Mind Over Splatter

For the full experience, go to our YouTube page! Dylan, Sheldon, and Will got together in the same room, for the first time, to record a special video episode for the second season finale. The topic? Nineties horror. We each picked our favourite scary movie for every year of the decade, from 1990 - 1999, but have kept the picks a secret from one another, until now. And of course, we make it a drinking game, and you can play along. Join us as we have some fun dissecting beloved classics and unearthing little-known gems from horror cinema's most misunderstood decade.

An exploration of the ideas, people, and films behind the found-footage horror boom - including Paranormal Activity and Lake Mungo - with Dylan, Sheldon, and Sean O'Rourke. Featuring a deep-dive into the origins of The Blair Witch Project, with detours into "mysterious phenomena" TV shows, Sundance and the American indie movie renaissance, the rise of the multiplex, the birth of viral marketing, and what made 1999 possibly the greatest year ever for American film. Plus, an interview with Professor Margarida Medeiros about Victorian ghost photography, and how our relationship with cameras has long influenced debates about fact and fiction. And, of course, we argue over the different movies under discussion, and rank them all at the end of our shaky, nausea-inducing journey through the deep woods of this unsettling sub-genre.

Dylan, William, and special guest David Annandale break down eccentric British horror movies dealing with paganism and the rural occult, like The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General. Featuring an interview with Gary Parsons, a filmmaker and film historian specializing in English witchcraft documentaries, who tells us about lesser-known witch flicks from the sixties and seventies, and explains the British counterculture's fascination with occultism at that time. We compare and contrast some surprisingly varied titles – involving skin-pilfering demons and undead bikers – while telling stories about the filmmakers, the time period, and generally exploring everything about these folking weird movies.  

A comprehensive discussion of Clive Barker's 1987 classic Hellraiser – then all nine sequels – featuring Dylan, Sheldon, and Will, plus an interview with Peter Tupper, a cultural historian of BDSM, who provides some fascinating insight into the traditions and aesthetics channeled by the movies. The boys talk about Barker, the series' tortured production history, and the themes of the films, exploring the relationship between pain and pleasure, desire and disgust, and why uncomfortable activities – like watching scary movies – can feel so good. After analyzing and comparing every last entry, we eventually get three separate ranked lists reflecting three different perspectives on one of horror's most beguiling and unclassifiable franchises.

For this special holiday episode, Dylan, Sheldon, and Will have decided to gift one another horror movies that they know (or hope) the giftee has never seen. The six strange, wonderful, lesser-known gems that we've helped each other discover are unveiled and discussed one at a time. Along the way, we learn about some fascinating filmmakers, like Lucio Fulci and Tom McLoughlin, unpack bizarre slashers, unearth a breathtaking early Italian vampire flick, and expose Sheldon to a Mexican luchador oddity that nearly breaks him. It's a seasonal grab-bag of weird horror-cinema wonders!

Dylan, Sheldon, Will, and guest Sean O'Rourke plunge into weird and fascinating big-killer-animal flicks from 1976-1980, including Orca, Grizzly, and Tentacles. We discuss animal intelligence, environmentalism, and America's relationship to wilderness in the 20th century, while debating the films' merits and setting them off against one other in a tournament to determine the greatest post-Jaws eco-horror oddity. We also learn about the artists behind the films, including John Frankenheimer and Tobe Hooper. Plus, marine biologist Steven Ferguson fact-checks Orca, and NY Times reporter Corey Kilgannon tells us the truth about those alligators-in-the-sewers myths.

Dylan and Will are joined by Nick Wolfe to discuss the haunting silent films that emerged from Sweden and Denmark between 1917 and 1922, including Häxan and The Phantom Carriage. Featuring interviews with film professor Anne Bachmann, theologian Patrik Hagman, and Häxan-expert Richard Baxstrom, we also explore the world that produced these movies, discussing Lutheranism, Satan, the history of Sweden's Golden Age of silent film, and the lives of the remarkable filmmakers behind these chilling visions from a lost era.

The second half of a two-part season premiere investigating the Friday the 13th movies. Dr. Stella Castelli of the University of Zurich drops by to explain why Freddy vs. Jason is really a vaudeville double-act, while Dylan, Sheldon, and Will dissect and debate all the Jason movies from Part VI: Jason Lives right up until the 2009 remake. Discussion ranges from horror franchises that went into space, to the distinction between horror and terror movies, and how New York's 1980's Crime City days were represented on film, before we finally unveil our final rankings for the complete franchise.

The first half of our epic deep-dive into the entire Friday the 13th franchise. Featuring an interview with Dr. Michael Smith, an expert on the history of American summer camps, the Season 2 premiere sees Dylan, Sheldon, and Will analyzing, debating, and ranking Fridays 1 through 5 while also investigating the Siskel-and-Ebert-led backlash against the movies, the history of 3D films, Jacques Plante, and The Greatest Movie Summer Ever. Part 2 is available early on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mindoversplatterpodcast

Dylan, Sheldon, and Will delve deep into 1973's The Exorcist, and argue about the various sequels they love and hate. To help provide some fascinating context for the original classic film, theologian Dr. Bernard Doherty drops by to explain how it fits into the backlash against the Vatican II reforms in the Catholic Church, while cultural scientist Dr. Johanna Braun describes how it can be viewed as a depiction of hysteria, drawing from a long and surprising history in both psychiatry and art. Plus, of course, we each rank the films, while getting into discussions about how they work, the ideas, and the directors and writers behind this weird and fascinating franchise.

For the tenth installment of Mind Over Splatter, we decided to do our first video episode (currently available on YouTube!) and play a drinking game involving some of our favourite movies to celebrate. Dylan, Sheldon, and Will unveil their number-one horror film of every decade, while trying to guess one another's secrets picks, and debating the many controversial selections along the way. It was a ton of fun, plenty of surprising and brilliant films are under discussion, and you can even play along at home (if you have enough beer).For the full experience, visit Mind Over Splatter's YouTube page!

Dylan, Sheldon, and Will chat bugs, with a special guest appearance by renowned bee expert and author Mark L. Winston. We break down strange and unique creepy-crawly flicks from 1974-1978, including Phase IV, Squirm, and The Swarm, while also discussing their cultural contexts, taking you into some entertaining corners of film history. Plus, with a little help from Dr. Winston, we learn about the 1970's killer-bee hysteria, discover neat insect facts, and look at the origins of the environmental movement that inspired these horror movies.

Dylan, Sheldon, and guest Sean O'Rourke dig deep into the mythology of The Purge. We break down each of the four movies, scrutinizing their themes for how they reflect and interpret the current events dominating American discourse in the years of their releases. Plus, of course, we judge and rank them. An episode rich in politics, contemporary issues, and slow-motion masked dancing.

Dylan and William are joined by author and film professor David Annandale to discuss Japanese giant monster movies. The three committed kaiju geeks unveil their top-10 lists one entry at a time, while debating the merits of recent Godzilla films, analyzing peculiar Gamera entries, and singing the praises of lesser-known gems like Dogora and Yog Monster From Space. Lots of fun discussions and unexpected reappraisals here, ready to be mined for your pre-Kong kaiju viewing lists.

Dylan, Sheldon, and William discuss the entire Halloween franchise chronologically, from start to finish, ranking the films separately as they go. We weigh the various filmmakers' approaches, break down the meanings and the cultural contexts behind different turns the movies took, and get into heated, half-drunken arguments over the merits of oddities like Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and Halloween: Resurrection. At the end of the contentious, beer-fueled marathon session, we've come up with ranked lists that reflect different perspectives for appraising slasher flicks.

Dylan and William are joined by special guest Nicholas Wolfe to chat David Cronenberg. We've each prepared a list of our top-5 favourite Crone films, kept secret from one another, and we reveal the picks one at a time while counting up towards the best works from the Canadian master of psychologically-complex body-horror. We penetrate deep into the themes of these intense and singular movies, debating and delighting over the aesthetics, ideas, and iconic performances in Dead Ringers, Videodrome, The Fly, and many more.

Dylan, Sheldon, and Will discuss and spar over some of their favourite horror anthology films, including Creepshow, Tales from the Hood, Spirits of the Dead, and many more. Along the way, we appraise Miike, Bava, King, and Fellini, while trying to pin down the elements that make for a truly great anthology flick. Lots of fun recommendations to be found here.

Dylan, Sheldon, and special guest Sean O'Rourke dissect big-killer-animal flicks from 1995-1999, including Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid, and the profoundly insane Congo. We try to develop a theory of why there was a boom in big-budget natural-horror at that historical moment, discuss the unexpected writers behind these screenplays, and learn some surprising facts about real-life man-eaters. 

Dylan, Sheldon, and William break down some recent horror (or horror-ish) movies, diving deep into the chilling Saint Maud, the zany PG: Psycho Goreman, and the mid-numbing strangeness of Possessor. We speculate if these very unique releases can tell us anything about the state of horror in 2020 and beyond.

In the début episode of this new podcast about horror movies, Dylan Ferguson, Sheldon Kilcullen, and William O'Donnell have prepared lists of their Top-10 favourite slasher films, but kept them a secret from one another. We reveal our picks, working our way up from 10 to 1, while sparring over what's the best Friday the 13th, Scream, and Nightmare on Elm Street flick, diving deep into some wonderful lesser-known titles we love, and exploring the meaning of slasher-movie mythology, all in one beer-fueled marathon session. If you want some weird and bloody recommendations for your quarantine watch-list, you've come to the right debate.