SciFrights

In this episode we are joined by Mike Muncer, host of The Evolution of Horror podcast, to discuss Danny Boyle, a director who has been working steadily across many genres. We begin by going over Boyle's career, his signature style and collaboration with writer Alex Garland (14:04), then we get into the low-res digital frenzy of 28 DAYS LATER (21:20) and his one foray into Science Fiction, the psyc...

Continuing our new season on Director Double Bills, in this episode we focus on action auteur Kathryn Bigelow, exploring her 1987 vampire Western NEAR DARK (31: 57) and the 1995 cyberpunk tech-noir STRANGE DAYS (1:39:15). Joining us today to discuss these films is an incredible guest, author and academic, Professor Stacey Abbott, who wrote the BFI Classic on NEAR DARK. ***Please rate and review ou...

We are joined by an incredible guest, comic book artist and author, Stephen R. Bissette, to discuss one of our favourite directors, David Cronenberg! We will be focusing on two key films: first up we’ll explore how a broken marriage spawns monstrous offspring in THE BROOD (41:40), and what happens when a scientist’s self-experimentation goes terribly wrong (when does it not?) in body horror master...

Welcome to our new season, "Director Double Bills". In each episode we will focus on a filmmaker and explore two of their films, one horror and one Science Fiction. We begin the season with a big one: JC himself – John Carpenter. We are joined by film critic Travis Johnson to explore Carpenter's impact on both genres and go deep into two of his greatest works – the 1981 dystopian classic Escape fr...

We conclude our current season on A.I. and technofear, going down the rabbit hole into the deepest reaches of cyberspace, reaching across planes of reality and into the depths of depravity. To do this, we discuss Lana and Lily Wachowski’s era-defining Sci-Fi masterpiece The Matrix , and a recent film that really blew us away, Pascal Plante’s dark psychological thriller Red Rooms (01:17:10). We end...

We're back from a little break with a round-up of the best of 2025. We count down our Top 10 horror and Sci-Fi films of the year, along with some other Honourable Mentions, discovered older classics, and our favourite TV shows of the year. ***Please rate and review our podcast!*** Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie...

We continue our current season looking at A.I. and technofear, exploring the malevolent forces lurking in our computers and the dark (possibly haunted?) depths of cyberspace. Joining us this episode is Brogan Morris, writer, journalist, and programmer for Distorted Frame Film Club, to discuss Joseph Sargeant’s 1970 techno-thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project (12:35) and Kyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 Int...

In this episode we discuss representations of robot children and the relationships between robots and children. Here we see examinations of how technology affects the family and ideas around parenthood and our responsibility towards both human children and our artificial creations. Is there even much difference between the two? To answer this question, we discuss Steven Spielberg's (by way of Stan...

We spent our August Bank Holiday weekend at Frightfest, indulging in 5 days of non-stop horror movies. We give you a rundown on what we saw and survey some of the recurring themes we noticed (our biggest takeaways - beware of demons, witches and shamans, and always check that you don't double book that Airbnb, folks!). Films covered: Salt Along the Tongue, Five, Mother of Flies, Serpent's Skin, Do...

In this episode we welcome our first guest, film critic Travis Johnson, to rank all six Terminator films from worst to best. We discuss what makes some of the films modern classics and why other films in the franchise get it so wrong. We explore how the films express anxieties about A.I., what makes Sarah Connor such an enduring action icon, how Arnold Schwarzenegger's performances change from fil...

In this episode we discuss Liam’s most anticipated film of the year – and a film that set the box office on fire over the weekend – Zach Cregger’s Weapons . We start with a spoiler-free conversation about the film’s influences, structure, style, and scares, before getting into spoiler territory (from 24:50) going deep into the film’s villain and the societal implications of its themes. Hosted, pro...

This episode’s topic explores how direct relationships develop between humans and A.I., leading to questions about the nature of consciousness and the nature of love, sexuality, human emotion and bodily autonomy. Firstly we have a discussion about whether there are differences between robots and A.I. and survey some key examples of robots/A.I. throughout cinema history (01:33). Then we go on to ex...

Introducing SciFrights Bites - a shorter episode where we discuss a recent cinema release. In this episode we explore 28 Years Later, the latest film in a series that was groundbreaking in its use of digital technology. We look back on the legacy of 28 Days Later (02:00) and 28 Weeks Later (17:08) - including the burning question: are these zombie films? - before diving into 28 Years Later (20:50)...

We begin our new season by focusing on just one film (which just happens to be Liam's favourite film): Stanley Kubrick's monumental masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Firstly though we have a catch up on some really exciting things that have been happening (01;12), explain what our new season is all about (08:18), and then get stuck right into our main feature (10:50). We thought given that we had...

In this episode we conclude our season exploring the legacy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by looking at the greatest monster humanity ever created: society itself! We begin with a discussion of how the evils of capitalism and systemic inequality seem to have been a recurring theme throughout our previous episodes, and follow on from this by analysing 70s dystopia classic Soylent Green (07:08) and...

In this episode we go beyond testing the limits of the human body to exploration of the mind. Liam gives us a rundown of the history and representation of mind control (01:17), then we discuss Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange (14:45), followed by Brandon Cronenberg’s gruesome and disturbing tech thriller Possessor (1:00:03). As always, we end with some Honourable Mentions...

In this episode we go under the knife, examining the weird trend of films in the 1960s about face transplants. After discussing the representation of the surgeon and Liam’s squeamishness about seeing surgery on screen (01:10), we then explore Georges Franju’s classic of art horror fantastique from 1960, Les yeux sans visage/Eyes without a Face (13:25) and John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Twilight Zone -e...

In this episode we become the monster, exploring what its like to be the one considered abnormal or inhuman. Lindsay examines this notion of the Other in horror and science fiction (01:12), then we discuss Brian DePalma’s coming-of-age horror classic Carrie (07:55), and Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi action satire Robocop (50:12). We finish with Honourable Mentions (01:32:02) of other films that also tak...

In this episode we explore the life and creations of cinema’s mad scientists. Lindsay gives us a quick run down on the history of the mad science film (06:45), then we discuss Ken Russell’s psychedelic mind-melter Altered States (14:47) and Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraftian gore-fest Re-Animator (1:14:24). We end with some Honourable Mentions of our favourite nutty professors (1:58:00), which includes...

In our first episode we go back to the origins of horror and science fiction: Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein . After exploring how this one story birthed both genres (02:55), we then discuss Paul Morrissey's 3-D schlocker Flesh for Frankenstein from 1973 (16:20), and Vincenzo Natali’s genetic engineering thriller Splice from 2010 (52:23). We then end with some Honourable Mentions of other...

SciFrights – a movie podcast from the Interzone where horror meets science fiction. In each episode hosts Liam Dunn and Dr Lindsay Hallam will explore a theme through two films, one horror and one science fiction. They will discuss the place of the film within the history of the genre, the ways the film employs genre tropes and style, and analyse the film’s historical context and social commentary...