It's Del Toro Time - A Guillermo del Toro-adjacent Podcast

“Sssssssssmokin’!” Oh, somebody stop me. This week, we begin a new chunk of “The Dark Descent” as we wend our way into “A Fabulous Formless Darkness” by way of the game-changing short story “Smoke Ghost” by Fritz Leiber. Does it live up to the hype? Yes. Yes, it does.

Oh, Henry James. Why must you be so obtuse? This week, it’s a return to the creeps and the spooks as we take a step inside “The Jolly Corner!” Any good? Well, Willow had no idea what was going on!

This week, it’s a story that really left a wild impression on us. Is it supernatural? Natural? A little bit of both? Who knows! It’s “Mackintosh Willy” by Ramsey Campbell!

This week, it’s a story that is remarkably similar in many ways to last weeks. So, we both loved it, of course! Right? RIGHT?! *sigh* It’s “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor.

This week, it’s our first Tanith Lee story and, maybe not coincidentally, one of our favorites. Is it horror? Who cares? It’s awesome! It’s “Three Days” here on The Dark Descent!

D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” is no liar. It’s got a rocking horse. It’s got a winner. It’s all there on the tin!

Are you ready for some heady noir? This week’s “You Can Go Now” by Dennis Etchison is weird and trippy and short and delightful! It’s a real headscratcher, I tells ya!

Willow and I are back with more Dark Descent. This week, it’s “My Dear Emily” by Joanna Russ. It’s a vampire story, with a twist! The twist? Um… it’s good?

If there’s one person we love talking about at The Dark Descent, it’s Dick Math! Dickie the Math Man! Richard “Richie Rich” Matheson! Yes, this week we take a look at Dickie’s first ever published story “Born of Man and Woman!” And, it’s an icky one!

When is a ghost not a ghost? When it’s your repressed homosexuality! It’s Robert Hichens’s “How Love Came To Professor Guildea” on The Dark Descent!

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Emily doesn’t get a rose. How about that? It’s The Dark Descent and we’re back!

A woman really hates that wallpaper in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper!” It’s yellow, alright!

This week, Willow and Phil schalk the schalk with J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Schalken the Painter!” It’s based on a real guy, but it’s not! It’s pretty sexy but also gross! It’s a rip roaring good time and also about the societal helplessness of women in the face of suffocating patriarchy. “Schalken the Painter!”

This week, THE CAT HAS A RACIST NAME. And, YES, we discuss it! Also, Lovecraft’s impossibly wild interpretation of Roman mythology and, look, it’s actually a pretty good story about a grieving father. It’s “The Rats In The Walls!”

This week, it’s all about Christmastime, Mega-Malls and Stone Babies, baby! It’s “Within the Walls of Tyre” by Michael Bishop and it’s MESSED UP.

You better watch out! Baby who’s that? It’s Phil and Willow back with “The Monkey” by Stephen King! And, all we really need to say is that this is the best King character and he needs to come back, please. Thanks.

Willow and I return to the world of Poe with “The Fall of the House of Usher!” It’s nice to be back on firm ground with a classic story and talk all about Poe and his 13 year old bride. No, really, it’s fun.

Willow thinks I’m nuts for ever having liked this mess. It’s “Dread” by Clive Barker!

If you like non-verbal developmentally disabled men with borderline personality disorder performing inprov surgery on unconscious women, have we got a story for you! It’s “Bright Segment” by Theodore Sturgeon and it’s ICKY!

Are you scared of roaches? Hope not! Because we’re talking about Thomas M. Disch’s “The Roaches” from “The Dark Descent” and it’s got ROACHES!

We’re diving back into “The Dark Descent” because watching movies has PROVED DIFFICULT! And, what a story to dive into! It’s Robert Aickman’s “The Swords” and it’s about… sex? Stabbing? Thrusting? It’s fairly explicit and fairly grimy and we talk about it for a WHILE. Enjoy!

What do you get when Guillermo del Toro decides to make “Pinocchio?” “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio!” It’s an aggressively Guillermo del Toro movie and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

You like birds? You like murmuring? You like GRIEF? Well, we do! We close out Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities with the phenomenal “The Murmuring” by the incredible Jennifer Kent! Then, we rank the eps! It’s fun!

When the director of “Mandy” throws a bunch of comic actors and Robocop in a room together and makes them do Space Cocaine, the result is “The Viewing!” Also, Gremlin Water Hatchers; they grow!