Quiet Little Horrors

We continue our discussion of the Hag Horror genre with one of its underappreciated gems: What's the Matter with Helen? Come for Debbie Reynolds dancing, stay for Shelley Winters losing her mind.

It's time for Hagsploitation. We discuss why we unironically love this genre of psychological horror featuring grand dame actresses, starting with Joan Crawford in Strait-Jacket . Find the right axe to match your pearls and join in.

A classic of psychological horror, 1961's The Innocents is a delicious mix of all the things we love to talk about: ghosts, sexual deviancy, women losing their minds, etc. We also cover the roots of the story from Henry James's The Turn of the Screw as well as how everyone loved to get all Freudian in the 50s.

Who wouldn't like to chat about elaborate murder plots, sexual deviancy and cats? We gear up for our discussion of this month's full-length episode on The Innocents with a mini episode on 1969's Eye of the Cat .

This month we're covering films with the theme of a loss of a child, and A Dark Song ratchets this theme to a whole new level of transformation. We discuss its complex characterizations, evolving emotions and transcendent turns.

This month we're talking about movies that deal with the loss of a child, beginning with 1980s The Changeling . It's a good start, but this one falls short of what we were hoping for. We discuss the psychological underpinnings we were expecting to see emerge more and how expectations for that sort of thing in horror films have evolved.

We continue our discussion of horror and fairy tales with 2020's Gretel & Hansel , a slow-burn, coming-of-age tale from director Oz Perkins, and dive deeper into our thoughts about how horror mirrors the journey of a girl moving through a challenging world.

The story of Red Riding Hood gets meta and bloody as we kick off a month of fairy tale horror with 1984's The Company of Wolves . We discuss the legacy of fairy tales, the influence of writer Angela Carter and why horror is such a perfect vehicle for female coming-of-age stories.

We head into a world of Thai folk beliefs, evil spirits and familial strife with 2021's The Medium . This one ends up diving headfirst into traditional horror, but we're more affected by what's going on under the surface.

We begin a month's discussion of folklore in psychological horror film with 2019's La Llorona . Despite its honor as Guatemala's submission for best international film, this one seems to have been overshadowed by lesser films with the same story device, but we think it deserves more recognition for its effective and affecting use of myth.

We continue our month of discussing the intersection between horror and noir with the 2021 adaptation of Nightmare Alley . We compare it to the original adaptation and delve into the differences in character motivations, plus we consider if director Guillermo del Toro's influence tips this film into full "horror" territory.

This month we discuss the dark intersection between horror and noir, beginning with the 1947 adaptation of Nightmare Alley . Carnivals, cons and a slow descent into fated madness. Fun for the whole family!

We continue this month's discussion of the horror of old age and generational trauma with 2020's Relic , directed by Natalie Erika James. A slow-burn psychological horror woven among three women of the samily but different generations, this one leads to surprisingly tender hidden places.

We begin a month of discussion about films dealing with age, disease and generational trauma with 2021's The Manor , which tells us that getting old is really scary and sometimes there are ancient tree demons.

There's something out there on the prairie. Isolation, jealousy, psychosis, demons—or maybe it's just the wind. We cover it all in our discussion of 2018's The Wind from director Emma Tammi.

This month we're discussing wide, open spaces and the horror lying in wait beyond civilization. So what better place to begin than with 1971's Ozploitation classic, Wake in Fright . Topics include the facade of morality, the danger of the outcast and, um, kangaroo hunts. Content warning! This film has very graphic scenes of violence against animals and we talk about it, in general terms, in the ep...

It's the end of the year and so it's time for some reflection. We look back on our second season, discuss our favorite episodes and list the goals we have for the podcast next year. This is also a great opportunity to send us feedback or suggest a future film to cover! Email us at hello@quietlittlehorrors.com . Thank you for coming along with us! Happy New Year!

We're ending 2021 and our second season with a big one: Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho . It's dazzling, twisty and maybe a little thematically muddled, but talking about what works and what doesn't is a fun ride. This episode's related recommendations: Stir of Echoes Sixth Sense Peeping Tom Black Swan

We kick off this month's pairing with a classic of the psychological horror genre: Repulsion , directed by Roman Polanski in 1965. Isolation, untreated trauma, the downsides of moving through the world as a woman and also why people should maybe just leave women alone already.

We continue our Candyman discussion with the sequel/reimagining from 2021, directed by Nia DaCosta. Spoiler alert: we're a little mixed on this one, with one half of the podcast warmer on it than the other. We cover the threads picked up from the original film, what has happened to Cabrini-Green and Chicago in the meantime and how this film takes on themes of historical racial violence and segrega...

In which we forget to determine ahead of time if the "say Candyman five times" rule still applies if you say it over the course of a podcast episode. If so, we're doomed. But, before our doom, we discuss 1992's Candyman . Topics include the history of Chicago's structural racism, this story as gothic horror and the awesomeness of Tony Todd. Strongly recommended reading: Steve Bogira's 1987 Chicago...

We continue our month-long cult discussion with Karyn Kusama's 2015 The Invitation . We talk about the patterns of imprisonment, overwhelming grief and how this film's cult deals with grief differently than the one in our earlier mini episode. Also which cult we would prefer to join, just in case we ever have to make that decision (you never know).

We kick off a month of cults and grief with 2019's Midsommar and discuss emotional catharsis, the humor of dark absurdity and inventive ways of dealing with horrible boyfriends.

We continue our Suspiria discussion by taking a look at the original 1977 film, which we overall like better than the newer version. We talk about the context of giallo, the film's visual and audio flair and the mysteries of the connections between women.

This month we take on both incarnations of the Italian horror staple Suspiria , beginning with the 2018 version—of which, spoiler alert, we are not terribly fond. We'll discuss what the new one adds and what the new one is missing, with a detour to praise performances and a couple of set pieces.