FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

In this episode, we thaw out one of horror’s coldest masterpieces, John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). What starts as a monster movie quickly mutates into a study of paranoia, isolation, and trust disintegrating at subzero temperatures. We talk melting faces, flamethrower diplomacy, and the art of not knowing who’s human anymore. Equal parts gross, genius, and existentially terrifying, The Thing remains the gold standard for practical effects and icy dread. It's proof that sometimes the scariest thing in the room is everyone. It’s cold. It's cruel. It's the kind of horror that makes you question your friends, your coworkers, and maybe even your dog.

Instagram:

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⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

Our Film Rankings:

160 - Film Rankings After The Thing (1982)

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NOTE: In case we failed to mention the end date for the secret word discount at the store when recording this episode, it is October 26, 2025.

Episode Segments:

1. Welcome
2. Outside The Podcast Discussion
3. Film Studies Lesson Of The Day
4. Breaking News
5. What Is This Film About? - Synopsis, Genres, Themes, Insights, And Facts (Curated by Sunni)
6. Vital Statistics
7. Things That Happen In The Film
8. Analysis - Social Commentary, Inspirations, And Cultural Placement (Curated by James)
9. Trivia
10. Critical Reception (Including our rankings)
11. Final Thoughts

Music:

Exit The Premises, Loping Stings, Cloud Dancer

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Breaking News Intro

By: Luis Humanoide (Via pixabay)

FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

So this movie starts with two orphaned step-siblings moving in with their foster mom and thinking, “How weird can this get?” And then it gets very weird. Laura, the foster mom with unresolved trauma, is up to something occult, Oliver is a mute boy with creepy vibes, and Andy watches things fall apart like someone spilled ritual ingredients all over sanity. It’s emotional, gross, sad, and occasionally horrifying in ways you didn’t see coming.

Instagram:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

Our Film Rankings:

159 - Film Rankings After Bring Her Back (2025)

Email us:

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Find our store on Facebook and Instagram:

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NOTE: In case we failed to mention the end date for the secret word discount at the store when recording this episode, it is October 19, 2025.

Episode Segments:

1. Welcome
2. Outside The Podcast Discussion
3. Film Studies Lesson Of The Day
4. Breaking News
5. What Is This Film About? - Synopsis, Genres, Themes, Insights, And Facts (Curated by Sunni)
6. Vital Statistics
7. Things That Happen In The Film
8. Analysis - Social Commentary, Inspirations, And Cultural Placement (Curated by James)
9. Trivia
10. Critical Reception (Including our rankings)
11. Final Thoughts

Music:

Exit The Premises, Loping Stings, Boogie Party

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Breaking News Intro

By: Luis Humanoide (Via pixabay)

Apocalyptic horror and dark catastrophe films capture the moment when civilization unravels, presenting the end not as aftermath but as an event unfolding in real time. These works mirror humanity’s deepest fears (nuclear war, viral collapse, cosmic indifference, or ecological revenge) and reveal how each era projects its anxieties onto the concept of global extinction. Whether framed through science run amok, Cold War paranoia, or nature reclaiming its dominance, the genre functions as both allegory and warning, reflecting our uneasy awareness that humanity’s end may be of its own making. In exploring these cinematic visions of annihilation, we confront not only the fragility of the world, but the unsettling realization that the apocalypse is never purely speculative. It is a mirror held up to the age that imagines it.

FILMS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

When Worlds Collide (1951), War of the Worlds (1953), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), On the Beach (1959), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Fail-Safe (1964), Crack in the World (1965), The Satan Bug (1965), The War Game (1966), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Andromeda Strain (1971), Phase IV (1974), Holocaust 2000 (1977), The Last Wave (1977), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Long Weekend (1978), Zombi 2 (1979), Virus (1980), The Day After (1983), Testament (1983), Threads (1984), Return of the Living Dead (1985), Miracle Mile (1988), The Seventh Sign (1988), Rapture (1991), Stephen King’s The Stand (1994), End of Days (1999), The Apocalypse (2000), Time of the Wolf (2003), Alien Apocalypse (2005), War of the Worlds (2005), Earth vs. the Volcano (2006), 2012: Doomsday (2008), Doomsday Virus (2008), The Happening (2008), Pontypool (2008), The Day the Earth Stopped (2008), Knowing (2009), Meteor Apocalypse (2010), Melancholia (2011), Infected (2012), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), End of the World (2013), These Final Hours (2013), World War Z (2013), Stephen King’s The Stand (2020), Don’t Look Up (2021), Gaia (2021)

Instagram:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠⁠

Email us:

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Music:

Twisting, Half Mystery, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

FILM RANKINGS UPDATE⁠

In this episode, we are once again digging up a true classic. Today, we are revisiting and reevaluating Frankenstein (1931), the film that quite literally electrified horror cinema. Nearly a century later, it’s still hauntingly beautiful, terribly tragic, and shockingly human for a movie about grave robbing and lightning-based life hacks. We talk mad science, misunderstood monsters, and why Boris Karloff’s performance remains one of the most heartbreaking in horror history. Will Sunni's feelings improve upon rewatch? Will James still hold the film in such high regard? It’s alive… again! And honestly? It’s never looked better.

Instagram:

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⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

Our Film Rankings:

⁠RV 3.02 - Film Rankings After Revisiting Frankenstein (1931)

Email us:

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Find our store on Facebook and Instagram:

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NOTE: In case we failed to mention the end date for the secret word discount at the store when recording this episode, it is October 19, 2025.

Music:

Rocket, Exit The Premises, Loping Stings, Cool Hard Facts

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

In this chapter, we examine how splatter evolved from underground provocation to mainstream institution, filtering its way into the most conventional forms of horror throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Once taboo, gore became a central spectacle within the slasher and supernatural franchises that defined the era—each sequel striving to outdo the last in creative mutilation. From the summer-camp carnage to surreal viscera and the metaphysical fleshcraft, splatter transformed from transgression to tradition. These decades reveal how gore became not only an aesthetic but an industrial engine, driving sequels, sparking moral outrage, and solidifying the body as the ultimate site of horror’s evolution.

FILMS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Halloween Franchise (1978–present), The Friday the 13th Franchise (1980–present), The Burning (1981), The Evil Dead Franchise (1981–present), The Sleepaway Camp Franchise (1983–present), The Silent Night, Deadly Night Franchise (1984–1991), Street Trash (1987), The Hellraiser Franchise (1987–present),

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⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠

Email us:

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Find our store on Facebook and Instagram:

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Music:

Waltz Primordial, Galactic Rap, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022) is exactly what you’d expect from a movie based on a store that materializes in abandoned Kmarts every October... and somehow, it’s even funnier for it. A group of kids get trapped overnight (on purpose, no less) in the most haunted seasonal retailer in America, where the animatronics come to life and the budget politely stays in the corner. It’s part Goosebumps, part corporate product placement séance, and all Halloween spirit... literally. It’s the kind of movie that makes you nostalgic for bad carpet, flickering fluorescent lights, and the faint smell of plastic masks and broken dreams.

Instagram:

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⁠https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠

Our Film Rankings:

⁠158 - Film Rankings After Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022)

Email us:

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NOTE: In case we failed to mention the end date for the secret word discount at the store when recording this episode, it is October 19, 2025.

Episode Segments:

1. Welcome
2. Outside The Podcast Discussion
3. Film Studies Lesson Of The Day
4. Breaking News
5. What Is This Film About? - Synopsis, Genres, Themes, Insights, And Facts (Curated by Sunni)
6. Vital Statistics
7. Things That Happen In The Film
8. Analysis - Social Commentary, Inspirations, And Cultural Placement (Curated by James)
9. Trivia
10. Critical Reception (Including our rankings)
11. Final Thoughts

Music:

Exit The Premises, Loping Stings, Mccary Bay

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Breaking News Intro

By: Luis Humanoide (Via pixabay)

FILM RANKINGS UPDATED AFTER EVERY EPISODE!!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Who knew a robot could get a glow-up and a vendetta? M3GAN returns upgraded to face off against AMELIA, a rogue military android with a serious attitude problem. Gemma and Cady get caught in the crossfire of sparks, lasers, and robot one-liners that are somehow both adorable and terrifying. The chaos gets an upgrade in this sequel, delivering a non-stop, hilariously violent, and surprisingly clever thrill ride. From AI-powered mayhem to inventive kill sequences, this film gleefully and unapologetically leans into it's own absurdity.

Instagram:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/a.darkish.cinema.podcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

https://www.instagram.com/james.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/

https://www.instagram.com/sunni.a.darkish.cinema.podcast/

Our Film Rankings:

157 - Film Rankings After M3GAN 2.0 (2025)

Email us:

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Find our store on Facebook and Instagram:

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NOTE: In case we failed to mention the end date for the secret word discount at the store when recording this episode, it is October 12, 2025.

Episode Segments:

1. Welcome
2. Outside The Podcast Discussion
3. Film Studies Lesson Of The Day
4. Breaking News
5. What Is This Film About? - Synopsis, Genres, Themes, Insights, And Facts (Curated by Sunni)
6. Vital Statistics
7. Things That Happen In The Film
8. Analysis - Social Commentary, Inspirations, And Cultural Placement (Curated by James)
9. Trivia
10. Critical Reception (Including our rankings)
11. Final Thoughts

Music:

Exit The Premises, Loping Stings, Fantasia Fantasia

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

Breaking News Intro

By: Luis Humanoide (Via pixabay)

In this chapter, we examine how the Mondo and shockumentary movements blurred the line between horror and reality, transforming voyeurism into a form of cinematic transgression. Emerging in the 1960s, these films presented death, ritual, and cruelty as documentary spectacle. They invited audiences to watch the unwatchable, merging curiosity and disgust into a single act of spectatorship. From exoticized horrors to the ethically fraught blend of staged and real footage, the genre evolved into a provocative mirror reflecting society’s appetite for authenticity and atrocity. By weaponizing realism and collapsing the distance between fact and fiction, shockumentary splatter cinema transformed the act of viewing into a confrontation with morality, mortality, and the limits of taste.

FILMS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Red Asphalt (1960), Mondo Cane (1962), Shocking Asia (1974), Faces of Death (1978), Death File (1989), Traces of Death (1993), Junk Films (2008), Murder Collection V.1 (2009), Charlotte’s Net (2021)

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Music:

Waltz Primordial, Galactic Rap, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

OFF SCHEDULE SPECIAL!!!

Here are 5 films that we watched outside of our regular podcast schedule. ENJOY!!!

Outback (2019)
A survival horror set in the unforgiving Australian wilderness. Mother Nature seems intent on murder, and it’s a tense, scratch-your-eyes-out kind of thrill.

Skew (2011)
A found-footage experiment gone delightfully wrong. Three friends on a road trip with an increasingly unhinged recording device, its full of suspense, dread, and roadkill.

The Twin (2024)
Personal demons, trauma, and terror collide in this psychological horror. Identity, jealousy, and creepy doppelgängers? Yes, please. It’s unsettling in the way only severe trauma can be.

M3GAN (2022)
The AI doll you definitely don’t want babysitting your kid. Equal parts tech horror and dark comedy, M3GAN kills with precision… and style.

The Jester (2023)
A carnival of chaos and murderous antics. Laugh, scream, and maybe question your life choices. This clown doesn’t juggle, it slaughters.

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Music:

Broken Reality, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

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Intro Remix 2 by Timbre Milton.

-- https://freesound.org/s/86862/ --

License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0

In this chapter, we examine how Italian horror of the late 1970s and early 1980s pushed the boundaries of gore and bodily spectacle through its notorious zombie and cannibal films. Directors like Lucio Fulci, Ruggero Deodato, and Umberto Lenzi transformed decay, consumption, and dismemberment into both transgressive art and social allegory. From Zombi 2’s tropical rot and surrealist dread to Cannibal Holocaust’s ethnographic brutality and moral provocation, these works used bodily violation to explore cultural anxieties about colonialism, contamination, and mortality. Italian horror’s fascination with flesh, its destruction, consumption, and resurrection, pushed splatter beyond shock into a distinct cinematic language: lushly visual, ethically confrontational, and obsessed with the fragility of the human body.

FILMS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Zombi 2 (1979), City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Cannibal Ferox (1981), Eaten Alive! (1980), House by the Cemetery (1981), After Death (1989)

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Music:

Waltz Primordial, Galactic Rap, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/