Long Legged Beasties

This week we take a trip to a winter wonderland that quickly turns into a psychological horror-scape in the deft directing hands of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. The Austrian duo, perhaps best known for their work on Goodnight Mommy, are once more exploring the dark recesses of motherhood. This time around they focus on the unhappy holidays of the Hall family and recent addition Grace Marshall, dad's new girlfriend/soon-to-be-wife. Throw into the mix a suicide, a death cult, and a lonely cabin in the frozen woods and you've got the makings for a doozy of a tale.

Director Colin Minihan explores the dark side of a married couple vacating in the woods in 2018's What Keeps You Alive. While the movie has its issues, the sheer power of the ending and Hannah Anderson as a black widow killer make it worth a watch.

One part '80s slasher classic, one part Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday special, with just a dash of Calvinball: Psycho Goreman is unlike any horror movie we've talked about before. Director and writer Steven Kostanski (The Void, The Editor) delivers a masterful piece of fun with this creation that stars, as the promo puts it, a little girl and a big psycho. Do yourself a favor: Go watch it, and then come listen.

This week's episode looks at 2019 Mi'kmaq horror film Blood Quantum by director and writer Jeff Barnaby. The movie takes the zombie trope and uses it as a pointed exploration of many of the social-political issues faced by the peoples of Canada's First Nation (and most certainly also seen by the United State's Native Americans.) It's a deft creation sometimes marred by its script and acting, but which still manages to carry a powerful message.

One part Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones and maybe The Goonies, one part tour of Dante's Inferno, this week's horror movie is a favorite of both Long Legged Beasties co-hosts. John Erick Dowdle's As Above, So Below does an excellent job of luring the unsuspecting into a surprisingly scary tale of a descent into hell. Join us as we discuss the deeper context and proper category for this wonderful thrillfest.

Food, glorious food. Just, you know, eaten, stomped, and handled by dozens, sometimes hundreds of people before you. No, this week's horror film isn't about the Golden Corral, it's the surreal, sometimes stomach-churning Spanish hit The Platform. Join us as we discuss the many levels of horror, social commentary, and even humor found in this great film by director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.

The latest from writer and director Bryan Bertino (The Strangers, The Monster) takes place across a week on a secluded Texas farm. The Dark and the Wicked is the sort of tense experience that revels in its creeping dread but still remembers to deliver a few shocks to punctuate the experience. In this latest episode, we discuss THAT scene, what the movie means, and -- of course -- what's powering its scares.

On its surface, His House is a taut tale of terror in a house haunted by enraged spirits. But scratch the surface and you discover a compelling examination of the experience of refugees, the lingering impact of their journeys, and the need to balance cultural identity with a requirement to assimilate. Director Remi Weekes' premiere feature is easily one of the best horror films of 2020.

In this season two premiere of Long Legged Beasties, we dive into 2019 Canadian horror-thriller flick Spiral. Director Kurtis David Harder delivers a fantastic examination of otherness in this timely movie that has a same-sex couple move into a small town with a sinister secret.

There's no debating that Gremlins is a holiday movie, but is it a horror flick? We dive deep into the furry little heart of the mogwai and his evil kin in this latest episode of Long Legged Beasties. Join us for a discussion of what a mogwai is, why snow doesn't impact them, if Gizmo could ever go full gremlin, and of course, how to classify this holiday classic.

What's a holiday celebration without the annoying in-laws, the last-minute mini-crisis averted, and -- oh, right -- the embodiment of ancient Austrian folklore hunting you down in the midst of a blinding blizzard? Krampus manages to nearly walk the same deft line perhaps first created by 1984's subline Gremlins. That isn't to say that the Michael Dougherty 2014 Christmas comedy horror isn't without flaws, but it is a wonderful bit of holiday horror.

Derided as a hodgepodge of mixed-bag dialog and a slightly scary, but not scary enough plot when it first hit in 2009, Jennifer's Body has - as of late - received a bit of redemption as a feminist horror classic of sorts. But not everyone agrees. Drop in and have a listen as we discuss the Diablo Cody-penned horror black comedy starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. 

This week we fully embrace the holiday of the day (in the U.S. at least) with an ode to Thanksgiving via this sort of good, sometimes not-so-great horror flick Kristy. In it we see a college student, who decided to stay back for the Thanksgiving Day break, being hunted by a group of cybercult killers. Enjoy!

Billy Zane. Just let your eyes rest on that for a few seconds. Have you completely settled into the notion of Billy Zane, are you one with the Zane? Good, now, let's talk horror. Billy Zane -- there he is again -- stars in this often forgotten, typically maligned masterpiece of character-actor casting. In this episode, we talk about the Zane, about the people surrounding the Zane, and about the horror in which the Zane acts. It's a fun episode, about a fun movie, the horror-comedy ragbag that is Tales from the Crypt presents: Demon Knight.

Ba-ba-ba Dook! Dook! Dook! This week we are joined by Bernia Rao, director and writer of Killer Sofa, to discuss Jennifer Kent classic The Babadook. A wrenching tale of exhaustion, grief, and motherhood, The Babadook isn't just frightening, it is at times soul-crushing.

Trapped in the confines of a deserted gold mine town, women are paired up with bestial killers with names like Babyhead and RotFace in a sort of real-world battle royale for the super-rich. The Furies is a gruesome horror flick by Australian director and writer Tony D'Aquino and there's a lot to talk about. Join us!

There's something wonderful in the slapstick nature of Sam Rami's sort-of-remake of the original Evil Dead. Evil Dead II takes the same premise, the same horrific, creeping evil, and then injects not a little Three Stooges and Monty Python. The result isn't just groovy; it's glorious. Fortunately, we've got Josh Ruben, the talented writer, director, and co-star of Scare Me, onboard to help us walk through the genius in the gore.

They're here ... but this time they've brought along a friend. In this week's episode, we discuss horror classic Poltergeist with Chris Peckover (director of Better Watch Out). The movie -- which managed to scar an entire generation of children in the '80s -- isn't just Peckover's favorite horror flick, it also offers a masterclass in how to deliver scares without losing sight of character, setting, or storyline.

What happens when two Catholic school buddies grow up to run a reality exorcism show that is entirely faked? They get sucked into a real, nasty exorcism, that's what.  Director Damien LeVeck presents 2019's The Cleansing Hour, a clever take on the classic spinning-head, pea-soup-squirting demon-possession trope with a slow burn that delivers one heck of a twist. Join us as we break down the movie, how it works, where it fails, and -- most importantly -- into what category it should be dropped.

Ring (Ringu) has probably done more to shape the way people think about Japanese horror than any movie released before or after it hit the box office in 1998. In this episode, we discuss the Hideo Nakata classic, how it shaped horror, lead to a J-horror revolution, and why it still works so well.

One Cut of the Dead isn't really a horror movie, it's a horror movie inside a comedy. But that doesn't stop us from categorizing it, or at least the movie within the movie. Shin'ichirô Ueda directed and wrote this marvelous take and re-take on zombie horror that has a cast in a schlock horror movie trying to survive a zombie outbreak and over-the-top director. Make sure you stick around for the third act, though, it's a doozy.

Set during the heat of the 1980s Cold War, Russian sci-fi horror flick Sputnik drops viewers into the dark corners of nationalist pride and militaristic hubris. The film's Russian cosmonaut is both a national hero and potentially deadly weapon when he returns to earth with an unwelcome alien hitchhiker inside. In this episode, we talk about the cultural differences found in this excellent Russian movie and what does and doesn't work in director Egor Abramenko's unusual take on a common alien tale.

Before life, uh, found a way or he had ever heard of a melt stick, Jeff Goldblum was breaking hearts and changing the world as inspired loner scientist Seth Brundle (and later, lady-killer Brundlefly) in the masterful recreation of The Fly. In this episode, we explore the 1986 David Cronenberg classic with the help of our pal Ludwig Kietzmann.

David Slade may have directed one of the glimmer-tastic Twilight Saga flicks, but his take on Steve Niles' horror comic miniseries 30 Days of Night earned him all of the vampire bonafides he will ever need. In this latest episode, we explore the unique flavor of bloodsucker found in Barrow, Alaska's polar night, why this action-horror movie works so well, and how the ending left us a little ... cold. 

The weeping woman, or La Llorona, is a Hispanic legend that traces its origins back to the 16th century. We've seen a number of films based on the chilling tale of a spectral woman in anguish over her drowned children, but none have been as compelling as this latest. Director Jayro Bustamante blends the haunting narrative and lush cinematography to delve into the atrocities of the very real Guatemalan genocide of native Mayans.  La Llorona, and Maria Mercedes Coroy's hypnotic performance as the titular figure, is a prime example of how modern horror movies have grown to become a powerful form of expression and a deft tool for dissecting real-world horrors.

It’s been more than 120 years since H.G. Wells released the serialized tale of a scientist driven mad after turning himself invisible. In the intervening years, The Invisible Man has given life to a slew of movie creations. Most recently, the talented Leigh Whannell (Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious) used its underlying themes to create a powerful tale about gaslighting, emotional abuse, and fear. In this episode, we’re joined by IGN’s executive editor of features Lucy O’Brien to discuss the unsettling take on the classic.

Who's up for a little Norwegian folk horror? This week's episode delves into director Ari Aster's Midsommar, a more unsettling follow-up to Aster's already pretty frigging unsettling Hereditary. While the two movies aren't tied together by story, both highlight Aster's rising influence as an auteur horror filmmaker. Fortunately, we have the talented Rob Savage -- director of 2020's most captivating horror movie, Host -- on hand to talk about Aster's work, how one delineates horror from not-horror and, of course, to help us put this one in its proper place.

In this week's episode, we sit down with Kinda Funny's Greg Miller to discuss one of the best horror movies of 2020: Host. Filmed during the pandemic, Rob Savage's indie masterpiece is very much a product of its time; both in how it was created and the way in which it encapsulates the sense of isolation and fear everyone seems to be struggling with these days. In the 57-minute movie, a group of friends gathers over video conference software Zoom to hold a seance. Things do not go well.

Candyman, Candyman, Candyman. I sure hope you weren't sitting in a darkened bathroom staring at a mirror when you read this. In this week's episode, we explore the intricacies and nuance of 1992 classic Candyman. Directed by Bernard Rose and starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons and, yes, Vanessa Williams, Candyman is a story about an urban legend that turns out to be true ... and hungry for a little notoriety and a lot of revenge. With the remake of this Clive Barker movie in the wings, its time we try to categorize just what's going on in Cabrini-Green.

In this week's episode, we break down the wonderful found-film horror flick Hell House, LLC. Joining us for the discussion is Dr. Elisa Melendez, a pop culture sociologist who loves bad movies, writing songs, and gave voice to Borderland 3's Tyreen Calypso. Hell House, LLC, directed and written by previous LLB guest Stephen Cognetti, is a classic haunted house flick, but that doesn't make it any easier to pigeon hole.

This week's episode focuses on Tigers Are Not Afraid, and starts with a conundrum: Is this particular movie, directed by Issa Lopez, a horror movie at all? Fortunately, we have apparent polymath A.T. White, who wrote, directed, and scored the wonderful movie Starfish, on hand to discuss the vagaries of what does and doesn't constitute a horror movie. It turns out that White hears this question a lot about his own movie, which dances along the line of sci-fi and horror.

In this week's episode, the Beasties are joined by Hell House, LLC writer and director Stephen Cognetti to discuss the classic 1997 hell-in-space horror flick Event Horizon. Starring Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan, and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, Event Horizon is another horror film that hit theaters to terrible reviews but has since developed a cult following.

In this week's episode, the Beasties dive into the deep, dark world of underwater drilling, hungry merfolk, and something that looks an awful lot like Cthulhu. We're discussing William Eubank's 2020 sci-fi horror Underwater, which stars -- among others -- Kristen Stewart as mechanical engineer Norah Price.

In this week's episode, the Beasties dive out of their cars and into your nightmares, or something like that.  We'll be discussing Wes Craven's surrealistic 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, which debuted Johnny Depp, razer gloves, and several tanker trucks of blood.

This week, the Beasties tackle the Argentinian feature Terrified. Guillermo del Toro is producing an English-language remake of this suburban nightmare, and a sequel is in the works, too. Maybe by then we'll have some idea what in blue blazes is going on.

Sure, the title animals of Hitchcock's classic are terrifying, but what's going on with those children? Also, Brian blows Susan's mind with his theory about the ending.

What better way to kick off a podcast about horror movie genres than with a film that encompasses several of them? You may think you know which category John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) should be in, but after Susan, Brian, and Adam are done talking, you may just change your mind.