Category Archives: Uncategorized

Episode 76. Girls Trip: House (1977)

Andrea and Alex kick off a new semester with a discussion of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House, a truly bizarre but exciting entry into the horror canon. Covering everything from witch-y house cats, to nuclear bombs to inter-generational tensions, this episode may never capture the unbridled energy of the film but it might unlock some doors…

Become a Patron!

Salem Horror Fest – Tickets to our live show on October 5th are on sale now!
The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

REQUIRED READING

House (aka Hausu). Dir Nobuhiko Obayashi. 1977.

EXTRA CREDIT

History Extra Podcast: The story of modern Japan. Author Christopher Harding deconstructs modern Japan and the world events that brought them there.
 
Video interview with Obayashi. The filmmaker talks about seeing the positive in the negative, the light in the darkness.
 
Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny. Full PDF of Freud’s theory of the uncanny and its ability to instill fear in us.

LISTEN

Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As

Tagged ,

Episode 75. Crime Spree: Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and Zodiac (2007)

This month, Andrea and Alex pull back the veil on narrative cinema and the true-crime phenomena. From John McNaughton’s nightmarish debut to David Fincher’s gumshoe epic, the answers to our response and responsibility to real-life events is almost always more complex than they appear on the surface.

Class of 2019 T-shirts are available now at Twisted Ts! 

Salem Horror Fest – Tickets to our live show on October 5th are on sale now! The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our BRAND NEW monthly newsletter!

REQUIRED READING

Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. Dir. John McNaughton, 1986.

Zodiac. Dir. David Fincher, 2007.

EXTRA CREDIT

Violence Incorporated: John McNaughton’s “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” and the Uses of Gratuitous Violence in Popular Narrative. Steffen Hantke’s in-depth examination of violence in the film.

Regarding the Pain of Others. Susan Sontag’s follow up to On Photography.
 
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. Michelle McNamara’s search for the Golden State Killer.
 
The Ethical Dilemma of Highbrow True Crime. Alice Bolin discusses how true crime went from guilty pleasure to pop culture phenomenon.

LISTEN

Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As

Tagged , , , ,

Episode 74. Party of Five: The Mist (2007)

Is it the apocalypse or just the start of a new era? Can it be both? Andrea and Alex delve into everything from the military to existentialism, brought to life by Frank Darabont’s controversial adaptation of Stephen King’s novella. 

Class of 2019 T-shirts are available now at Twisted Ts! 

Salem Horror Fest – Tickets to our live show on October 5th are on sale now!

The Fack Dispatch – Subscribe to our BRAND NEW monthly newsletter!

REQUIRED READING

The Mist. Dir. Frank Darabont, 2007. .

EXTRA CREDIT

A Brief History of the End of the World M.R. Carey’s analysis of the apocalypse genre in literature. 

The Philosophy of “Optimistic Nihilism,” Or How to Find Purpose in a Meaningless Universe Open Culture’s helpful video describing how contextualize the end of the world in a healthy, productive way. 

Making Sense of “The Weird and the Eerie” A primer on academic Mark Fisher and his works.

LISTEN

Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As

Tagged , ,

Episode 71. Violent Visage: Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Andrea and Alex unmask Georges Franju’s 1960 masterpiece Eyes Without a Face and peer into the damaged landscape of a post-World War II France, body modification and why sometimes, father doesn’t know best.

REQUIRED READING

Eyes Without a Face. Dir. Georges Franju, 1960.

EXTRA CREDIT

Blood of the Beasts (1949) Franju’s short documentary about the slaughterhouses on the outskirts of Paris. EXTREME CONTENT WARNING for this one: animal cruelty.

 

Fast Cars, Clean Bodies. Kristen Ross’ seminal book about the French desire to rid themselves of their past.

Mystery and Melodrama: A Conversation with Georges Franju. An interview with Franju about his career at the 1980 London Festival.

Behind the Mask of the Horror Actor by Doug Bradley.

Terrible Buildings The world of GEORGES FRANJU. Robin Wood’s article about Franju and the notion of institutions within his films.

Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery by Virginia L. Blum.

Class of 2019 T-shirts are available now at Twisted Ts!

 Salem Horror Fest – Tickets to our live show on October 5th are on sale now!

LISTEN

Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As…” to download the mp3.

Tagged ,