Not Quite Dead

Let's give a round of applause to the finale of the Independent Horror Film season! We hope you enjoyed the byzantine plot structures, artistic cinematography, and wild allegory conjecture as much as Megan and Cate did. Make sure to check out our Instagram @notquitedead_podcast and follow our blog for extras!

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer and Cate Smith.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

The most terrifying tale of all: motherhood! The Babadook (2014), directed by Jennifer Kent, is ostensibly a story of a boogeyman plaguing a single Australian mother and her spirited son. But as Megan and Cate get into it, it's a gruesome, difficult to watch tale of unchecked grief, parenthood, and PTSD.

Edited by Cate Smith.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

Dancing, endless sunshine, tea that makes you feel funny. Sounds like a good time, right? Well, if you’re an American in the 2019 film Midsommar, it could really go either way!

Listen to the penultimate movie of Season 3 and debate with us - would you rather have a shitty boyfriend or a slightly murderous Swedish cult family?

Edited by Cate Smith.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

What is "It"? In this minisode, Megan and Cate discuss whether "It" is sexual shame, AIDS, general trauma - and strongly disagree with director David Robert Mitchell's intention. It Follows (2014) tracks a group of teenagers as they resist a slow-moving yet consistent apparition.

Listen to this short episode and debate along with us - the interpretation is most of the fun!

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

A broke punk band, a sketchy gig in the Pacific Northwest, and a Nazi gang cover-up conspiracy. What could go wrong?

Jeremy Saulnier's 2015 horror-thriller Green Room has all of the tension and surprising gore you could ask for. Megan and Cate debate about effective techniques for fighting against dumb-yet-strong white supremacists and discuss what our desert island band would be.

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

We thought we'd break up season 3 with a family-friendly movie - Hereditary (2018)! Do some arts and crafts alongside mom Annie, play with dolls with Charlie, go for a joyride with Peter, and share a nice meal with dad Steve. Whatever you do, don't look too closely at grandma's scrapbooks.

Join the Not Quite Dead gals as they get into Ari Aster's psychologically horrifying debut feature-length film.

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

A tale of two giant wooden effigies, painstakingly crafted by rural island cultspeople. A tale of two protagonists, deeply unlikeable in their own ways. A tale as old as time: the original and the remake.

Megan and Cate get into The Wicker Man (1973) and The Wicker Man (2006) to analyze what makes the original so great, and what makes the remake so, so bizarre. Watch both, watch one, or watch neither – any way, this short episode is a fun one!

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

Join the gals as they get deep on one of their all-time favorite horror movies The VVitch: A New England Folktale (2015). The debut film from director Robert Eggers uses dialog pulled directly from 1600s documents to build the religiously fervent, tightly coiled with paranoia atmosphere. Patriarch William gets his family excommunicated from their Puritan village because he won't play nice with the townspeople - surely relocating to a remote spot outside of the wilderness a full day's horseride from town will work out well.

Edited by Cate Smith.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

What are the elements of an indie movie, besides, of course, being produced by an independent film studio? Avant-garde plot structure, shoestring budgets, characters stoically looking off-camera into the distance while a plinky piano plays? Sure, some of those elements are present in the horror comedy/satire film Rubber (2010), but it also has a healthy dose of fourth-wall breaking meta commentary and a psychokinetic murderous tire as its protagonist.

Megan and Cate spend this short episode digesting what, exactly, they just watched. Join us for the ride!

Edited by Megan Prior-Pfeifer.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.

In the last two decades, no film has wrought more confusion, fear, and satire than The Blair Witch Project (1999). Written and directed by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, the advertised-as-real found footage documentary taps into our most primal fears and paranoia.

The gals dig deep into this one, looking at American horror roots and how the phenomenon of the newly weaponized Internet catapulted this movie into infamy. Don't forget your map for this one!

Episode edited by Cate Smith.

Music by Zach Pfeifer.