Fear of the Dark

For the third episode of Fear of the Dark's horror/comedy mini season, Matthew and Stacey chat about Sorry to Bother You, the 2018 genre-bending sci-fi/fantasy/comedy/horror film directed by Boots Riley. It stars LaKeith Stanfield as Cassius "Cash" Green, a young man who finds himself rising up the corporate ladder as a telemarketer thanks to the use of his "white voice." Join us for a conversatio...

On our second episode of the horror/comedy mini season, Stacey and Matthew discuss Josh Ruben's Werewolves Within (2021). The film stars Samuel Richardson as Finn Wheeler, a forest ranger assigned to a small Vermont town called Beaverfield, who gets sheltered in with the rest of the townsfolk when they begin to suspect that one among them could secretly be a werewolf. Join us as we talk about this...

On the first episode of Fear of the Dark's horror/comedy mini season, Matthew and Stacey sit down to talk about The Blackening (2022). The film follows a group of friends who get together for a reunion in a remote cabin. Upon arrival, they realize that a trap has been set, which leads them to the ultimate question: who is the "Blackest" out of them all? Join us as we talk about the tropes and ster...

Fear of the Dark is releasing its second mini season, which is all about the horror/comedy film. What connects horror and comedy as independent genres, what differentiates them, and why does this crossover work so well? We have a line-up of four films to think about how the horror/comedy filters and unmasks each genre's racial conventions and tropes: The Blackening (2022), Werewolves Within (2021)...

This time on Fear of the Dark, Matthew and Stacey sit down briefly to talk about the series, Alien: Earth, the latest addition to the Alien franchise. Recorded when we just entered spooky season, this mini episode covers what we like (and don't like) about the series, as well as where it fits into the broader trends of the streaming and TV industry. Show: Alien: Earth (2025) Intro Music: “The Army...

On this episode of Fear of the Dark, Stacey and Matthew sit down to talk about the episode, "The Viewing," from the horror anthology, Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities. Directed by Panos Cosmatos, the episode stars Peter Weller as Lionel Lassiter, a wealthy recluse, who has invited a small group of people to something called "the viewing." Among the guests in attendance are Charlotte (Ch...

In this seasonal holiday-inspired episode, Matthew and Stacey fight over a waffle iron at the Black Friday sale (disclaimer: no one actually got hurt)... Join us today as we discuss Eli Roth's 2023 slasher film, Thanksgiving, based on the fictitious trailer originally advertised in Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, 2007). We talk about the corporate phenomenon of Black Friday, th...

On this episode, Matthew and Stacey go to the movies (separately this time) to watch Guillermo Del Toro's 2025 horror film, Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein's creature. Matthew opens this conversation with a spooky excerpt from Mary Shelley's original novel, and then we dive in. Where has the body horror of the creature gone in the newest adaptation of...

On this episode, Matthew and I discuss The Long Walk (2025), a dystopian horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and based on Stephen King's 1979 novel. The premise is straightforward: a large group of young men from all across the nation volunteer to walk in an annual marathon, and if they stop for too long at any point or fall below a certain base speed, they will be killed. Join us as we talk...

On this very special episode - a little "bonus" after our Jordan Peele mini season - Stacey and Matthew sit down to talk with Dawn Keetley, Professor of English and Film at Lehigh University, about HIM, the 2025 sports horror film directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele. The story follows Cam (Tyriq Withers), a rising football star who goes to train with Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans...

Happy Halloween! On the final episode of our Jordan Peele mini-season, Stacey and Matthew talk about Nope (2022), the Western sci-fi horror starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, two siblings who discover an unusual phenomenon in the skies near their family's horse ranch. Join us as we close out the season, talking about the many cinematic influences on Nope, the equivocation of the racialized h...

On the second episode in our Jordan Peele mini season, Matthew and Stacey talk about Us (2019), starring Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide, a young mother whose family vacation is violently disrupted by the arrival of another family that looks, uncannily, just like them. We talk about the fear of the doppelgänger, Black childhood and femininity, and how the film might speak to some of the tensions and in...

On the first episode of Fear of the Dark's mini season on Jordan Peele's filmography, Stacey and Matthew discuss the now-classic Black horror film, Get Out, Peele's 2017 directorial debut. We chat about the veil of Black subjectivity in the film, the mobility and performativity of whiteness, and where the Asian figure fits into the racial dynamics of Peele's modern America. Film: Get Out (Jordan P...

Fear of the Dark's first "mini season" is here - just in time for spooky season! Join Matthew and Stacey for a brief introduction on our Jordan Peele season, where we'll be talking about the three movies in Peele's filmography: Get Out, Us, and Nope. Outro Music: “Late Night Indigo” (written and performed by Stacey Baran) Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew...

On Part 2 of Matthew and Stacey's conversation with Dr. Eleanor Johnson (Columbia University), we continue with a discussion on David Lowery’s 2021 medieval fantasy film, The Green Knight. Join us as we chat about medieval texts and their generic translations into contemporary fantasy and horror, the idea of masculinity and racial inheritance as it is mediated by Gawain (played by Dev Patel), and...

On this very special episode of Fear of the Dark, Matthew and Stacey are joined by Dr. Eleanor Johnson, Professor of English at Columbia University. We meet up in cyberspace to talk about her new book, Scream with Me, which reads several classic horror films from the 1970s and 80s alongside the rise of American second-wave feminism. Eleanor shares with us some of the background and thinking behind...

Candyman... candyman... third time's the charm! On this episode, Matthew and Stacey talk about Bernard Rose's 1992 horror film, Candyman, starring Tony Todd as the ghost of a Black artist who was murdered in the nineteenth century and haunts Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing project. Join us as we chat about Candyman's iconic costuming, the domestic B-plot of Helen's (Virginia Madsen) cheatin...

In this episode, we get a little too close to the friendly woman who lives in town... Today, we discuss Ma (2019), the horror film starring Octavia Spencer as Sue Ann ("Ma"), in which a group of high school students get wrapped up in her pursuit of vengeance against those who wronged her when she was younger. Join us as we talk about the the horrors of service and hospitality, the aestheticization...

Matthew and Stacey sit down to talk about Ti West's 2022 slasher Pearl, starring Mia Goth as the titular antiheroine in this prequel to X. Join us as we discuss the film's representations of the American (immigrant's) dream and the history of cinema, as well as whether we might consider this film a contemporary contribution to American folk horror. Film: Pearl (Ti West, 2022) Intro Music: “The Arm...

In this episode, Stacey and Matthew sit down to talk about Trey Edward Shults' It Comes at Night (2017), starring Joel Edgerton, Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. This post-apocalyptic horror film explores the dynamics of two families who decide to live in the same house in hopes of increasing their chances of survival, and whose secrecy and mistrust eventuall...

On this special, slightly-out-of-the-ordinary episode of Fear of the Dark, Matthew and Stacey celebrate the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's classic, Jaws. Join us as we geek out over the film together. We chat about our favorite lines and funny moments, the iconicity of the shark in horror, and how a movie like Jaws imagines the animal as compared to the apex predator in Jordan Peele's Nope...

On this episode, Matthew and Stacey talk about the 2020 horror film His House directed by Remi Weekes. The film stars Wunmi Mosaku as Rial and Sope Dirisu as Bol, a South Sudanese couple fleeing to London for asylum, as they find themselves struggling to conform to the pressures of belonging in England while also being haunted by the ghosts of their past. Tune in with us as we discuss historical a...

In this episode, we stave off the zombie apocalypse by heading to the second floor and taking out the staircase... Join us as we talk about George A. Romero's 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead, the symbolism of the farmhouse in the 60s, the doomed heroism of our protagonist Ben (played by Duane Jones), and the sociopolitical milieu of the film's release. Film: Night of the Living Dead (George A....

"AUTOPSY IN PROGRESS"... On this episode of Fear of the Dark, Stacey and Matthew chat about Final Destination (2000) in tandem with the newest installment in the franchise, Final Destination Bloodlines (2025). We reminisce a bit on what it was like for us to first see the original, and then we discuss the role of William Bludworth, played by the late Tony Todd, to think about the actor's cinematic...

On this episode, Matthew and Stacey are joined by Rosette Simityan, a fellow UC Davis colleague in the English Department. Join us as we talk about Zoë Kravitz's 2024 psychological thriller, Blink Twice, which stars Naomi Ackie as Frida, a cocktail server, and Channing Tatum as Slater King, a tech CEO who invites Frida and her friend, Jess (Alia Shawkat), to his private island. Once there, Frida a...