Stories to Dismember: Horror Movie Review

Trigger warning: self harm Parents: always worrying about their kids. Sometimes it can be annoying, and sometimes... it can be dangerous. When rumors go around about an internet challenge that is telling kids to hurt themselves at the behest of a monster, Amir and Leah decide to limit their kids' screen time to stop them being sucked in. After their daughter sees the monster for herself, she r...

It's the movie no one expected... with the critical response that everyone expected. After Christopher Robin puts aside his childish things by abandoning his friends in the woods, Pooh Bear and the others go feral and decide to exact revenge. They take a vow to renounce their humanity, but still wear clothes and live in houses? And Pooh vomits/cries/sweats honey sometimes? I don't know, no...

Sometimes you watch a movie that just grabs hold of your brain and won't let go. This week, we've got a special episode to further discuss one that spawned a million traumatized children: Child's Play ! After dismembering the 1988 movie last episode, Aaron, Lyndsey, and Miguel further discuss their thoughts on the film, as well as hear from listeners about their first experiences with...

Good Guy dolls are all the rage right now. Karen's son Andy watches the shows, eats the cereal, and DESPERATELY wants one for himself. When Karen manages to find one at a discount from a back-alley peddler, she doesn't ask any questions. Meanwhile, Mike the detective has just wrapped up a big case. He cornered notorious strangler Charles Lee Ray in a department store and managed to gun him...

Trigger Warning: gun violence, self-harm, suicide --- Can you ever really free yourself from the past? After the death of his estranged wife, a writer decides to bring his new fiance to the family's remote cabin to spend time connecting with his two children. The children's reluctance to get to know her deepens when they they discover that she was the lone survivor of an extremist cult. Wh...

There are some moments that don't go quite to plan, and then there are events you'll never be able to anticipate. When James and Kristen travel to a remote cabin after a friend's wedding, their little getaway already seems pretty tense. After a young woman turns up out of nowhere to knock at their door, however, it becomes clear that that the couple's night is about to take a dark turn. Join Aaron...

Sometimes secrets are bound to be brought to light, no matter the consequences. A year after a tragic accident claimed the lives of her husband and daughter, Sarah feels nearly ready to rejoin her friend group's regular adventure outings. This time they've traveled to the Appalachian foothills to go caving; the others think it will be a great way to help Sarah regain some normalcy, but sec...

Everyone has that one friend who throws really killer parties, right? Do kids use 'killer' that way any more? No matter, this one fits both meanings! Sophie brings her girlfriend Bea to her childhood friends' hurricane party where everyone is expecting to have a good time; but it seems they weren't expecting Sophie to show her face. Strained relationships are made more tense as the night goes on,...

You'd think that being genre-savvy would help you survive a horror movie; unfortunately, when the killer also knows the tropes, the stakes get a little bit higher! This week, the gang continues their Pride Month series with a film penned by openly gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who was inspired by a real life case to write one of the most referential horror movies of all time. Join Aaron,...

When Jessie and his family move into a suspiciously cheap house on Elm Street, he makes new friends and starts having terrible dreams. As the nightmares continue, and Freddy Kruger gets closer, can Jessie keep finding the line between what's real and what isn't? Heavily panned on its release, this movie has been given a reassessment in recent years as discussions of queerness in film, both...

IT'S ALIVE! For the first film in our Pride Month series, we're going back in time to an OG LGBTQ+ director: James Whale! One of the founding fathers of horror cinema, Whale was responsible for crafting many of the classic monster movies that remain in our popular consciousness to the present day. Masterfully weaving tales of otherness and rejection, his stories still resonate with people...

The idea so nice, we did it twice! The gang is back with another compilation review of short horror films to round out Possession Month. Each host has found a video by an indie filmmaker to watch and dismember. All of the movies reviewed in this episode can be found for free on YouTube, if you want to follow along! This round we have: Aaron's Pick: Night Visit (2022) Lyndsey's Pick: Song For the P...

When someone tells you they're going to do "one final job", nine times out of ten it's going to be a disaster. Evangelical preacher Cotton Marcus has been losing his faith for a while, if he ever had it to begin with. Once a famous exorcist, he decides to document a case that he thinks will expose the charlatans in the church and ease his own guilty conscience, but this last poss...

Take it from us: when the cabin in the woods comes at a price that seems too good to be true, JUST RUN. In Sam Raimi's directorial debut, five college kids travel to a remote cabin to spend a quiet weekend away; but how peaceful is any getaway going to be when it starts with you finding a book bound in human skin? Join Lyndsey, Aaron, and Miguel as they dismember 1981's The Evil Dead ! The...

What would you do if your partner couldn't be what you needed any more And what would you create to fill the void When Mark returns home from a business trip, it is revealed that his wife Anna has been involved with another man. But as he investigates, he discovers layers of deceit which hint at a terrible truth not only was there someone else, there was something else she's been hiding. S...

It's time for Defense Against The Dark Arts class! When a young nun is enrolled in a Catholic school for exorcism in Boston, she is frustrated by the bureaucracy which keeps her from truly helping her patients. As her own past experiences with possession motivate her to research further, will the church permit her to become an exorcist herself to save the life of a young girl? Aaron, Lyndsey,...

"To round out Found Footage month, your hosts have found some footage of their own! Lyndsey, Aaron, and Miguel have each chosen a spooky short film to review on this special round robin episode of Stories to Dismember. Aaron's pick: Curve (2016) Miguel's pick: Sleight (2015) Lyndsey's pick: We Got A Dog (2022) Do you have a favorite short horror film you want to see featured on a...

What if Scooby Doo was in it for the views? A South Korean video crew travels to one of the world's creepiest places to determine once and for all the truth about legends surrounding a derelict mental hospital that closed down after a series of mysterious deaths. They bring with them enough cameras to cover the Summer Olympics, an overwhelming desire to go viral, and some new recruits to help them...

A seemingly impossible mass murder in an Arizona border town leaves authorities with only one suspect: a Mexican immigrant who captured disturbing images from the event on his camera. This 'documentary' covers the case from all angles, following multiple lines of reasoning to try to discover the true cause of the 57 deaths. Aaron, Lyndsey and Miguel are pulled along into this web of boundl...

Building a haunted house inside a haunted house? What could possibly go wrong? When the opening of a horror-themed attraction in a small town ends in deaths and disappearances, a documentary crew tries to get to the bottom of it all using testimony from the last surviving crewmember and footage from the company. Join Miguel, Aaron, and Lyndsey as they dismember 2015's Hell House LLC . To hear...

Have you ever felt like something was "off" about the people around you? That they were acting less and less like those you know and love? What if you weren't crazy? What if your friends and neighbors... really weren't themselves any more? This week, Lyndsey, Miguel, and Aaron are joined by special guest Editor Stratton to talk about conformity, perspective, and the failures of p...

The idiom "silence is golden" has never been more deadly serious than in this week's movie! A family in New York state manage to survive a brutal alien invasion for over a year by staying off the grid and using ASL to communicate to one another, a skill they nurtured thanks to their deaf daughter. Things change as feelings of fear, resentment, and the stress of a new baby threaten to...

When an alien invasion gets a little too close to home, it's up to a group of kids from South London to protect that home with all they have. It seems like everyone's got it out for John Boyega's Moses, whether it be fluorescent-fanged creatures, suspicious drug dealers, or the consequences of his own actions. Will evading them all and surviving the night be too much to ask? Join Miguel, Aaron, an...

Wake up, Sheeple! This week, the movie's so bright you gotta wear shades. At least, that's what you'll tell the aliens when they ask why you have them on inside. Aaron, Lyndsey, and Miguel are kicking off their alien theme month by covering John Carpenter's 1988 cult classic They Live. It's a campy action-horror mashup With a plot that seems more relevant than even when it was made. OBEY. CONSUME....

"This episode, the gang is joined by special guest Sarah Sonderlund: forensic psychologist, paranormal expert, and author! Come along with Sarah, Aaron, Miguel, and Lyndsey as they dismember this week's film while answering important questions about the ingredients of zombie poison, being buried alive, and just how much stretching a movie needs to do to be 'based on a true story'.  Unravellin...