Franchise Addicts

Luke, Chris, and Peter break down the horror phenomenon of the year. Kane Parsons started posting Backrooms videos on YouTube at 16, teaching himself Blender from his bedroom. Four years later he directed A24's highest-grossing film ever, starring two Oscar nominees, on a 30,000 square foot practical set so large the cast and crew actually got lost in it. $402 million worldwide on an $8 million budget. The youngest director to open number one domestically and globally. We break down how a creepypasta became the biggest horror movie of 2026.

Live at 8:15pm CT. New setup, first episode.

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#Backrooms #KaneParsons #A24 #ChiwetelEjiofor #RenateReinsve #Horror #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot fresh off opening weekend. The Barbarian director made a video game movie that actually feels like playing a video game. Austin Abrams is a medical courier, not a supersoldier. Paul Walter Hauser is here. Zach Cherry shows up. The camera angles literally mimic the game's second and third-person perspectives. Cregger spent thousands of hours playing the games and channeled his frustration at missing shots into Bryan's hilariously terrible aim. He wrote the script so it could work without the Resident Evil name if Capcom said no. The initial cut was funnier until test audiences said tone it down. And this is his first and last franchise film because the pressure of fan expectations nearly broke him. $60 million opening weekend. Is this the best video game movie ever made?

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#ResidentEvil #ZachCregger #AustinAbrams #PaulWalterHauser #Horror #Capcom #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Luke, Chris, and Peter take on the biggest horror movie of the year. Obsession was made for $750,000 by a 26-year-old YouTube sketch comedian and has grossed over $500 million worldwide. Curry Barker wrote, directed, and edited it. He fought the MPAA over head smashes to avoid an NC-17 rating. The music store where they filmed got shut down a year after they wrapped. It was also featured in Wayne's World. Andy Richter is in this movie. The whole thing was partly inspired by a Treehouse of Horror episode from The Simpsons. And Inde Navarrette delivers a performance that hasn't left our heads since we saw it. Is this the horror movie of the decade?

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#Obsession #CurryBarker #Horror #Blumhouse #IndeNavarrette #MichaelJohnston #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

The isolation series finale. Luke, Chris, and Peter close it out with the most literal isolation movie ever made. Tom Hanks gained 50 pounds, production shut down for a year so he could lose it all, and Zemeckis made an entire other movie in the gap. Wilson the volleyball had actual written dialogue that was cut from the final film. FedEx didn't pay a cent for the placement and saw a 30% spike in job applications after release. There is almost no musical score for the entire island sequence because Zemeckis wanted the audience to feel as alone as Chuck. The screenwriter spent a few days alone on a deserted island in the Sea of Cortez to research the script and nearly died from dehydration. Four films. Four kinds of isolation. This one strips away everything except the self.

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#CastAway #TomHanks #RobertZemeckis #Wilson #FedEx #Isolation #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week three of the Isolation series. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Spike Jonze's 2013 masterpiece. Her is a love story between a lonely man and his operating system, and the scariest thing about it is that none of it feels like science fiction anymore. Jonze conceived the idea after reading about an AI chatbot in the early 2000s. The original voice of Samantha was Samantha Morton, who performed on set with Phoenix every day for the entire shoot. Jonze replaced her with Scarlett Johansson in post-production. Phoenix and Rooney Mara play a divorced couple in the film and later married and had two children in real life. Arcade Fire scored it. Jonze wrote it as a reflection on his divorce from Sofia Coppola. And Johansson starred in both this and Coppola's Lost in Translation. Two hosts. One film. The isolation series gets personal.

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#Her #SpikeJonze #JoaquinPhoenix #ScarlettJohansson #AmyAdams #ArcadeFire #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week two of the Isolation series. Luke and Chris go back to the movie that made them friends. Drive isn't an action movie. It's a fairy tale set in Los Angeles about a man who built walls around himself so carefully that the one time he lets someone in, it destroys everything. Refn doesn't have a driver's license. Gosling restored the Malibu himself. Carey Mulligan summarized making the film as "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours." Albert Brooks shaved his eyebrows to play a killer. And a woman sued the studio because the trailer made her think it was Fast & Furious. Two hosts. One movie. The one that started it all.

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#Drive #RyanGosling #NicolasWindingRefn #AlbertBrooks #CareyMulligan #OscarIsaac #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

The isolation series begins. Luke, Chris, and Peter kick off a brand new custom franchise with John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece. The Thing isn't a monster movie. It's a trust movie. Twelve men trapped in Antarctica with a creature that can perfectly imitate any of them. The paranoia doesn't come from what the alien looks like. It comes from the fact that anyone could be it. Rob Bottin was 22 years old when he designed the practical effects and literally hospitalized himself finishing them. The movie bombed at the box office because it opened the same day as E.T. and audiences wanted wonder, not terror. Kurt Russell almost burned his face off with a flamethrower prank. And John Carpenter still won't tell anyone who was the Thing at the end.

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#TheThing #JohnCarpenter #KurtRussell #PracticalEffects #Horror #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week four of our alien invasion franchise. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece. Arrival isn't about aliens. It's about a woman who learns to see time the way they do and has to decide whether knowing how the story ends changes whether it's worth living. Amy Adams accepted the role in 24 hours. The ship interior was built practically 50 feet off the ground. Villeneuve made his screenwriter rewrite one line of dialogue for weeks and then didn't subtitle it. The composer Jóhann Jóhannsson began scoring before they finished shooting and died two years later at 48. And the original ending had the aliens gifting humanity futuristic technology, which would have ruined everything. From obsession to spectacle to refuge to understanding. This is the film that earns the word.

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#Arrival #DenisVilleneuve #AmyAdams #JohannJohannsson #TedChiang #AlienInvasion #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Fresh out of the theater. Luke, Chris, and Peter just saw Disclosure Day and are going live with their instant reaction. Steven Spielberg's return to alien contact closes out our five-week alien invasion franchise series. From Close Encounters' obsession to Independence Day's spectacle to District 9's refuge to Arrival's understanding to this. No prep. No notes. Just raw first impressions.

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#DisclosureDay #Spielberg #FranchiseAddicts #MovieReaction #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia #MoviePodcast #AlienInvasion

Description:
Week three of our alien invasion franchise. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on the most politically charged film in the series. District 9 flips the alien invasion on its head. The aliens have been here for 20 years and humanity's response isn't wonder, isn't spectacle, it's a refugee camp, barbed wire, and forced relocations. Neill Blomkamp grew up during apartheid in South Africa and made a $30 million sci-fi film that holds a mirror to everything from immigration policy to corporate exploitation to what happens when the "other" has nowhere left to go. Peter Jackson gave a first-time director full creative control after their Halo movie collapsed. The lead actor had never acted before. Every alien in the film is played by one guy. And the whole thing was nominated for Best Picture. From Close Encounters' obsession to Independence Day's spectacle to District 9's refuge, the alien invasion franchise gets real.

Live at 8:15pm CT.

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#District9 #NeillBlomkamp #SharltoCopley #PeterJackson #AlienInvasion #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia