Deep Thoughts Shallow Plots

This month, Katy and Erika discuss John Carpenter's cult classic The Thing. They dive deep into Cold War paranoia, the evolution of story, and what happens when you bring too much Jock Energy to a survival scenario.

• “What ‘The Thing’ Loses By Adding Women,” Noah Berlatsky: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/10/what-the-thing-loses-by-adding-women/246648/
• “Fecund Horror,” Noah Berlatsky: https://gayutopia.blogspot.com/2007/12/noah-berlatsky-fecund-horror_12.html
• “After 35 Years 'The Thing' Is Still Our Most Suffocating Horror Film,” Patrick Marlborough: https://www.vice.com/en/article/gypzvb/after-35-years-the-thing-is-still-our-most-suffocating-horror-film
• “Horrality—The Textuality of the Contemporary Horror Film,” Phillip Brophy: https://web.archive.org/web/20180910033121/http://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/rstff/Horrality_C.html
• “Underneath the Skin: John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ and You,” Matthew Pridham: https://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/03/underneath-the-skin-john-carpenters-the-thing-and-you/

It's a real St. Patty's Day miracle: Katy and Erika are discussing Irish folk-horror the Hallow. They dive deep into Irish identity, why the dog dies, and how to spot a changeling baby using this one weird trick.

• The Brehon Academy: https://brehonacademy.org/
• "Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts," D. L. Ashliman: https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html

Katy and Erika are back with an episode about "Jeepers Creepers." They dive deep into sibling relationships and the curse of clairvoyance, all while trying desperately to bring a sense of coherence to the Creepers lore and abilities.

Content warning for brief discussion of child sexual assault in the first ten minutes of the episode.

• "The Convicted Hollywood Pedophile Who Won't Go Away," Kate Aurthur: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kateaurthur/victor-salva-jeepers-creepers-pedophile
• "Don't Fear the Creeper: An Interview with Gina Philips," Emma Westwood: https://diaboliquemagazine.com/dont-fear-creeper-interview-gina-philips/
• "The Cassandra Scene in Aeschylus' 'Agamemnon,'" Seth L. Schein: https://www.jstor.org/stable/642925
• https://licenseplategame.com/cgi-bin/licenseplates.pl

It's Christmas time, so Katy and Erika are here to discuss the Canadian proto-slasher Black Christmas. They dive deep into second wave feminism, the dark roots of Christmas, and how maybe the real psycho killer was every single man we met along the way.

• "HIstorical Abortion Law Timeline: 1850 to Today": https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/abortion-central-history-reproductive-health-care-america/historical-abortion-law-timeline-1850-today
• "A History of Women in High Education," Genevieve Carlton: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2021/03/21/history-women-higher-education/
• "Why Black Christmas (1974) Is My Favorite Christmas Movie," Ashley Maniw: https://ashleymaniw.com/2017/12/24/my-favourite-christmas-movie-black-christmas-1974-review/
• "The Radical Legacy of Black Christmas (1974)," Jamie Alvey: https://morbidlybeautiful.com/radical-legacy-black-christmas/
• "Horror Isn't Just For Halloween": https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/horror-isnt-just-for-halloween-why-christmas-thanksgiving-and-other-holidays-have-become-scary-movie-settings/ar-AA1j6jRh
• "Reviving Christmas in the Victorian Era": https://britishfoodandtravel.com/2020/12/11/victorian-christmas/
• "Why Do People Tell Ghost Stories on Christmas?" Kat Eschner: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-do-ghost-stories-go-christmas-180961547/
• "Crime at Christmas," Shedunnit: https://shedunnitshow.com/crimeatchristmas/

A real gift to the world this month as leading Purge experts, Katy and Erika, take a deep dive into the first movie of the franchise. They get absolutely frantic about Purge law, Christian nationalism, and whether or not they'd want to get chatted up by a highly educated white man.

• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purge

Katy and Erika close out their summer series with "I Know What You Did Last Summer." They dive deep into psycho killers, the YA thriller genre, and why you don't cast Johnny Galecki to play the school bully.

It's hot Drac summer this episode as Katy and Erika discuss Universal Picture's Dracula. They dive deep into the evolution of vampire lore and Bela Lugosi's influence, all while Katy (at the time of this recording) gets way too hype for a movie that will leave Katy (at the time of this posting) ultimately disappointed.

• "Universal Pictures: A Panoramic History in Words, Pictures, and Filmographies," Michael G. Fitzgerald: https://archive.org/details/hollywoodsgolden00senn
• "Queer Coded: Dracula," Monique Jones: https://www.colorwebmag.com/2015/06/19/queer-coded-dracula/

Katy and Erika keep the summer vibes going by discussing Ari Aster's Midsommar. They dive deep into white supremacist cults, the origin of the word "bear", and how joining a cult seems great until winter comes.

• "The Source of Horror: An Anthropological Perspective on 'Midsommar' and 'The Witch'," Eleri Denham: https://www.drunkmonkeys.us/2017-posts/08/17/film/the-source-of-horror-an-anthropological-perspective-on-midsommar-and-the-witch-eleri-denham

• "People Still Don't Realize 'Midsommar' Is About White Supremacy," Marco Vito Oddo: https://collider.com/midsommar-ari-aster-white-supremacy/

• "Community and Family: The Cult Indoctrination Techniques of ‘Midsommar’," Manor Vellum: https://manorvellum.medium.com/community-and-family-the-cult-indoctrination-techniques-of-midsommar-693b1f5f4ec8

• "The Transgender Defense of Angela Baker and Sleepaway Camp," Harmony Colangelo: https://harmonycolangelo.medium.com/the-transgender-defense-of-angela-baker-and-sleepaway-camp-82dd54ddf9cd
• “Why Trans Women Can’t Have a Promising Young Woman Yet: A Lesson from Sleepaway Camp," Aspen Nelson: https://medium.com/incluvie/why-trans-women-cant-have-a-promising-young-woman-yet-a-lesson-from-sleepaway-camp-3fa0511edabc
• "Enbytion Transcendance: Sleepaway Camp," Eleo Emil Billet: https://medium.com/@eleo.billet/enbytion-transcendance-sleepaway-camp-4bc3f20b951b
• "Am I Seeing Something in Sleepaway Camp That Isn’t Really There?" Michael Villanova: https://medium.com/@mvillanova/am-i-seeing-something-in-sleepaway-camp-that-isnt-really-there-784b6869e613
• "Blood, Bodies and Binaries: Trans Women in Horror," Jenni Holtz: http://fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2019/01/18/blood-bodies-and-binaries-trans-women-in-horror/
• "Dressing Down the Killer Crossdresser Trope: Is It Inherently Problematic?" Harmony Colangelo: https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3642184/dressing-killer-crossdresser-trope-inherently-problematic/