David and Elysia work through their own and the community's mixed-but-leaning-positive feelings about Steven Spielberg's new alien-focused movie Disclosure Day (currently in theaters). They get into the greatest cinematic moments, the cast and performance(s) they loved best, and (yes) the lore holes nagging at them after the fact – and why this film is worth seeing in theaters, and even if it engages the heart more than your critical thinking skills.

Contact Us

[email protected]

Or, send us a voicemail! You can use the voicemail tool on our website, thelorehounds.com/contact OR record a note on your smartphone and email it to us at the same address.

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates

https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

David, Lisa, and Bryan conclude their Gene Hackman coverage with a deep dive into The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 psychological thriller and the film chosen by community vote. The trio explores Gene Hackman's portrayal of Harry Caul, a surveillance expert whose paranoia, guilt, and isolation unravel him as he becomes convinced his latest recording may lead to a murder. The conversation covers the film's remarkable production history as Coppola's decade-long passion project made between the two Godfather films, its uncanny resonance with the Watergate scandal, and the contributions of editor and sound designer Walter Murch and composer David Shire, whose manipulated piano score mirrors Harry's own distorted perception of reality. From the iconic Union Square opening shot to the film's deliberately unresolved ambiguities, the hosts examine how a 50-year-old film about eavesdropping and the power of information remains strikingly relevant in an era of digital surveillance and post-truth uncertainty.

Contact Us Questions or comments? Send emails to: [email protected]

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

David and Elysia venture into the Horror Hounds to discuss Backrooms (2026), A24's creepypasta-turned-feature film directed by Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. They trace the film's remarkable origin — from an anonymous 2019 post on 4chan to Kane Pixels' three-year YouTube web series — and unpack how a 19-year-old first-time director delivered a confident, visually stunning film on a $10M budget with a 14X box office return. The conversation digs into the film's rich thematic layers, including the backrooms as a Jungian mirror of shared anxiety and mental illness, the AI-as-mimicry subtext, the literary connection to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the psychological character studies of Mary and Clark, and what this film signals about a new generation of internet-native storytellers reshaping the horror genre.

Contact Us Questions or comments? Send emails to: [email protected]

Or, send us a voicemail! You can use the voicemail tool on our website, thelorehounds.com/contact OR record a note on your smartphone and email it to us at the same address.

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

Elysia and John continue the journey of the galaxy's favorite father and son in The Mandalorian and Grogu. They catch up with the New Republic before meeting Hutts of various sizes, watching stop motion and puppetry showcases, and overall having a fun, standalone adventure.

Contact Us Questions or comments? Send emails to: [email protected]

Or, send us a voicemail! You can use the voicemail tool on our website, thelorehounds.com/contact OR record a note on your smartphone and email it to us at the same address.

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

John, Elysia, and Marilyn follow Ryan Gosling to the far reaches of space to save humankind from destruction. They discuss the impressive puppetry and visuals, the hopepunk core of the film, and the parallels to other sci-fi worlds.

Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates: linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Send your questions and feedback to [email protected].

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

David, Lisa, and Bryan are joined by Tolkien scholar Marilyn R. Pukkila for a special episode exploring the meaning behind the podcast's name and the deep cultural associations between the West and human mortality. The conversation traces how civilizations from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to the Maori, the Celts, and the indigenous Wabanaki have connected the setting sun with death, transition, and what lies beyond. Marilyn draws on John Garth's research into how the phrase "going West" entered the English lexicon through Celtic-speaking soldiers in the trenches of World War I and became a foundational element in Tolkien's myth-making, while the hosts reflect on how art, storytelling, and community create spaces for renewal, shared grief, and the celebration of lives well lived.

Contact Us Questions or comments? Send emails to: [email protected]

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

David is joined by Tansy Gardam, host of the acclaimed Going Rogue podcast, and Asher Elbein, journalist and co-creator of the newsletter and website Heat Death, for a deep dive into the Jurassic film franchise — all seven films across 32 years. The conversation spans the paleontological promise of the original Park trilogy, the stagnation and franchise anxiety of the Jurassic World era, and the ways mega-franchise pipeline thinking has constrained the series' creative evolution.

Asher brings his background as a science journalist to examine how Hollywood arrested popular dinosaur science in amber while the real field moved on, and Tansy unpacks the franchise mechanics that kept the series reaching back to the first film rather than forward into new territory — including the quietly radical queerness encoded in the very biology of the dinosaurs themselves.

Check Out Our Guests

Tansy Gardam - Going Rogue Podcast

• https://patreon.com/goingroguepodcast
• https://bsky.app/profile/tansyg.bsky.social

Asher Elbein - Heat Death

• https://heat-death.ghost.io
• https://bsky.app/profile/asherelbein.bsky.social

Contact Us Questions or comments? Send emails to: [email protected]

Or, send us a voicemail! You can use the voicemail tool on our website, thelorehounds.com/contact OR record a note on your smartphone and email it to us at the same address.

Links to Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates https://linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

Elysia is joined by Lisa to spill all the tea on everything that went down in Kristoffer Borgli's The Drama (2026). After giving their spoiler-free takes and general thoughts on the power of dark humor to unlock uncomfortable discussions, they talk about the film's opening sequence (00:21:14) without spoiling the twist, and then finally launch into a full-spoiler discussion of the rest of the film (00:37:40).

Warning: This film (and thus this podcast episode) will not be for everyone. Heed the (spoiler-free, and then later spoiler-filled) content warnings within.

Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates: linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Send your questions and feedback to [email protected].

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities.

David and Elysia dive into Shakespeare's Hamlet, opening with a discussion of the play itself and some of the most classic film and stage adaptations, not to mention the whole sub-genre of films loosely adapting and referencing the Bard's longest work.

With that foundation laid, they turn their attention to the new adaptation starring Riz Ahmed, directed by Aneil Karia, that debuted at Telluride last year and is opening in theaters across North America today, April 10. How faithful is this new incarnation of the story, set in London's Asian community in the modern day? And what does and doesn't work when breaking down the source material to create what they call "the boldest adaptation to date"?

Links discussed:

• "The Name of Action" short doc
• This American Life: "Act V"
• Bait TV series: trailer

Hamlet adaptations discussed:

• Hamlet (1948) – Directed by Laurence Olivier, starring Laurence Olivier
• Hamlet (1990) – Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring Mel Gibson
• Hamlet (1996) – Directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh
• Hamlet (2009) – Directed by Gregory Doran, starring David Tennant
• Hamlet (2018) – Directed by Rhodri Huw and Robert Icke, starring Andrew Scott
• Hamlet (2024) – Directed by Sean Mathias, starring Ian McKellen
• Hamlet (2025) – Directed by Aneil Karia, starring Riz Ahmed
• Hamlet: National Theatre Live (2026) – Directed by Robert Hastie, starring Hiran Abeysekera

Other films discussed:

• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) – Directed by Tom Stoppard
• The Lion King (1994) – Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
• In the Bleak Midwinter (1995) – Directed by Kenneth Branagh
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) – Directed by Jordan Galland
• Ophelia (2018) – Directed by Claire McCarthy
• The Northman (2022) – Directed by Robert Eggers
• Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) – Directed by Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls
• King Hamlet (2025) – Directed by Elvira Lind
• Scarlet (2026) – Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates: linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Send your questions and feedback to [email protected].

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities

Elysia and Riley kneel at the alter of Ralph Fiennes' Iron Maiden, discuss why Jimmy Crystal is scarier than Sinners' vampire Remmick, and glean hope from this film's not-so-hidden messages of humanity, sacrifice, and teasings of radical forgiveness in the second film in the game-changing 28 Years Later zoombie trilogy.

Previous coverage: 28 Days & Weeks Later (subscribers) & 28 Years Later (2025)

Find Riley online: YouTube – Bluesky

Patreon, Supercast, Discord, and Network Affiliates: linktr.ee/thelorehounds

Send your questions and feedback to [email protected].

Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities