Dark Discussions Podcast

Sometimes a movie franchise takes a wrong turn down a dark alley, trips over its own shoelaces, and finds itself wondering what happened to all the love! Such was the unfortunate fate of M3GAN 2.0, whose box-office misfortunes helped send its planned spinoff, SOULM8TE, into a bit of cinematic limbo. Originally slated for a theatrical release through Universal, the film was pulled from the studio’s schedule and instead made its way to home rental and purchase before finally finding a streaming home on Hulu, just in time to join the Halloween festivities. And really, what better season is there for a little artificial intelligence, romantic desperation, and mechanical mayhem?

According to IMDb, the story follows a man who acquires an artificially intelligent android to help him cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. But in his quest to create a truly sentient companion, he inadvertently transforms a seemingly harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. Ah, the old tale of boy meets robot, boy falls in love with robot, and robot takes the whole relationship thing just a wee bit too far! After all, nothing says romance quite like a machine that may love you to death.

Directed by Kate Dolan and co-written by Rafael Jordan, SOULM8TE stars Lily Sullivan, best known to horror fans for Evil Dead Rise, in a role that some believe could be her big breakout moment. Joining her are David Rysdahl and Claudia Doumit in this curious marriage of science fiction, artificial romance, and good old-fashioned horror. Critics have offered mixed reactions, but sometimes a movie doesn’t need universal adoration to become a cult favorite. Could SOULM8TE be the overlooked little love machine that horror and sci-fi fans have been waiting for? Your co-hosts plug themselves in, give this mechanical matchmaker a whirl, and share their thoughts on whether this discarded theatrical release deserves a second chance at the altar!

Andy Weir has become something of a superstar in the world of hard science fiction, proving that apparently there is an audience for people solving incredibly complicated scientific problems while floating around in space! His novel THE MARTIAN became a hugely successful motion picture, and now another of Weir’s beloved books, PROJECT HAIL MARY, has made the leap from the printed page to the big screen. So, naturally, it’s time for Dark Discussions Podcast to strap itself into the spaceship and take a look!

From IMDb: “A science teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship. As his memory returns, he uncovers a mission to stop a mysterious substance killing Earth’s sun, and realizes that an unexpected friendship may be the key.” The film was co-directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with the screenplay penned by Drew Goddard, who also adapted THE MARTIAN. Ryan Gosling takes the lead role, delivering a performance that has earned plenty of praise—and he may even have to share a little of the spotlight with a potential breakout character who isn’t named Gosling!

Released in the United States on March 20, 2026, PROJECT HAIL MARY went on to become a genuine box-office success, earning roughly three times its budget while receiving absolutely phenomenal reactions from both critics and audiences. So, has Andy Weir struck science-fiction gold yet again? Fire up the engines, check your oxygen supply, and listen on as your co-hosts dive into PROJECT HAIL MARY and give their thoughts!

Video game adaptations can be a bit of a cinematic mind-bender, as they have a curious habit of landing anywhere on the quality spectrum. We recently took a look at the latest RESIDENT EVIL (2026) movie, but that isn’t the only horror film to make the leap from controller to cinema screen this year. Enter EXIT 8, a film based on a considerably smaller video game than the sprawling RESIDENT EVIL franchise. Originally released in Japan in 2025, this Japanese production finally found its way into North American theaters on April 10, 2026, before eventually making the next stop on its journey to VOD.

From IMDb: “A man becomes increasingly desperate when he realizes he is trapped in a subway station, needing to complete a mission to get out.” Well, that certainly leaves a few doors—and perhaps a few subway tunnels—wide open for interpretation! The wonderfully vague synopsis may actually be doing us a favor. Is this a supernatural nightmare? A sinister serial killer’s elaborate game? A psychological maze designed to make our poor protagonist question his own sanity? Or perhaps something altogether stranger? There’s only one way to find out, although watching the trailer might cause a few of those delightful mysteries to disappear.

The film was directed by Genki Kawamura and co-written with Kentaro Hirase, with a remarkably compact cast featuring five key roles. Leading the way are Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Nana Komatsu, and Kotone Hanase. With critics giving the film an impressive 91% positive rating and audiences following closely behind at 86%, it appears that EXIT 8 has managed to find quite a few passengers willing to take this particular trip. Your co-hosts step into the subway, keep a very close eye out for anything that seems just a little bit “off,” and attempt to find their way to EXIT 8—hopefully with their sanity, and perhaps their subway fare, still intact!

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.