Well-Adjusted Horror

This week the boys are glad to bring some sex positivity to the podcast with an old-fashioned American Christmas slasher, To All A Good Night (1980). Sure, multiple killers are running around in Santa suits, but at least the young ladies in the cast get to sneak their boyfriends into their boarding school for a fun filled weekend. Also discussed: Twitter trolls, hiring assassins online, why Americ...

Before this episode, Johnathon was certain there was no horror movie he couldn't enjoy on some, however limited, level. But then Levi made him watch this. Some terrible movies we forgive because of budget constraints. Some terrible movies we forgive because of the heroic efforts of the cast. Some terrible movies we forgive because the movie is in on the joke.  And some we forgive because cocaine i...

This week the boys and special guest Lindsey Brown discuss The Awakening (2011), possibly the most British horror movie ever created.  Emotional repression, psychological oppression, sexual oppression, bad weather ... you get the idea. Oh, and ghosts.     

This week's movie triggers all of the nostalgia for lovers of 80s horror and VHS tapes — and that of course includes our boys.  Levi admires the stiff upper lip Brits display under duress, while Johnathon finds himself reluctantly admiring the censor board (sort of).  Questions asked : What rate of change can a culture endure before the wheels come off? Is there a non-authoritarian way of slowing...

In this episode Levi is finally unleashed to go full nerd on Hammer horror films — and specifically on the 1957 classic The Curse of Frankenstein. But don't worry, Johnathon immediately derails him with a mini rant on cancel culture. You can't cancel Frankenstein!  

If you have something bad to say about this movie, we don't want to hear it. John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) starts with an old man scaring the hell out of some little kids with a campfire ghost story, and it only gets better from there. Levi  celebrates the scream queen royalty in the cast, as well as the creepy New England lighthouse vibe (despite the movie being set in California). Johnathon is...

Fall is here, and that means fraternities and sororities are in full swing, and that means ... alien brain slugs!  This week the boys revisit Night of the Creeps (1986), a hilarious horror mashup that's part detective noir, part zombie film, part college coming-of-age story, and all awesome. Tom Atkins (from John Carpenter's The Fog) gives a performance for the ages as a hard boiled detective inve...

It's back to school month here in the U.S., and there's no better time to revisit the ultimate in high school horror movies — Stephen King's Carrie. Released in 1976, the movie established King as a household name in the horror genre, and the opening shower scene immediately embedded itself as one of the most iconic in cinema history.  In this episode, we nerd out on all things King, discuss wheth...

This week the boys celebrate two landmarks: H.P. Lovecraft's birthday and the one year anniversary of the podcast. Tying them together is the Lovecraft-inspired Don't Breathe , a 2016 movie about a romantic bed and breakfast run by a kindly disabled veteran played by Stephen Lang.  

We live in an age of conspiracy theories, and the good news is that John Carpenter's They Live has never been more relevant. The boys and a special guest discuss 80s excess, the American obsession with conspiracies, and all things John Carpenter. Johnathon wonders when we all forgot how dumb we are when it comes to science. Levi decries the lack of sophistication in the broad strokes of dystopian...

The boys are 154 feet down in this episode, because the metric system is socialist propaganda. It's the last episode of shark month, and Matthew Modine brings the sketch as a creepy boat captain, although he can't hold a candle to Ryan Adams. Fear of the dark, getting over a bad breakup, shark shields, a pop star at the bottom of the ocean ... what more could you want?

Special guest Caleb returns to the show to help the boys figure out what went wrong (and right) with Deep Blue Sea (1999).  From Samuel Jackson's shocking and hilarious exit to Michael Rapaport's Shakespearean acting chops, everyone finds something to sink their teeth into.  Also, some JAWS followup from our previous episode and some belated praise for the late Richard Donner.   

It's the 4th of July holiday, so the boys tackle the leviathan of all monster movies, Steven Spielberg's JAWS (1975) . Levi comes prepared with the full compendium of problems that the production faced, revealing it to be a miracle that we got any film at all, much less a genre-defining classic. Johnathon shares his 9-year-old's thoughts on the mayor after watching it together for the first time....

This week finds the boys pondering the intricacies of modern romance with 2019's Midsommar . When does being a bad boyfriend justify being drugged, stuffed inside a dead bear, and burned alive, after the most awkward intimate encounter of your life? Is the burden of magical thinking and the surrender of reason worth the elimination of anxiety and loneliness? Are psychedelics really that much more...

This week finds the boys inventing words as they try to understand the ship design in their favorite horror-in-space flick from the 90s, Event Horizon . Sam Neil plays a demented physicist, so a fair amount of time is spent discussing their man crush. Johnathon wants to know why there are no interior decorators in space. Levi goes full Lovecraft (again). Topics covered: math as demonology, latin a...

Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs (1991) was woke before woke was a thing -- but in a good way. The boys  contemplate what we mean when we say something is woke,  punching up versus punching down, context versus subject, and proper hunting attire. If you thought Pulp Fiction had a lock on creepy dudes in a leather gimp suit, think again.  Discussion of the movie's hero leads to a deep dive...

This week's topic is Saint Maud (2019), and the boys have nothing but praise. It's a feast of religious mania, horribly awkward eroticism, and the best final second of any movie in recent memory. When William Blake's paintings show up in a horror movie, you know things are about to go south in a hurry. Watch Saint Maud on Amazon Prime .

This week the boys try a deep dive on Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell (2009) but quickly bang their heads on the shallow end of the pool. An effort to avoid cursing leads to mixed results (and a lot of bleeps). As always, they have questions. Is proportionality required for a movie to qualify as a morality play?  Can horror movies use the trope of supernaturalism in other cultures as a source of mysti...

This one gets awkward in a hurry. This week the boys start with The Beast Within (1982) but quickly take a detour to the horrors of puberty. Topics discussed: the stark difference between depictions of violence in the recent past versus modern day, nostalgia's role in determining what we love, the use of birth control in special effects, and Levi's love for The Magnolia State.

Is there a better horror / science fiction crossover than Ridley Scott's Alien? The boys don't think so.  This week they're joined by two special guests to discuss the making of a masterpiece, why prequels almost always suck, and the wonder that is Sigourney Weaver.  If you find yourself in the mood for a perfect cocktail to accompany your listening, check out this special episode from Griffith Go...

If you think Godzilla's legacy is nothing more than silly movies featuring men in rubber suits stomping on model trains, then this week's episode is for you. An examination of 1954's Gojira finds the boys exploring some unexpectedly dark ruminations on technology and history — and humanity's tendency to get confused about both.  Levi defends Godzilla's place as the most iconic of all movie monster...

Corn fields are creepy, and little kids are creepier still. The boys try to understand why short stories make better movie adaptations than novels. Levi shares his exhaustive list of horror shorts, and Johnathon confesses why dogs creep him out when they poop.  Also, whatever you do, don't get a degree in the humanities.  Levi's list of recommended horror stories: https://docs.google.com/document/...

This week the boys crush on Sam Neil and discuss what makes a good pseudonym, all while covering the third movie in John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy, In the Mouth of Madness (1994). Levi defends the art of the downer ending in horror films. Johnathon throws some side eye at eco nihilism and fashionable misanthropy. And there's a healthy side tangent on everyone's favorite Carpathian from the Gh...

This week finds the boys arguing over definitions, specifically the definition of a B movie. What makes a B movie? Is it the cast? The budget? Does our movie this week qualify? Levi says yes, while Johnathon isn't so sure. Everyone loves a lost colony mystery, which leads to a brief discussion of the Roanoke investigation. Trigger warning: sports metaphors.

What do you get when you combine xenophobia, an unrelenting atmosphere of dread, and fish people? An HP Lovecraft story, that’s what. This week the boys tackle Johnathon’s favorite Lovecraft adaptation for the screen, 1991’s Dagon. Levi doesn't want to cloud the episode with Lovecraft's personal life, so of course Johnathon brings it up immediately. Also, tentacles.