini-series. We return to James Wan and the Insidious universe. Check out our episodes on The Conjuring and The Possession and Insidious ! Marginally better ideologically The Conjuring and Insidious but still problematic. We talk the McDonaldization of horror and the joy or lack thereof of the routinization of seq...

Insidious (Wan 2010) The third installment in our possession and haunting mini-series. Check out our previous episodes on The Conjuring (Wan 2013) and The Possession (Bornedal 2012)! Insidious is not as ideologically conservative as The Conjuring but still very problematic. Wan may be a modern master of horror, but he sure makes very conservative horror films. Join us as we explain how and what th...

The Possession ( Bornedal 2012) Another film in our possession and haunting mini-series. This film stands out for being a Judaism-based demonology rather than being Catholic Christian. Laura emphasizes the importance of the hegemony of nuclear family narratives in horror films. Marshall blows his own mind as 36 years later he finally realizes Ghostbusters (Reitman 1984) is the secular version of e...

The Conjuring (Wan 2013) James Wan sawed his way into the horror with Saw (Wan 2004) and a subsequent string of commercial successes and fan favorites. Driven by the desire to return to some good old fashioned horrifying movies, we started with Saw . This begins a mini-series of episodes dedicated to James Wan’t films and morphed quickly into focusing on possession, demon, and haunting films...

The Lodge (Franz and Fiala 2019) The Lodge is a film created by the same duo that made the critical darling Goodnight Mommy in 2014. This film explores divorce, family, isolation, paranoia, and mental illness. Atmospheric and interesting, it is ultimately unsatisfying. By refusing to take a clear position, even one of non-committal, The Lodge is more frustrating than horrific. One high note, Riley...

Nightcrawler (Gilroy 2014) Gilroy’s study of narcissism, capitalism, media influence, and exploitation wrapped in a deconstruction of the travesty that is local “news” in America. This film is an extraordinary achievement. A rare example of a perfect film. This is exceedingly relevant to the fear mongering and media manipulation that has only amplified since Nightcrawler was rele...

Antebellum (Bush and Renz 2020) This film received just a 28% rating from critics, and 53% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. In contrast we found the film to be exceptionally good in most ways. We discuss the possible discrepancies between our appreciation and that of others. A film that presses the boundaries of horror in positive ways paved by Get Out . SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Antebellum (Bush...

Always Shine (Takal 2016) Black Christmas (Takal 2019) was Marshall’s favorite horror film of 2019. This inspired us to go back to this, Takal’s first film, for a viewing. This film left us quite divided. We both enjoyed the film and thought it had great potential, but we diverged on how that potential was utilized. This potential includes exploring issues of hegemonic femininity, the...

We Summon the Darkness (Meyers 2019) Laura stumbled upon this film and threw it into the episode line-up on the fly. And for good reason! We Summon addresses toxic religiosity in very different ways than our previous episode Red State (Smith 2011). Additionally, it arguably accomplishes the very rare feat of being a film that addresses gender, while featuring women who are characters as themselves...

Red State (Smith 2011) Our podcast is inspired by the argument made by cultural scholar Robin Wood that horror films may be understood as reflective of the anxieties and fears of a particular society during a particular era. From that theory, we might expect that there would be a number of horror films based on terrorism in post 9/11 America. There are however very few, with this and Craven’...

Creep (2014) and Creep 2 (Brice 2017) A different project from Duplass and Brice who take a micro project approach to horror. While the project is admirable we met it with mixed results. The sequel adds a layer of interest and potential. This was definitely enough to raise the  anticipation for Creep 3. Can they pull something impressive together or will it crumble the same as The Human Centipede...

Podcast hosts Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, discuss the sociological aspects of Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead.

Relic (James 2020) If you enjoyed The Babadook (Kent 2014) or The Witch (Eggers 2015) you should watch this film. Understated, with a powerful subtext that leads to a profound final reveal. A horror film that focuses on women, family, and profound questions of caring and life. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Relic (James 2020) – please watch the film before listening! TOPIC INDEX – Relic (Jam...

Prisoners (Villeneuve 2009) Prisoners is dark and twisted in the best possible ways. Villeneuve’s first English-language feature film. He has gone on to massive success for good reason with films such as Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Martyrs (2008) remains the pinnacle of horror thus far in the 21st century. Exactly two films have thus far even reached into th...

This episode we discuss Iliadis' 2009 remake of Craven's 1972 iconic film The Last House on the Left. This film is situated in the context of the 2000s reboots of many first wave horror films. In modernizing the classic in terms of style, the film unfortunately also corrupted and perverted the progressive ideology as well as polishing the raw material. Doing so removed precisely what made the orig...

The Last House on the Left (Craven 1972) This episode we discuss the first film of the storied and influential career of the horror icon Wes Craven . With The Last House on the Left Craven upended the expectations of the bounds of mainstream films, preceded Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper 1974) in shocking audiences, helped launch the careers of Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner , and establishe...