Podcasts about subgenres

Wir sind wieder daaaaaha! 13 Jahre nach Scary Movie 5 kehrt die ikonischste Horror-Parodiereihe zurück – nicht nur auf die Kinoleinwände, sondern auch zu ihren Wurzeln. So versammelt der am 4. Juni 2026 startende Scary Movie ein breites Ensemble aus alten Gesichtern vor und hinter der Kamera, darunter Anna Faris, Regina Hall und die Gebrüder Wayans. Zu erwarten sind wieder derber Humor sowie eine ganze Menge an durch den Kakao gezogenen Horrorfilmen und Prominenten. Unser eingespieltes Podcast-Duo nimmt diesen Neustart zum Anlass, um das Franchise über ein Vierteljahrhundert nach dem ersten Teil Revue passieren zu lassen.Von Dämonengrusel zu Alien-Invasionen, von Saw zu Paranormal Activity – kein Horrortrend hat es bislang unparodiert an Scary Movie vorbeigeschafft. Der plumpe Stil, der satirisches Geschick weit hinter flachen Kalauern anstellt, sorgte inzwischen für diverse Momente, die fester im kulturellen Zeitgeist verankert sind als die Werke, auf die sie anspielen. 2000 begann die Reihe mit einer verballhornten Slasher-Geschichte, in der eine Gruppe von Teenagern versucht, einem Ghostface-Killer à la Scream auf die Schliche zu kommen. Der Film entwickelte sich mit seinen Popkulturreferenzen, den einprägsamen Figuren und den fiesen Sprüchen zu einem Dauerbrenner auf sämtlichen Schulhöfen.Mit den Jahren wechselte sich nicht nur das Personal auf dem Regiestuhl und im Cast munter ab, jeder neue Eintrag in die Reihe nahm außerdem ein anderes Subgenre des Horrors aufs Korn. Gleich bleibt lediglich das Mantra „Respekt vor niemandem“; Minderheiten, marginalisierte Gruppen und jene, die sich nicht wehren können, werden bedingungslos zu Opfern des Klamauks. Léo und Luca nehmen die Entwicklung des Franchises unter die Lupe und besprechen, ob zwischen den Flachwitzen auch ein Stückchen Genialität steckt. Freut ihr euch auf den neuen Scary Movie? Und welcher Teil der Reihe ist euer Favorit? Wir freuen uns auf eure Meinung!---Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmfruehstueck/

Christopher & Jobst im Gespräch mit Philipp. Wir reden über David Guetta & Peter Hook, der Peak elektronischer Musik, die jeweils besten Songs von Blitz, Poison Idea & Troopers, der MTV Punk Sunday, ein Rolling Stone Beileger über 20 Jahre Punk, die Band KSIN, Schlachtrufe BRD 2, Die Wut, ein Wohlstandsghetto in Gelsenkirchen, Karl Marx aus Papas Bücherschrank, die Hotknives auf nem Stadtfest in Münster, Punk im Pott, Toxoplasma immer geil, der Lost & Found Katalog ersetzt den von AM, der erste Technics 1210er, das Fuck, die Pagan Love Songs Parties, Donnerstag ist Düstertag, nach DAFs letztem Gig auflegen, natürlich Schalke-Mitglied-Sein, 1997 den UEFA-Cup gewinnen, Tränen bei der Meisterschaft 2001, Ingo Anderbrügge, durch Filesharing Leute kennenlernen, ein Interview mit Thees Ullmann, die Partyreihe Remembrance Daze und Death # Disco, 45Grave im Cassiopeia, die großartigen For Against, die Band Fotocrime, eine potentielle UG-Gründung, einige finden Geld halt doch geiler, Le Fete Triste covern deutsche Punk Klassiker in Cold Wave, zum Black Metal Konzert ins Berghain, das Berlin Atonal Festival, die "Gallowdance"-Single von Lebanon Hanover, Lehren aus der Pandemie, 7 Hits in Grau Vol.1 & 2, die vielen Subgenres von elektronischer Musik, Hybrid Moments am Ende eines Techno Sets, Post-Hippie-Technos, DJ Strilipp Phobel, Techno auf dem Brutal Assault, stundenlang vor Techno-Clubs in der Schlange stehen, absolut Team Hedonismus sein, Klangstabil, größte Enttäuschung 2026: Discharge, Le Prince Harry, Ratos de Porao im Reset, Rüdiger & Lumpi, nicht so der Urlaubs-Typ sein, im Kopf Lokalpatriot sein, uvm.Drei Songs für die Playlist:1) Ein Lieblings-Lied des 14-jährigen Philipp: LOXIRAN - Nur zusammen2) Ein Song, der Punks Angst vor Techno nehmen kann: Philipp Strobel + Friedemann Kootz - The Night 3) Ein aktueller Lieblings-Song: MORRISSEY - Make Up is a Lie

In which Rachel and Lauren are joined by horror aficionados Jonah and Ellee to break down their favorite horror films by genre categories. Remember to submit your review for this quarter's film club pick, Kubo and the Two Strings: by June 10th! Submit here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFsHzaX9t5Ml4NpxICHaX8eGuPG3CINl1kKTFvnca5h0ZeLA/viewform?usp=send_form

Matt and Mike sit down to talk about what they feel are "subgenres" in the collecting side of the old car hobby. They discuss some of the collections we have bought that are filled with a very specific type of item, and what subgenres Matt seems to focus on. Check out our website!! - www.irontrapgarage.comDon't forget to listen to our weekly podcast!! - https://open.spotify.com/show/09WnyHe97uUrMkeXF6dQIL?si=dObfWrBKTyqP42qwrO5vjw- Get 10% Off Your Eastwood Order With The Coupon Code ITG10 At Checkout * Some Products Excluded -  https://glnk.io/73rnx/irontrap  Wanna send us something?Iron Trap GaragePO Box 6New Berlinville, PA19545Matt's Instagram - @irontrap - https://www.instagram.com/irontrap/Mike's Instagram - @mhammsteak - https://www.instagram.com/mhammsteak/Iron Trap Parts Instagram - @irontrapfinds - https://www.instagram.com/irontrapfinds/Iron Trap eBay - https://www.ebay.com/usr/irontrapgarage/

AI. You may have noticed it's everywhere now — in your phone, your fridge, the suspiciously enthusiastic email your boss "wrote" last Tuesday. And cinema, bless its little reactive heart, has been trying to warn us about this for fifty years. The problem is we keep not listening, partly because the warnings have so often arrived in the shape of a sexy lady robot, which is its own diagnosis of the problem.This week, Pete is joined by Chelsea Stardust and Tommy Metz III for a triptych spanning five decades of artificial intelligence horror: Demon Seed (1977), Cam (2018), and Companion (2025). Three films, one increasingly nervous question: what exactly are we asking of AI, and what does it keep becoming anyway?The conversation runs the lineage of synthetic women in cinema — a trope factory that stretches from Metropolis through The Stepford Wives, Blade Runner, Weird Science, Her, Ex Machina, M3GAN, and Subservience, with a foundational-film round that lands on WarGames and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Along the way: the paperclip maximizer as a way of understanding what Proteus actually is, the cultural weight of releasing a forced-pregnancy AI horror four years after Roe v. Wade, platform terms-of-use as the modern book of the vampire, and the genuinely surprising argument that the most hopeful film in the set is the one where a robot drives off into the sunset with all the money.There are detours, because of course there are: villain-era Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage doing the robot, Sophie Thatcher sliding her own intelligence to one hundred percent, and Tommy's new and frankly concerning bedtime ritual.The films:Demon Seed (1977), dir. Donald Cammell, adapted from the Dean Koontz novel, starring Julie ChristieCam (2018), dir. Daniel Goldhaber, written by Isa Mazzei, starring Madeline BrewerCompanion (2025), dir. Drew Hancock, produced by Zach CreggerAlso referenced: Colossus: The Forbin Project, Westworld (1973), Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Get Out, Promising Young Woman, The Invitation, Assassination Nation, Barbarian. (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark (01:29) - The AI Experience (04:26) - Foundational AI Films (05:42) - Demon Seed (25:55) - Cam (42:16) - Companion (01:04:46) - Coming Attractions ... TBA! Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussed

Seven years after The Rise of Skywalker, the saga finally got off the couch, and what it brought back was a tin-canned dad, a green gremlin, and a teenage Hutt with a glandular disorder. The Film Board lands split right down the middle, mostly in the affectionate way. Everyone agrees the adventures of Grogu are the heart of the thing. Everyone also agrees the plot is thin enough to read a newspaper through, and that this plays less like a movie than like the best three episodes of a Mandalorian season nobody got to make.Pete, JJ, and Ocean are joined by Matthew Fox, host of the Star Wars Generations podcast, and the table works through all of it: whether a jacked, English-speaking Rotta the Hutt is the dumbest swing or the most heroic one (Ocean is buying, Pete is not), why Sigourney Weaver got cast in a role that forgot to be a character, the Martin Scorsese cameo that weirdly lands, and the swamp sequence where Grogu plays caretaker to a poisoned Mando and the whole room finally forgets it is watching a puppet. Ocean makes the case for television as the franchise's natural home, Pete keeps glancing over his shoulder at Andor, and somebody floats the idea of just letting Matthew run Lucasfilm.The scores are in, and the panel landed in a tight cluster. Ludwig Göransson's score gets the home-run vote. The swole Hutt gets the side-eye.Connect with the ShowThe Film Board is part of the Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts. Find everything at thenextreel.com. Follow the show and rate every movie with us at letterboxd.com/thenextreel. Get member-only extended episodes at trustory.fm/join.Watch & DiscoverWatch Now: Apple TV | LetterboxdOriginal Theatrical Trailer Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Pete | JJ | Steve | Tommy | Andy | Ocean Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

We're going through a bunch of horror's many subgenres and choosing which movies best represents them.

Roger Fires is a production designer—”Nobody”, “Violent Night”, “Psycho Killer”—and one of the films he loves most is William Friedkin's “The Exorcist” (1973). He first encountered it not in a theater but through a wall as a child in Brazil, told not to watch and so he listened in the dark. That experience kept him away for nearly twenty years. At thirty he finally watched it and fell completely in love—and the specificity of that arc is what makes this conversation worth your time.Andy and Pete dig into what Roger calls the “unnoticeably good” standard: the refrigerated set, the spatial geometry, the window that marks two deaths and carries the film's entire theological argument. They cover what makes Friedkin's approach—dread over spectacle, religious drama over horror movie—still impossible to replicate, and Roger talks about his work on “Psycho Killer” and the “Scrubs” reboot along the way. 

In previous episodes, we've discussed how some genres are more aesthetic-driven (like sci fi & fantasy) and others are more structure-driven (like romance and mystery). So how do subgenres within SFF play with elements of both? How can we blend tropes and reader expectations to put fresh spins on familiar subgenres? Four-time guest and friend of the podcast Fonda Lee joins us to explore the possibilities and potential pitfalls. A lot of "genre" is really about marketing and packaging, so we also discuss the effects of knowing that end result on the process itself. How is it different if we start out with an idea of "I am going to write This Subgenre Thing" versus starting out with less of that marketing-minded specificity? How much do we play into or subvert a reader's expectations? Navigating that can be a high-wire act, trying to present new things that will delight and surprise a reader without knocking them out of the story. And what do we do if the packaging, which authors often have no control over, doesn't quite paint the right picture of the actual book? We also talk about some recent trends and shifts within SFF subgenres. [Transcript TK] Our Guest:  Fonda Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Green Bone Saga, consisting of the novels Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy, along with a prequel novella The Jade Setter of Janloon and a short story collection, Jade Shards. Her newest book is the science fiction novel The Last Contract of Isako. She is also the author of the fantasy novella, Untethered Sky and several young adult novels: Zeroboxer, the Exo duology, and the Breathmarked duology, co-written with Shannon Lee. Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a six-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada's national science fiction and fantasy award), as well as a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Her novels have garnered multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of Year lists from NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Jade City has been translated into fifteen languages, named to TIME Magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time, and optioned for television development. She has also written acclaimed short fiction and been an instructor at writing workshops including Clarion West, Viable Paradise, and Aspen Words. Fonda is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist who loves action movies and Eggs Benedict. Hailing from Canada and the Pacific Northwest, she now resides in the Boston area.

es sind die Worte, auf die die Welt und ganz besonders ihr da draußen seit Monaten gewartet habt: Gänsehaut ist zurück! Trommelwirbel, blutende Ohren, hysterisch lachende Münder, all das und mehr ist eine angemessene Reaktion, während sich Dom Schott & Nils Ehring nach einer Kreativpause wieder vor das Mikrofon setzen, um mit euch über die Welt des Horrors zu sprechen. Zur Erinnerung: Bei Gänsehaut geht es um medienübergreifende Analyse, den Vergleich von Horrorfilmen und Horrorspielen anhand unterschiedlichster Genres und Subgenres und die Frage: Wie machen das Filme, wie machen das Spiele? Wir beginnen mit der Welt des Trash-Horrors, also dem kunstvollen Spagat zwischen "Ohje, das ist Müll!" und "Auja, das ist Müll". Dafür vergleichen wir die Filme Driller Killer und The Toxic Avenger mit den Spielen Dick Killer und Poop Killer. Es wird obszön, es wird seltsam, es wird leicht erotisch. Noch erotischer: Das The-Pod-Abo! Ja, glaubt man nicht, ist aber so. Einfach mal ausprobieren. Sozusagen, am eigenen Leibe erfahren...uuhlala! https://www.gamespodcast.de/abo/

Tommy steps in as host this month with a triple feature about invaders that don't need to knock. Assassination Nation turns a Salem high school into a digital witch trial when a hacker dumps everyone's private data into the open. Return of the Living Dead lets the contamination loose inside a single warehouse-and-cemetery block, where the dead come back complaining and the living can't decide who's in charge. The Cell sends an empath into the dreamscape of a serial killer and asks whether the rescue mission is the same thing as the trespass.The conversation keeps finding throughlines the collection didn't have to spell out. The witch hunt as American operating system. The body as joke, as prison, as kingdom. Style as argument — three films that all chose excess and never apologized for it. Where they part ways is in their relationship to the rage they put on screen: Levinson's is righteous, O'Bannon's is gleeful, Tarsem's is mournful.The trigger warning that opens Assassination Nation gets read three different ways. The "it hurts to be dead" line in Return of the Living Dead gets a vote. The Cell becomes a real-time test case for whether visual ambition can carry a thin script. The answer depends on who's talking.The FilmsAssassination Nation • Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdReturn of the Living Dead • Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdThe Cell • Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark (02:34) - The Invaders from Within (03:28) - Assassination Nation (31:01) - Return of the Living Dead (49:18) - The Cell (01:08:27) - Coming Attractions: The AI Girlfriend Experience Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

"Nobody... nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired.”Producer/writer Josh Hyams joins hosts Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss The Thing, directed by John Carpenter. When it opened in June 1982, audiences weren't ready for it—it bombed against E.T. and was widely dismissed, even as its atmosphere of paranoia played out on screen. Decades later it's considered a landmark of practical effects filmmaking and one of the great ensemble horror films ever made. Hyams—whose BAFTA-nominated Mr. Burton is now in US release—has loved this film since seeing it at an outdoor cinema in Greece as a child. He brings a filmmaker's eye to Rob Bottin's creature work, Morricone's bare and atmospheric score, and a film that, as he puts it, "draws you in, it doesn't patronize you—it is a grown-up, cerebral, well-told horror film that takes its time." Forty years on, it's earned every word of that.

Movie Cannibals #29 - Slow Burn Horror: Wenn Angst Zeit braucht Willkommen zurück in der gediegenen Hölle des gepflegten Unbehagens. Diesmal nehmen sich Till (Instagram) und Sero (Linktree) gemeinsam mit Filmkritikerin Lida Bach ein Subgenre vor, das viele unterschätzen – bis es zu spät ist: Slow Burn Horror. Filme, in denen (scheinbar) nichts passiert… bis plötzlich alles eskaliert. Wie immer starten wir mit unserem Heimkino-Büfett und servieren euch die wichtigsten Neuerscheinungen für Sammelfreaks und Heimkinofetischisten, bevor wir uns ganz langsam in den Abgrund ziehen lassen. Warum ist Slow Burn Horror oft intensiver als klassische Schockeffekte? Wieso fühlen sich diese Filme wie ein schleichender Albtraum an? Ist „langsam“ wirklich gleich „langweilig“ – oder einfach nur nichts für Ungeduldige? In dieser Folge analysieren wir:

Project Hail Mary gives us a spider-shaped rock creature with no eyes, no face, and a simplified vocabulary who makes a choice so selfless that four grown men on a podcast had to take a beat. That's the kind of movie this is. Andy Weir's third novel has been adapted by Lord and Miller — the filmmakers who made you cry about a Lego — and the result is a two-and-a-half-hour space movie where the most compelling relationship is between Ryan Gosling and a practical puppet made of granite.Pete, Tommy, Steve, and JJ dig into all of it: the parallel storylines that cut between Grace's amnesia-fueled space crisis and his reluctant conscription on Earth, the razor wire on the inside of the fence, Sandra Hüller's karaoke scene that had JJ in a puddle, and why Greig Fraser and Paul Lambert called this the most complex film they've ever worked on — including two Dune movies. The panel splits on whether the earthbound story or the space-bound story lands harder, and Pete makes a case that the movie's real antagonist isn't a villain at all but the weight of impossible choices.Watch & DiscoverWatch Now: Apple TV | LetterboxdOriginal Theatrical Trailer

Es ist ein Running Gag wie viele Subgenres es im Metal gibt. Allerdings sind die allermeisten davon nur Marketing. Tatsächlich hat sich im Metal seit Jahren keine neue Bewegung mehr herausgebildet, die die Szene grundlegend auf links gedreht hat. Aber warum ist das so? Andi und Adrian begeben sich hierzu auf eine historische Spurensuche. *Kapitel* 00:00 Einleitung 01:55 Getränkepodcast 06:03 Bandshirts der Woche 12:57 Kommentare kommentiert 29:41 Hauptthema *Links* Adrian singt bei Blakylle: https://www.blakylle.de/ Andi erreicht ihr unter andi@totgehoert.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ More Metal to find at http://totgehoert.com ...on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/totgehoert ...on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Totgehoert ...on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/totgehoert?lang=de ...on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/totgehoert/

What does it actually take to make a horror film that matters? Not a studio green light. Not a VFX budget. Not a catering line.This month, Chelsea Stardust curates three films that answer that question on their own uncompromising terms. Jeremy Gardner's The Battery strips the zombie apocalypse down to two former baseball players, a Discman, and a friendship slowly coming apart at the seams. Starry Eyes follows a young actress as the machinery of Hollywood ambition grinds her into something unrecognizable — and possibly exactly what she always wanted to be. And Hellbender, made by a real family in their real backyard, turns the mother-daughter relationship into a folk horror inheritance no one asked for and no one can refuse.Together, these three films share a preoccupation with death and rebirth — not as plot mechanics, but as the thing transformation actually costs. Chelsea, Pete, Kynan, and Tommy dig into what it means to make something from almost nothing, and why the best low-budget horror isn't resourceful so much as honest.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:The Battery - Apple TV | Amazon Starry Eyes - Apple TV Hellbender - Apple TV | AmazonView Our List on Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark (03:34) - The Battery (28:49) - Starry Eyes (50:01) - Hellbender (01:09:23) - Coming Attractions Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

In dieser Folge setzen sich Christopher und Claude ohne Gäst*in zusammen und reden sich einmal quer durch das musikalische Universum, von Herford Hardcore bis Solar-Punk und zurück in den Keller nach Erfurt.Los geht's mit euren Einsendungen (danke dafür

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”Costume designer Jenny Beavan joins hosts Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss The Leopard, directed by Luchino Visconti—the landmark 1963 epic that showed her what period design could be.A three-time Oscar winner whose career spans A Room with a View, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Cruella, Beavan traces The Leopard back to a Soho cinema in the late sixties and the influence of a mentor who kept returning to what Piero Tosi achieved there. "He was obsessive, Piero Tosi. I don't think he was happy because it was never perfect enough. But he was one of the most incredible costume designers ever." The conversation also moves through her recent Nicholas Hytner film The Choral and the challenge of building an authentic world on nearly nothing—which turns out to be its own kind of craft lesson.Watch the conversation on YouTubeWatch & Stream The Leopard — Apple TV · Amazon · Letterboxd · TrailerAbout Jenny Beavan IMDb · InstagramReferenced in This Episode Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius — 1968 recording, Adrian Boult, Coventry CathedralSource Material The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa — AmazonIf You Enjoyed This Conversation The Next Reel — Mad Max series The Film Board — Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Movies We Like — Costume Designer Deborah L. Scott on The Mission Movies We Like — Costume Designer Alana Morshead on Never Let Me Go Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Andy | PeteShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

Ghostface is back. Sidney Prescott is back. Kevin Williamson — the writer who started it all in 1996 — is back, this time in the director's chair. And The Film Board is here to pick through the wreckage.Pete Wright convenes the panel — Tommy Metz III, Steve Sarmento, and Mandy Kaplan — for a full-spoiler autopsy of Scream 7, the franchise's seventh installment and its most complicated origin story yet. The film arrives trailing the collapse of a whole other movie: Melissa Barrera's firing, Jenna Ortega's departure, two directors exiting before a frame was shot, and Neve Campbell finally getting what she was owed to come back. What ended up on screen bears those scars — and the panel doesn't look away from them.There's plenty to argue about. Tommy arrives as the franchise's longest-tenured Film Board voice and delivers his most critical take yet — the kills are flat, the villain reveal is the weakest in franchise history, and the AI deepfake conceit is nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Steve, against form, finds himself in the film's corner: the Sidney-Tatum mother-daughter dynamic gives him something real to hold onto, and he'll take that over clever-but-hollow any day. Mandy had a genuinely good time, found Anna Camp's casting as transparent as a freshly-cleaned window, and would very much like Tatum's next chapter to be a musical. Pete sits somewhere in the middle — glad to have Kevin Williamson back, troubled by what he had to work with, and still thinking about the better movie that never got made.They get into the production chaos, the Barrera-shaped hole in the script, the question of whether the AI angle says anything worth saying, the correct use of a panic room, the mystery of a certain line reading, and whether Scream 7 has dethroned Scream 3 at the bottom of the franchise pile.

This month on Sitting in the Dark, we go big: big monsters, big fear, and big systems that respond to catastrophe with the confidence of a guy who just Googled “what is monster” on his way into the meeting. Kynan, Chelsea Stardust, Tommy Metz III, and Pete Wright take on three modern giant-creature films—Bong Joon-ho's The Host (2006), André Øvredal's Troll Hunter (2010), and Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One (in its Minus Color presentation)—and find a weirdly consistent thread across wildly different cultures: when the giant thing shows up, the institutions mostly don't.The Host kicks things off with tonal whiplash as a feature, not a bug. The film's mix of grief, comedy, and political bite becomes its own kind of monster, and the conversation circles what Bong is really lampooning, what still lands, and what hits differently on a rewatch. The creature design gets its due too—full daylight, hard to pin down, impossible to “know”—but what lingers is the movie's sense that people become collateral long before anything with teeth arrives.Troll Hunter shifts the vibe without letting you off the hook. The group gets into the found-footage push-pull—shaky cam, “why are you still filming,” all that—then pretty quickly agrees that Hans, the deadpan troll hunter, is the secret weapon. The film's charm is how seriously it takes the ridiculous premise: folklore becomes logistics, mythology becomes fieldwork, and the jokes don't erase the danger. It's one of those movies that makes you laugh… then reminds you you'd die immediately.Godzilla Minus One brings it home with a version of Godzilla that's less “spectacle” and more “reckoning.” The group talks about the postwar setting, the human story at the center, why the black-and-white presentation changes the feel of the effects, and how this movie earns its impact through quiet scenes as much as destruction.Across all three films, the episode keeps returning to the same uncomfortable idea: these are blue-collar fights. The people who do anything meaningful aren't the polished experts. They're ordinary, exhausted, under-resourced, and improvising. Which might be the scariest part.Next month, Chelsea flips the table for her birthday picks with an ultra low-budget lineup: The Battery (2012), Hellbender (2021), and Starry Eyes (2014).

This is the audio version of the Naavik Digest newsletter published on February 22nd, 2026. We explore how niche subgenres – Block, Sort, and Screw – are reshaping the mobile puzzle market.You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/how-niche-subgenres-are-reshaping-the-mobile-puzzle-marketMeet us at GDC 2026 by filling out this short form: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/gVDtj4UO Let us know what you think by sending us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Watch our episodes: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

“The person who really loves me will be the one who helps me die. That's love, Rosa. That's love.”Filmmaker Miguel Ángel Ferrer joins Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to talk about Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside, a film that shaped how Miguel thinks about life, death, and the power of cinema.Miguel—director of The Shadow of the Sun, a moving new film about two estranged brothers chasing an impossible dream—shares the personal story of discovering The Sea Inside in an almost-empty theater, and why it remains unforgettable.“This man, through wanting to die, shows everybody around him how to truly live. You can't know the beauty of what you have if you don't know the finite nature that it has.”From survival and dignity to filmmaking as perseverance, Miguel reflects on stories that inspire, challenge, and remind us not to take life for granted.

This month on The Film Board, Pete Wright drags Andy Nelson, Tommy Metz III, and Steve Sarmento into an emergency bonus hearing because Andy texted, essentially, “We can't skip a month. Also I found a movie.” That movie is Mercy, a slick, noisy, deeply committed screenlife thriller where Chris Pratt wakes up strapped into a futuristic execution-chair-courtroom and has 90 minutes to prove he didn't kill his wife. The judge is an AI who looks like Rebecca Ferguson. Which is frankly unfair to every other AI.From there, it's a full-spoilers sprint through a world where justice is software, surveillance is just “normal life,” and every single camera on Earth is apparently pointed at exactly the wrong moment. The panel fights over what Mercy thinks it's doing (a cautionary tale about AI and institutions) versus what it actually does (a pulpy, coincidence-powered ride that occasionally forgets its own premise and wanders off toward terrorism and explosions).Andy is… not having it. Steve is torn in the way only a lover of scrappy sci-fi concepts can be: “It's messy, but I'm intrigued.” Tommy—who walked in expecting bargain-bin January nonsense—ends up delighted, especially after an accidental 3D screening turns the whole thing into a theme-park attraction where the chair is the main character. Pete tries to keep the court metaphor alive long enough to pronounce a verdict, but keeps getting distracted by the movie's most dangerous idea: not the AI, but the assumption that the only way to get “justice” is if the system can see literally everything.Also: yes, we talk about the wind. The screens have wind.Watch & DiscoverWatch Now: Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdOriginal Theatrical Trailer Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Pete | JJ | Steve | Tommy | Andy | Ocean Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

Episode 216 continues the Best of… series with a deep dive into the horror genre. Meredith Monday Schwartz of the Currently Reading podcast joins the show to discuss her all-time Top Ten favorite horror books, along with a few buzzy titles that didn't quite work for her. Meredith also talks about how she came to the genre and the wide range of reading experiences horror has to offer. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Highlights How Meredith defines the horror genre — and where she draws the lines Subgenres of horror that don't get talked about as much Meredith's personal relationship with reading horror What draws her to the genre and how she approaches her horror TBR The role of women in horror, both as authors and within its themes Meredith's All-Time Top Ten Horror: Ranked [18:47] 10) Daphne by Josh Malerman (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [19:33] 9) How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:10] 8) The Ruins by Scott Smith (2006) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [24:42] 7) Near the Bone by Christina Henry (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [27:02] 6) Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [29:19] 5) We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [31:44] 4) Slewfoot by Brom (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org   [34:01] 3) The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org   [37:40] 2) The Stand by Stephen King (1978) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [39:46] 1) I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [44:50] High-Profile Horror She Didn't Love [49:39]  The September House by Carissa Orlando (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [50:03] The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [50:55] Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [52:34]  Other Books Mentioned The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (1977) [9:57] 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered by Sadie Hartmann (2023) [13:25]  Feral and Hysterical by Sadie Hartmann (2025) [13:37]  Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024) [22:47]  The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi (2025) [28:33]  Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959) [31:01]  The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (April 21, 2026) [33:29]  Krampus by Brom (2012) [36:42]  The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (2012) [39:07]  The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James (2022) [39:23]  11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011) [43:13]  Foe by Iain Reid (2018) [49:00]  Bird Box by Josh Malerman (2014) [52:39]  Other Links Sadie Hartmann (@Mother.Horror) on Instagram Talking Scared with Neil McRobert Slow Read: The Stand with Sarah Stewart Holland & Laura Tremaine

You know that moment when the room doesn't change, exactly… but you do? A joke lands a little sideways, a silence settles in, and your brain starts doing that ridiculous math where staying feels safer than leaving—even when every part of you is quietly screaming, “Go.” That's the engine of this month's Sitting in the Dark, as Pete Wright sits down with Tommy Metz III, Chelsea Stardust, and Kynan Dias to unpack “Overstayed”: three films built around the fear of the open door you don't walk through.They start with Karyn Kusama's The Invitation, a dinner party that weaponizes politeness, history, and that stubborn desire to not be the first person to say what everyone's thinking. From there, they pivot to David Bruckner's The Night House, where the trap isn't social pressure—it's grief, isolation, and a house that seems to rearrange itself into meaning when you're not looking. And then there's Damien McCarthy's Caveat, a movie that takes the idea of being “stuck” and makes it aggressively literal, daring you to decide whether you're watching realism… or a fable with teeth.Along the way, the conversation keeps circling one question: what is it in us that wants answers more than safety? It's a theme that feels uncomfortably familiar—and the kind of horror that lingers because it doesn't ask what you'd do in a haunted house. It asks what you'd do at a party, in a marriage, in a moment where the cost of being wrong feels higher than the cost of staying.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:1 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd2 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd3 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd

“I'm a Dapper Dan man!”Producer/Director Bill Banowsky joins Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss O Brother, Where Art Thou? from Joel Coen, reflecting on both the film's enduring appeal and his own fascinating journey through the film industry. As co-founder of Magnolia Pictures and developer of smart house theaters, Banowsky brings unique insight to this beloved Coen Brothers comedy while also discussing his new documentary A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant."I think we need more films like O Brother, Where Art Thou?. You gotta find story-driven films, not technology-driven films, to save this business," says Banowsky, whose career spans from law to founding smart house theaters to directing documentaries.

This month on The Film Board, Pete Wright sits down with Tommy Metz III and Steve Sarmento to wrestle with a question that keeps resurfacing throughout Avatar: Fire and Ash: how can a movie built with such extraordinary care feel so strangely forgettable?James Cameron's return to Pandora is, once again, a monumental technical achievement. The scale is enormous. The craft is meticulous. The effort behind it is undeniable. And yet, as the conversation unfolds, the panel keeps circling the same uneasy feeling—that the film never quite gives its spectacle anything meaningful to serve.The discussion ranges from Cameron's latest performance-capture and adaptive frame-rate experiments to the franchise's growing habit of mistaking motion for momentum. There's real admiration for the artists who built this world, paired with frustration over a story that repeatedly rushes past its most interesting ideas. Themes of environmentalism, colonialism, faith, and family surface again and again, only to be flattened by familiar beats, unresolved questions, and a narrative that seems unwilling to slow down long enough to let any of them land.By the time the conversation reaches ratings, the outcome feels less like judgment and more like inevitability—the natural endpoint of trying, and failing, to locate the film's emotional center.

This month, Sitting in the Dark smiles politely, locks the door, and then asks you to reconsider every coping mechanism you've ever trusted. Tommy Metz III is joined by filmmaker Chelsea Stardust and Pete Wright to excavate the uneasy trilogy formed by Smile, Smile 2, and the short-film patient zero, Laura Hasn't Slept, all courtesy of writer-director Parker Finn—a man who looked at the concept of healing and said, “Yes, but what if absolutely not.”The conversation begins with Laura Hasn't Slept, a short film so assured it feels like a résumé quietly slid across the table while maintaining unsettling eye contact. Therapy, dreams, and sleep deprivation collide in a space that should feel safe and instead feels like a trapdoor with a co-pay. The group wrestles with the idea that this story may not be a beginning at all, but a closed loop—what it looks like once the monster has already moved in and started redecorating.From there, the episode moves into Smile, a film that takes the metaphor of trauma and strips away subtlety. It's tired of pretending this is going to end well. Broken promises pile up. Authority figures fail spectacularly. “Safe space” becomes an ironic term at best. The panel digs into the film's clinical color palette, its fixation on mirrors, and its unrelenting thesis: awareness is not protection, healing is not guaranteed, and sometimes the best you can do is not make things worse for the next person.Then Smile 2 kicks the door off its hinges. By shifting the curse to a global pop star, the sequel swaps quiet dread for public spectacle without sacrificing cruelty. Addiction, celebrity, parasocial obsession, and relentless visibility all become accelerants, pushing the franchise into its most confident—and most punishing—form. Naomi Scott's Skye Riley is surrounded by people at all times and still utterly alone, a neat trick the film performs while tightening the noose.Across all three entries, the episode circles the same bleak conclusion: these movies aren't interested in defeating trauma. They're interested in how efficiently it spreads, how convincingly it blends in, and how easily it convinces you that you're doing just fine. Smile for the camera.

THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! TOP BOOKS! BOOK DATA! STATISTICS! READING TRENDS! Links mentioned:Reading Spreadsheet Template: https://www.booksunboundpodcast.com/stuffFill out our 2025 Reading Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOaqDlWh7z2bDMsq5m2lc2xugveJtr3jpMxF_JJG9p22g5cA/viewformArticle about niche bookstores: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/one-genre-bookstores-calgary-9.6989662Article about bookshops opening: https://globalnews.ca/news/10935412/a-new-chapter-bookworms-canada-independent-bookstores/)Article about AI book winning a big prize: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/18/author-rie-qudan-why-i-used-chatgpt-to-write-my-prize-winning-novelSupport The Podcast:Join our patreon and become a Dust Jacket! patreon.com/booksunboundFollow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/books_unbound/Our website: booksunboundpodcast.comNeed Info or Some Books?Buy books with our affiliate link: https://bookshop.org/shop/BooksUnboundAll the books we mentioned in this episode: https://www.booksunboundpodcast.com/booksUse our affiliate link to get 2 audiobooks for the price of 1! https://tidd.ly/3dyW1XwOur Patrons:A special thanks to our Gold Foil Team on Patreon: Adriane, Alex, Alli, Bellanora, Brittany, Bronte, Candis, Cassie, Christina, Claire, Debra, Diana, Emily, Gene, Gerald, Inbar, Jessica, Jill, Judith, Karina, Livi, Michelene, Nicole, Róisin, Sherralle, Tiffany, Vanessa!Chapters:00:00:00 - 2025 WRAP UP00:03:29 - Milestones of 202500:05:13 - Raeleen's Top Books of 202500:16:39 - Ariel's To Books of 202500:30:17 - Spreadsheet Time!01:15:36 - Mashed Potatoes 202501:30:58 - Subgenre of the Year01:40:14 - Reading Predictions for 202601:51:22 - Favourite Authors of 202501:53:37 - Book Memories 2025

Exploring Perspective Through the LensLondon-based cinematographer Mattias Nyberg joins Movies We Like hosts Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Drawing from his recent work on Amazon/MGM's The Girlfriend, Nyberg explores how Lynch and cinematographer Peter Deming created one of cinema's most compelling psychological thrillers through innovative perspective shifts and unsettling camera techniques.Nyberg's path to cinematography began unusually—as a professional hockey player in rural Sweden before discovering film during a temporary stay in London. Now a governor of the British Society of Cinematographers, his work on projects like The Girlfriend and Netflix's The Decameron demonstrates his mastery of visual storytelling through careful camera placement and measured pacing, particularly in building tension.The conversation delves into how Mulholland Drive masterfully manipulates audience perspective, with Nyberg offering technical insights about Deming's subtle camera movements and Lynch's unconventional shot choices. Through seemingly disconnected scenes and dreamlike sequences, the film creates an atmosphere of sustained unease that deepens rather than diminishes its impact. Nyberg connects these techniques to his own work on The Girlfriend, particularly in how camera positioning and sustained shots can build tension more effectively than rapid cutting.In both works, we see how thoughtful cinematography can elevate storytelling beyond conventional narrative into psychological complexity. Nyberg's deep appreciation for Mulholland Drive and its influence on contemporary television reveals how cinema's visual language continues to evolve while remaining rooted in the power of patient, confident camera work.

This week on The Book Drop, we're talking about books that fit AND EVEN stretch the final reading challenge theme of the year to read a book in the cozy subgenre, while exploring why “cozy” means something different to every reader. All the books and resources we talk about in this episode can be found here or by visiting omahalibrary.org/podcast. Happening at the Library:Paint & Sip | Saturday, Dec. 20, 2 to 4 p.m. at Saddlebrook BranchOur Musical Stories | Monday, Dec. 22, 6 to 7 p.m. at Willa Cather BranchPuzzle Competition | Friday, Dec. 26, 2 to 4 p.m. at A.V. Sorensen BranchExplore all upcoming events at omahalibrary.org/events.Join the conversation for the next episode! Answer the Query of the Week “What are your life activations for 2026?” by email at thebookdrop@omahalibrary.org or DM on social media!

A locked church. A sermon mid-amen. A knife that absolutely should not be where it is. This month, The Film Board turns its attention to Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the most austere—and maybe most confrontational—entry yet in Rian Johnson's whodunit canon. From the opening minutes, the film dares the audience to argue with it: what you just saw could not have happened… and yet here we are.Pete Wright is joined by Steve Sarmento, Mandy Kaplan, and Tommy Metz III to wrestle with a mystery that swaps billionaire excess for spiritual rot, replacing champagne flutes with hymnals and certainty with something far more dangerous. The panel digs into Johnson's tonal gamble—less joy, more gravity—and whether a franchise built on clever fun can survive a movie so willing to sit in moral discomfort.The conversation dives deep into the film's mechanics: the church as a performance space, the precision of the Lazarus door, the way light itself becomes a narrative instrument, and how the film quietly trains you to look without ever announcing it's doing so. There's admiration for the film's rewatchability, its refusal to hide answers offscreen, and its confidence in letting silence—and doubt—do real work.Benoit Blanc, played once again by Daniel Craig, emerges subtly transformed: less showman, more listener. The panel explores what it means for a great cinematic detective to say “I don't know” and mean something different every time. Along the way, there's sharp appreciation for Josh Brolin's venomous Monsignor Wicks, Glenn Close's inevitable gravitational pull, and a stacked ensemble that understands exactly when to lean in—and when to get out of the way.

In Part II of our Fantasy Subgenre Series, we explore the darker and more modern branches of fantasy: Dark Fantasy, Grimdark, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary/Modern Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Romantasy, Progression Fantasy, LitRPG, and Gamelit.

In Part I of this three-episode Fantasy Subgenre Series, we dive into the grand-scale branches of fantasy: Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Historical Fantasy, Alternate History, Mythic Fantasy, Indigenous/Mythic-Region Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Steampunk, and Gaslamp Fantasy.

The 1980s were a golden age of VHS horror excess — when night was the time to party, die, or both. This month, Chelsea Stardust takes the hosting reins and brings us a triple feature of midnight mayhem: Night of the Comet (1984), Night of the Creeps (1986), and Night of the Demons (1988). What begins with a Christmas-morning apocalypse of Valley Girls and zombies spirals into brain-slug infestations and ends in a demon-filled funeral-parlor rave that only the most caffeinated teenagers could survive.Pete, Kynan, Tommy, and Chelsea pull each film apart like a possessed VCR — celebrating Comet's pastel apocalypse and genuinely progressive sister-heroes, Creeps' mix of alien parasites and B-movie heart, and Demons' glorious, unhinged chaos.  Expect debates over whether these movies actually knew they were camp, why 1980s “fun horror” felt lighter even when dripping in blood, and how mall culture, frat parties, and Halloween nights all became stages for teenage empowerment and bad decisions.They also crown the best survivor of the trilogy (spoiler: justice for Roger!), nominate the worst audio mix in horror history, and reveal which lipstick trick broke Pete's brain.  Plus, Tommy announces next month's pick — the Smile franchise, beginning with the short Laura Hasn't Slept — proving that even in 2025, we're still chasing trauma through the dark with a flashlight and a laugh.

“Nobody's perfect. There was never a perfect person around. You just have half-angel and half-devil in you.”Cinematographer Marcus Patterson joins Movies We Like hosts Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to discuss Terrence Malick's 1978 masterpiece Days of Heaven. Drawing from his own experience shooting the anthology film Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake), Patterson explores how Malick and cinematographers Néstor Almendros and Haskell Wexler crafted one of cinema's most visually stunning achievements through their innovative use of natural light and magic hour photography.Patterson's journey to cinematography wasn't direct – he tried acting, writing, and editing before discovering his passion behind the camera. Starting with short films in Alabama, he developed his craft through countless projects before moving to Los Angeles. His work on Sunfish demonstrates his ability to capture intimate human moments while maintaining a painterly approach to composition and lighting, particularly in natural settings.The conversation explores how Days of Heaven revolutionized the use of natural light in cinema, with Patterson offering technical insights about how Almendros and Wexler achieved their remarkable images. Through Linda Manz's narration, the film presents its tragic love triangle from a child's perspective, creating emotional distance that heightens rather than diminishes its impact. Patterson connects these techniques to his own work on Sunfish, particularly in capturing the languid atmosphere of lake life and the delicate interplay of light and water.In both films, we see how careful attention to natural light and composition can elevate storytelling beyond mere narrative into the realm of visual poetry. Patterson's deep appreciation for Days of Heaven and its influence on his own work reveals how cinema's visual language continues to evolve while remaining rooted in these foundational techniques of capturing light and life on film.

“Stop filming me!”The Film Board Gathers! This time, they're racing through Edgar Wright's adaptation of The Running Man, a sharper, more faithful take on Richard Bachman's/Stephen King's dystopian manhunt. Glenn Powell stars as Ben Richards, sprinting for survival and truth in a world where entertainment is weaponized and every choice is content.Pete Wright leads Tommy Metz III, Steve Sarmento, Matthew Fox, and Mandy Kaplan through a deep dive into this reimagining. The panel tackles everything from Josh Brolin's corporate menace to Coleman Domingo's pitch-perfect propaganda host, debating how Wright balances King's nihilistic source material with Hollywood's need for hope. They explore the film's commentary on surveillance, media manipulation, and AI deep fakes, all while questioning whether Wright's signature style gets lost in the chase.While the group largely praises Powell's charismatic lead performance and the film's updated themes, they clash over the rushed ending and whether dystopian tales can (or should) offer uplift in 2025. The conversation ranges from adaptation choices and censorship quirks to Michael Cera's panic room and the eerie prescience of King's original vision.Is this a faithful sprint through broken society or just dystopia with a Disney sheen? Grab your tracking beacon, dodge the drones, and find out as the Film Board breaks down every checkpoint of The Running Man. (Just watch out for those AI face swaps.)

In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light.” But then, apparently, He got bored and switched it off just to see what would happen. Welcome to Sitting in the Dark, where this month Kynan, Chelsea, Tommy, and Pete explore what happens when filmmakers yank away humanity's favorite nightlight. Their lineup: Wait Until Dark (1967), Don't Breathe (2016), and Pitch Black (2000)—three films that remind us that darkness isn't just the absence of light, it's the presence of bad decisions.We start with Wait Until Dark, in which Audrey Hepburn, recently blinded, gets harassed by Alan Arkin and a few other men who apparently missed the memo about “don't terrorize vulnerable women.” Then we stumble into Don't Breathe, where three young idiots break into the wrong house and discover that Stephen Lang's blind war vet has taken “home security” to a level that can only be described as “OSHA violation.” Finally, the crew rockets to Pitch Black, where Vin Diesel proves once again that he can growl through any lighting condition. It's a film so early-2000s it practically comes with a Nu Metal soundtrack and a free AOL disc.So grab your flashlights, blow out your candles, and maybe keep one bulb unbroken… you know, just in case.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:Wait Until Dark - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdPitch Black - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdDon't Breathe - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdView Our List on Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark (02:05) - Between Light and Dark (04:33) - Wait Until Dark (25:44) - Don't Breathe (47:20) - Pitch Black Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Greetings, Users! The Film Board Gathers again—this time to boot up TRON: Ares, Disney's latest attempt to update a franchise that still doesn't understand what “updating” means. Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, Steve Sarmento, and Mandy Kaplan log on to debate Jared Leto's turn as an AI messiah with great hair and no emotional bandwidth, and Greta Lee's heroic attempt to act her way out of the mainframe.The panel tackles the film's tangled themes—AI, empathy, and whatever Jared Leto thinks a “character arc” is—before turning to the one thing everyone agrees on: the Nine Inch Nails score absolutely slaps. The music may be futuristic perfection, even if the story feels like it's still buffering from 2011.So, is TRON: Ares a bold leap into a new digital age or just a flickering screensaver of nostalgia and noise? Plug in, charge your light disc, and find out as the Film Board decodes every pixel of this glowing glitch in the Disney matrix.Film SundriesWatch: Apple TV | LetterboxdOriginal Theatrical Trailer Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Pete | JJ | Steve | Tommy | Andy | Ocean Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Pünktlich zur gruseligen Jahreszeit wagen sich Micha und Wolfram in die düsteren, nebelverhangenen Wälder des Folk Horror – ein Subgenre, das tief in alten Mythen, lokaler Folklore und der Urangst vor dem Unbekannten verwurzelt ist. Als Ausgangspunkt für ihre Reise dient das diesjährige First-Person-Horror-Adventure One-Eyed Likho, das auf einer alten, russischen Sage basiert. Gemeinsam ergründen die beiden, was uns an diesen Geschichten über Generationen hinweg so fasziniert und warum die Neugier uns immer wieder an unheimliche Orte treibt, obwohl sie gefährlich für uns sein könnten.Doch bei einem einzelnen Spiel bleibt es natürlich nicht. Die Diskussion entfaltet sich zu einem massiven Rabbit Hole, das von den grausamen Warnungen der Brüder Grimm über moderne Film-Meisterwerke wie Midsommar und The Lighthouse bis hin zu philosophischen Fragen nach Schicksal, freiem Willen und der Banalität des Bösen reicht. Was haben die Lehren von Schopenhauer und Sartre mit Horrorspielen zu tun? Warum fühlen wir uns von der Isolation in Spielen wie Mundaun oder dem britischen Folk Horror in The Excavation of Hobbs Barrow so angezogen? Und was ist eigentlich mit asiatischer Folklore?Freut euch auf eine vollgepackte Folge, die euch zeigt, wie tief und bedeutungsvoll das Horrorgenre sein kann. Macht es euch gemütlich, zündet (metaphorisch) ein Licht an und begleitet Micha und Wolfram auf diesem unheimlichen Exkurs. Viel Spaß!-------Mundaun hat Micha damals mit Dom von OK Cool besprochen:https://insertmoin.de/mundaun-schweizer-folklore-als-handgemalter-horrortrip/-------Wusstet ihr, dass sowohl Wolfram und Micha elektronische Musik machen? Beide findet ihr hier auf Bandcamp:Phasenmensch (Wolfram): https://phasenmensch.bandcamp.com/Micha: https://cherdchupan.bandcamp.comSchreibt in die Kommentare, wenn die beiden eurer Meinung nach mal ein Musikprojekt zusammen machen sollten :D--------Bock auf mehr Horror? Micha veröffentlicht (vermutlich) Ende Oktober ein erstes Videossay auf seinem neuem Horror-Videokanal: https://www.youtube.com/@FrighteningDe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Thomas Anderson just made an action movie you can take your in-laws to without a 20-minute lecture about American masculinity and bowling metaphors. One Battle After Another is PTA's $175 million plunge into the now, mixing the absurdity of a stoner dad in a bathrobe with a razor-sharp allegory about fascism, power, and family. Leonardo DiCaprio leads as a washed-up revolutionary trying to rescue his daughter (Chase Infinity) from Sean Penn's snarling, broken military villain, and the result is both wildly funny and uncomfortably timely.Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, and Steve Sarmento dig deep into the contradictions and triumphs of the film. They debate Sean Penn's feral Lockjaw, the Christmas Adventurers Club (absurdist satire or terrifying cabal?), and the grounded humanity of the father-daughter story that anchors the spectacle. From Benicio del Toro's Zen “Sensei” to Johnny Greenwood's jagged score to the breathtaking desert chase sequence, the conversation unpacks how PTA manages to hold together chaos, comedy, and heartbreak in a film that already feels like one of the year's defining works.As always, the panelists disagree (sometimes passionately) on the ending, the satire, and whether it all needs that extra denouement in Office 55. But they unite on one point: this is the kind of audacious, ambitious, theatrical cinema you absolutely need to see on the biggest screen you can find.Links & NotesWatch Now: Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdOriginal Theatrical TrailerVery Loosely Adapted from Vineland (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) by Thomas Pynchon Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Pete | JJ | Steve | Tommy | Andy | Ocean Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Sometimes horror doesn't need a killer in a mask—it just needs gravity, leaky plumbing, and a loose screw. This week Pete, Tommy, Kynan, and Chelsea dive headlong into the beautifully deranged contraptions of fate in the Final Destination series. We zero in on films one, two, five, and six, skipping the middle entries (with Chelsea reluctantly leaving her beloved roller coaster behind) to track how the franchise evolved from eerie paranoia to glossy spectacle—and sometimes back again.What makes these films so uniquely unnerving? They erase the safe distance of supernatural slashers and drop death right in our kitchens, on our highways, and even at the optometrist. From the infamous log truck pile-up in Final Destination 2 to the unexpectedly brilliant twist of Final Destination 5, the series keeps daring us to see everyday objects as lethal Rube Goldberg machines. Along the way, we debate the rules of death (are they rules or just improv?), celebrate Tony Todd as the connective tissue of the franchise, and wrestle with whether the overpolished look of Bloodlines makes its gore more cartoonish than chilling. And yes, we all pick our favorite kills—expect airbags, bathtubs, and gymnastic mats to come up in conversation.It's a franchise that's as much about philosophy as phobia—existential dread wrapped in popcorn horror, where the fun lies in watching fate toy with its victims like a sadistic game master. Whether you love the paranoia of not knowing which object will strike next or the catharsis of absurd spectacle, Final Destination has a death with your name on it. Join us, as we laugh, squirm, and admit how these movies have ruined car rides, kitchen appliances, and even snow globes forever.Featured FilmsTonight's Quadruple Feature:Final Destination 1 - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdFinal Destination 2 - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdFinal Destination 5 - Apple TV| Amazon | LetterboxdFinal Destination Bloodlines - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd

Tyler and David are joined by Matt Warren to compare various horror movies to different heavy metal subgenres.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a textThere are only so many horror subgenres we can discuss before we get to Possession Movies! From Demons to Dolls, we will leave no stone unturned! PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE! THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT

Out in the remote villages of South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand, belief isn't just tradition—it's infrastructure. In this month's episode of Sitting in the Dark, guest host Andy Nelson takes Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, and Kynan Dias on a journey into three modern horror films that weaponize spiritual legacy: The Wailing (2016), Impetigore (2019), and The Medium (2021). Each film presents a different lens on the collision between folk belief and contemporary life, and none of them offers easy answers.The panel dives deep into the disorienting tone shifts of The Wailing, where slapstick cops and demonic rituals clash with devastating consequences. They unpack the haunting beauty and brutal tradition behind Impetigore, a film that begins in a toll booth and ends in generational damnation. And The Medium, with its immersive mockumentary format, challenges our understanding of family, fate, and whether gods actually have your best interests at heart.What unites these films? An unnerving thesis: belief might not protect you—it might damn you. These aren't stories of good versus evil. They're stories about what happens when spiritual systems—old and new, global and local—overlap and collapse. And in the end, maybe the most terrifying realization is that all these spirits, deities, and curses… simply don't care what you believe.Join us this month as we stare into the spiritual void, question the value of ritual, and contemplate the horror of legacy itself.Film SundriesThe List on LetterboxdWatch the movies discussed:The Wailing: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdImpetigore: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdThe Medium: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark (02:19) - Asian Horror with Andy! (15:13) - The Wailing (31:21) - Impetigore (49:27) - The Medium Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Send us a textMany of us love to discuss Slasher Movies, but how often to do we think of what makes them a Slasher? It's not as easy to describe when asked but in this episode we hope to get to the root of that question. PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE! THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT

Case Notes, August 30th, 2025: A suspiciously cozy murder mystery has been committed. The suspects—Tommy Metz III, Mandy Kaplan, Steve Sarmento, and Justin “JJ” Jaeger—have assembled remotely, each with their own dubious alibis and hot takes. The film: The Thursday Murder Club, Netflix's big adaptation of Richard Osman's beloved novel. The crime? A charming cast, a confusing mystery, and a script that may or may not have committed third-degree exposition.This month's Film Board roundtable dives headfirst into the soft lighting and softer stakes of this senior-led whodunit. JJ comes in as the film's most vocal defender, praising its character-driven structure and comparing it (gasp!) to Knives Out. Tommy and Steve are less convinced, calling the movie pleasant but forgettable, faulting everything from flat cinematography to emotionally neutered finales. Mandy, the show's resident Osman superfan, mourns the depth lost in translation from page to screen. Pete, meanwhile, accuses Chris Columbus of directing every scene like it's the trailer—and not in a good way.From plot structure and adaptation choices to the aesthetics of Cooper's Chase and the misuses of Sir Ben Kingsley, this episode covers it all. Was it a missed opportunity or just an okay pizza? Can Helen Mirren's exposition dumps be forgiven? Did we really need the cold case? Should somebody address the case of Jonathan Pryce?If you love spirited disagreement, spoilers aplenty, and occasional emotional whiplash caused by the word “cake,” this is your episode.Watch & DiscoverWatch Now: NetflixOriginal Theatrical TrailerAdapted from The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Pete | JJ | Steve | Tommy | Andy | Ocean Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Libby Cudmore rejoins for another half-hour pop culture deep dive: We get to note how Music Subgenres need more labels and ways to classify the type of material they cover.   If they can use loose labels like Yacht Rock, then why not Douche Rock?   Given how much music is tongue-in-cheek or campy, wouldn't you want to make a playlist just based on that tone alone?   We mention more criminally ignored music & the funniest episodes of Libby's show The O.S.T. Party Podcast!   Follow them here: https://pod.link/ostparty      

A long and winding road brought us to this little discussed horror subgenre filled with ominous signs, dark gems and one freaky moth-individualJoin us here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/wearehorrorweeklyHorrorweekly theme by Nicholas Savard-L'Herbier

Worum geht's? 1990 erscheint mit F-Zero ein Launch-Titel für das brandneue Super Nintendo, der nicht nur als technisches Schaufenster für das neue Mode-7-Scrolling dient, sondern auch ein neues Subgenre im Rennspielbereich definiert: futuristische High-Speed-Rennen mit schwebenden Gleitern auf halsbrecherischen Strecken. Als Spieler steuert man eines von vier Fahrzeugen durch Loopings, Schikanen und Energiezonen – begleitet von einem ikonischen Soundtrack und minimalistischem, aber prägnantem Design. Gunnar und Fabian sprechen in dieser Folge über die Entstehung des Spiels, die Bedeutung für Nintendos 16-Bit-Start und wie F-Zero mit Tempo, Stil und Präzision den Grundstein für eine langlebige Serie legte. Infos zum Spiel: Thema: F-Zero Erscheinungstermin: November 21, 1990 (Japan), USA 1991, EU 1992 Plattform: SNES Entwickler: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Genre: Rennspiel Designer: Takaya Imamura, Shigeru Miyamoto u.a. Music: Yumiko Kanki, Naoto Ishida Produktions-Credits: Sprecher, Redaktion: Fabian Käufer, Gunnar Lott Audioproduktion: Sascha Blach, Christian Schmidt Titelgrafik: Paul Schmidt Intro & Outro: Nino Kerl (Ansage); trash80.com (Musik)