Erika and Katy return to Wes Craven's world for "A Nightmare on Elm Street." They dive deep into the Satanic Panic, troubled sleep in Shakespeare plays, and Erika's big theory that motherhood is all a scam.

• "American Monsters: Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000," Sarah Hughes: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26803447

• "Cultural Human Sacrifice in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street Films," Brittany Caroline Speller: https://www.supernaturalstudies.com/previous-journal-issues/vol-4-issue-1/speller
• "Killer Fears: Slasher Films and 1980s American Anxieties," Gabriel White: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=legacy#:~:text=While%20teen%20films%20gave%20the,teens%20had%20during%20the%201980s
• "The Trail of His Flames," Tucker Lieberman, from It Came from the Closet: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60708721-it-came-from-the-closet

Erika and Katy are celebrating their two year anniversary by discussing their first sequel, Scream 2. They dive deep into the rules of sequels, the fate of Cassandra, and everbody's homorepressed mommy issues.

• "'Scream 2': College is a Horror Sequel," Eric Han. https://cornellsun.com/2023/02/09/scream-2-college-is-a-horror-sequel/

Erika and Katy return to the Carpenter Cinematic Universe with 1988's "They Live." They (meaning Erika and Katy, not the titular aliens) dive deep into subliminal messaging, women's anatomy in comic books, and how Minnesota always holds it down.

• "John Carpenter Is Fighting With Internet Nazis Over His Cult Classic They Live," Sydney Fussell: https://gizmodo.com/john-carpenter-is-fighting-with-internet-nazis-over-his-1790754727
• "John Carpenter Denies Neo-Nazi Reading of They Live As Jewish Supremacy Takedown," Karen Brill: https://www.vulture.com/2017/01/john-carpenter-denies-they-live-is-anti-semitic.html

Gruß vom Erika und Katy! This krampus nacht, the girlies dive deep into Krampus origin stories, the emotional release of horror/comedy, and St. Nick's cadre of bad boys.

Note: We will be taking January off. See you in February!

• "How Does Horror Comedy Work?" V Renée: https://nofilmschool.com/2017/07/how-does-horror-comedy-work
• “Is Krampus Really Pagan?” Spencer McDaniel: https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/13/is-krampus-really-pagan/
• “’Krampus’s True Meaning Runs Way Deeper Than Holiday Horror,” Chris Sasaguay: https://collider.com/krampus-movie-meaning/
• “The Story Of Krampus, The Anti-Santa Who Punishes Naughty Children With Season’s Beatings,” Jaclyn Anglis: https://allthatsinteresting.com/krampus
• “You won’t BELIEVE why Germans tell their children the Christmas Krampus story!” LeAnna Brown: https://www.wanderingermany.com/german-krampus-christmas-legend-origin/

Sweet birthday babies, Erika and Katy, are giving you the gift of "Happy Death Day." They dive deep into overhanded metaphors for grief, a timeline of timeloops, and Katy's one-sided war with The Lumineers.

Katy and Erika are celebrating spooky season with Night of the Living Dead. They dive deep into the late 1960s, ghouls vs. zombies, and what it's like when one kid is carrying the entire group project.

• “Night of the Living Dead: Mere Anarchy Is Loosed,” Stuart Klawans. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5390-night-of-the-living-dead-mere-anarchy-is-loosed
• “The Arabic Ghoul and its Western Transformation,” Ahmed K. Al-Rawi. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40646532
• “When the Zombie Looks: The Human Being Undone in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead,” Jesse Stommel. https://brightlightsfilm.com/when-the-zombie-looks-the-human-being-undone-in-george-romeros-night-of-the-living-dead/

Katy and Erika close out creature feature summer with Cloverfeild. They dive deep into non-linear storytelling, the perks of found footage, and the roughly 48,000 questions they have about the monster.

Can't have a Hot Creature Summer without Doug Jones, so this month Katy and Erika turn their attention to Guillermo del Toro's El Laberinto del Fauno. They dive deep into daddy issues, Falangism, and why it's never a bad idea to be wary of fauns.

Join Katy and Erika in celebrating July with the original summer blockbuster: Jaws! They dive deep into the minor 2nd interval, sacrifices made at the altar of capitalism, and the no-homo way to share about your trauma.

• "The Shark in Jaws Did Nothing Wrong--An Ecological Video Essay," TREY the Explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqykkfT8NlM
• "Jaws, Beneath the Teeth," Peter Biskind: https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC09folder/Jaws.html
• "Three Men on a Boat," Jen Corrigan, from It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror: https://bookshop.org/p/books/it-came-from-the-closet-queer-reflections-on-horror-various-authors/18682742

Erika and Katy kick off summer with a discussion of Bodies Bodies Bodies. They dive deep into tragic flaws, kidz these days, and just what exactly a libra moon says about you (spoilers: a lot!).