Monstrous Flesh: A Horror Film Podcast

In this last episode, we sink our teeth into Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction (1995), a bleak, philosophical vampire film steeped in existential dread, moral corruption and the dark side of intellectualism. Following philosophy student Kathleen’s descent into vampirism, we explore the film’s collision of academia and addiction, questioning whether knowledge can save us from our own monstrosity — or simply give us the language to justify it. After all, what could be more Dark Academia than confronting the darkest corners of human nature in the pursuit of knowledge?

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Synopsis

Kathleen Conklin is an introverted philosophy doctoral student at NYU writing her thesis on the nature of evil and the atrocities of war. While walking home one night she is dragged off the street and bitten by a mysterious woman named Casanova.

Kathleen begins experiencing physical illness, a hatred of sunlight, and an overwhelming, uncontrollable craving for human blood…As her condition worsens, Kathleen spirals deeper into moral depravity, and utilises her philosophical studies to try and rationalise her actions.

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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 head into the graffiti-covered corridors of Cabrini-Green for Bernard Rose’s Candyman (1992), a haunting blend of urban legend, folklore and psychological horror. We explore Helen Lyle’s investigation into the terrifying myth of Candyman, and the film’s fascination with belief, storytelling and the ways legends take on a life of their own. But beneath the supernatural horror lies something even more disturbing: a story about race, class, violence and the histories that communities are forced to carry.

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Synopsis

Helen Lyle is a graduate student researching urban legends when she becomes fascinated by a particularly gruesome one: the story of Candyman, a vengeful spirit who, legend has it, can be summoned by saying his name five times into a mirror.

Her investigation leads her to Cabrini-Green, the Chicago housing project where Candyman was supposedly lynched and burned alive. Residents there are convinced that the legend has returned — and that it’s connected to a string of brutal murders haunting the community.

As she digs deeper into the legend, the line between folklore and reality begins to blur — and Helen soon discovers that some urban legends are dangerous precisely because people believe they’re only stories.

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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

Candyman: The Urban Legend That Bled Into Reality - 

Examining the Urban Legends That Inspired 'Candyman' - Bloody Disgusting 

Candyman: the urban legends behind the movie and why we find them irresistible 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-uncovered/candyman 

Understanding Ritual Possession: Invocation, Evocation, and Connecting with the Divine 

Invoking Bloody Mary | M.P. Pellicer 

Sweets to the sweet featurette - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM7N6cn620M&t=861s

We would like to give a content warning for this episode. We will be discussing both fictionalised and real instances of violence that may be disturbing to listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

'Give the audience what they want'

In this episode, we discuss Tesis, the 1996 debut feature from Spanish film director Alejandro Amenabar (best internationally known for his 2001 film The Others)

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Synopsis

Ángela is a university student researching audiovisual violence for her thesis when she stumbles across a videotape hidden away in the school archives. Angela soon realises that the tape is no ordinary film - It’s a recording of the torture and murder of a student who’s disappeared a couple of years ago

Her search for answers draws her towards Chema, a fellow student whose obsession with horror cinema borders on pathological, and Bosco, a charismatic classmate whose charm conceals something much darker. Before long, Ángela finds herself descending into a labyrinth where academic curiosity, voyeurism and genuine brutality become impossible to separate.

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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: 

https://www.doubleexposurecu.com/post/blood-in-the-archive-thesis-1996 

Snuff movies and the cultural controversy of the 1970s 

A Vietnamese Murder Has Given the World Its First Real ‘Snuff’ Movie 

Snuff film | Film | Research Starters | EBSCO Research 

Abstract | Consuming Ghost Stories: The Spectre of Snuff Films is Haunting Canadian Obscenity | CanLII

Summer’s over kids, you’ve had your fun in the sun, now it’s time to get those brain cells back into action… before they end up splattered on your mid terms paper!

In this first episode, we discuss the 1998 vintage that is Urban Legend.

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Synopsis:

The film follows Natalie Simon, a University student who begins to suspect that a killer is turning famous Urban Legends into reality. From the stranger hiding in the back seat of a car to the terrifying tale of the babysitter and the calls coming from inside the house, each murder appears to be inspired by a contemporary myth. As paranoia spreads across campus, Natalie and her friends must work out who is behind the killings — and whether the clues to the murderer’s identity have been hiding in the stories they thought were just folklore.

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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

Top 10 Most Haunted Colleges ⋆ College Magazine 

Creepy Urban Legends: 5 University Myths That Spook Students

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!