Scary Thoughts

Halloween Kills (2021) is Blumhouse’s second film in what will undoubtedly, and unfortunately, be an ongoing series. Like many entries in this classic franchise, it is awful. We discuss where it goes wrong, the few things that work well, mob violence, the relevance of the series as a whole, Rob Zombie’s versions, slasher character actor fandom, and if you stick to the end, a story about Fabio.

James Wan’s Malignant (2021) is a lot of things. Giallo homage. Action film. 90s horror. But even when it feels familiar, it delivers some genuinely original moments and ideas. We cover the film itself, its references, seeing films in theaters post-COVD, indie fetishism, simple pleasures, and whether or not Wan is the Dave Grohl of horror.

Grady Hendrix’s Final Girl Support Group (2021) is a love letter to the golden age of slasher movies. This episode is essentially a love letter to the author—even if we do have our crusty quibbles about a few bits. We talk about the difference between metafiction and nostalgia, Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence, murderabilia, Final Girls as a concept, and a little background on how you might end up in UC Berkeley’s Rhetoric department.

We recommend pairing this listen with Peaches Christ and Michael Varrati’s third episode of their podcast, Midnight Mass. It covers Friday the 13th and features interviews with the final girl star of that film, Adrienne King; as well as a great interview with Grady Hendrix.

In this episode we take a look at Halloween (2018), the third film of the same title, in the same franchise. Yes folks, this is the age of the reboot. We discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of Blumhouses’s formula, old-timey firearms vs. modern firearms, why book clubs are lame, and we heap praise upon Jamie Lee Curtis. While this episode isn’t a direct prequel to our next episode, it does begin a longer cross-episode discussion of final girls.

Bo Burnham’s Inside (2021) is one of the most unique things you’ll see on Netflix. It’s an angsty and existential one-man musical comedy about isolation. Though COVID-19 is never mentioned in the piece, it looms large, giving it the kind of “horror” vibes one can pick up from a pandemic thriller like Contagion. Like the film, we find ourselves in a few ranty digressions that will make total sense if you listen to us frequently, but may confuse the uninitiated.

This episode we cover the 1997 sci-fi horror film Event Horizon—with deep digressions into the nature of reality, L. Ron Hubbard, QAnon, martial arts nerds, psychedelics, UFOs, and cosmic horror. 

We’re joined by Nick Gullo, AKA Nick the Tooth. His career bio is about as complex as Buckaroo Bonzai’s. To keep it short, he’s the co-host of the excellent Infinite Worlds podcast, wrote a book about the UFC, writes sci-fi, and is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Dungeon Synth is as obscure as it gets for music genres, but it might be everywhere soon. We explore the fetid foundations and eldritch evolutions of this bizarre scene with extreme music authority, Andee Connors. He co-owned the notorious Aquarius Records, curates Pandora’s unholy Black Metal station, was a member of A Minor Forest and now creates infernal music with Common Eider, King Eider, and with Marc, My Heart, An Inverted Flame. The conversation goes deep into the haunted hinterlands of culture, including digressions about hoarding/collecting, Dungeons & Dragons, synthwave, Black Metal, and performative reading of forbidden texts.

This episode follows a long and unplanned break caused by a plethora of personal calamities (spoiler: Chad got The ‘Rona). Rather than focusing on a single film or book, we use the episode to discuss the future direction of the show and gab about broader trends in visual art. We cover The Snyder Cut, The Overlook Theatre’s Unknown Film Fest, our returns to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the compelling world of Twitch, and what makes Andee Connors such a treasure.

Back in October of 2020 we hosted an online screening of the 2020 indie sci-fi film, The Vast of Night. The event was put together by Fulcrum Arts. This episode is a recording of the post-watch Q&A with the film’s production sound team: Crow and Erik Duemig and Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designer Johnny Marshall. Ironically, the sound quality of this episode is a bit rough thanks to Zoom, who are really not stepping up meeting the audio needs of our collective remote living dystopia. Fuck those guys. Enjoy the episode.

The Purge franchise’s first film was released in 2013. There are now four flicks, two seasons of a TV series, and a host of questionable fan content online. We discuss the appeal of this story, what Purge politics would actually mean in real life, why Rick & Morty’s “Look Who’s Purging Now” is the best Purge movie, and some gabbing about the current apocalypse. In other words, a classic Scary Thoughts adventure.

Jordan Peele is an important Black filmmaker and a horror nerd’s horror nerd. His 2019 film Us is packed full of references to obscure classics—but does that make it less original? Boston and J from one of our favorite podcasts, Race Trader, join us to discuss it (along with a little sidetalk about Get Out and Tyler Perry).

Glenn Danzig’s Verotika (2019) is a failure. But has it failed in an interesting way? That all depends on how much you like boobs. In this episode we discuss bad acting, bad effects, bad music, and bad films. We also touch on things we like: Tommy Wiseau, outsider art, The Mandalorian—and yes—boobs. Also, keep your ears alert for Marc flexing on the whole cast of Verotika with his own French accent.

Gather ‘round boils and ghouls, it’s our annual Halloween episode! This year we’re covering It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966). Short and sweet like a peppermint patty, we talk about television, made up holidays, bad boomer ideas, belief, trash cinema, The Boys, and renting movies in the 90s.

Writer Michelle Tea, writer Meg Elison, and composer Lawrence English join us for a trio of COVID-19-era conversations. We ask them each, “Is this how you thought it would all end?”
All three guests have great perspectives on the apocalyptic vibrations affecting us all, but are any of us truly ready for the end?

Rick and Morty is one of those shows people love making video essays about. It’s smart, it uses philosophical ideas to deliver dick and fart jokes, and it includes a lot of high-level sci-fi/cosmic horror. This classic Scary Thoughts adventure is just Chad and Marc. Depending on what universe you’re listening to this in, that might be a very big deal.

Shudder’s Zoom-based film Host (2020) is the belle of the COVID-19-horror-film ball. This fun and imaginative movie is a great way to spend an hour at the end of a depressing work day. But is it actually good? Or are we just starved for options?
We are joined by Madeleine Koestner, the co-founder and programmer of the Unnamed Footage Festival. She’s a frequent guest on The Overlook Hour podcast and writes for a ton of horror sites. Basically the perfect guest for talking about this one.

Joe Dante’s 1989 film The ‘Burbs has been our most requested film to cover since we started this podcast. It’s great and so is our guest Nathan Thompson. He’s a writer and journalist and hosts the Yoga and meditation podcast Escaping Samsara. We get into the occult, genre films, living in the suburbs, longing for nostalgia and the joy of strong character actors.

Cormac McCarthy’s bleak, apocalyptic father-son road trip novel, The Road (2006), won both the Pulitzer Prize and the admiration of Oprah. Daniel Coffeen (Zero Books, Renegade University) rejoins us to discuss if the book deserves all the praise and whether or not the movie gets it right. We talk a bit about Blood Meridian, too, if that’s your thing.

Max Brooks nailed it with his 2006 fictional oral history, World War Z. It’s a fun book with lots of original ideas, which makes it a blast to talk about; especially since there are so many parallels with our own current COVID-19 lifestyles. We give the movie as much attention as it deserves (not much) and touch on our own survival tactics. Episode bonus: there are scrub jays chirping in the background throughout the show, so if you’ve been missing nature, this is a good one.

The Wicker Man (1973) is British folk horror at its best. It’s got weird townsfolk music, a mysterious and sexy monarch, bizarre occult practices, and nude pagan dance numbers. We’re joined by Steven Intermill, the Director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick (Cleveland, OH). We get deep into the well-researched details of the film, the history of Wicca in America, and all kinds of other high weirdness. The sound is a bit dodgy in this episode, but it’s a tremendously enjoyable one.