Collective Nightmares

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of Peckover's 2016 psychological thriller film, Better Watch Out.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of McG's 2017 film The Babysitter.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the most recent installation in the Evil Dead franchise Evil Dead Rise. Well constructed and entertaining, and featuring some challenges to some of the tired tropes of possession films, ultimately the film is ideologically sloppy and overall still problematic.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the reboot of Raimi's Evil Dead. Recorded live with the Sociology Club at CU Boulder, we discuss the pitfalls of gender and the pleasant surprise of a possession film centering siblings rather than a heterosexual couple.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey. The single most trite, banal, incompetent series of images we have watched since we started this podcast in 2017. Don't watch this film. It's not good bad, or bad good, it's just abject dross.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the Omen prequel The First Omen (Stevenson 2024). The film prompted an intense discussion of the Catholic Church, social progress, pregnancy, and difficult decisions. An overall very impressive horror film. We look forward to the follow up.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the European horror film Piggy. This film features a phenomenal performance by a new actress and contributes to the body of films that challenge and implicate us as viewers to consider what we are watching and why.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of West's first film in his wildly ambitious horror trilogy, X. This film sparked a conversation about the state of the slasher sub-genre, cross gender identification in a post-gender world, and the elderly representation in horror.

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of West's third film, MaXXXine in his wildly ambitious horror trilogy. This film bring the trilogy to a very satisfying conclusion. Of the modern horror trilogies we've reviewed this is by far the most successful and we are here for it!

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Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of West's second film, Pearl in his wildly ambitious horror trilogy. This film sets up the third film to either be a notably progressive overarching motif across the films, or it may ulitimately prove conservative, which would be very disappointing.

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