Quiet Little Horrors

We get experimental and existential with the minimalist horror of Skinamarink, the best low-budget way to relive your latchkey kid childhood trauma. Since this month’s episodes are tied to haunted houses, we also discuss the short internet art film My house walk-through, another very fun and chill exploration of how simple things can scare the hell out of us on film.

Now that we’ve discussed the original Carrie, we decided to look at both remakes and, just for good measure, the sequel. So in this episode we’re talking about Carrie from 2002, Carrie from 2013, and The Rage: Carrie 2 from 1999, and, more importantly, what it is about this story that leads us back to it again and again.

We usually play in the deeper, more obscure end of horror film, so this is probably the most well-known film we’ve covered so far—but there is plenty to talk about, psychologially speaking, in the original Carrie: the ultimate in slow-burn horror, buried female rage, and the explosive danger of being a teenage girl.

We join the march to give Jennifer’s Body its long overdue flowers. We discuss the outdated stereotypes of horror audiences, the intense and complicated friendships between teenage girls, and how the filmmakers got done dirty by the media. Turn it up.

We could not in good conscience call ourselves a psychological horror podcast if we did not, at some point, discuss Possession, and now it’s time. Infidelity, esponiage, losing one’s mind in a subway, sex with eldritch horrors. There’s a lot to discuss. Gird your loins.

This month we’re looking at some bloody coming of age tales, beginning with the 2022 Finnish film Hatching, which is half weirdly adorable creature feature and half what damage girls have do to deal with their inherited demons.

We continue our discussion of twisted sisters with this overlooked gem of 1970s psychological horror: The Mafu Cage, featuring Carol Kane and Lee Grant as a pair of codependent siblings who drag each other past the point of repair.

Content warning for implied animal harm (nothing graphic) and incest.

This month we’re taking on a couple of films about the relationships between twisted sisters, starting, appropriately enough, with Sisters, from Brian De Palma in 1972. We discuss women who cause trouble, women who aren’t believed, and women who might not be what they seem.

And we’re back! Apologies for the interruption in regular podcast programming. But we return with the second half of our discussion of modern Irish horror and a look at Kate Dolan’s 2021’s film You Are Not My Mother, which twists expectations of metaphorical folklore in fascinating ways.