Spooky Bitch Gang

It's cold, it's dark, and we're feeling paranoid as hell. The first film adaptation of John W. Campbell's classic sci-fi novella  Who Goes There?  turns 75 this year. We're taking a look at the various Things from pop-culture, especially John Carpenter's classic 1982 film and its dogged road to being a beloved masterpiece. Also includes discussions of  Teenage Sex &am...

Germinating for years online and now exploding into cinemas, is liminal horror the new mainstream trend? Dealing in the uncanny and the unknowable, liminal horror breaks down the very fabric of human identity. We take a look at Backrooms and other recent examples of liminal horror and we also take a look at the deep cinematic roots of the mysterious, surreal and transitional. Includes discussions...

Curry Barker of viral success Milk & Serial has delivered another (relatively) low budget marvel. Already a huge hit, where does  Obsession slot into the horror landscape? Does its vision of toxic relationships have bite, or does it disappear in the shadows? We also discuss the 50th anniversary of  The Town that Dreaded Sundown  (1976), plus its sequel (2014). Also includes discussions of  Und...

In this episode we take a look at a micro genre that's positively ancient by pop culture standards. A relic of early talkies that has spread across the horror landscape, what can we learn from the mad and macabre locales of Old Dark House movies? Includes discussions of Whistle (2025), The Holy Boy (2025),  The Old Dark House  (1932),  The Ghost Walks  (1934),  Thirteen Ghosts  (1960),  The T...

A semi-dormant and dogged IP comes back to life with Lee Cronin's The Mummy . Beyond its baffling vanity title, how does this movie contribute to the mummy's pop culture image? Is it really a mummy movie at all? And what about the cultural baggage that's always followed the bandaged boogeyman? Also includes discussions of  Hokum  (2026),  Apex  (2026),  Dracula  (2025) and more. Fol...

One of horror's most notable periods of censorship, we examine the "Video Nasty" panic that took hold in the UK in the 1980s. How do these movies offend a conservative worldview, and how do they reflect an alarming trend that still continues? Includes discussions of  Thrash  (2026),  Axe a.k.a.  California Axe Massacre  a.k.a.  Lisa, Lisa (1974),  Faces of Death  (1978),  The Drille...

French provocateur Julia Ducournau is back with another bold piece of body horror. We break down the auteur's latest film Alpha . Is it a beautiful, life-affirming tale, or a stodgy and portentous mess? Is it an AIDS allegory or an elegy for death in all its forms? Regardless, it's a conversation starter. Also includes discussions of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026), They Will Kill You...

We're rolling the dice, playing our cards and fiddling with our joysticks as we investigate the world of deadly games. It's a surprisingly common trope now, but how do these games-gone-sinister reflect the world we live in? Includes discussions of Dolly (2026), The Ice Tower (2025), Resident Evil Requiem (2026), The Naked Prey (1965), Shooting Range (1979), Series 7: The Contenders (2001...

Scream 7 has arrived and talking about it felt like doing a post-mortem. After the controversy, the rewrite and the boycott, is it any surprise that the finished product is nowhere near the level of its predecessors? We discuss the plot in detail, so beware of spoilers! Also includes discussions of Jimmy & Stiggs (2024), If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025), Safe (1995) and more. Follow us o...

Featuring guest host Sarah Wolfe .  American writer and poet Edgar Allen Poe wrote hundreds of stories and poems and codified several genres in the process. In this episode, SBG salutes Edgar Allen Poe and looks at some of the weird and wily adaptations of his work that have graced our screens. Includes discussions of The Number 23 (2007), The Tell-Tale Heart (1928), The Fall of the House of Usher...

It's been 50 years since  Carrie  first graced cinema screens. We've read the book and revisited the film to see how this iconic story has aged as it's entered the pop culture canon. Who's the real villain in this odd and moving tale of domestic violence and locker room torment? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook . Contact us at crystal@spookybitchgang.com and scott@spookybitc...

Another year down and another clutch of movies to somewhat arbitrarily rank! We're giving you the lowdown on the movies we liked the best in 2025, along with some we absolutely hated as a treat. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook . Contact us at crystal@spookybitchgang.com and scott@spookybitchgang.com .

'Tis the season to hunker down and watch some execrable Christmas crap. Thankfully there are a few hidden gems amidst the lumps of coal. This year, friend of the pod Paul Robson has curated a list of 20 holiday-themed stocking stuffers that can all be found on Tubi. Spooky Bitch Crystal managed to watch all 20 and she's giving you the lowdown.  We also have a very special guest appearanc...

It's time we sat you down and gave you a talk about the birds and the bees. From horror's formative years through to now, we're investigating how sexuality defines the genre. Sex in horror has a long history of puritanism, but we also look at the ways it can be liberating, strange and celebratory.  Includes discussions of  The Exit 8  (video game, 2023),  Tender Is the Flesh (novel,...

It's the inaugural meeting of the SBG Book Club and we hope you've done your homework! We're talking about J. Sheridan Le Fanu's seminal vampire novella Carmilla  and its place in the canon of bloodsucking lesbians. Also includes discussions of  Escape Room (2019),  The Blood-Spattered Bride  (1971),  Vampyr (1932),  Carmilla Hyde  (2010) and more. Follow us on Instagram and Fa...

Is it comedy-horror or horror-comedy? We're taking a look at some of the silliest horror movies to ever grace our screens and investigating the strange similarity between laughing and screaming. Includes discussions of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931), The Houses October Built (2011), The Occupant (2025), The Time of the Wolf (2003), The Cat & the Canary (1927), A Bucket of Blood (1959),...

The hotly anticipated sequel to the hit supernatural horror film  The Black Phone  is here. Ethan Hawke returns as the strange and sexy villain The Grabber in  Black Phone 2 which we think is a bit muddled and troublingly familiar. Also includes discussions of Bram Stoker's  Dracula. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook . Contact us at crystal@spookybitchgang.com and scott@spookybitchgang.com...

It's our 100th episode! To mark the occasion, we stayed up all night watching the entire The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. From its humble, low-budget origins, Tobe Hooper's shocker has given birth to a distinctly odd horror franchise that never seems quite sure what it wants to be. How do you expand on something that's arguably perfect just how it is? Follow us on Instagram an...

After four movies and a few spinoffs we're bidding adieu to Ed and Lorraine Warren and their adventures in The Conjuring series . We take a look at the way the now-classic first instalment has influenced the horror scene, and how the latest film The Conjuring: Last Rites wraps up their story. Also includes discussions of Hallow Road (2025), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and more. Dark Ni...

In this episode we explore a set of terrifying tales that might get a bit too close to reality. We explore the potent desperation, fear and hope that define stories about dystopia and authoritarianism, and how these stories illuminate our real circumstances. Includes discussions of Black Water (2007), Punishment Park (1971), Terminal Island (1973), The Crazies (1973), Golem (1979) , They Live (198...

Zach Cregger's second feature Weapons has been one of the year's most impactful horror movies. We take a look at what makes this alternately serious and silly movie tick, and why it's been received with so much enthusiasm. What can we make of the loaded, potentially subversive symbolism at play in the film, and how does it tie in to the already-iconic villain? Also includes discussi...

The mummy has carved out an interesting place in pop culture that reveals some odd quirks when you peel off the bandages. We investigate the exoticism and neo-colonialism that colours the image of the mummy in horror literature and film. How did this shambling corpse become so iconic and yet so divorced from its origins? Includes discussions of Afraid (2024), #missingcouple (2024), The Mummy (1932...

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's 28 Days Later is a film that holds up a lot better than a lot of its contemporaries. Following a disappointing middle entry, Boyle is back in the director's chair with the epic 28 Years Later . We discuss the distinctive trilogy's emotionally-charged place in the horror canon and the quirks of its writer and director's visions. Also include discus...

Maybe grab a poncho because in our latest ep you will get wet! We take a look at the grisly, gleeful gore of the splatter sub-genre. The absurd, nihilism, and the tenuous nature of our society all underpin a genre that cuts much deeper than it seems on the surface. Includes discussions of The Shrouds (2025),  The Great God Pan  (short story by Arthur Machen, 1894),  Chain Reactions  (2024),  Jigok...

The Philippou Brothers' follow-up to the record smashing hit  Talk to Me is here and it's grosser, weirder and... sadder? We investigate the powerful melancholy of  Bring Her Back , which is both a terrifying gross-out horror movie and a nuanced, thoughtful exploration of grief.  Also includes discussion of  The Front Room (2024),  Invasion of the Bee Girls  (1973), and  Stalked by My Am...