Episode 125. Fack XI: 2023 Year in Review

 
It’s time to look back before we scream forward! Join Andrea and Alex for horror and non-horror faves and a game that will decide their fate for 2024. 
 
Alex’s Horror/Horror Adjacent Faves
 
1. Red Rooms (dir. Pascal Plante)
2. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)
3. Talk to Me (dir. Danny and Michael Phillippou)
4. The Curse (TV, created by Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie)
5. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
6. Fall of the House of Usher (TV, created by Mike Flanagan)
7. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster) 
 
Andrea’s Horror/Horror Adjacent Faves
 
1. Talk to Me (dir. Danny and Michael Phillippou)
2. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
3. Huesera: The Bone Woman (dir. Michelle Garza Cervera)
4. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)
5. The Blackening (dir. Tim Story)
6. The Last of Us (TV, created by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin)
7. Red Rooms (dir. Pascal Plante)
8. Fall of the House of Usher (TV, created by Mike Flanagan)
 
 
Alex’s Non-Horror Faves
 
Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright
Monster: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
The Cure live in June 
May/December (dir. Todd Haynes)
Past Lives (dir. Celine Song)
 
Andrea’s Non-Horror Faves
 
Inscryption (PC)
Slay the Spire (PC)
Vanderpump Rules (TV)
Tetris (dir. Jon S. Baird)
If Books Could Kill podcast
 

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Episode 124. Death in Venice: Don’t Look Now (1973)

 
Andrea and Alex delve into the murky depths of Nicolas Roeg’s classic to uncover the film’s themes of mysticism, misogyny and the ethics of mourning. 
 
 

REQUIRED READING

Don’t Look Now. Dir. Nicolas Roeg, 1973.
 

EXTRA CREDIT


The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan Didion’s memoir of the year following her husband’s death.

Mysticism as a Female Path. Mary Sharratt’s look and the intertwining history of mysticism and women.

Take Some Pills for Your Hysteria, Lady. A history of men putting women on pills.
 
Devil’s Advocates: Don’t Look Now by Jessica Gildersleeve – accessible thru JStor via your local library perhaps?
 
The Social Regulation of Grief by Martha R. Fowlkes. Some emotional attachments are socially undervalued.
 

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Episode 123. Love Bites: The Hunger (1983) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

In this episode Andrea and Alex delve into some truly long-term relationships and their lasting implications. From ageless vampires to hipster gentrification, sometimes loving someone “forever and ever” isn’t as fun as it seems. 
 
 

REQUIRED READING

The Hunger. Dir. Tony Scott, 1983. 
Only Lovers Left Alive. Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2013. 
 

EXTRA CREDIT

Not All Fangs are Phallic. James Craig Holte’s investigation of the female vampire film. 
 
Why hipsters could be seen as modern-day colonisers. The article by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo on the political and cultural effects of gentrification. 
 
Rising costs and gentrification force locals out of Detroit’s downtown and Midtown. Detroit Metro Time’s piece on seniors being forced out of their subsidized housing due to market inflation. 
 
Contemporary myths on boredom. An emergent field of study about when people feel out of sync with the present.
 

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Episode 122. Homecoming: IT Chapter 1 (2017) and IT Chapter 2 (2019)

We all float down here… or we’ll lose our minds trying to make sense of Andy Muschietti’s blockbuster horror films based on Stephen King’s classic novel. In this episode, Andrea and Alex investigate the depths of Derry’s sewer system, summer holidays and sexual awakenings.
 
 

REQUIRED READING

It Chapter 1 and It Chapter 2. Dir.  Andy Muschietti, 2017 and 2019.
 

EXTRA CREDIT

Danse Macabre. Stephen King’s treatise on horror. 
 
Why do Students Get Summers Off? A history of getting to play hooky in the summer. 
 
The American Small Town in the Age of the US Empire. The dream and reality of the American small town. 
 
Return of the Repressed. Robin Wood’s iconic essay about the American horror film. 
 

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