Not Quite Dead

Like a monster you can't keep down...we're back! NQD is reviving our Patrick Wilson season with the cult classic Bone Tomahawk. Released in 2015 and the first feature film from director S. Craig Zahler, this slow-burn western horror is a delight for almost everyone. An all star ensemble rounds out this excellent movie: Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, and the always endearing Richard Jenkins. The Girls...

Cate and Meg discuss colors, social justice, corny writing, and of course, our guy Patrick Wilson!

NQD is kicking off an all-new season focusing on the horror scream king Patrick Wilson! The modern horror icon stars in our first movie of the year: The Conjuring (2013). Director James Wan kicks off this horror movie franchise with Patrick Wilson alongside Vera Farmiga playing real-life paranormal investigator couple Ed and Lorraine Warren. They're skeptical of the haunting at the Perron hous...

Don't say his name a third time! Tim Burton is back 30ish years later with the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara from the original are back too, joined by newcomers Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux. Beetlejuice is surprisingly helpful in this jaunt to get Lydia's daughter out of the underworld. Discussion points include: stitchin...

Is this our silliest episode yet? You tell us! To cap off the 2024 year and our zombie season, we're bringing you Dead Snow. The 2009 flick Dead Snow delivers exactly what's on the label: a Nazi zombie campy horror movie. Come for the cheesy plot, stay for the copious blood and guts. Discussion points include: Nazi zombies (duh), snowmobile skiing, a disgusting outhouse rendezvous.

Planet Terror introduces NQD to yet another type of zombie: the biochemical-warfare induced mutant! Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror was released as one-half of the Grindhouse production alongside Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof. Arguably and demonstrably the more successful of the two, Planet Terror follows a ragtag group just trying to survive: a go-go dancer, her ex-lover, an unhappily married p...

NQD tackles their first Uwe Boll-directed movie, and it lives up to his reputation! House of the Dead (2003) is a zombie movie of contradictions - so much death, yet so very boring. A group of friends are going to a rave on a remote rainforest island, but quickly discover zombies are on the rampage. With help from the smuggling boat crewmen that took them to the island, a handful of ravers, and a...

The Girl with all the Gifts is a beautiful, thought-provoking zombie movie. We loved it and we think you will too! It's a criminally under-watched film, so make sure to add it to your rental queue! Melanie, a zombie-human hybrid child, escapes the military compound she's lived her whole life in and helps guide a group of humans across London. Discussion points include: alignment charts, mi...

Milla Jovovich, how we love you. NQD is bringing you the original 2002 Resident Evil, the very first in a five movie franchise. Special guest David Celarie from the horror movie podcast Knight Light joins us to discuss all of the gruesome action and play a special game! Jovovich fights off amnesia, zombies, and a shady tech company in this horror-action flick. Discussion points include: video game...

It’s World War Z, the blockbuster sensation filled with the fastest zombies we’ve ever seen.  Based on a global best-selling book, WWZ is an action-packed jaunt around the world with Brad Pitt at the helm as UN special investigator.  Discussion points include: plane crash scenes, traumatized spare children, unnecessary family plot. 

A remake that’s…pretty good! Dawn of the Dead is already a zombie classic, and while this version doesn’t update much, it does place us squarely in the early 2000s. Special guests High on Film’s Brad Davis and Chris Maxwell join us for this action-packed episode!  Before he was releasing cuts of DC movies, Zack Snyder directed the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Featuring the iconic mall setting and a...

Lupita Nyong'o stars as the cutest zombie killing teacher ever in the Hulu-released horror-comedy flick Little Monsters (2019). Slacker Dave joins his young nephew on a field trip strictly to get closer to his cute teacher, Miss Audrey. Dave quickly learns he needs to take at least a little responsibility when the field trip has to face a horde of zombies. Discussion points include: disrespect...

Train to Busan was director Yeon Sang-ho's gift to the world in 2016. Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead fame calls it the best zombie film ever made - and who are we to disagree? Gong Yoo (known now for Squid Game) plays Seok-woo, a hedge fund manager who prioritized work over his family - until a zombie apocalypse traps him and his young daughter on a high speed train. They are up against zom...

Edgar Wright wraps his love of the zombie genre in many layers of era-specific humor in the buddy horror comedy Shaun of the Dead! Guest Jason Burk from Hemispheric Views joins us again to reminisce on this not-so-cult classic. Shaun is your typical Gen X slacker who shirks responsibility at every available opportunity. That is, until a zombie apocalypse arrives in his garden. With the help of his...

Director Danny Boyle reinvigorated the zombie genre with 2002's 28 Days Later. Cillian Murphy wakes up alone and naked in a hospital bed 28 days after a rage virus decimates England. Zombies, lack of resources, and some really gross military dudes round out some real horror in this episode! Discussion points include: how quickly men become terrible in a disaster, falling in love in an apocalyp...

NQD couldn't kick off a Zombies season without George Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead! Bringing the zombie genre to life, Romero shocked 1960s audiences with his tale of the undead. It's gruesome, it's seminal, it's a ghoulish good time! Discussion points include: earlier zombie movies, a useless woman, space radiation.

The Grudge came out hot on the heels of global interest in J-horror, and is one of the better American adaptations! Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in Sam Raimi's 2004 ghost horror story as an American exchange student attempting to solve a haunting. Discussion points include: Japanese horror history, onryo, the ghosts' rules.

Are you ready for a Saw X-travaganza?! We here at NQD certainly are! Join us as we talk all things prequel, play the drinking game we came up with way back in Season 1 of the podcast, test each other's Saw trivia knowledge, and re-rank the films in the franchise. It's a blast, and not just the kind that makes you lose a limb. Discussion points include: what makes a critically acclaimed Saw film, t...

Smile (2022) may be director Parker Finn's feature length film debut, but it has the style and scares to feel like a veteran effort. Psychiatric therapist Laura already has a lot of baggage - workaholic, abusive childhood, a strained relationship with her sister - when a delusional patient seems to transmit a terrifying curse onto her. Is it all in her head, or is there an entity really after...

The 2007 Spanish film The Orphanage has horrors of multiple levels: a missing child, playful ghosts, and home renovations. The J.A. Bayona horror flick was a smash hit internationally, bringing acclaim to the Spanish film industry. Not Quite Dead gets into the details of a woman buying the orphanage she grew up in with her family, only to be plagued by ghosts and the loss of her son. Discussion po...

Not Quite Dead? More like "Not So Scary" when we cover nostalgic classics like the 1995 movie Casper! Fan favorites Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman and Devon Sawa star in the kid-friendly film about a dead child ghost falling in love with a living teen.  Discussion points include: terrible uncle poltergeists, the CGI of the 90s, and dead wives. 

The Evil Dead Rise! The series is back and chock full of Sam Raimi-isms, with plenty of homages to the much beloved earlier entries in the franchise. Stuffed to the brim with disgustingly gory effects and plenty of slyly funny jokes, Lee Cronin's 2023 addition to the Evil Dead series is a welcome one. Discussion points include: sister relationships, where not to take a pregnancy test, our favo...

The first found footage movie to be scary since Blair Witch! Paranormal Activity debuted in 2007 to critical acclaim and a staggering box office on a shoestring budget. Couple Katie and Micah are already on tense terms when they get third-wheeled by Katie's own personal (literal) demon. Micah is an inept boyfriend whose only skill is pissing off a demon, while poor Katie has to be haunted whil...

Come away with us to tropical Li Tolqa, home to beautiful resorts and pay-to-play murder and crime sprees! The catch is teeny-tiny: be executed for your misdeeds or pay to have a clone of yourself be killed in your place. Infinity Pool, directed and written by Brandon Cronenberg, explores issues of privilege, tourism, and scifi existentialism in one not-so-neat package. Discussion points include:...

They're here! NQD is covering the classic horror film Poltergeist. Effectively a Steven Spielberg movie, this movie introduced a new cultural fear: getting stuck in the TV. Join us as we dissect the haunting of this all-American 80s family, baby angel Carol Anne's entrapment in the ghostly plane, and a host of malicious spirits. Discussion points include: the old timey 80s, what's a po...