A Darkish Cinema Podcast
Join James and Sunni as they discuss, dissect, and deconstruct Horror and Horror “Adjacent” films from the points of view of a Film Studies student (James) and a casual moviegoer (Sunni). In addition to conventional horror, we will also be examining: -Dark and sometimes High-Concept Comedies -Dark and Surrealist Fantasies -Thrillers, Suspense, Drama and Adventures that include supernatural and/or psychological elements -Murder Mysteries -Crime and Film Noir, especially those surrounding murder and/or murder plots -Folk and Fairy Tales -Serial Killers -Descents Into Madness and Insanity -Etc.
Episodes
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Punishment Park, the bleak, blistering faux-documentary where civil liberties go to die. In this film due process takes a backseat to a sunburn and the First Amendment gets waterboarded. It’s like someone handed the current administration a camera and said, “Do Survivor, but make it fascist.” Equal parts political horror show and DIY dystopia, ...
In this special episode, we discuss James' ability to function in public, because he was strong enough to brave the social environment that is OKC Horrorcon. From purchasing some damn fine DVDs (including the most awesome box set ever produced), to seeing some old friends, to fan girling hard at horror royalty in the forms of Doug Bradley and Felissa Rose, Horrorcon was most certainly a successful outing. Come along as we show ...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is 825 Forest Road, a psychological horror trip where the vibes are bad, the furniture’s worse, and someone thought owning a life-sized mannequin named Martha was totally normal behavior. Tense, claustrophobic, and full of dread, it’s the kind of movie where every hallway feels like it’s judging you. Childhood trauma, bad vibes, and one extremely h...
Today’s episode is Chapter Five of our Atomic Monsters and Mutations Deep Dive, charting the emergence of giant monsters as a defining feature of atomic-era horror and science fiction. With films like Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Rodan, and The Deadly Mantis, the genre shifted toward spectacle while still engaging with serious themes: nuclear testing, Cold War tensions, and the fragility of civilization. These weren’t just crea...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Hellbender (2021), a coming-of-age folk horror film where adolescence, witchcraft, and killer drone shots collide in the forest... because growing up is hard... especially when your family tree is rooted in blood rituals. Made by the insanely talented Adams Family (not the finger-snapping goth family from that sitcom, no, we are talking about THE...
Chapter Four of our Atomic Monsters and Mutations Deep Dive marks the true arrival of the atomic age on screen, as monsters finally emerged from the metaphorical fallout. With these films, cinema gave form to nuclear fear with monsters born not from myth or madness, but from mankind’s own scientific hubris. These films didn’t just entertain; they externalized collective trauma, capturing the dread of an era grappling with weapons o...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Strait-Jacket (1964), where Joan Crawford swings axes, radiates vengeance like it’s a fine perfume, and chews scenery like it owes her money. It’s a William Castle special: part murder mystery, part melodrama, and part unhinged theatrical showcase for one woman’s descent into either madness or impeccable dramatic timing. There are decapitations, g...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Cockneys vs. Zombies (2012), the cinematic equivalent of someone yelling “Oi, you!” at the undead and then headbutting them with love. It’s a blood-soaked East End brawl featuring foul-mouthed millennials, a zombie siege on a retirement home, and the most heroic use of a walker since orthopedic devices were invented. Guns? Check. Bickering siblings...
Chapter Three of our Atomic Monsters and Mutations Deep Dive explores the threshold between global war and global paranoia—the uneasy years between 1945 and 1953, when horror began to shift from gothic castles and madmen to laboratories, testing sites, and Cold War nerves. With the bomb freshly dropped and the world suddenly aware of its own capacity for extinction, cinema entered a transitional phase, one haunted by fallout. Befor...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is State of Emergency (2011), a zombie-adjacent outbreak movie where the real infection might be terminal awkwardness. It’s got government conspiracies, suspiciously clean survivors, and just enough monsters to remind you that trust falls are a terrible apocalypse strategy. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if the apocalypse was actually relega...
Today’s episode is a Subgenre Spotlight on Isolation Survival Horror, those nerve-shredding stories where characters are cut off, cornered, and forced to fight nature, circumstance, or their own unraveling minds. From icy mountains and open oceans to malfunctioning spacecraft and broken elevators, we explore how horror thrives when help is out of reach and every decision matters. Featuring a wide range of films, from grounded reali...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Jaws (1975), the watershed moment in American cinema that redefined the thriller, birthed the summer blockbuster, and reminded audiences that nature doesn’t care about tourist season. Spielberg’s masterful direction, paired with John Williams’ iconic score and a famously malfunctioning mechanical shark, turned technical limitations into creative triu...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Macabre (1958), the one where William Castle was so confident someone might literally die from watching it, he handed out life insurance at the door. Bold move for a movie that feels like it was written in crayon during a thunderstorm. It’s got missing kids, graveyards, melodrama cranked to eleven, and a plot that unfolds like a soap opera having a ne...
Chapter Two of our Atomic Monsters and Mutations Deep Dive moves into the shadowy world of the 1930s and 1940s, where mad science reigned and monsters were born in laboratories, not radioactive wastelands—at least not yet. This era gave us twisted geniuses, doomed experiments, and the first cinematic warnings that progress without conscience might be the real horror. From Frankenstein to wartime propaganda, we explore how early sci...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Devil’s Pass (2013), a found-footage adventure where a group of students hikes into the snowy Russian wilderness to solve a decades-old mystery and—shocker—things go horribly wrong. It’s got time loops, teleportation theories, mutant nonsense, and the kind of decision-making that really makes you question how anyone in this group got accepted to colleg...
Welcome to Chapter One of our Atomic Monsters and Mutations Deep Dive, where we trace the monstrous roots all the way back to the silent era. Long before mushroom clouds haunted the collective imagination, early cinema was already conjuring creatures to embody fear, science, and the unknown. From Georges Méliès' trick films to the haunting expressionism of Metropolis, we explore how pre-atomic monsters laid the groundwork for a new...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today’s film is Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), a bold cinematic experiment in what happens when you have no budget, no continuity, and absolutely no idea how outer space (or plots) work. Aliens in figure skating uniforms arrive to stop highly disorganized and disoriented humans from destroying the universe. In a bewildering twist of storytelling genius, they believe t...
We’re back! After an incredibly long wait... of 48 hours, season 2 kicks off with a fresh batch of chaos, carnage, and cinematic weirdness. After surviving 25 films and a Mondo deep dive in Season 1, we’re diving even deeper into the bizarre, the brutal, and the just plain baffling. New movies, new subgenres, same unhealthy obsession with things that should not be moving on their own. Buckle up! Season 2 st...
It’s the Season Finale! After 25 films and one deep dive into the chaotic world of Mondo cinema, we’re wrapping things up for season one. In this episode, we reflect on the weird, wild, and wonderfully messed-up movies we covered this season, from subterranean nightmares and folk horrors to sentient girlfriends and budgetary issues involving sausages. Join us as we look back, rank a few favorites, a few least...
FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!
Today we look at Terrified (2017), a film where your dream home includes aggressive wall thumping, questionable plumbing, and a corpse that does stuff. Not a lot, mind you. Just stuff. It’s a relentless series of “absolutely not” moments strung together by scientists who have clearly never read a single warning label in their lives. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish Paran...
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