In this episode, we discuss ‘the best Jaws rip-off’ - Joe Dante’s original sci-fi horror Piranha stands out from the countless array of nature-bites-back flicks thanks to its in-your-face and unapologetic ode to genre filmmaking. 

Synopsis:

When two hapless teens disappear after trekking past an abandoned military compound, skip tracer Maggie McKeown is sent to find them, unenthusiastically aided by local drunkard Paul Grogan. Whilst investigating the military compound, Maggie and Paul unwittingly release a swarm of blood thirsty, genetically modified piranhas into the river. Realising their mistake, they race against the clock, and the current, to save the town from a school of very hungry fish!

Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows

Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

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Show Notes

Cast

• Bradford Dillman as Paul Grogan

• Heather Menzies as Maggie McKeown

• Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Robert Hoak

• Keenan Wynn as Jack

• Dick Miller as Buck Gardner

• Barbara Steele as Dr. Mengers

• Belinda Balaski as Betsy

• Melody Thomas Scott as Laura Dickinson

• Shannon Collins as Suzie Grogan

• Bruce Gordon as Colonel Waxman

• Barry Brown as Trooper

• Paul Bartel as Dumont

• Shawn Nelson as Whitney

• Richard Deacon as Earl Lyon

• John Sayles as Sentry

  
  

Piranha! | Plantasia Tropical Zoo 

How a President Propagated a Piranha Myth – Greater Cleveland Aquarium 

The Myth of the Sacred Piranha: The Fearsome Fish - Babylonian Mythology 

The Myth and Mayhem of Piranhas: Debunking the "Deadly" Reputation 

Piranha director Joe Dante on B-movies, Spielberg and ripping off Jaws - SciFiNow

Welcome to our summer series- Heatwave Horror. As the world quite literally burns around us, we will be exploring the use of the environment in horror cinema.

In this first episode, we discuss the creature feature that started it all: Jack Arnold’s 1954 masterpiece Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Synopsis:

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, an archaeological expedition uncovers the fossilized claw of a mysterious prehistoric creature, prompting a team of scientists to investigate its origins. Their search leads them to a remote lagoon, where they discover that the creature is far from extinct. Hidden beneath the water is the Gill-Man – an ancient amphibious humanoid that fiercely defends its territory while becoming captivated by the expedition's lone female scientist, Kay Lawrence. As the creature stalks the team, killing those who threaten it and repeatedly attempting to abduct Kay, the scientists become divided over whether it should be studied or destroyed. Trapped in the isolated lagoon, the expedition is forced into a deadly confrontation with the last survivor of a forgotten prehistoric world.

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Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows

Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

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Show Notes: Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954)

Cast

Richard Carlson as Dr. David Reed

Julia Adams as Kay Lawrence

Ginger Stanley as Kay Lawrence (underwater; uncredited)

Richard Denning as Dr. Mark Williams

Antonio Moreno as Dr. Carl Maia

Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas

Whit Bissell as Dr. Edwin Thompson

Bernie Gozier as Zee

Henry Escalante as Chico

Rodd Redwing as Luis

Perry Lopez as Tomas

Sydney Mason as Dr. Matos

Ricou Browning as the Gill-man (underwater; uncredited)

Ben Chapman as the Gill-man (on land; uncredited)

Video links:

“Back to the Black Lagoon” an Original Documentary on "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmiy6R9sT5Y

Research bibliography

I Spit on Your Celluloid, (Heidi Honeycutt - 2024)

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, (Mallory O’Meara - 2019)

Monster Theory: Reading Culture (Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, 1996)

In this last episode of the year we discuss our cinematic highs and lows of 2025, as well as looking back at our achievements this year and a preview of what we have in mind for 2026...

Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous new year!

Did you know that before the tinsel and the Coca-Cola truck, Christmas in Britain was a time for... terror? In the penultimate episode of the year (wink wink), Meg and Clelia gathered around the fire to discuss the great British tradition of Ghost Stories for Christmas.

Long before the Victorian era, the winter solstice was seen as a thin place—where the veil between the living and the dead was at its most fragile. But it was Charles Dickens who truly cemented the 'Christmas Ghost' into our DNA with his 1843 masterpiece, A Christmas Carol.

From the chilling 1951 Alastair Sim version to the high-budget Hollywood spectacles, we’ve seen Scrooge redeemed a thousand times. But... there is one version that stands above them all. A version that captures the heart, the thrills, and the humour of the original text perfectly.

Talking, of course, about the 1992 cinematic force majeure: The Muppet Christmas Carol! We’re diving deep into why Michael Caine’s straight-faced performance and a cast of felt characters created, in our very biased minds, the most authentic Dickensian adaptation.

Join us as we explore the folklore behind the ghost stories tradition, discuss our favourite tales from the beyond, the fear… and the fuzzy felt!

We are joined by a very special guest: Payton McCarthy-Simas, author of That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film, to dive deep into Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (2012) — a hypnotic, polarising, and deeply uncanny entry in modern witch cinema.

Payton brings their expertise on American witch narratives to unpack the film’s hallucinatory imagery, its lineage in Puritan panic, and its portrayal of witchcraft as both a site of feminist resistance and profound horror.

We trace the film’s depiction of addiction, grief, and bodily vulnerability, and explore how Zombie reimagines the witch’s coven as a force that is at once communal, grotesque, and defiantly powerful.

Join us as we interrogate whether The Lords of Salem offers liberation or damnation; how the film echoes real histories of persecution; and what it means to place a woman at the centre of a cosmic ritual she cannot escape. Expect discussions of trauma, ritual spectacle, psychedelic horror, and the complicated politics of representing female and non-binary bodies within witchcraft narratives.

Tune in for an episode that’s part cultural excavation, part fever dream.

****Payton is an author, programmer, film critic, and video artist with a focus on horror and genre film. Their writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Film Daze, and The Brooklyn Rail among others, as well as spotlighted in The New York Times, CNN, and RogerEbert.com. Her short films and screenplays have been featured in several film festivals as well as shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is also the author of two books of nonfiction and film criticism, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture (2024) and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film (2025).  Payton holds a Masters in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University and is a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics and GALECA.

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Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows

Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

In this last episode of the Revenge season, we discuss two cult classics bound by grief, love, and the intoxicating lure of vengeance. Join us as we explore how The Crow ( Proyas, 1994) and Mandy (Cosmatos, 2018) blur the line between mourning and madness, tenderness and brutality.

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Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows

Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

In our penultimate episode, we are discussing The Brood (1979) and Pyewacket (2017), two films that explore the dark, terrifying side of the mother-daughter relationship and how emotional trauma can literally manifest in monstrous ways. We'll be delving into the concept of psychosomatic horror, where unresolved anger and deep-seated familial resentment give birth to something truly terrifying, whether it's homicidal children or a demonic entity summoned from the woods. These films show that sometimes, the greatest source of terror and the deepest motivation for revenge comes from the people closest to us.

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Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows

Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

In this episode, we are discussing Carrie (1976) and Sissy (2022), two films that examine the terrifying intersection of bullying, social isolation, and the ultimate, explosive backlash from a teen pushed to her limits.

We're exploring how both films tap into the profound fear of the outcast, showing the devastating consequences of relentless torment and how a desire for acceptance can curdle into a magnificent, destructive rage.

So, get ready to feel the heat, because hell hath no fury like a teenage girl!