How I Met Your Monster

In this Patreon-exclusive episode of How I Met Your Monster, where we’re switching things up by turning our attention from movie monsters, to TV terrors. 

In today’s episode, we’ll be meeting the monster in the Boy Meets World season 5 episode, “And Then There Was Shawn,” a love letter to the genre, with a self-referential emphasis on teen slashers. The killer's a meanie, the first suspect is Feeny, and we're getting ourselves stuck in detention with Cory, Shawn, and Topanga to meet the John Adams High slasher in… 

A SCARY SPECIAL EPISODE presents: “And Then There Was Shawn”

Enjoy the preview of this Patreon-exclusive episode! Want to hear the whole thing? Check out our Patreon page (https://patreon.com/howimetyourmonster) and become a member for only $3/month!

You'll get access to our first 50 episodes, as well as monthly bonus episodes including feature-length commentaries, new monsters, and TV episodes like this one!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

Returning guest Don Campbell joins us as we meet Charles Lee Ray in episode 156, tackling Tom Holland's 1988 classic Child's Play as the second entry in the "It's Voodoo Baby" triple feature.

We break down all eight of Chucky's major reveals, from the voodoo soul transfer that opens the film to the battery scene confrontation between Karen Barclay and the Good Guy doll, to the fiery finale in the apartment. Along the way we explore Don Mancini's original "Blood Buddy" script, the Cabbage Patch doll craze that inspired the film, the raised soundstage set and practical puppet work that brought Chucky to life, and why Catherine Hicks' performance makes Child's Play as much a story about a struggling single mother as it is a slasher.

The episode closes with our favorite reveals ranking, real monsters, and a round of "would you survive Chucky?" 

Next up: Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow closes out the triple feature.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

IT'S VOODOO, BABY kicks off with Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands as we dig into Ian Softley's The Skeleton Key (2005), one of the most slept-on horror films of the 2000s. We break down all five monster reveals, the Hoodoo vs. Voodoo distinction, and why Kate Hudson's Caroline belongs in the conversation for smartest horror protagonist ever. Plus: the film's touchy racial subtext, it's comparison to Get Out, and the ending that had us shook. 

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

We wrap up our MINDF*CKS triple feature with David Lynch's surrealist sensory experience through celebrity success and self-destruction. Everybody wants to be somebody, every somebody is someone else, and the Hollywood elite are anything but sweet, as we follow our dreams to the outer limits of La-La land, to meet the mysterious Mr. Roque and his army of dreamers, schemers and doppelgangers in Mulholland Drive.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

We dive into the industrial hellscape of David Lynch's debut feature, Eraserhead (1977), for the second film in our MINDF*CKS triple feature.

In this episode:

Monster reveals covered include: 

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island is one of the most rewatchable psychological thrillers of the 2000s, and on this episode of How I Met Your Monster, we break down exactly why.

Set in 1954 at Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Shutter Island follows U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he investigates the disappearance of a patient from a remote island asylum and slowly loses his grip on what's real. It's a film built on clues hidden in plain sight, unreliable narration, and one of the most satisfying twist endings in modern horror and thriller cinema.

We cover the film's five monster reveals, the symbolism of fire and water throughout the story, Scorsese's visual references to Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss," and the real history of trans-orbital lobotomies that gives the film's ending its gut-punch weight. We also dig into the film's place in the Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration, how it compares to Inception (also released in 2010), and why Shutter Island deserves more awards recognition than it ever received.

Other topics include the psychology of trauma and repressed memory, the history of mental health treatment in mid-century America, the true crime case of Andrea Yates, the literary legacy of Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), and how Scorsese uses classic filmmaking techniques — from Hitchcock-inspired direction to old-school rear projection — to build dread.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

The DEVILS & DICKS triple feature wraps up with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s medieval monk murder mystery. The friars are repressed, but their hairdos are blessed, and God help us, James Bond is giving Sherlock Holmes as we sin our way through a secret library labyrinth to meet a joy-hating holy man in THE NAME OF THE ROSE.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

THE BRIDE! hits theaters this week, so we wanted to enjoy the original 1935 film THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in anticipation of the upcoming adaptation. Zach and Danny sit down to watch and yap (it's meaningful yapping, so it's ok) over James Whale's classic story of outsiders looking for acceptance in a cruel, cruel world. Enjoy this intro to our PATREON EXCLUSIVE commentary on THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and join for only $3/month at patreon.com/howimetyourmonster for the full episode!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

The DEVILS & DICKS triple feature continues with David Fincher’s rain-soaked race against a one-man judge, jury, and executioner. Sinners are being hunted, a perfect crime’s constructed, and we can’t help but ask “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!” as we count down a septet of deadly sins to meet the serial killer, John Doe, in SE7EN.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]

The Exorcist III (1990) kicks off our Devils & Dicks triple feature! We dive into William Peter Blatty's underrated horror sequel that trades demonic possession for police procedural tension - well, mostly. 

Lieutenant Kinderman (George C. Scott) investigates a series of brutal murders that match the M.O. of the Gemini Killer, who died in the electric chair 15 years ago. His investigation leads him to a psychiatric ward and a mysterious patient who claims to be both the Gemini Killer and Father Damien Karras. 

What We Cover:

• Director's Cut vs. Theatrical Cut: The battle between Blatty's vision and studio interference.
• Brad Dourif's bone-chilling performance and how he almost lost the role to Jason Miller.
• THAT jump scare—the famous Nurse Keating hallway scene that's considered one of horror's best.
• Why the forced exorcism ending works (or doesn't).
• The confusing K-name pattern and what it means.
• George C. Scott's intensity and whether he should've been kinder, man.
• Celebrity cameos you probably missed (Samuel L. Jackson! Patrick Ewing! Larry King!).
• The dream sequence with Fabio and whether it's too much.

The Debate:

Is The Exorcist III better than the original?  We discuss why this film's dreadful tone and procedural approach might actually make it superior, even if it doesn't have the cultural impact of Friedkin's classic. 

Behind the Scenes Drama:

We unpack the production chaos—how Jason Miller's health issues led to Brad Dourif's casting (then recasting), why Father Morning was added for the theatrical cut, and whether the director's cut ending would've been more powerful. 

Eight Official Reveals:

From Father Kanavan's confessional booth murder to Mrs. Clelia crawling on the ceiling, we rank all eight monster introductions and pick our favorites.

Next Time:

We continue Devils & Dicks with Se7en (1995) - David Fincher's masterpiece of detective horror!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

For bonus content and commentaries, check out our Patreon

Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

Want to support the show and save 20% on Fangoria? Visit Fangoria and enter PROMO CODE: HOWIMETYOURMONSTER at checkout!

Looking for How I Met Your Monster merch? Check out TeePublic for shirts, stickers, mugs, and more!

Questions and comments: [email protected]