On the second episode in our Jordan Peele mini season, Matthew and Stacey talk about Us (2019), starring Lupita Nyong'o as Adelaide, a young mother whose family vacation is violently disrupted by the arrival of another family that looks, uncannily, just like them. We talk about the fear of the doppelgänger, Black childhood and femininity, and how the film might speak to some of the tensions and internalized pressures of Black leisure.

Film: Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)

Intro Music: “The Army of You” (Library of Congress Free Music Archive)

Outro Music: “Late Night Indigo” (written and performed by Stacey Baran)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited and mastered by Stacey Baran.

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod!

On the first episode of Fear of the Dark's mini season on Jordan Peele's filmography, Stacey and Matthew discuss the now-classic Black horror film, Get Out, Peele's 2017 directorial debut. We chat about the veil of Black subjectivity in the film, the mobility and performativity of whiteness, and where the Asian figure fits into the racial dynamics of Peele's modern America.

Film: Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

Intro Music: “The Army of You” (Library of Congress Free Music Archive)

Outro Music: “Late Night Indigo” (written and performed by Stacey Baran)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited and mastered by Stacey Baran.

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod!

Fear of the Dark's first "mini season" is here - just in time for spooky season! Join Matthew and Stacey for a brief introduction on our Jordan Peele season, where we'll be talking about the three movies in Peele's filmography: Get Out, Us, and Nope.

Outro Music: “Late Night Indigo” (written and performed by Stacey Baran)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited and mastered by Stacey Baran.

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod!

On Part 2 of Matthew and Stacey's conversation with Dr. Eleanor Johnson (Columbia University), we continue with a discussion on David Lowery’s 2021 medieval fantasy film, The Green Knight. Join us as we chat about medieval texts and their generic translations into contemporary fantasy and horror, the idea of masculinity and racial inheritance as it is mediated by Gawain (played by Dev Patel), and the resurgence of the monstrous older woman in horror today.

Film: The Green Knight (David Lowery, 2021)

Intro Music: “The Army of You” (Library of Congress Free Music Archive)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

Find Eleanor's new book, Scream with Me, here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Scream-with-Me/Eleanor-Johnson/9781668087633 

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod, and follow Eleanor on her Substack: https://eleanorshorrors.substack.com!

On this very special episode of Fear of the Dark, Matthew and Stacey are joined by Dr. Eleanor Johnson, Professor of English at Columbia University. We meet up in cyberspace to talk about her new book, Scream with Me, which reads several classic horror films from the 1970s and 80s alongside the rise of American second-wave feminism. Eleanor shares with us some of the background and thinking behind her book, her writing process, and what to look forward to in this exciting new piece of accessible scholarship.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the conversation with Eleanor coming next week!

Intro Music: “The Army of You” (Library of Congress Free Music Archive)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

Find Eleanor's new book, Scream with Me, here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Scream-with-Me/Eleanor-Johnson/9781668087633 

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod, and follow Eleanor on her Substack: https://eleanorshorrors.substack.com!

Candyman... candyman... third time's the charm! On this episode, Matthew and Stacey talk about Bernard Rose's 1992 horror film, Candyman, starring Tony Todd as the ghost of a Black artist who was murdered in the nineteenth century and haunts Chicago's Cabrini-Green public housing project. Join us as we chat about Candyman's iconic costuming, the domestic B-plot of Helen's (Virginia Madsen) cheating husband, and how Clive Barker's original story complicates the American translation of race in this classic film.

Film: Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod!

In this episode, we get a little too close to the friendly woman who lives in town... Today, we discuss Ma (2019), the horror film starring Octavia Spencer as Sue Ann ("Ma"), in which a group of high school students get wrapped up in her pursuit of vengeance against those who wronged her when she was younger. Join us as we talk about the the horrors of service and hospitality, the aestheticization of Black femininity, and, interestingly, Octavia Spencer's recent turn to network television cooking shows.

Film: Ma (Tate Taylor, 2019)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

Follow us on Instagram @fearofthedarkpod!

Matthew and Stacey sit down to talk about Ti West's 2022 slasher Pearl, starring Mia Goth as the titular antiheroine in this prequel to X. Join us as we discuss the film's representations of the American (immigrant's) dream and the history of cinema, as well as whether we might consider this film a contemporary contribution to American folk horror.

Film: Pearl (Ti West, 2022)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

In this episode, Stacey and Matthew sit down to talk about Trey Edward Shults' It Comes at Night (2017), starring Joel Edgerton, Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. This post-apocalyptic horror film explores the dynamics of two families who decide to live in the same house in hopes of increasing their chances of survival, and whose secrecy and mistrust eventually lead to a horrific set of tragedies. In this conversation, we discuss how alienation factors into racial tensions both between and within the two family units, and how commensality and shared spaces might function in times of crisis. 

Film: It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults, 2017)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.

On this special, slightly-out-of-the-ordinary episode of Fear of the Dark, Matthew and Stacey celebrate the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's classic, Jaws. Join us as we geek out over the film together. We chat about our favorite lines and funny moments, the iconicity of the shark in horror, and how a movie like Jaws imagines the animal as compared to the apex predator in Jordan Peele's Nope (2022).

Film: Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

Fear of the Dark is a film podcast about race and horror, hosted by Matthew Vernon and Stacey Baran. Episode edited by Matthew Vernon. Mixdown and mastering by Stacey Baran.