The Midnight Myth Podcast

Surprise, and happy Hallo-Wednesday! We made it into the studio for a very special edition of our Perfect Movie Gauntlet. As we continue to test our criteria for the Perfect Movie (evaluating on the basis of dimensions like Timelessness, Technical Achievement, etc…), we’ve made a few tweaks to determine the Perfect Spooky Movie! Listen to find out if your fall faves—like Hocus Pocus and The Nightm...

The Midnight Myth returns out of a sense of duty to our listeners, inner virtue, and faith in the podcasting empire. This week, we are discussing Derek’s all-time favorite movie, and a springboard for in-depth discussions of historical fiction—Ridley Scott’s 2000 smash-hit Gladiator. We take a journey through Greco-Roman conceptions of the afterlife, interrogate the historical liberties taken by t...

We’re back, fellow travelers, and we’re just racing along the path of the Beam! We have begun the massive undertaking that it Stephen King’s The Stand - and this episode will cover just the first 230 pages of the epic tome. These 230 pages contain multitudes (if you know, you know!) How do empires fall? What lies ahead after the world moves on? And how does the first act of The Stand relate to The...

Fellow travelers on the path of the Beam, Wheel of Ka returns with another episode, covering The Mist. This Wheel of Ka takes us to a small New England lake town. When a powerful storm knocks out the power, a strange mist descends on the town. David and his son Billy go to the market when the mist comes and the monsters who live within it. This short novel delves deep into human nature as David at...

Welcome back to the Midnight Myth as we cross the mighty waters of the Pacific Ocean and travel back to Medieval Japan with the Miyazaki written Studio Ghibli produced masterpiece Princess Mononoke! Listen to us ask the questions, what is Shinto, how does it inform this wonderful movie, and how does it relate to the identity of god killers and industrialists alike? As the forces of modernity threa...

Looking to be regaled with some marvel, myth, or tale? Look no further, for the Midnight Myth is back with some bonus material covering David Lowery’s epic Arthurian fantasy The Green Knight. Adapted from, and in conversation with, the 14th century poetic masterpiece Sir Gawain & the Green Knight , the film takes viewers on a surreal and deliberate quest with some unexpected turns along the wa...

We’re back, and we’re burdened with glorious purpose! On the heels of the Disney Plus series Loki, we’re looking back at the God of Mischief’s marvelous run in the MCU thus far. How did a trickster from Norse mythology become the most beloved comic book movie villain, then become an antihero, then transform into a true hero? To answer that question, we have to look at the trickster archetype in bo...

An old and disinterested king, a young and dashing prince, the heir to the throne, a beautiful queen raising her son to be kind, generous, and brave, and when the queen gives birth to a second son, the cruel maligned court magician Flagg starts his machinations to undo the peaceful realm of Delain. The name Flagg should be familiar to fans of Stephen King, as it pops up again and again. Almost as...

What do you do when someone enters your home, mistaking you for someone with the same name, and defiles your rug—the one that really tied the room together? Do you take the path of anger? Get mixed up in an intricate and complex investigation? Or embrace a new philosophy that allows you to move on? This week, we’re discussing the 1998 Coen Brothers’ classic The Big Lebowski: a film that openly dis...

And now for something completely different! This week, we’re returning to our favorite experiment—testing our patented scientific, objective, and unimpeachable process for identifying the Perfect Movie. Last year, we proposed a rubric for perfection on film, and we’re running more amazing movies through it to test our theories. From Apocalypse Now and Pulp Fiction to Pirates of the Caribbean and T...

Content Warning: violence, war, PTSD, animal harm, child harm This is the end. My only friend, the end. Join us on a voyage up the Nung River, through increasingly surreal episodes of war on our quest to find the elusive Colonel Kurtz. In Francis Ford Coppola’s epic vision of the Vietnam War Apocalypse Now (1979), history blends with myth, violence blends with the absurd, and the human mind makes...

An old widower can’t sleep, a small city in New England is dealing with the political controversies and passions over the debate around abortion, and the wheel of Ka turns again and again. That’s right, Derek and Steve are back! The last Wheel of Ka episode ended in Derry. While Derek and Steve didn’t know at the time, Insomnia would take us back to this strange small city. Is it cursed? Is it on...

Welcome to my home. Four+ years ago when we started the Midnight Myth, we published an episode reflecting on iconic villains in popular culture—one of which was the prototypical vampire, Count Dracula. Now, after oceans of time, we return to the Prince himself with a deep dive into Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We’ll discuss how Dracula came to represent vampire literatur...

One more dawn… One more day… ONE DAY MORE! In this episode, we continue an exploration of the blockbuster works of French author Victor Hugo and their most popular adaptations. This week, the most famous French novel finds immortality in the musical Les Miserables. We discuss the 2012 Tom Hooper film adaptation from the lens of French history and Enlightenment philosophy. Why do the French come ba...

Morning in Paris, the city awakes to the bells of Notre Dame! Join us among the clouds, in the bell tower of one of the world’s great cathedrals, where lives the mysterious bellringer. This is the story of a man and a monster—but which is which? We’re discussing the 1996 Disney adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame! One of the darkest entries in Disney’s animated canon, it explor...

This week’s Midnight Myth feels a little archaic, why? Because we are heading into Archaic Greece discussing the 2004 movie Troy and its conversation with Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad. Who were the Archaic Greeks and why did they love this poem? How did The Iliad shape and transform Western Civilization and why was it transformed into the major Hollywood blockbuster Troy? From the movie’s deconstr...

This week on the Midnight Myth, we’re pulling every evil string of WandaVision! Walk with us through every era of sitcom glory and their synthesis with the wildly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ll explore how WandaVision interrogates grief, trauma, and psychoanalysis through the medium of classic television. Plus, a brief detour into Tibetan Buddhism and a meditation on the famous Ship of T...

Do not try to bend the spoon…first realize the truth…there is no spoon…then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, but merely yourself. Derek and Laurel are back discussing the 1999 Sci-fi masterpiece smash hit, The Matrix. How does the movie hold up and what new themes can be learned as we dissect Neo tumbling down the rabbit hole and landing in the desert of the real? If it's the question...

Fellow Travelers On the Path of The Beam, before you jump into the next Wheel of Ka, a quick warning; the second half of It gets dark, really dark. Steve and I have a no holds barred discussion. Please keep this trigger warning in mind, we talk about sexual assault, violence towards children, and infant loss. Derek and Steve are back at it again, this time discussing the second half of Stephen Kin...

Watch out for Hurricane Arthur! This week, we’re finally taking on the action-packed spectacle that is James Wan’s take on Aquaman (2018). It’s not just a bonkers comic book movie filled with laser sharks, krakens, and crab people—it’s also chock-full of references to classical mythology, the Roman Empire, and the Arthurian Legend. In other words, a true Midnight Myth. DIVE IN with us as we discus...

Welcome back to the Midnight Myth for a discussion of the 2019 film adaptation of the Stephen King’s novel, Doctor Sleep, the sequel to the The Shining. What has Danny Torrence been up to since escaping the perils of the Overlook Hotel? Listen to our discussion of Danny, Abra, and the True Knot as they embrace the cycles of fate while escaping the cycles of abuse. Also, what’s up with cat? Can cat...

Fellow Traveler’s on the Path of the Beam, Derek and Steve are back at it again with another Wheel of Ka bonus episode. This week, Derek and Steve talk about the mega-hit best selling novel Stephen King’s It. This is the first of a two parter on the book, where only the first half of the book discussed. From the nature of Derry’s most fear and hated clown, to how King expertly constructs the chara...

We’re back with a more casual conversation as we prepare a more traditional episode in the coming weeks. Today, we’re rounding up what we watched, what we loved, what we were “meh” on in 2020. Special focus on Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, Queen’s Gambit, and The Mandalorian Season 2. We’ll keep chatting as long as the baby keeps napping! — Support us at www.patreon.com/midnightmyth Check out...

Oh my gosh, we recorded an episode! The conclusion of our series on the Harry Potter films is here, and we’re revisiting all your favorite places: Hogwarts Castle, Gringotts Bank, Hogsmeade, and Platform 9 3/4. We’ll discuss the history and development of castles—from military fortresses to royal residences and projections of wealth—plus how that fits in to the transition of Hogwarts from school t...

Grab your Deluminator because things are about to get a lot darker before the dawn. In Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows pt 1 (2010), we break the usual format—a year at Hogwarts, a final battle with the villain—for an unlikely road movie with all kinds of 2020 corollaries. As Harry and friends hunt down Horcruxes, battle with heretofore unspoken tensions within their relationships, and face...