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Chad and Marc return from the prison of their career commitments to the nihilist hellscape of Amazon Prime’s dystopic series Fallout
Marc is a noob to this take on this apocalypse-as-western. His guide Chad, has spent some time building his own vault in the time-incinerating Fallout Shelter game.
They discuss Walton Goggins’ reign, Prime vs. Netflix, Cormac McCarthy, how Lucy is no Mary Sue, Kyle MacLaughlin’s classic Americana charm and whether a positive mental attitude will serve you as you navigate the wasteland.
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Clueless (1995) is one of those films that almost everyone has a soft spot for. It defined a time and place, riffed on a classic, upholds pretty good values, is extremely quotable, and makes you feel happy when you watch it (unless you are truly dead inside).
So why are we covering it on a horror podcast? Well, it’s Marc’s favorite movie, and Chad prefers it to all horror movies. It’s an episode we’ve joked about doing forever.
Recently, we both read “As If!: The Oral History of Clueless, as Told by Amy Heckerling, the Cast, and the Crew” by Jen Chaney, so what better time than now? (It’s a fun book that goes deep into everything we missed in our episode, so if you’re a Clueless fanatic, it’s essential reading.)
We also chat about whether or not the elevated horror wave has crested. And we sneak in some Barbie vs Oppenheimer talk near the end. It’s a real rambler.
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When faced with the recent dreary Christmas horror offerings of the past year or two, we felt nothing but apathy. Which is a terrible position to be in when you’re looking for a holiday episode idea.
But fear not! Or rather—Fear No Mort—the season seven finale of Rick and Morty is pretty great.
It sticks the landing on an overall decent season that could’ve been much worse. But it’s smart, funny and brings up a lot of themes that we’ve spent years covering: the nature of fear, creativity in mass entertainment, hypersanity, really all of the hits.
So sit back, and enjoy the last few days of 2023 with your favorite parasocial conversationalists.
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It’s been a while—but fear not—we have returned, just in time for Halloween!
This episode covers 10 loosey-goosey horror themes that we’ve been pondering as of late. We praise stuff we love and do quite a bit of bitching about the state of the world.
There’s a little bit of optimism and a lot of that old time hate. Something for everyone!
We don’t focus on any particular films. However, fans of Alien, Barbie, and Jack Ryan are in for a treat. Or maybe a trick.
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Andy Weir’s novel The Martian (2011) is top-shelf hard sci-fi for nerds who love space and MacGyver situations.
Just four years after (official) publication, Ridley Scott made a film version starring (South Park voice) Matt Dayyyyyymon.
Both versions of the story are fast paced and fun. They aren’t exactly horror, but survival stories are often horrific. And this one has a touch of terror and a dash of body horror to make it on the show.
We get into how artists and engineers see the world differently, the promises and pitfalls of space travel, and wave our fists at the state of science. -
The Craft (1996) is a beloved teen witch movie that helped define the 90s mall goth experience. It also made supporting actress Fairuza Balk a bit of an icon for the heavy eyeshadow crowd.
Does this movie still hold up? Blessed be, yes! Other than a lame soundtrack, this is a fun movie with memorable scenes and decent actors.
We talk about what it was like to be a neophyte goth in New Orleans during the late 1900s, witchcraft as a thing that’s cool and corny, and the role of life coaches/therapists/Tarot readers in the modern world.
Veteran listeners may notice a slight uptick in incoherence from one of the hosts as the episode unfurls its dark wings. It’s the curse of edibles. If it all made sense, good job opening your third eye.
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This episode we talk with our comrade Alexander Herbert about his great new book, Fear Before the Fall: Horror Films in the Late Soviet Union.
Alexander is a PhD candidate in Soviet History at Brandeis University, specializing in environmental activism and the history of technology leading up to collapse.
He gives us the scoop on Soviet horror films, the punk scene in Moscow, and a behind the scenes look into how the Zero Books sausage is made. -
Hear Chad and Marc tackle the monolithic drones of metal duo Sunn O))). They discuss witchery and ritual, gear and sculpture, fandom and influence, and (as usual) capitalism and art.
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Nick “The Tooth” Gullo is a 2x IBJJF Jiu Jitsu Black Belt world champion, co-host of the Infinite Worlds podcast, a writer, lawyer, world traveler, TV Star—and most importantly for this NYE resolution conversation, is absolutely shredded in his 50s.
He joins us for the second time to discuss discipline, keto dieting, being kind to yourself, internet hucksters (Liver King, etc.), toxic masculinity, toxic acceptance, male energy, self-help cults, goal setting, and a lot more.
This episode doesn’t have any horror movie content, but you’ll like it if you enjoyed the previous Self Help for Nihilists episodes.
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Halloween Ends (2022) is Blumhouse’s last shot at making that Michael Meyers money. But rather than do more of what sort of works, they introduce us to the saddest sack character ever and focus the film on his dating life, which is sort of an interesting choice for this insufferable franchise.
We don’t love it. But Marc doesn’t hate it as much, which makes for some high-value conversation. We also talk about A Star is Born, Dirty Harry, Tarantino’s new book, and what our Halloween sequels might look like (they’re bangers).
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Our first DOUBLE FEATURE episode covers Jack Hill’s Spider Baby (1967) and Rob Zombie’s The Munsters (2022).
Why these films together? Well, the straightforward answer is that we watched them the same week—and Sid Haig. But we do weave some viable thematic and cultural webs between the two.
We cover incest, cannibalism, Kanye, why secondary writing is terrible, what we’ve been doing wrong, the DSM-5, first deaths, and quite a bit more.
This is a sprawling, classic Scary Thoughts episode and one of our best in months. It turns out weed actually does enhance some performances. -
Drag legend and horror icon Peaches Christ (Joshua Grannell) is back for a fourth episode. This time we’re exploring the spooky secrets of Terror Vault, a fully immersive haunted theatrical experience that takes audiences on a terrifying journey within the dank, rat-infested walls of the old San Francisco Mint.
If you’re into haunts, you’re going to love this episode. We talk about the origins of Peaches’ interest in horror performance, the technical details of running the show, how the piece is written and designed, unethical vampires, and about a million other details that will appeal to the dark nerds who listen to us.
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Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 Predator offering, Prey, is one of the better films in the franchise. If you’re a truly misguided soul, (like Marc) it might even be your favorite. We talked about what it did well and what could’ve been better. Before getting to the choppa, we start with a little bit about where Marc’s academic journey is taking him.
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Karyn Kusama’s 2009 film Jennifer’s Body, is finding an audience thanks to a mix of #metoo reckoning, queer analysis, oughts nostalgia, and public fascination with Megan Fox’s hematophagic pairing with male scream queen Machine Gun Kelly. This film hasn’t aged well, but our age is treating it well. We discuss whether that old-time patriarchy or a messy script with boring kills led to the initial cold reception of the film.
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The second half of Stranger Things 4 was fun. Even Argyle and Lucas managed to have great moments. In this episode we talk about why this season won us over, how drugs help with the enjoyment of art, whether or not there are epochs (and if music in the 80s was one), and whether or not it makes sense to have naked heavy metal girls on a character’s wall if it upsets modern sensibilities.
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We started our show talking about the first season of Stranger Things, so we are compelled to continue. Thankfully for everyone, the end is nigh. But as Marc is fond of saying, “Don’t let our yuck interfere with your yum.” There’s still a lot to like about the show, even if it is circling the drain of mediocrity on its way to the septic tank of nostalgia. Our next episode covers the finale.
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The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead 2 (1987) are both unimpeachable classics of horror comedy. After our longest hiatus, we delve into the cult lore of these films and their influence on horror. This episode isn’t exactly philosophical, but it’s a fun one, especially if you grew up with Sam Raimi’s madcap brand of cabin-based mayhem. And for the first time–no major spoilers!
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We started Scary Thoughts back in 2016. The years since have been–eventful. This episode rambles hard as we attempt to answer the question, “what have we learned?” Think of it as a director’s commentary. We talk about what we thought the show would be, where it’s going, our friendship, horror podcasting as a phenomenon, being rooted in the Bay Area, and we tell a bunch of bar stories, which people always seem to like. Thanks for listening.
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Let us help you slide into this not-quite-new not-quite-normal-not-quite-post-pandemic with some answers to your questions. You asked about news consumption, movie theaters, horror trends, Disney character team-ups, nostalgia, algorithms, the hunt for Joe Rogan, meditation—and we answered. It’s all very on-brand for our Self-Help for Nihilists series.
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Julia Ducornau’s Titane (2021) features a lot of dancing and gender theory. So who better to have as a guest than Monique Jenkinson, AKA Fauxnique? We talk about her new book Faux Queen: A Life in Drag, body horror, female violence, Sharon Stone’s directing ambitions, film criticism, tarot cards, body horror, and French flatulists. Opinions were divided on this film, so it’s an exciting episode.
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