Faculty of Horror

Time to hunker in your bunker! In this episode, Andrea and Alex tackle the issues surrounding Nice Guys, privilege, and the conservative ideology around preservation during times of upheaval. The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!   Become a Patron! REQUIRED READING 10 Cloverfield Lane. Dir Dan Trachtenberg, 2016.  EXTRA CREDIT r/niceguys. These “nice […]

Join Alex for a commentary on the teen slasher classic, I Know What You Did Last Summer. Featuring a discussion of wigs, classism, star power and how an urban legend threatened to bring down a cynical generation, this commentary makes the case for July 4 becoming the Fisherman’s Holiday. Cue up the film, get some […]

Our Glossary of Gore series is normally for Patreon members, but… it’s been a week. Here’s Andrea on cultural hegemony. Become a Patron! Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As”

We’ve had a lot of people asking what we’ve been watching lately so here’s a run of the new releases that have been on our radar. The second portion of this episode is available to all tiers of our Patreon! Join now and gain access to the rest of our lockdown activities, plus even more […]

What starts as a routine stop for a firefighters and a puff piece for some TV journalists descends into one of the most chilling and prescient film franchises in contemporary horror. To kick off the Summer of Plague series, Andrea and Alex delve into the nooks and crannies of Spanish history and a Barcelona apartment […]

By reminding us of the past, ghosts can shape our future, revealing hidden truths, histories and uncertainties that we’re often too scared to acknowledge. Grief and terror become inextricably intertwined in Peter Medak’s The Changeling, and Andrea and Alex untangle the metaphors, traumas and unspoken realities that have made this film a Canadian horror classic. […]

Skipping the pond and travelling back to the roaring ’20s (the last ones, that is), Andrea and Alex take a tour of interwar Germany via two of the country’s most celebrated cinematic marvels. From the Weimar Republic to the Frankfurt school, from German expressionism to antisemitism, the past presents us with creativity unfettered (and warnings […]

From the Gothic urban landscape, to narrative switch-a-roos, to entitled male rage, David Fincher’s Se7en is much more than a morality-wielding killer with a penchant for… unboxings. In this episode, Andrea and Alex delve into the movie’s complicated moral codes, the history of detective fiction and the dangers of having a God-complex.   The Fack […]

It’s a Fack Flash episode about our pets! Join Alex, Andrea and a feisty Pomeranian for a chat about furbabies, familiars and the auditory terrors of canine indigestion. The full episode is available to all tiers of our Patreon! Join now and gain access to the complete one-hour episode, plus even more perks and extras. […]

It’s that time again…   Best of 2019!   Best of the Decade!   Bloopers!   Banter!   Bats!   The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our monthly newsletter! EXTRA CREDIT Become a Patron!   Here’s that Johannes Nyholm clip with the “drunken baby” from his film, Las Palmas.  LISTEN Right click or option-click here and […]

In our first Fack Flash of 2020, Alex and Andrea look back at horror’s biggest happenings and headlines of the past decade, including #metoo, Women in Horror Month, the return of Stephen King, and much more! Become a Patron for access to the full episode! Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As“

Locking your windows and doors won’t do much good when Béatrice Dalle is at your door. This month we tackle the grotesque Holiday classic Inside (À l’Intérieur) and examine themes of conception, religion, and motherhood alongside the French politics of the time. Become a Patron! The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our monthly newsletter! REQUIRED READING […]

Pass the popcorn! Patrons in our Professor Emeritus tier can watch Bernard Rose’s Candyman with Alex and Andrea via a full-length commentary track. Here’s a taste! Become a Patron! Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As“

Sharpen your teeth (and your wits) because this month, we’re devouring the world of Anne Rice and her cinematic vampires. Discussing their emergence from Gothic literary fever dream to hyper-stylized incarnations on the big screen, Andrea and Alex prove that there’s still life in them yet. Become a Patron! The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our […]

In our first-ever Glossary of Gore episode, Alex tackles Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze; analyzing Mulvey’s essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema and discussing how it’s been applied since it became part of cinematic vernacular. The full episode is available only to the post-graduate tier of our Patreon! Join now and gain access […]

Live from Salem Horror Fest 2019 – Andrea and Alex tackle Jonathan Glazer’s alien masterpiece. Bringing the outlying universe down to Earth, Under The Skin reveals the darkest parts of consciousness in a chilling meditation on what it means to be human. Become a Patron! The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our monthly newsletter! REQUIRED READING […]

Our first-ever Ask the Fack Q&A episode is live, in which we discuss our favourite books, our top non-horror movies, and some bonus parenting tips for horror fans (hey, you asked!) The full episode is available only to the graduate tier of our Patreon! Join now and gain access to the complete one-hour episode, plus […]

Andrea and Alex kick off a new semester with a discussion of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House, a truly bizarre but exciting entry into the horror canon. Covering everything from witch-y house cats, to nuclear bombs to inter-generational tensions, this episode may never capture the unbridled energy of the film but it might unlock some doors… Become […]

This month, Andrea and Alex pull back the veil on narrative cinema and the true-crime phenomena. From John McNaughton’s nightmarish debut to David Fincher’s gumshoe epic, the answers to our response and responsibility to real-life events is almost always more complex than they appear on the surface. Class of 2019 T-shirts are available now at Twisted […]

Is it the apocalypse or just the start of a new era? Can it be both? Andrea and Alex delve into everything from the military to existentialism, brought to life by Frank Darabont's controversial adaptation of Stephen King's novella.

Andrea and Alex hit the hay one last time to discuss how Freddy became a marketing legend, a cultural sensation and an arbiter of taste. Transitioning from installments in the late ’80s to the ’90s to the early aughts, Freddy illustrates how slashers have evolved (or devolved) to become cultural icons. Class of 2019 T-shirts are […]

Freddy Krueger may be the man of our dreams but what about his creator, the studio that sustained him, his victims and the 1980s? Andrea and Alex dive into their nightmares and beyond to explore the lasting effects of one of horror’s most beloved franchises. Class of 2019 T-shirts are available now at Twisted Ts!  Salem […]

Andrea and Alex unmask Georges Franju’s 1960 masterpiece Eyes Without a Face and peer into the damaged landscape of a post-World War II France, body modification and why sometimes, father doesn’t know best. REQUIRED READING Eyes Without a Face. Dir. Georges Franju, 1960. EXTRA CREDIT Blood of the Beasts (1949) Franju’s short documentary about the slaughterhouses on the […]

Andrea and Alex head West to explore the notions of Manifest Destiny and the Frontier Myth in Antonia Bird’s Ravenous. Combining historical context through a modern gaze, Ravenous proves you are who you eat. REQUIRED READING Ravenous. Dir. Antonia Bird, 1999. EXTRA CREDIT Manifest Destiny – An overview of the philosophical American mandate to head West. Cannibal […]

Andrea and Alex return for their annual year in review episode. From their favourite films of 2018 to FAQs and bloopers, few stones are left unturned… and those are probably haunted anyway. EXTRA CREDIT Alex’s Favourite Films of 2018: Suspiria Pyewacket Annihilation Assassination Nation Cam   Andrea’s Favourite Films of 2018: Suspiria Hereditary Assassination Nation […...