Dark Discussions Podcast

Can sound itself be enough to make a successful horror film? Well, perhaps that question needs a tiny bit of fine-tuning, because the new Canadian horror film UNDERTONE (2026) certainly isn’t shy about giving us some psychologically unsettling things to look at. Still, there is something wonderfully unnerving about a movie that puts sound front and center and asks us to be frightened by what we hear rather than simply what we see. After all, a creepy noise in the darkness can sometimes do far more damage to the imagination than a monster standing three feet away waving hello.

From IMDb: “Evy Babic, a skeptical paranormal pod-caster caring for her comatose mother, receives disturbing recordings tied to a folkloric threat, and every new file pulls her closer to fears she can no longer explain away.” And therein lies the fun—or perhaps the trouble. What begins with a few unsettling recordings gradually becomes a descent into something far more sinister, where every strange sound carries the possibility of something lurking just beyond the edge of explanation. Turn up the volume, dim the lights, and suddenly even the most innocent creak in the house becomes a suspect.

UNDERTONE was written and directed by Ian Tuason, with a cast featuring Nina Kiri and Michele Duquet, along with voice performers Adam DiMarco, Keana Lyn Bastidas, and Jeff Young, who may just sneak off with the movie while everyone else is busy looking for the monsters. Receiving excellent reviews and enjoying a successful theatrical run, the film was released across the United States on March 13th, 2026. So, your cohosts tune their ears, turn down the lights, and take a listen to this Q1 release to see whether UNDERTONE truly has the right frequency to get under our skin.

Way back more than a decade ago, M.J. Preston—an author hailing from the great nation of Canada—became the very first author interviewed by the Dark Discussions News Network. His debut novel, The Equinox, unleashed a particularly nasty bit of supernatural trouble upon the world: the Wendigo. Having read the novel and discovered a wonderfully creepy story lurking within its pages, your host decided that the obvious thing to do was track down this promising new author and have him on the podcast for a chat. And thus, a beautiful tradition of talking monsters, mayhem, and all things dark and delicious was born!

For those who may not have encountered one while wandering through the frozen wilderness, a Wendigo is a legendary supernatural figure rooted in the traditional folklore of several Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and northeastern regions of North America. Associated with the horrors of winter, starvation, greed, and an insatiable hunger, the Wendigo represents the terrifying transformation of a person consumed by an unnatural appetite and stripped of their humanity. Popular culture has since given the creature all manner of skeletal, antlered, animalistic appearances, but the legend itself is considerably older and more varied than any single Hollywood monster design. In other words: be hungry, be greedy, but perhaps don’t become a Wendigo.

Now, after all these years, M.J. Preston is back—and he has brought another Wendigo along for the ride! His brand-new 2026 novel, Windigo Plague, puts this sinister creature front and center once again, although Preston has opted for a slightly different spelling this time around. Naturally, Halloween Boutique Psychotronic Reviews couldn’t resist inviting him back to the dark side of the microphone. M.J. joins your co-hosts, including the always entertaining Hollywood actor Dan Lench, to dig into this remarkable new novel, the legend behind it, and what makes the Wendigo such an enduringly creepy presence in horror. It’s a reunion more than a decade in the making—and one that proves that sometimes the monsters really do come back for seconds!

If there is such a thing as a truly legendary franchise, RESIDENT EVIL would surely earn a prominent seat at the table—or perhaps a spot in the Spencer Mansion itself. Capcom’s iconic video game series has been terrifying, entertaining, and occasionally making us question our decision to open that suspiciously creaky door for decades. Among its many celebrated entries, RESIDENT EVIL 2 and RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE stand particularly tall. The franchise became such a phenomenon that it eventually spawned its own film series, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. Now, the cinematic universe is being rebooted, this time by the new horror “legend” Zach Cregger, with the latest RESIDENT EVIL arriving in theaters on September 18, 2026.

From IMDb: “Follows a hapless courier 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.” And, naturally, when a package needs delivering to a remote hospital during an outbreak, one might reasonably expect the day to go slightly off the rails. Cregger not only directs the film but also co-wrote the screenplay with veteran horror writer Shay Hatten. The cast includes Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kalie Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser, among others.

With an impressive $80 million budget, the big question is whether all those millions have resulted in the kind of zombie-and-monster mayhem worthy of the RESIDENT EVIL name—or whether the Umbrella Corporation might want a refund. Your co-hosts take a trip into this latest outbreak, examine Cregger’s reboot, and share their thoughts on whether this new chapter delivers the scares, creatures, and survival-horror thrills fans have been waiting for.

The latest Canadian horror offering has buzzed its way onto Tubi, and its name is HIVE (2026). Children as the little monsters of the horror genre is hardly a new trick in the fright-film playbook. From the pint-sized terrors of CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964) to the murderous youngsters of BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981), filmmakers have long understood that nothing says “sweet dreams” quite like a room full of children plotting your demise. But can HIVE find a place among these sinister youngsters and prove that, sometimes, the scariest thing in the world is someone who still has recess tomorrow?

From IMDb: “A tense teen babysitter loses her charge and faces a dark presence lurking among playground children. As reality blurs, she must navigate a deceptive world to survive.” And if that doesn’t sound like the sort of babysitting job that deserves hazard pay, we’re not sure what does. What begins as an ordinary assignment soon slips down a decidedly darker rabbit hole, where playgrounds become ominous, reality becomes increasingly slippery, and the children may be hiding considerably more than scraped knees and unfinished homework.

HIVE was written and directed by Felipe Vargas and landed exclusively on Tubi on April 17th, 2026. The cast includes Xochitl Gomez, Aaron Dominguez, Tanya van Graan, Victoria Firsova, and Zenobia Kloppers. Despite arriving with relatively little publicity and only a modest collection of audience and critical reviews, Tubi has given the film plenty of promotional buzz. So, with the hive officially open for business, your cohosts take a look at this Q2 horror release, wander into its peculiar little playground, and give their thoughts on whether HIVE is a sweet treat—or one that leaves a decidedly bitter sting.

Once again, we’ve rummaged through the wonderfully weird world of genre news and returned with a whole bagful of goodies! There’s certainly no shortage of things to talk about, so rather than simply tossing a few headlines your way, we’ve gone digging through everything we’ve heard since our last episode and picked out some of the juiciest, strangest, and most intriguing stories to explore.

This time around, we dive into the upcoming FRIDAY THE 13TH prequel series, CRYSTAL LAKE, take a peek at the highly anticipated GRAND THEFT AUTO 6, and wander down a few other entertaining rabbit holes along the way. And because the past has a sneaky habit of hiding some real treasures, we’ve also dusted off a few forgotten gems that may have slipped under your radar.

So grab your headphones, settle in, and come take the journey with us through the latest twists, turns, surprises, and oddities from the world of genre entertainment. Give it a listen, and as always, let us know what you think!

The 2016 South Korean sensation TRAIN TO BUSAN may not have completely reinvented the zombie movie, but it certainly gave the poor old undead genre a much-needed jolt of electricity. After years of shambling along through something of a slow and painful downturn, zombies suddenly had somewhere to go—and they were getting there very, very quickly. Now, director Sang-ho Yeon, the man who helped put some bite back into the genre, returns with his latest offering, COLONY, which arrived in North American theaters on August 28, 2026, following its earlier premiere in South Korea.

From IMDb: “Professor Se Jeong attends a biotech conference, only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility.” And, well, that sounds like precisely the sort of conference nobody wants to put on their calendar. Directed by Sang-ho Yeon and co-written with Gyu-seok Choi, COLONY features Ji-hyun Jun, Kyo-hwan Koo, Chang-wook Ji, and a sizable ensemble of unlucky souls who find themselves in decidedly unhealthy circumstances.

With critics giving the film a healthy 81% positive rating—and audiences being even more enthusiastic at a whopping 94%—COLONY appears to be doing for the zombie genre what TRAIN TO BUSAN did nearly a decade ago: giving the corpse a little shake and reminding everyone that the undead still have plenty of life left in them. Your co-hosts now venture into Yeon’s latest outbreak, dodge the infected, and offer their thoughts on whether COLONY deserves a place among the genre’s liveliest new arrivals.

Well, after an eight-year journey through the cinematic wilderness, David Robert Mitchell has finally returned to the land of motion pictures. Mitchell is, of course, best known for IT FOLLOWS (2014), a film this reviewer considers not only one of the greatest horror films ever made, but perhaps one of the greatest films, period. Now, under the watchful eye of J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, Mitchell has emerged with his latest mysterious creation, THE END OF OAK STREET, which Warner Brothers released into theaters on August 14th, 2026.

According to IMDb: “The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown.” And really, nothing says “new home” quite like waking up one morning to discover that your entire neighborhood has apparently been whisked away by the universe and deposited somewhere nobody can find on a map.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor and has earned excellent reviews from both critics and audiences alike, even if the box office has not quite reached the heights that J.J. Abrams and company may have hoped for. So, your co-hosts pack their cosmic survival kits, take a stroll down Oak Street—wherever it may currently be—and explore Mitchell’s latest cinematic oddity to see if it lives up to the considerable excitement surrounding its arrival.

For reasons completely lost somewhere in the foggy, cobweb-covered corridors of this reviewer’s mind, Eli Roth has become a rather divisive figure among horror and genre fans. Some eagerly line up for whatever deliciously demented nightmare he has cooked up next, while others approach his films as though they’ve just discovered a suspicious noise coming from the basement. Not quite as prolific as one might think, Roth nevertheless has a new movie now playing in theaters: the simply and sweetly titled ICE CREAM MAN (2026). Produced by his company, The Horror Section, which has an exclusive distribution deal with Iconic Events Releasing, the film follows, according to IMDb, “An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.” Suddenly, that extra scoop doesn’t sound quite so appealing.

Directed by Eli Roth and co-written by Noah Belson, ICE CREAM MAN also features Snoop Dogg as a producer, with the legendary artist providing the song that plays over the film’s end credits. The cast includes Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, and others, while Sarah Abbott may just deliver the film’s breakout performance as Lizzie. But while the ice cream may be sweet, the response has been considerably more mixed, with both critics and audiences serving up mostly mediocre reviews. So, is the film genuinely deserving of its chilly reception, or has Eli Roth’s name on the carton caused some viewers to reach for the dislike button before taking their first bite?

Your co-hosts grab their spoons, check carefully for anything lurking beneath the sprinkles, and dig into ICE CREAM MAN to find out. Is this a devilishly delicious serving of summertime horror, a scoop of misunderstood madness, or something that should have been left melting on the sidewalk? Join us as we taste-test Eli Roth’s latest nightmare and give you our thoughts—brain freeze and all.

We take a different approach to the podcast today with some genre news. Instead of reviewing a film or book, we instead go through some of the news of the past year and discuss in detail some of the most interesting things we’ve heard. We talk about some upcoming adaptations of like Tomb Raider, some crumbs John Carpenter mentioned at convention in the last quarter, news about the James Gunn DC Universe, and a whole bunch more. Listed also are some forgotten gems from the past that may have been overlooked. Take a listen and let us know what you feel.

When the conversation turns to the titans of horror, Stephen King inevitably rises to the top — a storyteller whose shadow has stretched across six decades, ever since his first published tale hit the world in 1967. Among the curiosities of his early career were the novels he released under the Richard Bachman pseudonym, one of which, The Long Walk, has finally marched its way onto the big screen with a wide 2025 release and now reaching VOD.

IMDB distills the premise with brutal simplicity: “A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as ‘The Long Walk,’ in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.” That stark hook sets the tone for a story that blends dystopian dread with the slow‑burn terror King has always mastered.

Directed by Francis Lawrence and scripted by JT Mollner, the film leans on a cast of rising talents — Cooper Hoffman, David Johnsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, and Ben Wang — who bring raw intensity to the ordeal. Critics praised the adaptation with near‑unanimous enthusiasm, even as audiences failed to turn it into a box‑office success. Now, your co‑hosts finally sit down with this bleak, propulsive vision of survival and offer their take on King’s long‑awaited march to the screen.