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If you are checking the Scariest Things Podcast, you are probably a horror fan already, and we would love for you to share with us your thoughts with us. We wanted to create a forum and resource for the horror aficionados looking to validate their love of the genre with like-minded fans. If you are just getting into the genre, The Scariest Things Podcast can be your gateway to exploring scary movies. This is a deep dark hole, and once you dive into it, we’ll be right there with you, screaming the whole way down! So, read our reviews, listen to our podcast, and send us a list of your own. And then, to reference the granddaddy of all horror films you will be “…Gooble Gobble, One of Us! One of Us!”
Eric Li and Mike Campbell have been investing themselves in Horror Movies since their college years at the University of Oregon dating all the way back to 1987. In the years to come, Mike and Eric indulged in the genre digesting all the classic movies and the timeless terrors. Eric has a soft spot for Lovecraftian monsters and little independent horror flicks. Mike is old school, with a deep love for slow burn 70’s horror, zombie flicks, and grindhouse fare. Now, having found the bottom of the list of classics, we’ve been searching for hidden gems, plowing through as many lousy horror films so that you won’t have to. You can listen to Eric and Mike’s takes on the Scariest Things Podcast.
Amy Faust and Eric have been debating horror movies since they met as Geek Trivia teammates in Portland, back in 2008. Amy’s insatiable appetite for shaky camera found footage movies may be unmatched by anyone in the Pacific Northwest! If you love franchise horror, Amy’s the reviewer for you! Catch Amy’s movie reviews in the Blog section of this site.
Robert Zilbauer and Eric (anyone notice a theme here?) have known each other since grade school. Both were involved in the now-infamous showing of The Thing on VHS at a slumber party back in 1983, and things haven’t been the same since. Robert’s got a special place in his heart for low-budget and foreign horror movies. Which means he watches a lot of crap, but it’s all in service of sniffing out the best new stories, most creative new directors, and acting talent most worthy of dying horribly (on screen of course!). You can read Robert’s clever prose in the review section of this blog:
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An error has ocurred. Please try againIn preparation for our next Podcast (spoiler alert… it’s Giallo!), we were astounded at both the quantity of Giallo films and how many of them had wacky titles. Fans of the American thrillers that were influenced by Giallo get, at best two word titles, as if we wouldn’t understand a five word title if we had a Master’s Degree. Basic Instinct. Body Double. Fatal Attraction. Halloween. Se7en. Zodiac. Sliver. C’mon America, we can do better with the titles!
A shout out to Silence of the Lambs for giving us a Giallo worthy title. Dressed to Kill, the American film most associated with Giallo has an appropriate title that would fit in nicely into a shelf full of Italian thrillers. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is another contemporary film with a Giallo-esque title, but as that is a European film/book, I’m not sure it counts.
I propose that the benchmark of the trend of Giallo Titles goes back to Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) by Dario Argento, his first feature film and a hugely successful one at that. It set the table for a number of things. The title took a small element from the film, and then attached a preoposition and a colorful adjective descriptor, and presto! Giallo title royalty! The bird in question provides a pivotal clue, but it is a bit of a maguffin, as it merely serves as an audio indicator for the killer’s whereabouts. The film proved so influential that Argento’s peers picked up the theme and for about six years the Italian thrillers were wholly unique sounding, with some taking a route of entirely cryptic and others going explictly descriptive.
By the late seventies, the trend waned, for whatever reason, we get stuck with left with singular nouns or verbs for titles. Even Dario dialed it back, and gave us Inferno and Opera. The last film in this list went lovingly back to its source material and came up with a terrificly poetic title. The following titles are done chronologically. They don’t necessarily include the BEST Giallo films (Profondo Rosso notably absent from this list) as we are targeting the best TITLES.
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Enter 2021! The big budget films that coldly sat on the shelves for the last year, or in some cases years, or in other cases almost a half century, are now out in the theaters for us all to enjoy. And enjoy them we did! It shouldn’t be a terrible surprise that (often) the more money, time, energy, and talent you ply to your project the better quality you’ll receive in return. Mostly.
This is not to say 2021 was devoid of smaller more thoughtful independent films. Au contraire. This year gave us some absolute shockers, chills, and probably some of the most horrifying scenes that we’ll NEVER unsee. Here’s some of the best from another spooky year…
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There were those things that we here at the Scariest Things Podcast desperately wanted to love and cherish (read: Curse of La Llorona), but they turned out to be last week’s warmed over pile of goulash. And of course, we were presented with an extra helping of big budget flavors that often left a vile taste, or worse yet, no real discernable taste in our mouth (read: Pet Sematary).
As we wind down the year and chew on these ghoulish offerings it’s often best to remember not just the good and scrumptious fare, but those films that were new, unique and inventive (read: US and Extraordinary). 2019 really put in a solid performance. Maybe not quite as memorable as 2018, but one that will have me quaking well in to a frightening 2020.
Without further ado, here’s the creepiest happenings from 2019!
Twenty nine years ago, on July 24, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (The ADA) was signed into law. It has had a profound effect on the ability for those who have had to struggle with their environment and surroundings, that it helped bring society closer to equal provisions for all. As my day job as an architect, the ADA has had a huge impact on our profession, and it made this country a better place. To celebrate this event, we at The Scariest Things bring you 25 films that showcase movies with heroes and villains who learn to overcome their conditions in horror movies.
The disabled community has a problematic relationship with genre films. Quite frequently the disabled are relegated to being either the monster or the vulnerable and pitiable victim, and occasionally the most annoying character on the screen (ahem… Franklin). Horror, let’s face it, can be cruel. And not just in the blood splashing gory way. Often, horror will capitalize and highlight the physical differences between the villain and the protagonists. Burned, disfigured, and damaged people will often be the monstrous ones.
Not all disabilities get handled equally in Hollywood. Blind people tend to get a decent break of being the noble survivors in all genres of film, but I can’t think of a blind actor yet who has gotten a major role in the movies. (Unlike music where there are many blind stars.) After being largely ignored or forgotten in horror movies, deaf characters recently have had a couple of top-shelf offerings, and we now have a breakout deaf actress horror movie star, so… progress! Sadly, in horror movies, for many years, if you were in a wheelchair, you were essentially dead meat: Friday the 13th Part II anyone? It’s so hard to get representation for mobility disabled characters, let alone actors, so you hope that when they do appear, they have a meaningful impact. Fortunately, there have been a few standout films that give them some choice roles.
Mental illness is a favorite topic in horror. In horror, most of the time Psychoses=Evil, but there are a lot of movies that take a much more philosophical approach to mental illness, and that can serve as a very long Dead List of all its own. I will save that for another day.
As you look back, the trend line moving movies to shift the view of the disabled from completely demeaning to empowering has made some progress. In recent years we can definitively point to some awesome movies that both are true to the roots of horror while also give some prime protagonist opportunities for them to get some positive time in the spotlight. So, chronologically, here are 25 significant horror movies featuring disabled characters:
EDITORIAL NOTE: We now have a Podcast for you discussing this topic in EPISODE 70! www.scariesthings.com
We give you all the Silent Night, Deadly Night films ranked! And…you’re welcome.
The Silent Night, Deadly Night is a weird and wild odyssey that sometimes sticks to Christmas and oddly sometimes doesn’t. The franchise is crammed packed with stalwart horror and non-horror actors, including: Maud Adams, Mickey Rooney, Linnea Quigley, Clint Howard, Malcolm McDowell, Bill Moseley, Reggie Bannister, and even Robert Culp.
The entire franchise is built upon taking the most sacrosanct holiday icon of all time, giving him an axe, a penchant for vengeance and righteous fury, and a soft heart for kids and old people. Most of the films stay within these yuletide parameters, but some wander from the original storyline…and boy do they WANDER.
Originally thought by many to be an all out assault on the most holiest of holidays, the series has two sort-of direct sequels, one sort-of remake of the original, one that follows the Christmas theme, and one that has nothing to do with Christmas and instead opts for a Lovecraftian story about a Satanic lesbian fertility cult.
Each one of the films shines on their own while simultaneously being considered some of the worst films ever made. A true Christmas miracle!
In honor of Christmas we re-re-watched all six of the films for YOU. This is your Silent Night, Deadly Night advent calendar countdown from worst to best!
View this list and many more at scariesthings.com
In many ways the 2023 horror offerings got off to an incredible start, but then petered out a bit, but THEN…sort of made a comeback toward the end of the year. At least that’s how this humble horror podcaster saw the year unfolding. A sea of middling mediocrity spotlighted with some stellar flicks.
And if you haven’t been paying attention 2023 really is the year of Australian horror. With offerings like Talk to Me, Late Night with the Devil, and Monolith, Australian filmmakers have been delivering truly wonderful horror.
Because 2023 also saw the rise of “hot labor summer” with the simultaneous writer and actor strikes, 2024 promises to be equally uneven. We may see some incredible holdover fare early in the year, followed by a dusty lull. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see some great horror films back on the scene in late 2024. Until then, here are…
The BEST Horror Films of 2023!
https://scariesthings.com/2023/12/29/the-best-horror-films-of-2023/
Now 60 years on, the Boston Strangler is a story that continues to fascinate generation after generation, and a story that also continues to put some serious fright in even the most hardened Bostonians.
The basic tenet(s) of the Boston Strangler are fairly simple. From 1962 to 1964 there were 13 women murdered in Boston. Some strangled. Some stabbed. Inconsistent ages. In consistent motives. Weirdly a wide range in age. The Boston Strangler ended up killing women between the ages of 19 and 85. Not your typical serial killer with an obsessive fixation on the order or type of killings.
Some referred to this terrifying murderer as the “Mad Strangler”, the “Phantom Fiend”, and even the “Phantom Strangler”, but it wasn’t until 1963 when two plucky young female reporters did a four-part series in local paper where they finally landed on the monicker “The Boston Strangler.”
At the heart of this horrifying mystery was one individual — Albert DeSalvo. Bostonians rested all their fears, hatred, and insecurities firmly at his feet. By some accounts he was a brilliant serial-killing machine, but by other accounts he was a simple and philandering creep. Throughout the history of the Boston Strangler films Albert DeSalvo is given these opposing characteristics and many more juxtapositions.
More weird is the fact that even though DeSalvo confessed to all the murders he actually may only be responsible for a handful of them, and possibly as a few as one. Given the wildly varied styles and motives some have even theorized that the Boston Strangler was two, three, or even more killers!
No matter your take on the Boston Strangler or how deeply you’ve crawled down in the Boston Strangler rabbit hole, it’s safe to say that people are still raptured by this story lo these many years. The fear is real. The uncertainties are real. The Boston Strangler is real.
To celebrate this year’s most recent take on the Boston Strangler, aptly titled the Boston Strangler, the Scariest Things went back and looked at each and every film adaptation of the Boston Strangler story and ranked ‘em all!
Peep the full list at www.scariesthings.com
Very little information has come forward. Unclear plot. Uncertain who’ll be connected to the project. Would Linda Blair be back? Would Pazuzu be up for it? Would 87-year old William Friedkin be assigned to punching and threatening the reboot actors? As you’d imagine a project of this size is positively ripe with a bounty of questions, but unfortunately little to no answers.
What we do know is that the newest Exorcist installment is allegedly coming our way in 2023! Some definitely say October 13, 2023, but many films of this size/scope have been unfortunately pushed to later days/years for a variety of reasons. With David Gordon Green and his massive (mostly) Halloween successes at the helm, the Exorcist reboot could be exactly the scares we need to reimagine the unimaginable. Interestingly, Green’s cowriter Peter Sattler has little to no writing experience. Sattler’s resume is a short one and certainly not on par with William Friedkin or William Peter Blatty.
What’s this all mean? What happens in 2023? Is Regan coming back? Is Father Merrin back from the grave? All these questions are really beside the point. The point is that horror fans across the globe are just thrilled to the gills — you might even say possessed — to see the latest installment of the battle for good, evil, and the souls of youngsters everywhere.
To get the Scariest Things Podcast ready for 2023, and potentially the most polemic film in years, we sat down and poured through the entire EXORCIST universe. Some brilliant, some soup-soaked, some awfully-awful, and some filled with the most horrifying images ever put to film.
It’s a universe like no other. One that should be — nay required to be — debated, blessed, and most importantly, ranked. For those of you that are new to the blackened core of the horror universe, we give you all the Exorcist films ranked from worst to best!
Peep this list and many more at: scariesthings.com
It started with a bang and then ended up with one of the most pitiful whimpers there ever was. The first film in the Omen series was nominated for two Academy Awards and actually won one. It was also nominated for a host of other non-soundtrack awards, and won quite a few in 1976. The final film in the series, Omen IV: The Awakening, from 1991, was relegated to the fledgling Fox TV network and might be in the running for the worst film of all time.
The remake from 2006? Well, that’s it’s own thing. It definitely has a place in the pantheon of Damien-infused chaos, but it too, is closer to the bottom than the top. In honor of 2024’s release of The First Omen, we decided that it was high time the Scariest Things Podcast take a closer look at the comings and goings of the antichrist — Damien Thorn.
Allegedly, the latest 2024 offering concerns an American woman sent to work at a church in Rome but uncovers a sinister conspiracy to bring about the birth of an Antichrist. Seems on brand, but where did this all begin?
Like all good horror films, the Omen was likely a bi-product of the wild successes wrought by the Exorcist in 1974. Again, allegedly, the producer Harvey Bernhard, has been been rapping with a pal about one of the weirder elements of the bible, the Book of Revelation. Given the public’s appetite for demons he was convinced that the public was ready to take a jump into the deep end of the pool with the Antichrist. He got in touch with screenwriter David Seltzer and hired him to write a screenplay.
Interestingly, director Richard Donner and Seltzer deep disagreed with the focus of the film. Donner was looking for more of a vague 1970s aesthetic where Damien and his connection to the devil would be a pinch unclear, Seltzer wanted to fully explore the arcane elements of the antichrist by using global politics as the backdrop. Ultimately, Seltzer’s devil-driven perspective won out and one of greatest horror films was birthed.
With all signs pointing to the end of times, where does one started with all this demonic madness? Most importantly, which of the Damien dalliances are the creepiest and which of the films in the Omen franchise is among the very best?
Don’t worry horror fans, the Scariest Things Podcast has you covered! Without further ado, here’s the entire Omen franchise ranked, from the worst to the best!
https://scariesthings.com/2023/12/28/all-the-omen-films-ranked/
But we’re not here to talk about crappy films you don’t want to see. Au contraire. We’re here to tell YOU about the films that you’ll be gabbing about well in to 2024 — and beyond.
I predict some of these films may hold the test of time and even make a best of ALL TIME list. A stretch? Maybe.
Take in these horror frights — if you haven’t already — and prepare to be terrified, spooked, scintillated, and down right amazed. With out further ado, here’s the best the 2022 had to offer!
Check out this full list and many others at scariesthings.com