Certified Forgotten

I bet you didn't think we'd ever cover a Steven Spielberg movie on the podcast, didja? This week's special guest, author Max Evry, found a loophole: the 1972 made-for-television feature Something Evil. It's fitting, since Max's new book Stranded on Earth is all about how Night Skies became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg might have essentially disowned the movie, but that can't stop us from talking about this Poltergeist before Poltergeist haunted house story.

About Something Evil

A young couple moves into a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania. What they don't know is that there is an unseen presence in the house, and that it wants to take possession of the wife.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

There's a lot we don't want to say about Jordan Downey's The Cycle because if you haven't been spoiled yet, stay that way. So, yes. It's this week's topic for an Uncertified review. Deborah Ann Woll kicks ass as the lead forensic pathologist. Jeffrey Donovan is as good as ever. Listen in if you've seen the flick, and if you haven't, go watch it on Shudder, then hit play!

About The Cycle

A daughter unravels her father's dark past after his body, missing for 36 years, is found at a horrific crime scene.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

It's Italian-American Heritage Month, so we at Certified Forgotten decided to... lol, well, have a little fun. You see, co-host Matthew Monagle publicly skeeted that there's only one good horror-comedy. That prompted CF's other half, Matt Donato, to join forces with superstar guest Michael Varrati for a lil' punishment episode. That, plus their Italian-American bond, meant there was only one title to subject Monagle to this episode: the über-gory, spray-tanned indie horror "satire," Jersey Shore Massacre.

About Jersey Shore Massacre

A typical weekend down the shore takes a bizarre turn as six girls and five obnoxious fist-pumpers become the unsuspecting targets of a deranged killer.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

We're playing a little post-festival rewind here at Certified Forgotten, which means the Matts are finally tackling Resident Evil (2026). On paper, Zach Cregger's horror-comedy take on Capcom's nightmare franchise should divide your co-hosts. Matt Donato loves horror-comedies; Matthew Monagle is the opposite. But is Resident Evil a rare funny-scary title that can unite the two Matts? Spoiler alert: yes! Listen in to hear why.

About Resident Evil (2026)

 

A hapless courier (Austin Abrams as Bryan) is tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. He soon finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak and must fight through hordes of mutated creatures to survive.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

It's been a decade since Na Hong-jin directed his last feature film, The Wailing, and it's been two weeks since we recorded our episode on his recent Neon release, Hope. Blame Donato, and blame film festivals. But better late than never, your two Matt hosts are digging into this oddball sci-fi creature flick for all its worth. Big thrills, exciting action, terrible CG execution—it's all on the table

About Hope

 

A police chief, a policewoman, and a group of hunters try to track down and kill a mysterious creature that's laying waste to a Korean village.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

Every time film critic Rob Hunter returns to Certified Forgotten, he brings the weirdness. This time, he's got a Spanish horror film that focuses on a movie-within-a-movie ... within another movie? Bigas Luna's Anguish stars Michael Lerner as an eyeball-obsessed killer who strikes fear in the audience watching the movie he's starring in, The Mommy. The camera pulls out, and we see we're not the only viewers paralyzed by what unfolds ... and that's just the beginning.

About Anguish

An ophthalmologist’s assistant with an unhealthy interest in human eyeballs (Michael Lerner) goes on a killing spree to collect eyeballs for his overbearing mother’s collection (Zelda Rubinstein). Reality soon takes a bizarre turn for both the characters and the audience.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

This week on the podcast, the Matts are digging into what some are calling the best dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park. David Robert Mitchell's The End of Oak Street features a 1980s family trying to survive against the law of the jungle, with carnivorous dinos at their doorstep. It's a good-time popcorn flick with a thin script, but plenty of thrills. Can the Matts agree on turning off your thinky-brain to enjoy some action-forward dinosaur cinema?

About The End of Oak Street

 

The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

"You can't keep a good cop dead." The tagline for Dead Heat, this week's selection for yet another Certified Forgotten guest episode. We welcome Noel Bartocci of the CultPOP! podcast, who's here to champion a 1980s buddy-cop flick with an undead twist. Does execution meet the hype of the concept? Not always. But do Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo have to fight off reanimated Peking duck zombies? You bet your buttox! And for that, we're grateful.

About Dead Heat

A cop (Roger Mortis, played by Treat Williams) is killed investigating a bizarre case of resurrected corpses. His partner (Joe Piscopo) and a pathologist resurrect him, but he has a limited time before he starts to decompose, so he uses it to chase down the diabolical man who killed him.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

Once upon a time, Blumhouse planned an entire M3GANVERSE. Then M3GAN 2.0 bombed at the box office, and the concept was scrapped. Kate Dolan's companion-bot spinoff, SOULM8TE, vanished from the release calendar. You hate to see any film become a casualty of business decisions, but here we are, with SOULM8TE unceremoniously dumped on digital instead of its planned theatrical run. Could it be as bad as the inside baseball of a film losing its release plan, forgoing any critics' screenings, and just plopping on rental platforms with almost no notice? One of the Matts thinks so—listen in to find out which one! 

About SOULM8TE

 

A man (David Rysdahl) acquires an Artificially Intelligent android (Lily Sullivan) to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.

Hey, two guest episodes in the same month! Certified Forgotten is back on track, and with that, we're pandering to the mall-culture millennials out there. This week, the Matts are joined by writer and podcaster Louis Peitzman, who brings a Phantom of the Opera riff born from the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge pulls Morgan Fairchild and Pauly Shore into a shopping mall haunted by a gym-bro phantom who wants to burn it all down. Does this adaptation stand the test of time, or will it be lost, like the empty storefronts where FYE and Sam Goody customers once visited?

About Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge

A man loses his home and suffers life-threatening burns from a fire deliberately set by commercial real estate developers vying for his property. One year later, a shopping mall opens on the land, and a series of murders begins.

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About Certified Forgotten

Certified Forgotten is a writer-owned horror publication focused on the little movies that leave a big impression. We publish essays on the underseen and underappreciated horror films of the 21st Century. To learn more, visit www.certifiedforgotten.com.