The Fear of God: A Horror Movie Podcast

This week, we examine the dangerously transformative power of media intake by tackling David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. Operating on a studio's budget for the first time in his career, the visionary filmmaker known for boundary-pushing body horror unleashed a wildly intuitive vision of a sinister broadcast -- known as Videodrome -- which causes intense hallucinations and compulsions in anyone who vi...

We hope you're having a great summer! We're here with a quick bonus episode ahead of your holiday weekend to update you on the progress of our friendly competition between Nathan and Reed guessing the Metacritc score and opening weekend box office for this summer's slate of movies. Gorey Gamer Matt Murray hosts a brief chat about our biggest surprises, our disappointments, and how the points are p...

This week on the Fear of God we fill in a long overdue blind spot, not only for coverage on the show but also for Reed's specific viewing catalogue. For years, it has been a running gag on the show that Reed had never watched the 1999 action-adventure take on the classic Mummy tale starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, directed by Stephen Sommers. Well, that long-standing error has been correc...

This week, we revisit a franchise that has seen not only a fresh pair of installments, but a refreshed resonance to cultural themes. Filmed directly after 28 Years Later, THE BONE TEMPLE picks up where the previous film left off with Spike (Alfie Williams) now having been integrated into the cultish and terrifying group led by "Sir" Jimmy Crystal (in a haunting performance by Jack O'Connell). They...

As we've been making our way through our third volume of focus on international language films (#speakingintongues), we've also been taking our patrons through each episode of the third and final season of the popular German series, DARK. To conclude both Speaking in Tongues Vol 3 and that examination of Dark's final episodes, we invited a host of fans both new and old to discuss the finale and th...

Ahead of our summary discussion of the TV show Dark, Season 3, we wanted to provide a collection of our previous conversations about this excellent and fascinating show. Recorded over a period of 4 weeks towards the end of 2019, we covered every episode of Dark's second season, culminating in an exploration of its themes and predictions for what was to come, although we wouldn't revisit the show a...

As we close down volume 3 of #speakingintongues and head towards our concluding coverage of Season 3 of Netflix's series, DARK, we wanted to remind our listeners of our previous conversations about this excellent and fascinating show. Recorded over a period of 5 weeks in the autumn of 2019, we covered every episode of Dark's first season, culminating in an exploration of its themes and predictions...

In our penultimate episode of #speakingintongues, we tackle one of the most brutally controversial films of the past 20 years, and possibly of all time. Directed by Pascal Laugier, MARTYRS is an unflinching portrait of trauma, pain, despair, violence, and terror, laced together with questions of belief, grief, reality, and purpose. Controversial from its creation -- written in a state of deep depr...

Our #speakingintongues series covering international language films is nearly to its close, but not before we stop by 18th century rural Austria for a harrowing and emotionally devastating examination of a horror story rooted -- terrifyingly so -- in actual history. THE DEVIL'S BATH is the third film by directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz to be covered on the FoG (following Goodnight Mommy...

We have another bonus interview conversation with you today and it's a great one. SPEED DEMON sits squarely at the intersection of action and horror as a runaway train is taken over by a demonic entity. Now, the only hope is a nun (Katie Cassidy) who is struggling with her faith and personal demons of her own. Filled with compelling characters and a wry sense of humor, Speed Demon also has an unde...

We continue our series featuring international language films (#speakingintongues) with a fascinating film which inverts the traditional narrative of Cinderella and explores the story from the perspective of her "ugly stepsister". Far more than merely a clever inversion, THE UGLY STEPSISTER reveals itself to be surprisingly funny, sharply insightful, and fearlessly grotesque. It presents a critiqu...

We continue our series on international language films this week (#speakingintongues) with a Spanish film that gained significant attention on Netflix a few years ago for its inventive premise and sharp social commentary. THE PLATFORM has a unique and inventive premise. Prisoners are paired on floors of a prison where every day, a platform filled with food descends from the top floor to the bottom...

We have another fun interview to share with you this week about a recent independent release that quickly caught our attention. AFFECTION tells the story of Ellie (Jessica Rothe) who awakens one night in an unfamiliar bed next to a husband she doesn't recognize (Joseph Cross) and with a daughter she doesn't remember (Julianna Layne). She then begins to experience a cycle of sudden, severe tremors...

We continue our series examining non-English language films (#speakingintongues) by looking at an exploration of childhood impulses that is as harrowing as it is heartbreaking. THE INNOCENTS, written and directed by Eskil Vogt, tells the story of four young children in a small community who suddenly discover that they are developing strange powers. What follows confronts our very concept of innoce...

We have a bonus interview for you this week about a recent book release that is unique and fascinating. Matt Rogerson is a film historian and health researcher who has written extensively about Italian cinema, particularly those films which center on faith and horror. His latest book, FULCI'S INFERNO: FAITH IN THE FILMS OF A HORROR AND GIALLO AUTEUR, examines filmmaker Lucio Fulci and his lifelong...

We continue our series on international language films (#SpeakinginTongues) with a film that is as profound and compelling as it is upsetting and brutal. Kim Jee-woon's I SAW THE DEVIL is a blistering exploration of vengeance and violence, frequently ranking in lists of the greatest films of the 2010s. It focuses on a serial killer named Jang Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) who viciously murders a woman...

We have a fun bonus for you this week! We're trying something new (borrowing from what other shows have done in the past) and making a contest out of 2026's Summer Movie season. Gorey Gamer Matt Murray put together 15 films that are coming to theaters from May through August and Nathan and Reed have to predict what they'll make at the box office in their domestic opening weekend as well as what th...

This week in the FoG we revive a fan-favorite series that's been requested for years now. In 2019, largely in solidarity with our American immigrant neighbors, we covered a series of international language films we called Speaking in Tongues. The first two volumes came out in rather quick succession, but now -- seven years later -- we kick off volume three with the debut feature film from Academy...

We conclude our mini-series of adaptations from last year based upon the work of Stephen King with the film that many Constant Readers have been waiting to see for decades. THE LONG WALK was famously the first novel King ever wrote (although not the first he published) and fans have been curious about an adaptation for years. Francis Lawrence (of the Hunger Games films) stepped in to adapt this bl...

We have a bonus interview episode for you this week that is a ton of fun. We last welcomed writer/director Pierre Tsigaridis to the show when we discussed his film Traumatika. We welcome him back now to discuss his upcoming film, FRANKIE, MANIAC WOMAN, which hits theaters on April 24th. Co-written with Dina Silva, who stars in the film, Frankie, Maniac Woman tells the blisteringly funny and gore-s...

Continuing our series on films from last year adapted from the work of Stephen King, we lace up our sneakers for Edgar Wright's THE RUNNING MAN. Originally brought to life in the 80s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edgar Wright's refreshed adaptation puts Glen Powell at the center of a nationwide game show manhunt. Wright's film is far more faithful narratively to King's novel, although the tone i...

It's a different kind of conversation this week and one we really think you're going to love. We're continuing our mini-series looking at four films from last year which were all adapted from the work of Stephen King. If we told you that THE LIFE OF CHUCK was adapted by Mike Flanagan from a novella by Stephen King, you'd probably imagine a drastically different movie than what it is. The Life of C...

We have a unique and special interview for you this week. Starting this month, Charlotte's Independent Picture House features a monthly series highlighting the essential films of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. The series was co-curated by Sam Shapiro, whose career as an educator and film archivist for the Charlotte Mecklenberg public library permitted him countless opportunities to study and...

We start a brand new mini-series this week examining a handful of Stephen King adaptations which were all released last year. The first of these is also one of the most unconventional. Directed by Osgood Perkins, THE MONKEY takes a King short story about fate and recurring trauma and turns it into an absurdist dark comedy about death. Impressively well-made and often disarmingly humorous, The Monk...

Come sit by the fire! It's time for another Ghoul Scouts edition of The Fear of God! Vera and Jess are joined by Jocee Worley and Penny Rouse venture over the rainbow for this decidedly darker and more frightening sequel to The Wizard of Oz: RETURN TO OZ. Plagued by production delays and studio misgivings, Return to Oz was a major disappointment at the time of its release in 1985. But it developed...