Robby Anderson and Mike Burdge, ahead of the start of their upcoming filmography series, The Sweet, Sweet Denis Cast , take a step back and examine the previous venture into the Dune-verse, with (technically) David Lynch's 1984 epic. It's a weird movie, and therefore a weird episode. Listen on....

Mike Burdge is joined by noted lover of animation and Fantastic Mr. Fox stan, Robby Anderson, to talk about why this perfect fall movie rips so dang good. Listen on....

Horror films are like cockroaches; not just in the way they can be unappealing, scary, and gross to many individuals, although that is another appropriate analogy. I relate horror films to cockroaches in the way that they seem to last far longer than anyone expects them to. I believe no film exemplifies this notion better than John Carpenter’s 1982 Science Fiction Horror film, The Thing, a remake of the Howard Hawks produced 1951 film, The Thing From Another World. Another World was an adaptation of the 1938 novella, Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell Jr.. Today, The Thing is regarded by both critics and audiences as one of John Carpenter’s best works in his 30 year career, as well as one of the most exceptional horror films of the 1980’s. Modern critics praise its special effects by practical effects legend Rob Bottin, its original score by Ennio Morricone, and its themes of isolation, paranoia and distrust of fellow man. Adam Smith of Empire UK wrote in his January 2000 review: “ The Thing is a peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess and outright, nihilistic terror.” Critics and audiences are able to recognize the film’s greatest strengths today, but this was not the case when the film was initially released on June 25th, 1982. It was actually initially met with a mixed to outright negative reception. Critics from highly respected news sources like: The New York Times , The Los Angeles Times , and The Chicago Sun Times, reviewed the film negatively for its nihilistic worldview, gratuitous violence, and supposed lack of characterization. The first critical review I want to break down comes from The Chicago Sun Times. It was written in June of 1982, by none other than Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Roger Ebert, who gave it two and a half stars out of four. Right out of the gate, he labels the film a “barf-bag movie.” He then signals his two biggest criticisms of the film: “The superficial characterizations and the implausible behavior on that icy outpost.” Ebert elaborates on the second point in the next paragraph suggesting that the implausible behavior of the scientists led to him being confused as to who was human and who was alien. “Carpenter allows his characters to wander off alone and come back with silly grins on their faces, until we’ve lost count of who may have been infected, and who hasn’t. That takes the fun away.” While I greatly admire and respect Roger Ebert’s many years of contributions to film analysis (he was always the type of critic who approached films for what they were trying to accomplish rather than meeting his own ideas), I think this is one of those cases where he missed what The Thing ’s central thesis was. The main source of tension that’s found within The Thing is the paranoia associated with the fact that this alien creature can hide within the group, and at any moment, deform and become murderous. Every character has the potential to be a ticking time bomb. The audience is supposed to feel the same exhausting paranoid that the characters are experiencing. Ebert comments at the end of the review that: “It seems clear that Carpenter made his choice early on to concentrate on the special effects and the technology and to allow the story and people to become secondary.” According to an interview on the DVD extras of the film, Carpenter’s actual intentions were to stay true to the novel, which he originally read and was fascinated by in high school, as well as developing an Agatha Christie style “whodunnit” story with the tone of existential body horror. I can agree that Carpenter’s use of special effects were a high priority for him; his main goal as a filmmaker was to tell an effective story, not to invoke cheap thrills through gore. This next review is by Vincent Camby, whose June 25th, 1982 article was published in The New York Times , and it really makes me consider the (at times) disconnected line between film criticism and filmmaker intentionality, as I fully believe this critic did not understand what he was watching. He makes a similar comment to Ebert, in that he says: “[ The Thing] mixes horror with science fiction to make something that is fun as neither one thing or the other.” There’s that word again: fun. Did every film critic in the 1980’s need horror films to be “fun” to be considered good? While there were successful horror films in that time that had a lighter and more playful tone like: Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980), Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), and John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (1981), criticizing the lack of “fun” or “humor” in a film that shows no intentions of indulging in humor shows a failure of managing one's own expectations on the critic’s part. A film like Come and See (1985) is never criticized for its supposed “lack of humor,” so why did The Thing face such scrutiny? Is it because it is a genre film and not a historical drama? How is that fair criticism? John Carpenter was inspired by the tragic stories he read in bible school and wanted to tell a bleak and tragic horror story. In an interview with Collider in 2019, he states: “I was very young and impressionable and they read the Revelations. Holy shit! Are you kidding me? The end of days! Wow! The imagery was bizarre.” Carpenter was compelled to tell a darker story more than a fun story. Camby showcases his further lack of understanding of the material with two key sentences: “One of the film’s major problems is that the creature has no identifiable shape of its own.” The entire point of the creature is that it could take any shape it needed to infiltrate and feed. That is what makes the creature frightening. It is not an obvious monster coming straight for the characters, but a monster lurking amongst them and pretending to be one of them so it can strike when their guards are down. It is clear in Camby’s review that it is not that he is incapable of understanding the material; it is that he deliberately chooses not to. He states: “There may be a metaphor in all this, but I doubt it.” Is it not a film critic’s job to decipher and analyze the meaning of a film, rather than give up halfway through? If I were to write Camby’s exact sentence in an academic college paper analyzing a film, I would be given a failing grade and be sat down to “discuss the possibility of changing your major,” and yet, his review was published in one of the most highly read newspapers in the world. Unlike the creature, the advertising of the film was not supposed to mislead audiences and critics into believing this film was something it was not. The printed ads for the film, including one printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer in June of 1982, calls the film: “an extraordinary journey into the realm of unimaginable terror.” The main poster of the film depicts a man standing in a snow jacket, but instead of the man having a face, it depicts a white shining void, as though the threat is an eldritch horror beyond man’s own understanding. The original trailer of the film also sells the bleak and hopeless atmosphere that the film provides, as the narrator describes that these researchers in Antarctica are unsure of what they are up against, as the trailer cleverly hides any traces of what the creature looks like. I am unsure where Roger Ebert and Vincent Camby got the idea that this film was supposed to be a Funhouse Carnival ride horror film, because they could not have gotten that idea from the film’s advertising. That being said, in certain trade magazines covering the film, there was a focus on showcasing its special effects. In Fangoria Issue #21 released in August of 1982, Rob Bottin was interviewed for his innovative special effect work on the film, as well as showing photos of the first ever publicity shots of the creatures. The special effects were an aspect both Ebert and Camby praised to the point where Ebert believed this was the film’s main goal. The review by Linda Gross for The Los Angeles Times written in June of 1982 paints a clearer picture of the audience's mindsets in the early 1980’s. Two weeks ahead of The Thing , Universal Pictures and Amblin released a family adventure film featuring an alien creature. It’s name was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and it was a massive critical and box office success, and is still a highly celebrated film today, with its iconic imagery of a kid on a bike floating above the moon eternally integrated into modern pop culture. At the time of The Thing’ s release, E.T. was fresh in the audience's minds, especially Linda Gross. While it is a more positive review than Ebert’s and Camby’s, Gross praises the film on a technical level; she makes multiple comparisons to E.T. as well as to other successful blockbusters at the time such as: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Star Wars (1977). Gross stated as the positive outlooks of modern filmmakers, The Thing “may be the dark side of E.T.” She elaborates, “Instead of providing us with love, wonder, and delight, The Thing is bereft, despairing and nihilistic,” as well as saying the film has “a terrible absence of love. The film is so frigid and devoid of feeling that death no longer has any meaning.” While her assessment is accurate in that the film is despairing and nihilistic, the film was never meant to provide any sense of love and hope as E.T. did, so it is not fair to either movie to be compared to one another when they are both trying to convey the complete opposite emotional response. What I gather from these critical responses is that perhaps The Thing was the victim of a poorly planned out release schedule. Perhaps releasing such a harrowing and uncompromising depiction of an alien creature so soon after another film that depicted an alien creature with warmth and wonder was not a smart choice by its distributors. Imagine if Jaws (1975) was released two weeks after Finding Nemo (2003). Would it have been given the same reception it originally did? Perhaps not. Audiences and critics were not looking to be horrified after the positive hype surrounding E.T. , and thus, judged the film as though not providing the same sense of wonder that E.T. did was a negative trait against it. Perhaps the film would have received a better reception if it was released later in the year, like October, when audiences are looking to be frightened. Jeremy Kolodziejski Jeremy is younger than he looks, and has passionately studied the art and craft of filmmaking for as long as he can remember. He is currently a freelance wedding videographer, and is also heavily involved in Competitive Fighting Games. You can follow him on Instagram @prof_k.o

Robby Anderson sits to chat with Mike Burdge about the latest Marvel movie to drop, which also just so happens to be the latest Chloé Zhao m ovie to drop as well, Eternals . They dropped the "The." It's cleaner. Wanna hear what they thought of this galactic tale of love and rubber suits?? Listen on....

Throughout the 1980s, American Horror Cinema was ruled by the slasher genre, and the Mount Rushmore of this bloody age would most certainly include the likes of Michael Myers ( Halloween ), Jason Voorhees ( Friday the 13th ) and Freddy Krueger ( A Nightmare on Elm Street ). The fourth is always up for debate: Chucky, Leatherface, Pinhead, and even later entries such as Ghostface and Candyman are arguable. Hell, there’s a good argument for Norman Bates being given a big rock head on the side of this theoretical mountain. But it’s pretty unanimous, if we’re talking about cultural significance, that those big three have their spots. So many sequels, so many kills, so many rules, the legacy of each is just undebatable. Another indisputable fact about these bad boys of Scary Season is that they all came to their glorious rise in households through the miracle of VHS. For me, as a here-and-there VHS collector for several years now, I liken my attraction to the VHS format to my similar obsession with vinyl collecting. They are both foolishly expensive (sometimes) and clutter up my house in ways that make me fear God. And, of course, they also offer something else (WARNING: THE WORD NOSTALGIA IS ABOUT TO BE USED IN A POSITIVE MANNER): nostalgia. I already went into nostalgia as a concept and tool to be used in film , but this nostalgia is more personal, and it's not at all hard to understand why: I grew up with these formats! Just as vinyl was discarded as a lesser format and then grew back in popularity, so too has VHS, just not as widespread and quickly as vinyl did. There are loads of different types of VHS collectors, so many it’s hard to even start listing off examples because it’s very hard to pigeon hole these passions into one exact methodology of intent. For me, I like grabbing the occasional weirdo, but mainly, I like getting videos of movies I grew up with, movies I genuinely like, and would enjoy watching in this particular format, and honestly, the list goes on. If I want it, and I can afford it, I get it. Where the argument for the resurrection of vinyl can be justly reasoned as it "sounds better," VHS most certainly does not do anything better than DVD, BluRay or streaming. The physical media aspect exists in both, having something you own, that you can touch and display, and inventory and alphabetize or categorize by genre, release year or even biographical! But it is in the weaknesses of VHS as a medium that gives it the strength that I admire so much (and I’m sure that’s a sentiment many other collectors would share). It looks cool, it sounds weird, and each reel in those plastic cartridges carries a story that can be read between the lines, much like old 35mm film reels do. You can see when someone had rewound, or paused continuously to get a better look at that head explosive, or catch that weird goof on set that made it into the frame, or tits. Usually it’s when tits show up. Bless the little angels of the past. Degradation is something that happens to magnetic film over time, but it really depends on how well you take care of it (we’re gonna get back to Fred Krueger very soon, I promise). You have to take care of them in ways you really don’t need to with other physical media. And the sounds! Boy oh boy, do these tapes and machines make some sweet, sweet music before the movie even starts. The beep-boop-beep-beep-beep of a VHS getting ready to roll some trailers (!!!) to a movie released in 1983 is just a special three second moment of heaven. I love it unabashedly, and with my recent acquirement of a ridiculously cool Sony SLV-998HF VCR, and an equally mouthwatering Solidex 828 VHS Rewinder, I figured what better way than to break these puppies in than to grab all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies on VHS, (through Freddy vs Jason of course, as practically all VHS stopped being produced in 2005) and give them a spin. This was my first choice for a series, given that my partner and I recently adopted a glorious kitten, which we named Freddy after like three different movie and TV references. She watched 'em all with me, on her papa’s stupid, little, loud box, and now I shall discuss each one, and rank them from my least to most favorite. Before that though, let’s touch on what’s so special about this franchise as a whole. First off, the tone of these movies are all over the place, piece to piece, and for that, I think it might be one of the strongest overall. It can get tiresome when you’re watching the same ol’ thing, back to back, especially in a marathon-type scenario, and the Nightmare franchise is kind of built on the foundation of bringing Freddy’s antics to new levels, be they heightened, cartoonish nonsense or bringing everything back down to earth for rejuvenation or reconsideration’s sake. Michael has a knife and kills people on Halloween. Jason has a machete and kills campers and counselors at Crystal Lake. Freddy has a self-made knife glove and kills teenagers in their dreams. There’s just no competition in this in regards to how far you could stretch one compared to the others. I’m a Michael guy and Halloween remains one of my favorite movies of all time, and my favorite horror movie to watch every October 31st, but as far as franchises go, Freddy takes the cake (which is a teenager that he turned into a cake and then released a bunch of hungry, Lord Farquad lookin’ lil children on to to devour while he called someone, somewhere, a bitch). That’s another thing this dude has over the others, and something that really should put him more in competition with the likes of Chucky: he talks. And not only does he talk, my dude’s got zingers and euphemisms for DAYS. Even in the early movies before Freddy really got comfy in his Bugs Bunny routine, he’s still pretty, albeit darkly, funny. Another great aspect to Freddy’s legacy, and why it rules, is the characters that inhabit it. The teenagers that Freddy stalks, at least for the most part, aren’t very similar to the cut and paste, horny teens of the Halloween and Friday franchises. The kids Freddy goes after are more of a collection of outcasts, sometimes even pariah-like, in the sense of how the rest of the world treats them and their pleas for help against their own dreams. There’s something that’s a bit scarier to having the whole crux of the tension of the movie revolving around the fact that the people fighting for their lives are displaced in someway from being respected enough to be believed, and that’s something a young kid can totally connect with when watching these movies by themself in a dark bedroom with the volume turned way down low so their parents don’t wake up. Like many a horror movie franchise, they’re not all great! But boy, none of the Nightmare movies suck. And watching them on the glorious medium in which they were intended really makes you notice the charm these films held over the country for a decade, and then some! Let’s get into it, bitch. #9: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) A lot of shade is thrown at this movie, and mostly that shade is deserved. There’s really not a whole lot here to grab onto that the other films didn’t already produce, with much more flair and originality (duh). But I’ve always been a bit of a Platinum Dunes defender, Michael Bay’s studio which gave us many a classic, horror remake, including The Amityville Horror (s’okay), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (pretty cool), The Hitcher (ehhhhh), and Friday the 13th (very cool), as well as original stuff like The Purge franchise, Oujia: Origin of Evil , and the A Quiet Place movies. I don’t think a lot of these movies are great (some are), but I do like the change in pace they strictly adhere to when remaking these big guns franchises. I don’t need you to remake A Nightmare on Elm Street . The first one is friggin’ great. The rest of 'em are friggin’ fun. So sure, gimme something different. Mix it up, get serious, hire some pretty people made up to look tired. I’m into it. Best Kill: Dean (Forced to slit own throat with table knife by Freddy) Song: “All I Have to Do is Dream” by The Everly Brothers #8: Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) A lot of folks don’t like Nightmare 6, and for that, I applaud them. There’s not a whole lot to like about this one. But, boy oh boy, the stuff that’s good is REALLY good. While this movie was definitely trying to close out the loop on Freddy, after a fury inducing display of diminishing returns from the subsequent films, in its hedonistic attempt to just throw everything at the wall it succeeds in what its predecessor ( The Dream Child ) couldn’t: Being ridiculous while also having a story. While Nightmare 5 was so up its ass about being about something that it forgot to actually be about something, Nightmare 6 wears it’s about throughout, even in its name: this is the last Nightmare movie. And even though I knew it wasn’t actually going to be, there’s a sense in watching it that the folks behind the camera actually thought it would be. And they go for it. There’s a bit more of a return to form, granted it’s more Dream Master than OG, but that’s still a good recipe, and the film as a whole has that goofball vibe that Dream Child wasn’t tapping into. Best Kill: Carlos (Head explodes from hearing aid) Song: “I’m Awake Now” by Goo Goo Dolls #7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) This is the one where the juice that has been squeezed so thoroughly in the past few films dries out. Yes, you have Super Freddy, and as we ALL agree, that is a good thing to have in any movie. (Are you seriously going to sit there, reading this, and not admit to yourself that Garden State would be a better film if Super Freddy showed up in that scene where Zach Braff was talking to Ian Holm in his bed? That’s the type of energy you want to be in this world?) But the chaotic feeling of Freddy in this one gets a bit out there without ever being pulled back down by over the top kills with crazy effects work to make it all worthwhile. Even worse, and most damning, the story in this movie sucks. We’re all signing up for big kills with 15 minutes or so of story in between, but we get like four kills in this thing and the story in between those is some of the most mind numbing, dumbass crap I’ve had to sit through, and I WATCH NONSENSE!! I watch nonsense all the time, and this nonsense? No. Best Kill: Mark (Turned into a cartoon and killed by His Royal Highness, Super Freddy) Song: “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter” by Iron Maiden #6: Freddy vs. Jason (2003) A stupid movie. But hey, when you’re making a a 2003 big matchup between these two dudes, I’d honestly be a bit upset if it wasn’t stupid. Who wants the sincerity of a deep dive into the workings of getting Elm Street’s baddie fighting the Crystal Lake behemoth? The way the writers get these two to coexist in the lame movie is pretty flawless, and the execution, for the most part, works. You get your Jason kills, complete with over the top usages of normal objects, and you also get your wacky dream sequences shenanigans that Freddy is so comfy in. My only big complaint is that in the effort to bridge these two worlds together, you never get the full effect of either. The Nightmare movies always rely on long leads in dream sequences before the big kill, and likewise, the Friday movies almost always use real life situations to build up to a ridiculous execution (no pun, but also, yeah, pun). They kind of neuter each other in that way, and I’m almost certain that the intended effect, which I’m kind of into! But once the two dudes hit each other, it becomes what we all signed up for and it’s a blast. This movie also has one of the craziest moments of racism and homophobia, all piled into a 30 second sequence, that feels so out of place from the rest of either series, that it shows just how messed up culture as a whole was in 2003. Best Kill: Trey (Stabbed a bunch and then folded in bed by Jason) Song: “How Can I Live” by Ill Niño #5: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) Only a couple years before perfecting the meta-horror landscape (and giving us another would-be heir apparent to Spooky Mount Rushmore) with Scream , and sixteen years before another studio and team would try to inject darkness and fear back into the Freddy mold, Wes Craven returned to the series to do both. New Nightmare is a personal favorite, as it was constantly on TV when I was growing up and had an edge to it that the other films in the franchise, including the original, always seemed to be missing. That’s not throwing shade of course, none of those movies were particularly interested in having an “edge” to them, and edginess in pop cinema really became marketable in the 90s. Returning to form with a tale of people dying in their sleep and the few people who know the cause not being believed by a single soul, this movie gives us a retcon of sorts in the fact that Freddy Krueger, as we know him in the previous films, isn’t actually in this movie because, well, he’s not real. The evil entity in this movie that draws its power from the fear we as a collective cinema watching community have given over to the fictional character of Freddy, and so it seems to enjoy masking itself in Krueger’s image while haunting those that created the original film, from stars, crew, directors and producers alike. That’s a pretty cool idea in a cool idea with other cool ideas, and the most impressive thing is that Craven really pulls it off, seamlessly connecting the rules of the original with the rules of the new horror landscape as a whole, with all the new rules he’s injecting into this fresh, original take on a Hollywood horror movie. This one in particular is awesome on VHS because you start getting some straight up early 90s era CGI, which is always a treat to have grained down and pixelated, making it look, however unintentionally, more real and dreamlike. Best Kill: Chase (Slashed by Freddy, causing him to crash his car in the real world) Song: “End Credits” by J. Peter Robinson #4: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) A lot has been said by this point about Freddy’s Revenge as a queer horror film, and that’s most definitely baked into the script, directing and performances, regardless of what those involved choose to say and admit, granted some of it could go over the head of those too close to the production. Even so, you’d have to stretch pretty far when taking a look at the finished product and not see the connective tissue of this pretty popular read. But that’s not the only stuff that’s super interesting about the direct follow up to the original's massive success. Freddy’s Revenge , while not yet cementing Freddy as a wise cracking, pop culture icon of banter and wit, does grow on the darkness of Freddy himself, showing us a little bit more of the Freddy Krueger we got glimpses of in the original. At this point, Freddy was still an evil entity of unknowable power and motive, moving in and out of our main character Jesse’s dreams and visions, beckoning some form of alliance to mysterious ends. Those ends, it turns out, is Freddy being able to manifest in the real world through controlling Jesse’s body, but I don’t think this is ever clearly stated in the film. What I mean is, when we see Freddy in the real world, slashing up a bunch of teens at a pool party and fighting with Jesse’s would-be love interest, it could be read that we are seeing Freddy but the rest of the characters are seeing a possessed Jesse. Again, not a whole lot of concrete proof on something like that, except for the ending which has a beaten Freddy transforming back into a bloodied and dying Jesse, but nonetheless I think it’s a interesting angle to take after some of the rules established in the first film we’re already being bent by that film’s final act. Best Kill: Bird #2 (Explodes) Song: “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” by Bing Crosby #3: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) I’ve always really dug Dream Master , and had always placed it in my ranking as: “Yeah, that's one of the good ones, but it’s not up there.” But on my rewatch, especially on VHS, this is the one that really floored me. Much like the bad problems in measuring out kills-to-story ratio in Dream Child , I started to find myself pretty bored around the halfway mark. But once you hit just after that halfway mark, yeah baby yeah, does this movie ratchet up. It’s just everything you want out of the series, neatly packed up in a dumb story but with some awesome payouts. The bug scene is one of the best in the series, and the souls of those teens, dead in the pizza scene is arguably one of the high watermarks of the entire series. While, yes, a lot of this movie doesn't make any sense in context to the previous films, (most specifically, in the radical change in character of Kristen, now played by Tuesday Knight replacing Patricia Arquette), it’s in Freddy’s character that this movie shines as the tipping point, with just enough gruesome horror mixed with comical fare to make you smile in all the right ways. Best Kill: Debbie (Turned into a cockroach and squashed) Song: “A Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince #2: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) Dream Warriors is the ride-or-die Freddy movie. It continues all the rules of the original, and gives us our first full on glimpse at the personality Robert Englund could bring to Freddy outside the menacing voice and impeccable walk, throwing the audience head first into the deep end of some of the best one-liners and kills in the series overall. Much like the original, Warriors is enjoyed by the introduction to Freddy, even if you're a franchise scholar and already know all this stuff and what he’ll evolve into, Dream Warriors, similarly unleashes what Freddy is actually capable of in the entertainment department. It’s thrilling to watch, thinking of audiences back in 1987, getting reintroduced to a different speed of this iconic character. The cast is also arguably the best in general, with characters whose troubles and fears manifest into superpowers in the dream world to combat Freddy. These don’t always play out to great effect, but it is an awesome spin on how these victims are able to fight back against their tormentor, which the series would continually use throughout the remainder of the decade run through Freddy’s Dead . The return of Nancy and her father, played by heartthrob of your most intimate dreams, John Saxon, is a welcome one, and the fates of those characters being so intertwined with Freddy coming back, again and again, is some very cool stuff and played perfectly by both performers. Freddy is a curse on these people, and that unstoppable force that he represents to them is just as chilling and scary as any of the big kills. Best Kill: Phillip (Marionetted and tossed off building) Song: “Dream Warriors” by Dokken #1: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) #1 has to be the original. It just has to be. It really comes down to what you love about this series, whether you would choose this one, or something like Dream Warriors and Dream Master, as your favorite. While the later films lean in on Freddy as an entertaining and creative murderer, filled to the very brim with shockingly over-the-top dream sequences and kills, the original is much more grounded in its presentation of not only Freddy, but in how it depicts dreams as well, and I think this makes it scarier, obviously. The dreams in the original are unsettling, and shot in ways that you really can’t tell you’re in a dream sequence at first, until things start to get a little crazy, piece by piece. That’s how dreams work, and adding that extra layer to the directing of the film is something that earns Wes Craven the title of “The Master of Horror.” The film also has the benefit of introducing its main antagonist bit by bit throughout the films runtime, giving one of the more interesting stories in the franchise, as our hero, Nancy, desperately tries to unravel the mystery of who Fred Krueger is, why he’s doing what he’s doing, and how she can try to stop such a seemingly indestructible and illusive force of evil. That’s good shit, man. Toss all that together with some of the best practical effects ever used in a horror movie EVER and you get yourself a bonafide masterpiece of the genre, not only the franchise. Best Kill: Tina (Dragged and slashed by Freddy) Song: “Nightmare” by 213 See ya next year for another VHS retrospective watch of another popular horror franchise. Got a suggestion for which series it should be? Hit me with it, bitch! Mike Burdge Editor-in-Chief Founder of and programmer for Story Screen. Lover of stories and pizza in the dark. When he isn't watching movies, you can find him reading things about people watching movies. He currently resides in Poughkeepsie, NY, and most assuredly is going through a French Connection phase. Bitch.

Mike and Bernadette reach the apparent end of the road on the filmography of Edgar Wright, with his fantastical executed 2017 smash, Baby Driver . Listen in on what they have to say about the feature that, for better or worse, arguably pulls together all the lessons the writer/director had learned over the last two decades. Listen on....

Denis Villeneuve, the sweet, sweet boy of Story Screen's dreams, has returned to the arthouse-blockbuster landscape with Dune , one of the most thrilling and epic films to be released in years. We like it. So, listen to Robby Anderson and Mike Burdge talk about just why this movie slaps so hard. Listen on....

A look at Scream 25 years later. I used to watch Party of Five pretty regularly . The mid 90s family drama on Fox launched the careers of its stars, the “Salinger” siblings: Charlie Salinger (Matthew Fox), Bailey (Scott Wolf), and finally, Julia, (played by Neve Campbell). (Precocious Claudia Salinger, aka Lacey Chabert, would grow up and try to make “fetch” happen in Mean Girls, but that’s an article for another day). Neve Campbell: a sweet Canadian girl with wispy bangs and an awkward head tilt (no, not Joey Potter, Dawson’s Creek fans). Neve portrayed Julia Salinger as a shy girl, often looking for love, and then went on to play another shy girl as Bonnie in The Craft. Bonnie joins forces with her fellow outcast friends to form their own coven, using magic to heal the burn scars that make her so self-conscious. She transforms herself into a boisterous mean girl, ready to tackle her fellow high school boys. Both of these characters help shape the one that Neve is seemingly best known for portraying: Sidney Prescott, from Wes Craven’s 1996 hit, Scream. So how did the first film in this popular horror franchise come to be? And why is Sidney’s character special? Let’s take a look at the people that made it all happen. The story goes that writer Kevin Williamson was an aspiring actor and screenwriter, who while house-sitting for a friend, watched a segment on the news about the “ Gainesville Ripper ,“ and was then inspired to write the script for Scream . Williamson would go on to write three Scream sequels, and to create or produce several more popular teen horror films and tv shows including The Faculty, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Dawson's Creek, The Following, The Vampire Diaries … the list goes on! Wes Craven, on the other hand, was already a legend, known for being a film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. He is best known for his A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but the Scream franchise is a close second. He also directed such cult classic films as: The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and The People Under The Stairs. Craven directed the first four Scream films in the franchise. With each Scream film, Craven honed his craft, keeping his violence graphic while referencing other horror film tropes using humor and satire. His characters in Scream are all teenagers who admittedly enjoy and watch horror movies. This knowledge and awareness of the genre get played with throughout the film as each character faces the film’s villain, a masked ghoul in a black cloak like Death personified: Ghostface. As Sidney in Scream , Neve Campbell plays a high school girl grieving for her mother. She has physically lost her mother only a year prior to the start of the film, but Sidney also suffers the loss of the identity of the person she knew and loved. She is faced with more and more rumors about her mother’s promiscuity and varying alternate theories about her murder. This shapes Sidney’s character. It tempers her. She’s not the giggling bubbly high school student portrayed in many other teen horror flicks. She’s serious, contemplative. When two of her fellow classmates are murdered (one of which is played by Drew Barrymore in the film’s opening act), Sidney is suspicious of reporter Gale Weathers’ intentions while covering the event. The murders are on the eve of the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death, and Gale, played by Courteney Cox, turned her investigation of that event into a best-selling book that may have painted Sidney’s mom as less than loyal to her father. The murder of her mother has also made Sidney more hesitant to move forward with her high school boyfriend. Once ready to get “hot and heavy,” as described by her greasy-haired beau, Billy (played creepily by Skeet Ulrich), Sidney now only wishes to make out a bit before sending him packing. Billy labels her a “tease,” and this is when we are first introduced to the theme of sex within Scream (and as part of horror as a genre on the whole). It’s a theme that returns throughout the film, as Randy (Jamie Kennedy) later explains the “rules” of horror movies to a group of friends at a party. Sex is a big no-no in horror films. Our surviving heroines (nod to Jamie Lee Curtis) are usually virgins. The women who have sex in horror movies usually always end up dying. *Cough,* thanks for that guys. While Sidney may not be your average bubbly high school girl, her best bud, Tatum (Rose McGowan), seems to fit the stereotypical bill. She’s busty, loud, and frequently found teasing or kissing her dopey boyfriend, Stuart (Matthew Lillard, in another fantastic performance). Tatum is a faithful friend to Sidney, and also the younger sister of Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) who helps protect Sidney after she is attacked by the film’s masked villain. While most of the town does not take young Dewey seriously, his motives are honorable; he wants to protect Sidney and find the killer. Despite the attention he gets from the less altruistic Gale Weathers, Dewey tries his best to do the right thing throughout the film. Last but not least there’s Randy, the sidekick friend who works at a video store and has watched a ton of horror movies. As Randy explains to Stuart in the video store scene, the police are not paying attention to horror films: “There’s a formula to it! A VERY SIMPLE FORMULA! EVERYBODY’S A SUSPECT!” At the aforementioned party, Randy explains the “rules” for surviving a horror movie: 1) Sex equals death. 2) You can never drink or do drugs. (An extension of number one’s “sin factor”). 3) Never say, “I’ll be right back.” Cuz you won’t be back. In one of the killer’s attempts to harass and toy with Sidney over the phone, he asks her why she doesn’t like scary movies. Her reply is one for the ages: What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting. What sets Sidney apart from other horror movie heroines is that she calls the killer’s bluff. She steps outside onto her porch, challenging his taunts that he is there to harm her. For a moment, brave Sidney (picking her nose) is triumphant. Too bad Ghostface shows up to kill her only moments later. One of the great things about Scream is that pretty early on we don’t trust Sidney’s greasy-haired bu, Billy. But then midway through the film, Billy is seemingly cleared of all previous suspicions. Randy doesn’t totally trust him, but he likes Sidney, making his opinion a biased one. But something does seem off about Billy. Later, Sidney basically talks herself into having sex with Billy to prove that she has “forgiven” him and no longer suspects him of being the murderer. I have to remind myself when I rewatch Scream that Sidney. Is. In. High. School. It’s a lot more believable that she’d let herself be peer pressured into sex by a creepy dude with long greasy bangs when we remember she is supposed to be a teenager. When Billy is finally stabbed after they have sex we have a moment to think, “maybe he didn’t do it after all?” before we realize, nope, he did it, but he had help: Stuart. That’s when Scream really shines. Revealing that dopey boozing Stuart (Matthew Lillard with a supporting role played by his crazy tongue) is actually the other half of the dynamic murderous duo makes it really impressive. While Sidney has a hard time figuring out who the killers really are she does take action to defend herself. She doesn’t just cry and give up. But it seems like she might actually be trapped. Can two angry teens really get away with murder? Maybe. At least that’s what we are led to believe up until our dark horse comes through in the clutch. That’s right friends, Gale Weathers comes to the rescue. Wes Craven takes some of the best (or worst, depending on your opinion) horror tropes in the film genre and uses humor and a talented cast to make Scream a delight to watch and rewatch. While its subsequent sequels vary in the quality of their entertainment, they always feature Sidney, a strong fighter and survivor, ready to tackle whatever comes next. She’s a final “girl” alright, and I look forward to seeing her kick some ass in the latest Scream installment next year. Diana DiMuro Associate Editor Besides watching TV and movies, Diana likes plants, the great outdoors, drawing and reading comics, and just generally rocking out. She has a BA in English Literature and is an art school dropout. You can follow her on Instagram @dldimuro and Twitter @DianaDiMuro

Robby is joined by SUPER HALLOWEEN-HEADS™, Bernadette and Mike, to chat about all the sneaky shenanigans that everybody's favorite Bill Shatner look-alike, Michael Myers, is getting up to in his latest installment, Halloween Kills . How's this one match up with the other 11 movies in the franchise?? Listen on....

Bernadette sits down with guest, Yarko Dobriansky, to chat about Ted Lasso : the little, beautiful, feel-good show that we will murder anyone who tries to make fun of it. SERIOUSLY. DO NOT MESS WITH THIS SHOW, YOU MONSTERS. Listen on....

Robby Anderson chats with guest, Mike Burdge, about Julia Ducournau's latest flick to drop, Titane , which is causing quite the divide with film goers this weekend. Listen on....

Rejoice! Spooky season is upon us once again. The air is cool, the leaves are changing, and everything has pumpkin in it. But the best part of the spooky season, dear reader? That’s right. It’s horror movies. And once again the Kolodziejski brothers, Jack and Jeremy, are here with 31 movies to get you through every day of October with delightful thrills and frights. This year we’ve collected movies across the major streaming platforms so you can partake in the best season of the year regardless of which passwords you steal from friends and family. We’ve also recorded a special Story Scream podcast where we walk through this year’s list, which you can check out in full below. In case you prefer we pleasure your eyeballs instead of your earholes, we’ve also transcribed a selection of our discussion below. Log into your streams and prepare to scream! FULL PODCAST: Criterion Cure Jeremy: So first we are going to start with a film from the late nineties, a Japanese film, called Cure directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It is a horror and also a mystery detective film. It has a lot of film noir elements. This came out in the J-horror renaissance in the late nineties and early 2000s so it shares a lot of DNA with films like Ringu and Ju-on . Jack: That would be The Ring for our non-Japanese speaking listeners, and Ju-on is The Grudge . Jeremy: Yes, those are the original titles for those films. Audition is another great one. Cure doesn’t get talked about as much when it comes to the canon of Japanese horror cinema, especially compared to the other Kiyoshi Kurosawa film that we have on this list which we’ll talk about later. Cure is very compelling, very trippy, and has a lot of elements of hypnosis in the narrative. It’s about searching for a murderer and is always keeping you guessing. It has so many great twists and turns. It’s hard to talk about it without getting into specifics and spoilers. Jack: Yeah, we’re going to keep this spoiler-free, we’re going to keep it light. We’re just going to give you a little taste of each of these movies. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage Manhunter NETFLIX His House Jack: The first one on our list from Netflix is a movie called His House . Jeremy, have you seen this one? Jeremy: No actually, that one passed me by. I remember hearing about it last year. It stars an actor from one of my favorite TV shows of last year, Gangs of London . Jack: Which actor is that, do you know his name? Jeremy: I don’t want to butcher it, but Sope Dirisu. (Editor’s note: he did his best.) Jack: Yeah, I’ll give you that, sure. Matt Smith is in it as well. I think a lot of people are familiar with that name. I watched this movie last year. I think it might have made it onto my top ten list. It’s about a refugee family from Sudan who moves to the UK. Essentially they move into this house that’s provided by the UK government. It’s horror through the lens of refugees escaping a war-torn country. In the same lens of creating empathy for a situation that a lot of western viewers may not be familiar with. I think it uses horror effectively to put that situation in perspective. Looking back on it now it has a lot of similarities to Candyman in the way that it leverages folklore to create tension. This is also a movie that understands that British teenagers especially are fucking terrifying. Jeremy: Oh man. This isn’t on this list but have you ever seen Eden Lake ? Jack: I have not seen Eden Lake , no. Jeremy: Oh god. Eden Lake with Michael Fassbender is probably the most heinous depiction of horrible British teenagers I have ever seen. That movie gets under your fucking skin. Jack: British children are deeply scary. Especially when there are more than two or three of them in a pack. Steer clear of that. Cadaver Crimson Peak #Alive The Clovehitch Killer Jeremy: So the Clovehitch Killer , you know what’s funny? Remember the Kid Detective ? Jack: Yeah, I watched it fairly recently. Jeremy: If you've seen the Kid Detective , the Clovehitch Killer feels like it shares some of the same DNA. It’s not nearly as comedic, it’s more or less a much more serious tone. I could also compare it to Super Dark Times which I’m pretty sure we’ve had on a previous list. Jack: Yeah, I’m pretty sure we have. Jeremy: It’s about this suburban town where several women were murdered years ago, then one day the killings just stopped and no one ever figured out who the killer was. It’s from the perspective of this teenage boy who is starting to uncover and figure out if that killer from many years ago might be his dad. Jack: Oh fuck.That’s not good. Jeremy: Yeah. It’s very good. It reminds me a lot of early David Fincher. It’s kind of like a suburban Seven in a way. It’s very quiet, reserved, the cinematography is not very flashy. It’s very specific and purposeful. Jack: Cool, that sounds good to me. Jeremy: Yeah, it’s a good little indie horror film. HULU The Vigil Jack: This is a movie about a guy who was formerly in the Jewish Orthodox church in NYC. He leaves the church for his own reasons but is asked by a current member of the church to return and fulfill the duties of a Shomer. I didn’t know this before, but it’s a Jewish ritualistic practice where you’re watching over someone who has recently died and shuttling them into the afterlife by performing this ritual overnight. It reminded me of a movie that I like very much called A Dark Song. Where A Dark Song is heavily influenced by Christian lore, The Vigil is steeped in Jewish lore. It all takes place in the same house for the most part and has some really spooky scenes. If you’ve seen A Dark Song , I think Mike showed it for Beacon Horror Show in the past, check out The Vigil. Come True Alone Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Jack: The next one we’ve got is called Rare Exports. I watched this one last year for the first time. Jeremy: A Christmas tale. What’s this doing on a Halloween list? Jack: Well, Jeremy, let me tell you. Maybe Rare Exports will get you in the mood and ready for Christmas. Maybe save this one for towards the end of October. I think honestly the less you know about this one the better. It’s a Finnish movie about a family that raises reindeer and exports them around the world for people’s, you know, Christmas shit. People order reindeer. Let’s just say they catch Santa Claus without getting too deep into it. And, well, it’s a horror movie so I’ll just let your imagination fill in the rest there. If you haven’t seen Rare Exports I would describe this one as “delightful.” It’s a fun scary movie that’s a little bit Christmassy, a little bit horror, but it’s a very good time. Jeremy: I remember when it first came out ten or so years ago I was hoping that Rare Exports would just be a blanket term for a franchise. It’s kind of a shame that this specific kind of movie didn’t become more of a thing. But at the same time, it does make it one of a kind. Jack: It’s definitely one of a kind. It’s certainly not like anything else on this list. If you haven’t seen that one I would definitely recommend you check it out. And I am recommending you check it out because we wrote a whole list of movies for you to check out. Bram Stoker’s Dracula HBO MAX The Empty Man Jack: Jeremy, I know this next one is very near and dear to you, so take it away. Jeremy: Unless something else comes along that really blows it out of the water, I think The Empty Man might be my number one of 2021. Jack: Woah. Jeremy: Yeah. The Empty Man. Technically it’s a 2020 film but this movie really fell victim to the Disney-Fox merger. Jack: Also, wasn’t there something else that happened last year that kind of fucked up movies and stuff? Jeremy: Yeah there was something else that kind of fucked up movies. Pandemic or not though, this movie got a fucked up release. Jack: It’s definitely having its moment in 2021. Jeremy: Yes. Ever since it came onto digital streaming services it's really starting to find a cult audience. Jack: Was it actually in theaters last year? Jeremy: Very briefly. For like one weekend. Then it was immediately taken out. It feels like the only reason they put it in theaters was for a write-off so that they could say they did. Jack: Well they probably had the biggest opening of that weekend. Jeremy: (laughs) The Empty Man is a very rare kind of horror. It’s a modern horror epic. It has a scale to it that very few horror movies have. That scale really enveloped me. It’s much like the previously mentioned Cure . The Empty Man has a lot of parallels to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s filmography as well as David Fincher’s. Jack: There’s definitely a lot of Fincher in there. Jeremy: The director of this film, David Prior, has collaborated with Fincher in the past. He’s definitely learned a lot from Fincher. It’s this mystery about this man who’s trying to figure out what happened to these missing kids in this small suburban town and how they’re connected to this urban legend known as “The Empty Man.” Jack: It definitely has some, let’s say, similarities to something like a slender man kind of folklore but it’s only a small piece of what this movie is. I think elaborating on that would be to do an injustice to this movie. But you are right, it goes places. There’s definitely a grander air of mystery to this one that is really cool. Jeremy: As it goes on the way the mystery unravels really sucked me in. It deals with some themes, without getting into it, that are close to my heart. Which is how people can get their brains scrambled by certain cult-like institutions, and how an outsider’s perspective sees it. The main actor, I’m blanking on his name, does such a good job playing this very noir-like protagonist where he’s searching through this mystery. He brings a lot of levity to it. Jack: James Badge Dale. Jeremy: That’s his name. Jack: And Stephen Root is in it. Jeremy: Yeah Stephen Root is in it and plays a very small but great role. Jack: Every time he shows up somewhere it’s like, hell yeah. Jeremy: The Empty Man is quite different from a lot of modern horror releases but what it does it does so beautifully and I think it has a much larger audience than what it currently has. Jack: That it does. It’s reached this cult-like status and I think it’s only going to grow from there. That’s one of the aims of this list we put together this year. Not only to have some variety and give some different flavors of horror, you know horror is such a broad term, but we want to present unique and different things. Different genres and subgenres. The Empty Man is a special one, for sure. Malignant Diabolique Scanners Altered States AMAZON PRIME Violence Voyager Jack: This one is very near and dear to my heart and I feel like very few people have seen it. If you have, please hit me up so I have someone to talk about it with. It’s called Violence Voyager . This is an animated movie, and I think the first and only animated movie on this list and maybe the only one to ever be on one of these lists. Jeremy: Have we ever had Coraline on one of these lists? Jack: I don’t think so. Even when we had some Disney+ movies on our list last year I don’t think any of those were animated either. Maybe we’ll consider more animated stuff in the future. The director’s known as just Ujicha. It’s a...hmm, have you watched the trailer for this Jeremy? Jeremy: No, I haven’t, but I can vouch that Jack has been talking about this one a lot. Jack: Yeah, I think the minute I finished watching this movie I texted you and said “dude, you should watch this fucking movie.” It’s honestly one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen. It’s so unique and cool. Right down to the animation style all the way though to just...honestly, I’m not even going to say too much more. You can check out the trailer if you want to see more of what this is but honestly, I would just dive in. You’ll either take that recommendation and say “fuck yeah Jack that was really cool and I loved that” or you’ll say “Jack please never talk to me again.” Your mileage may vary. It’s animated in a papercraft style. All the animation is hand-painted paper dolls, I guess, for lack of a better word, that’s held up in front of a video camera. It creates this uncanny look that is just..just watch this movie. It’s very cool. And I need more people to see it so I can talk to them about it. Arachnophobia The Neon Demon Evil Dead (2013) SHUDDER Hunted Caveat The Amusement Park Jeremy: So the next one is a unique specimen, as it’s both a new release and an old release at the same time. This is the Amusement Park. What this is is an old lost film directed by George Romero, originally made in the 70’s as a PSA against elder abuse. Jack: Oookay…I didn’t know the tidbit about the PSA. Jeremy: The reason it was more or less abandoned is that, well I guess you get what you pay for because if you hire George Romero to make a PSA, he’s going to make some fucked up shit. Especially early George Romero where he was real hungry. I think the people who commissioned George Romero essentially denied it and it remained buried for forty years until it was recently restored. You can see it for yourself on Shudder and see an old man be severely physically abused in an amusement park to quite a disturbing degree. Jack: Great. PSA! Jeremy: It works more like a film than it does a PSA. It’s a weird one. But it’s worth seeking out. The Beach House Angst Jeremy: Angst is a hell of a thing from the early 80s. It was a prime example of a “video nasty.” This movie was banned in Europe for how violent and fucked up it was. It’s worth looking into the video nasty movement of the 80s where the UK government banned a whole bunch of horror and exploitation films. Jack: Or just check out Censor , which is all about that. A recent movie. Jeremy: Yeah that one’s not on our list but Censor takes place within the midst of that. Jack: I think the only reason Censor isn’t on our list is because it’s still only available for rental, not on a streaming service. Jeremy: I feel like that one is prime to come to Hulu. Jack: Yeah give it a couple of months. Jeremy: So Angst is a very, very intense film. It’s a very simple premise about a serial killer stalking a woman. But it’s really relentless in the way it portrays how the serial killer goes after this woman. It really puts all the emotions and the disturbing context upfront and center and very realistically portrays it. This one’s not an easy watch. It might shake you a bit. Jack: Kind of sounds like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer . Jeremy: People have made comparisons. It came out around the same time. It’s not a feel good movie in any way. If you don’t like the portrayal of realistic violence and realistic depictions of people getting hurt real bad maybe don’t seek this one out. But if you want something that’s a bit more challenging. Jack: Sure, well horror comes in all flavors and we’re trying to get some variety with these lists. Blood Beat Messiah of Evil TUBI (FREE!) Pulse YOUTUBE (FREE!) Occult (2009) Jack: We’ve got one more final movie on here, and it’s another bonus. This one I heard of recently and watched the entirety on youtube. Someone just uploaded this movie to youtube, so ethical considerations aside I don’t know, but you can’t find it anywhere else as far as I can tell. Occult is a fictional documentary. You can think of something almost in the same wheelhouse as Lake Mungo. Every year I want to put Lake Mungo on this list and look back to see that we’ve already done it. If you haven’t seen that one, that one rocks as well. Occult is another Japanese horror film about a small documentary team who is trying to learn more about this mysterious stabbing case. As they unravel the case it gets into some cosmic horror sort of vein. Similar to pulse and lake mungo it has a very chilling atmosphere to it. It’s pretty low budget so some of the effects are not the best, but I personally think that adds to the character of it. With what it’s dealing with I think that works in its favor, almost. Every one of the movies on this list has a trailer associated with it, but this link just has the whole movie. It’s a fun one. Jeremy: I haven’t actually heard of this one. Jack: Yeah I saw someone mention it recently and went looking for it. I found the whole thing on Youtube and couldn’t find it anywhere else. Jack Kolodziejski Co-Head of Podcasting Jack makes drugs for a living, but not necessarily the fun kind. He enjoys international travel and discussing music, movies, and games in excruciating detail. Jeremy Kolodziejski Jeremy is younger than he looks, and has passionately studied the art and craft of filmmaking for as long as he can remember. He is currently a freelance wedding videographer and is also heavily involved in Competitive Fighting Games. You can follow him on Instagram @prof_k.o