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Recent episodes
Red Rooms (Plante 2023)
Apr 20, 2026
Unknown duration
Nosferatu (Eggers 2024)
Apr 7, 2026
Unknown duration
Cruising (Friedkin 1980)
Mar 24, 2026
Unknown duration
Heretic (Beck and Woods 2024)
Mar 16, 2026
Unknown duration
Woman of the Hour (Kendrick 2023)
Mar 9, 2026
Unknown duration
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4/20/26 |  Red Rooms (Plante 2023) | Red Rooms (Plante 2023) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2023 film Red Rooms. Ostensibly this is a film about the dark web phenomemon of the titular red rooms. Oddly, the film did not actually offer any insight into red rooms. This film is different, and we definitely appreciate that. We just wish it offered something, anything!, interesting in terms of perspective or thoughts on the phenomenon it purports to address. We enjoyed it, learned nothing from it, but still enjoyed it. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Red Rooms, this film It Comes at Night (Shults 2017) TOPIC INDEX – Red Rooms (Plante 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 5:15 – Film discussion begins 5:30 – overall thoughts on the film 7:15 – SPOILERS section begins 10:30 – spoilers for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 12:30 – opening sequence 13:30 – alignment 19:15 – physical arrangement of criminal justice 20:00 – Kelly-Anne and Clementine character arcs 50:00 – no red rooms in Red Rooms 1:06:30 – Untraceable (premise spoilers) 1:07:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Cam (Goldhaber 2018) Knives and Skin (Reeder 2023) Related Films Untraceable (Hoblit 2008) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 140 The post Red Rooms (Plante 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 4/7/26 |  Nosferatu (Eggers 2024) | Nosferatu (Eggers 2024) The film is gorgeous. It is well acted. Unfortunately, Eggers seems to be moving toward the strain of modern horror directors who are style without substance. And or sytle without ethical substance. Eggers appears to be willing to stray from Stoker’s book as well as from the 1922 classic version by Murnau. However, the changes he makes are at best socially stagnant. He arguably relegates women to foils for men characters, or arguably regressive, stripping away the queer coding of Murnau’s version. So while his attention to appearance, acting, and in this case language is impressive, it makes the lack of consideration of the messaging of the film even more disappointing. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Nosferatu (Eggers 2024) TOPIC INDEX – Nosferatu (Eggers 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:45 – Film discussion begins 3:30 – overall thoughts on the film 9:00 – SPOILERS section begins 12:30 – opening scene 27:00 – an alternative film that isn’t regressive 29:00 – gendered nudity and sexuality 34:00 – sociology moment – Clover on gendered portrayal of possession 38:00 – queer uncoded 45:15 – 47:30 – SPOILERS for The Witch 49:00 – trend of anti-women, anti-science within the genre? 1:00:30 – comparison to X 1:05:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:11:00 – SPOILER for Werewolves (Miller 2024) Related Films The Witch (Eggers 2016) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 139 The post Nosferatu (Eggers 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 3/24/26 |  Cruising (Friedkin 1980) | Cruising (Friedkin 1980) This episode is dedicated in loving memory of our dear friend Matt Brown, PhD. You lived unabashedly out and gay. You loved cruising and the scene. And you always had a unique perspective. We would have loved to hear your thoughts on this film especially. We miss you! Cruising was made during the brief few years post Stonewall and before significant awareness of AIDS that would decimate gay men especially throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In many ways we found this film to be more progressive, and offer better representation, of gay men than more recent films. We reviewed the film on it’s own merits, as we encountered it as a text. After our discussion we became aware of there being significant controversy about the film especially at the time of its release. Our review does not address that. Cruising is intriguing, well constructed, and a fascinating allegory. And, it features a riveting performance by Al Pacino before he shifted into just acting as himself. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) The Silence of the Lambs (Demme 1991) American Horror Story Season 11 TOPIC INDEX – Cruising (Friedkin 1980) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:45 – Film discussion begins 4:00 – SPOILERS section begins 4:00 – William Friedkin 12:00 – character motivation 14:00 – atypical serial killer tropes 16:00 – opening scene 23:30 – American Horror Story season 11 25:20 – SPOILERS for American Horror Story season 11 – spoilers end at 27:30 29:30 – serial killers and hegemonic masculinity 32:00 – queer-coded scenes? 37:00 – sex and killing 41:00 – final scene 46:00 – representation 51:00 – precinct night 53:00 – sociology moment – “black brute” character as foil 1:00:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Man Bites Dog (Belvaux, Bonzel, Poelvoorde 1992) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Martin (Romero 1977) Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (Sholder 1982) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 138 The post Cruising (Friedkin 1980) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 3/16/26 |  Heretic (Beck and Woods 2024) | Heretic (Beck and Woods 2024) Heretic – Does the film present an intellectual and philosophical discussion of belief, faith, and religion in order to encourage that amongst viewers? Or does it present all that as distraction because ultimately regardless of your thoughts and feelings, Mormon Jesus is going to save you if you believe and pray thereby making the film basically one long propaganda piece for the Mormon church (cult)? Laura and I disagree but we do hope you enjoy our consideration of this fundamental question about the film. I Saw the TV Glow (Schoenbrun 2024) I Saw the TV Glow – Heralded as a unique and powerful entry into the horror genre in 2024, this film is undoubtedly gorgeous and experfly crafted. Is it so expertly crafted that the alienation Marshall experienced viewing the film as a cis man meant to give him a taste of the experience of the alienation from self of being closeted in terms of gender identity or sexuality? Thus offer an opportunity for experiential empathy for those who are cis or are situated bodies that match their sense of self. If so what an accomplishment! The film has undoubtedly been hugely impactful and meaningful for LGBTQ+ viewers and that is what matters much more than our opinions. We totally appreciate the film but unfortunately we ultimately just didn’t really get it. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) TOPIC INDEX – Heretic (Beck and Woods 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:45 – Film discussion begins 2:45 – an atypical episode 3:30 – Heretic discussion begins 4:00 – SPOILERS section begins 13:00 – Is Heretic just Mormon propaganda? 27:00 – Laura’s counterpoints to 46:00 – Why Mormonism? 50:00 – the filmmakers 53:00 – other positives about the film 1:00:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility TOPIC INDEX – I Saw the TV Glow (Schoenbrun 2024) (times are approximate) 1:04:00 – SPOILERS section begins 1:04:30 – why Marshall didn’t want to podcast on these films 1:08:00 – Laura’s thoughts and genre placement 1:19:00 – alienation 1:23:30 – Vivarium (Finegan 2019) Related Episodes Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Related Films Vivarium (Finegan 2019) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 137 The post Heretic (Beck and Woods 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 3/9/26 |  Woman of the Hour (Kendrick 2023) | Woman of the Hour (Kendrick 2023) We have great appreciation of Anna Kendrick as a talent. And this film does have a very rare original take on the serial killer genre, unfortunately for us it did not coalesce into a meaningful film watching experience. The film is exactly the sum of its parts and it landed on us accordingly. Our guess is that in trying to avoid making problematic choices, which we support, Kendrick relegated her film to being one of cromulence. We hope she keeps working behind the camera as well as in front. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Very minor spoilers for Halloween (Carpenter 1979) TOPIC INDEX – Woman of the Hour (Kendrick 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:45 – Film discussion begins 2:45 – wallpaper 6:00 – SPOILERS section begins 39:00 – alignment and allegiance within the film 41:00 – why the disconnect 47:00 – victim blaming as negotiated read 50:15 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Monster (Jenkins 2002) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) Related Films M3gan (Johnstone 2024) Scream 6 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 136 Keywords sociology, horror, killing, serial killer, 1970s, glamorization, game show, dating, police failure, believe women, believe victims, Anna Kendrick, woman director, woman writer, victim blaming, The post Woman of the Hour (Kendrick 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 2/17/26 |  Strange Darling (Mollner 2023) | Strange Darling (Mollner 2023) What a breath of fresh air! A film that is presented non-linearly for a reason! And a reason that doesn’t completely sabotage any horror that the film might have otherwise accomplished (looking at you 2019 Pet Sematary (Kolsch and Widmyer) remake). This all around just an excellent film. We don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, suffice it to say, if you like horror films you should see it. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Very minor spoilers for Halloween (Carpenter 1979) TOPIC INDEX – Strange Darling (Mollner 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:45 – Film discussion begins 2:45 – wallpaper 8:00 – SPOILERS section begins 8:15 – defying subgenre and gender tropes 16:00 – structure and expectations 18:00 – depicting individuals in oppressed groups as villains 32:00 – emotional sense of the film 39:00 – subverted tropes 49:30 – subliminal frames 55:00 – ending 59:00 – position in the genre and the culture 1:02:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:13:00 – Laura’s short is an award winning film!!! 1:16:00 – follow up on Caroline Forgeat and Revenge Related Episodes Monster (Jenkins 2003) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) Related Films M3gan (Johnstone 2023) Scream 6 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) Brainwashed: Sex – Camera – Power (Menkes 2023) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 135 The post Strange Darling (Mollner 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 2/10/26 |  The Substance (Fargeat 2024) | The Substance (Fargeat 2024) The Substance is the second film from Fargeat that we have discussed on our podcast. With both this film and Revenge (2017) we were overall very impressed, with The Substance being a big step up especially in terms of style and production design. We are very excited to continue to follow her career. The film addresses topics of gender, aging, and the Hollywood expectations for appearance. The intention is clearly an indictment of specifically Hollywood’s perpetual demand for young women with speciifc appearances. While we largely agree that the film does implicate and comment critically on this, we have concerns about if the film also contributes or adheres to these expectations just as it admonishes them. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The Substance (Fargeat 2024) Minor Spoilers for: I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi 1978) Carrie (Demme 1976) All of The Purge films Severance The Fly (Cronenberg 1986) TOPIC INDEX – The Substance (Fargeat 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:30 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – whom does the film implicate? 6:00 – Sociology scene: Mills’ private troubles and public issues 6:30 – SPOILERS section begins 7:30 – split consciousness? 15:00 – does the film implicate women (in addition to the Hollywood system) 26:00 – does the film offer answers? 30:00 – Hollywood or beyond? 35:00 – Fred 38:00 – the alternative man trope 45:00 – does the film implicate us as viewers 54:00 – divided person (spoilers for Severance) 1:03:00 – camera work 1:09:00 Demi Moore 1:15:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Revenge (Fargeat 2017) I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi 1978) Rabid (Soska Sisters 2019) Related Films The Fly (Cronenberg 1986) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 134 The post The Substance (Fargeat 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 1/26/26 |  A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024) | A Quiet Place Day One (Sarnoski 2024) A Quiet Place Day One is an odd film. Laura very much enjoyed the primary plot and characters, and so for her this film worked well. And while Marshall did also, for him that felt summarily disconnected from the Day One universe and therefore did not work at all. Of possible interest at a larger scale is this is another big name horror franchise doing a sequel in New York City. This could be reflective of the right wing’s recent intense demonization of major cities as cesspools of crime and violence. While that simply is not true, the narrative has still be aggressively pushed by the neo-Right. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024) Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis 1995) Midsommar (Aster 2019) Minor spoilers for A Quiet Place (Krasinski 2018) A Quiet Place Part 2 (Krasinski 2021) TOPIC INDEX – A Quiet Place Day One (Sarnoski 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts 6:00 – Marshall’s thoughts 8:00 – SPOILERS section begins 8:15 – Lupita Nyong’o’s performance 11:45 – What Laura liked 14:45 – Cat’s gonna cat 17:00 – Marshall’s complaints and horror films in NYC 24:00 – Is Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) the protagonist? 24:30 – Midsommar spoilers 35:00 – Leaving Las Vegas 42:30 – More positives especially non-hegemonic masculinity 45:15 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:05:00 – Marshall’s thoughts on Twisters (Chung 2024) Related Episodes Midsommar (Aster 2019) A Quiet Place (Krasinski 2018) A Quiet Place Part 2 (Krasinski 2020) Related Films Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis 1995) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 134 The post A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 1/13/26 |  Longlegs (Perkins 2024) | Longlegs (Perkins 2024) While we think Osgood Perkins seems to be a genuinely wonderful human, sadly this film is not wonderful. This is not so much a movie as it is a series of trope vignettes with similar production desgin. Longlegs is all vibes with no substance; no character development, no timeline, no rationales, and no real reasons for anything. In many ways it’s a perfect film for the TikTok era, and we don’t mean that as a compliment. Laura started out thinking Marshall would hate the film. While he didn’t initially, through our discussion we found out she was absolutely correct to think that. This is not what we want in our horror films, without some cohesion of diegetic reality, there is no real fear, no real horror. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Longlegs Minor spoilers for The Conjuring Silence of the Lambs Se7en Smile Dahmer Story of a Monster TOPIC INDEX – Longlegs (Perkins 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts and The Age of Cage 6:00 – ethical challenges of serial killer films 7:00 – The most hated of the films we’ve discussed on the podcast and where LongLegs stands 8:30 – vibes movies 11:00 – Marshall on Nic Cage 13:30 – SPOILERS section begins 14:00 – Laura on Nic Cage 15:00 – the ethics of glorifying serial killers 20:30 – back to LongLegs 23:00 – lack of character development 42:00 – a modern fairy tale 48:00 – the ending 52:00 – serial killer genre vs possession genre 58:00 – popularity of the film 1:01:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:05:00 – Marshall’s thoughts on Twisters Related Episodes Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Berlinger 2019) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Prisoners (Villeneuve 2013) Related Films Talk to Me (Philippou and Philippou 2022) The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Perkins 2017) The Witch (Perkins 2015) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 132 The post Longlegs (Perkins 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 1/7/26 |  Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) | Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) In anticipation of Alien Romulus (Alvarez 2024), this episode we revisit the epic films Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986). We discuss how the films hold up after approximately 40 years. This is a rare episode for us as it is both a sci-fi horror film and a creature film. We have very few episodes of films in these sub-genres. Marshall first saw this film when he was 10 and offers his perspective as to why Aliens in particular is one of his all time favorite films. In contrast, this might be Laura’s second time viewing the film so she is coming in mostly blind except for the cultural references. Laura watched with her 10 year old son, so he added a perspective as to how this film might be understood by a young person today. And Laura has a hot take as an Alien sympathizer! Listen for the tea. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Alien (Scott 1979) Aliens (Cameron 1986) AvP: Alien vs Predator (Andersen 2004) TOPIC INDEX – Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 3:30 – Laura watching Aliens with her son 6:15 – Laura’s history with Alien and Aliens 9:00 – Marshall’s history with Alien and Aliens 11:00 – Alien 3 + 18:00 – SPOILERS section begins 20:00 – gender neutrality 21:00 – focus on Alien 30:30 – focus on Aliens 38:00 – caregiving and gender roles 50:00 – historical context 53:00 – middle management technocrat as villain 59:00 – mothers standoff 1:01:00 – species-centrism vs species relativism? 1:12:30 – earlier musings on Aliens being post-gender 1:23:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Crawl (Aja 2019) Related Films All of the alien franchise films. Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 131 The post Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
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| 12/9/25 |  Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) | Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) Directed by Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who have made very solid Scream requels and the really excellent Ready or Not, we had high hopes for Abigail. With lots of promise and overall good audience reactions we were unfortunately very disappointed. Abigail is bad. Real bad. No character development, no movitations, no sense of geography, and any even remote potential for fear or suspense was undermined by the marketing. Any hope that it would challenge or disrupt tropes and stereotypes, given that the vampire is a girl, are compromised completely by the film’s ending. It is reasonably watchable as a second-screen film, or something to have on in the background, which is not meant to be a compliment. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Pitch Black (Twohy 2000) Tower Heist (Ratner 2011) Last Stop in Yuma County (Galluppi 2024) TOPIC INDEX – Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 5:30 – Film discussion begins 11:30 – the trailer for Abigail 13:30 – SPOILERS section begins 13:30 – spoilers and wasted potential 32:00 – geography 38:00 – comparatively bad parenting 43:30 – everybody sucks 48:00 – sociology moment – Final Girl 55:00 – ending scenes 1:07:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Scream 5 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2022) Scream 6 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) (forthcoming) Becky (Milott and Murnion 2020) (forthcoming) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 130 Keywords sociology, horror, vampire, gender, enshittification, geography, bad mothers, final girl, parents, gore, blood, girl, The post Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 11/18/25 |  Late Night with the Devil | Late Night with the Devil (Cairnes and Cairnes 2023) Late Night with the Devil became somewhat of an immediate indie cult classic. According to Wikipedia “The film grossed $16 million and was met with widespread critical acclaim.” While Laura found the film to be quite an entertaining watch, Marshall was not a fan. And then when we delved into the messaging and subtext of the film things really went sour. The film not only perpetuates sexist horror tropes but it does significant work to validate the caustic Satanic Panic of the late 1970s and early 1980s that is still toxically present in aspects of QAnon insanity. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Untraceable (Hoblit 2008) The Conjuring (beginning only) Carrie (De Palma 1976) TOPIC INDEX – Late Night with the Devil (Cairnes and Cairnes 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Marshall’s overall thoughts 9:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts 13:00 – SPOILERS section begins 13:30 – opening montage 16:00 – From Satanic Panic to Qanon 18:00 – The Conjuring opening spoilers 19:45 – Sociology Moment – Clover’s conversion plot 23:00 – additional gender dynamics 31:00 – subjective perspectives and wasted potential 37:00 – implications of the ending 1:15:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Berlinger 2019) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Related Films Talk to Me (Philippou and Philippou 2022) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 129 Keywords sociology, horror, Satanic Panic, conspiracy theories, gender, Carol Clover, conversion plot, possession, real time, cults, subjective perspective, religion, secret society, psychic, cultic abuse, abuse, forgiveness, exploitation, sexuality, chastity, Puritan values, tropes, Qanon, The post Late Night with the Devil appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 10/28/25 |  Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) | Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) Poor Things cause quite a stir on the film scene when it was released. While not exactly horror it is definitely bizarre and has some macabre and fantastic elements, so here we are to discuss it. We had mixed feelings about this film but if nothing else, we appreciate the big swings it took in terms of stylization, acting, and narrative. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) Forrest Gump (Zemeckis 1994) It Follows (Mitchell 2014) very minor spoilers TOPIC INDEX – Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – genre 5:30 – SPOILERS section begins 5:30 – recap of events 19:00 – born sexy yesterday trope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Sexy_Yesterday 21:00 – continuum of relationships 51:00 – indulgent hedonism vs detached practicality 1:01:45 – God Godwin and daddy issues 1:03:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Weiner-Dog (Solondz 2016) Related Films Frankenstein (Rose 2015) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 128 Keywords sociology, horror, suicide, born sexy yesterday, frankenstein, sexuality, macabre, grotesque, sex work, jealousy, possessiveness, pleasure, cruelty, misery, life course, fetus, infant, tabula rasa, Freud, disillusionment, sex positive The post Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 9/29/25 |  Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) | Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) Following up on our discussion of The Babysitter is a film that is sort of similar in terms of vibe, and very different in terms of execution. At least this is true for the first segment of the film. Luckily for all of us, this film is not The Babysitter. While it has some originality and there is evidence of effort to break out of problematic messaging, it ultimately only has mixed success. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Bottoms (Seligman 2023) Becky (Milott and Murnion 2020) The Babysitter (McG 2017) TOPIC INDEX – Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 1:00 – how we found the film and initial impressions 3:00 – Film discussion begins 5:30 – male gaze and scopophilia 8:00 – twin films 12:00 – acting 14:00 – SPOILERS section begins 14:00 – acting, writing, direction 22:00 – villain who is outside hegemonic masculinity 31:00 – monstrous feminine vs villainous fathers 57:00 – Martyrs mention 58:00 – SPOILERS FOR BOTTOMS 1:05:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:11:00 – additional chat 1:13:00 – Laura’s award-winning short film The Silent Generation (Solorzano 2024) Related Episodes Relic (James 2020) Summer of ’84 (Simard, Whissell, and Whissell 2018) Related Films The Visit (Shyamalan 2015) Old (Shyamalan 2021) Them (Ils) (Moreau aned Palud 2006) The Stepfather (Ruben 1987) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 127 Keywords teenagers, adolescents, Christmas, babysitter, children, villains, values, socialization, Reagan, familial imaginary, nuclear family, child care, patriarchy, Martyrs, elderly, aging, The post Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 9/13/25 |  The Babysitter (McG 2017) | The Babysitter (McG 2017) While entertaining and with solid acting performances especially from Samara Weaving, McG’s Babysitter is a bizarrely lecherous film where the camera is wielded like the fantasies of a man’s imagination of a pre-adolescent boy. A film that, in our opinion has aged like milk, yet spawned a sequel after apparently a slow burn cult following established on streaming. If you have any doubt of just how inappropriate thiis is to watch, imagine the gender’s reversed. It also pushes that age old tripe of hegemonic masculinity being an aspiration. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Opening scene Scream VI (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) TOPIC INDEX – The Babysitter (McG 2017) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:00 – Film discussion begins 3:30 – male gaze and scopophilia 6:00 – discomfort 17:00 – Charlie’s Angels (McG 2000) 22:00 – Film intent and Samara Weaving is actually talented 28:00 – hegemonic masculinity character arc 38:10 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 52:00 – outro Related Episodes Summer of ’84 (Simard, Whissell, *& Whissell) Related Films Violent Night (Wirkola 2022) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 126 Keywords teenagers, scopophilia, male gaze, sexualization, adolescence, divorce, hegemonic masculinity, nuclear family, family imaginary, babysitter, The post The Babysitter (McG 2017) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 2/25/25 |  Evil Dead Rise (Cronin 2023) | Evil Dead Rise (Cronin 2023) Evil Dead Rise is well constructed and entertaining. It features a few minor pro to some of the tired tropes of possession films, ultimately the film is sloppy both ideologically and in terms of plot. Overall it still reinforces the tired arguments that women are only worthwhile if serving as mothers. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The Evil Dead (Raimi 1981) Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) Inside (Maury and Bustillo 2007) TOPIC INDEX – Evil Dead Rise (Cronin 2023) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:50 – Film discussion begins 4:00 – overall thoughts without spoilers 11:00 – FULL SPOILERS DISCUSSION BEGINS 11:00 – plot review 13:00 – continuity and narrative logic griping 22:00 – ideological positives 16:00 – ideological negatives 32:00 – Clover’s monstrous feminine 34:00 – 36:00 – spoilers for Inside 37:00 – abjection and Kuso 42:00 – hegemonic femininity 56:30 – Danny introduction screenshot 59:00 – source of evil 1:05:00 – decontextualized everything and adjoining lack of perspective 1:08:30 – missed opportunities 1:11:00 – urban setting of franchise sequels, reboots, and requels 1:14:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes The Evil Dead It Comes at Night Kuso The Lodge Related Films Inside (2007) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 125 Keywords pregnancy, teenagers, earthquake, records, music, demon, possession, nuclear family, father, low income, urban, gender roles, women, men not saviors, women not damsels, non-hegemonic, pregnancy, pregnancy test, motherhood, monstrous feminine, parking garage, liquify, hyper blood, reconstituted bodies, bodies, abortion, avoiding abortion, anti-intellectualism, conservatism, fascism, basement, penthouse, The post Evil Dead Rise (Cronin 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 1/14/25 |  Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) | Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) With this reboot of Evil Dead, Alvarez and Sayagues became the ones to watch of a new generation of horror film creators. Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) is one of the first modern era cabin in the woods horror films. It is a feat of scrappy engineering and a landmark of independent horror cinema. Amongst a swamp of mediocre, unnecessary, and opportunistic reboots, Alvarez’s film is one that is excellent, competent, and updates the original in interesting ways. While there is still problematic content, especially with regard to gender, Evil Dead (2013) is a refreshing remake of a beloved classic. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The Evil Dead (Raimi 1981) Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) MINOR SPOILERS The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Smile (Finn 2022) Carrie (de Palma 1976) TOPIC INDEX – Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:30 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – original Evil Dead 10:30 – new Evil Dead 13:30 – requels 14:00 – Spoilers begin 15:30 – gender andx possession 22:30 – monstrous homosexual 24:30 – not a nuclear family 28:30 – alternate endings 32:30 – drug use 35:30 – imagery 37:30 – geography 40:30 – privilege 41:30 – student comments 48:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 52:00 – outro Related Episodes The Possession (Bornedal 2012) Black Christmas (Takal 2019) Related Films Carrie (de Palma 1976) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 124 Keywords The post Evil Dead (Alvarez 2013) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 12/17/24 |  Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey (Frake Waterfield 2023) | The only thing interesting about this film is the concept. If you must watch any of it, watch the animated intro. The rest is a waste of your time, energy, and life force. A super cynical effort to leverage Winnie IP entering the public domain. This film was so bad it forced us to reconsider our scale for evaluating films. Also, our shortest episode thus far because the film was not even bad in interesting ways. Trite sewage. I’m not even going to link to the film on IMDb or Wikipedia because that would encourage giving the film attention. Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 123 The post Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey (Frake Waterfield 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 12/3/24 |  The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) | The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) The First Omen is a long slow burn. It is beautifully constructed, well acted, and intellectually terrifying. If you can see this in a theater, please do! There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Proxy (Parker 2013) Inside (Bustillo & Maury 2007) TOPIC INDEX – The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 5:00 – Film discussion begins 6:00 – Laura has submitted a short horror film to festivals! 11:00 – Spoilers begin 12:00 – opening scene as mise en abyme 14:00 – plot overview and discussion topics 20:00 – mothers and babies 25:00 – unethical aesthetics 28:30 – critique of the Catholic Church? 31:00 – 1960s social movements in Rome 38:00 – emotional experience and antichrist baby 41:00 – representation of difficult decisions 56:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:04:00 – outro 1:05:00 – Laura submitting to film festivals!!! and winning awards!!! Related Episodes Mandy (Cosmatos 2018) Related Films It is Fine! Everything is Fine (Brothers & Glover 2007) In Fabric (Strickland 2018) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 122 Keywords horror, podcast, sociology, gender, bodies, male gaze, menstruation, period, mise en abyme, abortion, devil, children, pregnancy, incest, rape, sexual assault, cult, Church, Christianity, nunnery, convent, orphanage, misogyny, gaslighting, infanticide, prequel, motherhood, mothering, women, antichrist, infanticide The post The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 9/24/24 |  Piggy (Perada 2022) | Piggy (Perada 2022) What a wonderfully different horror film! We love a film that is in dialogue with hegemonic gender norms, beauty standards, and audience expectations. Piggy evokes Haneke and Funny Games in tasking viewers with considering their own presumptions and responsibilities in watching a horror film. Fascinating! And with a exquisite performance by the lead actress Laura Galan, this film by Carlota Pereda is worth seeking out. We look forward to seeing what these talented folks do next. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Piggy (Perada 2022) TOPIC INDEX – Piggy (Perada 2022) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 5:00 – Film discussion begins 5:00 – marketing and expectations 9:00 – Spoilers begin 9:00 – fat representation 16:00 – sociology moment – Goffman and civil inattention 21:00 – aligning the audience with Piggy 25:00 – rape revenge films 30:00 – the killer 47:00 – anit-revenge? 53:00 – meat 1:02:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:09:00 – outro Related Episodes Funny Games (Haneke 1997) Related Films It is Fine! Everything is Fine (Brothers & Glover 2007) In Fabric (Strickland 2018) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 121 Keywords horror, podcast, sociology, gender, bodies, fat, obesity, representation, foreign film, Spain, scopophilia, male gaze, meat, butcher, bull, bullying, complicity, food, menstruation, period, complicit, culpable The post Piggy (Perada 2022) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 9/2/24 |  X (West 2022) | X (West 2022) I got so invested in putting out our episodes for Pearl and MaXXXine I realized I hadn’t finished or release the one for X! My apologies! X is the film that starts the entire Pearl/Maxine trilogy. An outstanding horror film by itself, and even better now that we’ve seen the rest of the story come to fruition. Laura is definitely the star of this episode! You can hear why she is such a phenomenal professor. Marshall said some totally unnecessary things early on that smacked of mansplaining and I apologize for it! Despite my embarrassment I’ve left it in to keep me humble and so everyone can see that we all have bad brain days. This film sparked a conversation about the state of the slasher sub-genre, cross gender identification in a post-gender world, and the elderly representation in horror. Without further ado, our longest episode yet: X. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Scream (Craven 1996) X (West 2022) TOPIC INDEX – X (West 2022) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:00 – Men, Women, and Chainsaw by Carol Clover 4:00 – Film discussion begins 6:00 – spoilers discussion begins 8:00 – Exemplary review of Clover by Laura 13:00 – Clover’s components of the slasher genre 23:00 – Marshall gets caught up on some pedantic quibble (I’m sorry!) 29:00 – applying Clover to X 33:00 – sexualized killer and victims 40:00 – film sequence at 41:00 in X 50:00 – meta 55:00 – review of main themes 107:00 – film sequence at 42:51 in X 1:26:00 – X back to Clover 1:28:00 – televangelist 1:38:00 – gender killing 1:48:00 – phallicization 1:51:00 – killer women 1:57:00 – older Final Girls 2:02:00 – hegemonic masculinity 2:09:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 2:27:00 – women’s sexuality Related Episodes Pearl (West 2022) MaXXXine (West 2022) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 120 The post X (West 2022) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 8/13/24 |  MaXXXine (West 2024) | MaXXXine (West 2024) Creating a successful horror trilogy that isn’t full of toxic messaging (looking at you James Wan) has proven to be a historical rarity. The original Scream trilogy is Marshall’s gold standard for a progressive, innovative, cohesive, beautifully executed trilogy. While leaving the possibility of a sequel open has been standard practice since horror films started really making money in the 1970s, prior to Craven’s Scream few films were conceived of with the intention of creating a cohesive work. The Human Centipede is probably the most infamous and least successful. It started as a shock film, the second film went meta and while scatological actually had glimmers of potential. Rather than complete the sequence in any sort of interesting way, the third film devolved into boorish slobbish rubbish. With Creep 2, the Creep trilogy has potential as well, but we may never see the third film to be able to decide. Long story long, West has managed to create an excellent and trilogy of films that are entertaining, well constructed, and intellectually compelling. Altogehter we’ve spent almost as long discussing these films as the films themselves, and there is still lots more worth discussion. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE MaXXXine (West 2024) Pearl (West 2022) X (West 2022) Carrie (Demme 1974) Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) TOPIC INDEX – MaXXXine (West 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:00 – Film discussion begins 2:00 – overall impressions without spoilers 6:00 – thriller vs horror genres 6:00 – spoilers discussion begins 6:00 – serial killers 8:00 – empathy vs villainy 9:00 – gender, agency, alliance 12:00 – structure vs agency 25:00 – sex work 35:00 – hegemonic beauty 42:38 – Horror Noire (Burgin 2019) 50:30 – pastor 58:00 – the ending 1:10:00 – her agent, Teddy 1:21:30 – correction: Scarface rather than Goodfellas (but probably both) 1:23:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:24:30 – trilogies 1:26:30 – The Night Stalkerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez Related Episodes Fantasy Island (Wadlow 2019) The Lodge (Fiala and Franz 2019) Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) Pearl (West 2022) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 119 Keywords The post MaXXXine (West 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 8/5/24 |  Pearl (West 2022) | Pearl (West 2022) Ti West apparently shot this on the sly at the same time he was making X (2022). It is a prequel to X, and the second film in the MaXXXine trilogy, just to be confusing. As with X this film is expertly crafted and Mia Goth’s performance is absolutely stellar. Ultimately we decided that the ideologies of the trilogy will greatly depend on how the story arcs are carried into the third film and resolved. Have a listen as we lay out the options based on what we’ve seen in the two first films. And our MaXXXine episode is up next! There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Pearl (West 2022) X (West 2022) Carrie (Demme 1974) Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) TOPIC INDEX – Pearl (West 2022) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins 4:00 – overall impressions 10:30 – spoilers discussion begins 10:30 – Pearl, her family, and men 17:00 – deaths 25:00 – family dinner 28:00 – spoilers for Carrie and Jakob’s Wife 50:00 – X 58:00 – trilogy 1:00:00 – meta-commentary 1:08:00 – sexual explicit media vs not 1:10:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:10:00 – pet ownership Related Episodes The Lodge (Fiala and Franz 2019) Jakob’s Wife (Stevens 2021) X (West 2022) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 118 The post Pearl (West 2022) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 6/17/24 |  Barbarian (Cregger 2022) | Barbarian (Esterhazy 2021) A movie with twists and turns, some of which were awesome, some of which were at best confusing, at worst problematic. The film definitely has tension and moments of suspense and horror. We always appreciate a new, innovative film even if we don’t think it completely hits the mark. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Barbarian (Cregger 2022) TOPIC INDEX – Barbarian (Cregger 2022) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:30 – Barbara Creed Monstrous Feminine 3:45 – Film discussion begins 8:00 – spoilers discussion begins 8:30 – Mom actor 10:00 – police 12:00 – Sociology moment – Creed’s monstrous feminine 14:00 – Kristeva’s abject 15:00 – Othering 20:00 – deaths 30:00 – additional criticisms 35:00 – what if…? 48:00 – evil women 54:30 – the best argument for the film 1:02:00 – race 1:08:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:10:00 – pet ownership Related Episodes Pet Sematary (Kolsch & Widmyer 2019) Malignant (Wan 2021) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Related Films Audition (Miike 1999) Pet (Torrens 2016) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 117 Keywords horror, podcast, sociology, gender, monstrous feminine, Creed, abject, Kristeva, rapist, mother, mansplaining, privilege, flashback, victim, survivor, Final Girl, Reaganism, pets, captivity, motherhood The post Barbarian (Cregger 2022) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
| 6/11/24 |  Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) | Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) Laura hated it, Marshall loved it. One of the most divisive films in the history of the podcast. Laura was bored and disconnected. Marshall thought Cronenberg was not only bringing up fascinating topics of technology, bodies, and art, but also layering in a metaphor for an artistic oeuvre. This made for a great discussion. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) The Fly (Cronenberg 1986) TOPIC INDEX – Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 2:30 – episode begins 2:30 – Film discussion begins 5:30 – sci-fi horror 11:00 – abstraction 20:00 – penetration in horror 27:00 – pain 35:00 – plastic 45:00 – ecological modernization 49:00 – art 51:30 – illness 56:00 – self critique? 1:07:00 – aesthetics 2:05:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Mandy (Cosmatos 2018) In Fabric (Strickland 2018) Related Films Pretty much any of Cronenberg’s previous films but especially Crash (1996), Videodrome (1983), and Existenz (1999) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 116 Keywords horror, podcast, sociology, gender, sci-fi, science fiction, bodies, pain, abstraction, cyborgs, sex, art, environment, microplastic, Cronenberg, autonomy, plastic, scars, natural, Baudrillard, pollution, The post Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) appeared first on Collective Nightmares. | — | ||||||
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