Blood & Celluloid

With surgical precision, Adam and Zands dissect Georges Franju's 1960 horror/noir classic, Eyes Without a Face. In this film, a brilliant but disturbed surgeon and his assistant kidnap young women and surgically remove their faces to serve as transplants for his daughter who was disfigured in a car accident. They discuss the film's influences (German expressionism, film noir) and the artists it influenced (Del Toro, Burton), as well as its dark fairy tale storyline, its feminist themes and its anti-fascist/anti-authoritarian messaging.

CW for surgery, animal attacks, some ore, medical abuses of women's bodies, suicide and human trafficking

Zands' Rating: 5/5

Adam's Rating: 5/5

The bear... did cocaine. A BEAR DID COCAINE!

CW for ultra-violence and drug usage.

Zands' Rating: 3.5/5

Adam's Rating: 3.5/5

A single parent hanging on by a thread. A frustrated household staff. And a girl whose life changes for ever when a strange visitor invades their happy home.

CW in episode. Just listen.

Zands' Rating: 3.5/5

Adam's Rating: 3/5

This week, Adam and Zands are locked in with Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's 2007, found-footage/zombie horror thriller, REC. In this film, a television crew and a group of firefighters are pulled into a terrifying fight for survival after a distress call at a Barcelona apartment building turns out to be more than they bargained for. Trapped inside with a killer virus, mutating residents and the military waiting outside to eliminate anyone who tries to leave, they must navigate the tensions in the building and growing network of zombies to have a hope of survival. Adam and Zands discuss the film's themes of repression, religion, distrust, xenophobia and the systemic destruction of women's bodies.

CW for child (un)death and gruesomeness.

Zands' Rating: 5/5

Adam's Rating: 5/5

Adam and Zands review Prano Bailey-Bond's 2021 psychological horror film Censor. Set in Britain, in the height of the video-nasty era, Censor follows Enid, a repressed and tightly wound film censor who finds her ordered life disrupted when one of the films she reviews seems to offer evidence that her long-missing sister may still be alive. Discussed are the film's themes of reality, societal repression, misogyny, the role of media in society and violence.

CW for attempted sexual assault, graphic discussions of sex and violence, on-screen child death, gaslighting and body horror.

Zands' Rating: 3.5/5

Adam's Rating: 4/5

This week, Adam and Zands take a journey across the pond with John Landis' 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf in London. This film follows the lycanthropic descent of a young American after he is attacked by a wolf on the English moors. Discussed this week are the film's themes of alienation, gender, identity and its meta-relation to the werewolf films of yesteryear.

CW for suicide, gaslighting (including medical gaslighting), gratuitous nudity, sex, home invasion and gore. 

Zands' Rating: 3.5/5

Adam's Rating: 3.5/5

Adam and Zands discuss Jordan Peele's second directorial effort (anything but a sophomore slump), Us. In this film, a family fights for survival when their tranquil home life is invaded by a family of sinister doppelgängers. They discuss the film's themes of class, family, race, identity and American inequality, as well as the film's many homages to 80s pop culture and the horror genre in general.

CW for child abduction and self-harm.

Zands' Rating: 4/5

Adam's Rating: 4.5/5

In this episode, Adam and Zands plunge into Peter Weir's 1975 gothic mystery film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, based on the novel by Joan Lindsay. In this film, a boarding school field trip into the Australian brush turns into horror when a group of students and one teacher mysteriously disappear. In their absence, questions are raised, secrets are revealed and the school's headmistress begins a tragic downward spiral. Discussed are the film's themes of humans vs. nature, traditionalism vs. modernity, repression, sexual awakening and many of the film's possible interpretations, plus the enigmatic final chapter excised from the source novel.

CW for references to sexual assault, suicide and insects.

Zands' Rating: 3/5

Adam's Rating: 4.5/5

This week on the pod, Adam and Zands dig into their most "that's not how any of this works" film yet, with the 2011 psychological thriller, The Roommate. In this film, small town college Freshman, Sara moves to L.A. to study fashion and design, only to find herself the target of her roommate Rebecca's obsessive tendencies. The two discuss the film's treatment (or mistreatment) of mental illness, its script and its place in American film history as a relic from the darkest depths of early 21st Century American filmmaking. 

CW for self-harm, teacher-student sexual misconduct and cruelty to animals.

Zands' Rating: 1.5/5

Adam's Rating: 1.5/5