We spent our August Bank Holiday weekend at Frightfest, indulging in 5 days of non-stop horror movies. We give you a rundown on what we saw and survey some of the recurring themes we noticed (our biggest takeaways - beware of demons, witches and shamans, and always check that you don't double book that Airbnb, folks!).

Films covered: Salt Along the Tongue, Five, Mother of Flies, Serpent's Skin, Dog of God, Transcending Dimensions, Redux Redux, Cogn-AI-tive, The Home, Jimmy & Stiggs, The Red Mask, Bone Lake, Daughters of Darkness, Malpertuis, The Descent, The Toxic Avenger, The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan, and The Fairy Moon.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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In this episode we welcome our first guest, film critic Travis Johnson, to rank all six Terminator films from worst to best. We discuss what makes some of the films modern classics and why other films in the franchise get it so wrong. We explore how the films express anxieties about A.I., what makes Sarah Connor such an enduring action icon, how Arnold Schwarzenegger's performances change from film to film and try to untangle the very complicated rights issues that were happening behind-the-scenes. We also discuss how the Terminator has expanded into TV, comics, and videogames and pitch our own ideas for future films.

Timecodes:

Film 6 (16:57)

Film 5 (30:20)

Film 4 (41:30)

Film 3 (57:21)

Film 2 (1:10:20)

Film 1 (1:23:01)

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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In this episode we discuss Liam’s most anticipated film of the year – and a film that set the box office on fire over the weekend – Zach Cregger’s Weapons. We start with a spoiler-free conversation about the film’s influences, structure, style, and scares, before getting into spoiler territory (from 24:50) going deep into the film’s villain and the societal implications of its themes.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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This episode’s topic explores how direct relationships develop between humans and A.I., leading to questions about the nature of consciousness and the nature of love, sexuality, human emotion and bodily autonomy. Firstly we have a discussion about whether there are differences between robots and A.I. and survey some key examples of robots/A.I. throughout cinema history (01:33). Then we go on to explore one woman’s nightmare of A.I. domination in Demon Seed (24:44) and Alex Garland’s examination of human/A.I. relations (and possible robot liberation) in Ex Machina (01:01:05) . We end with some Honourable Mentions of other films about robot/computer/human relations (01:33:24).

Content Warning - this episode discusses depictions of sexual assault.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

Visit our website: https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

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Introducing SciFrights Bites - a shorter episode where we discuss a recent cinema release. In this episode we explore 28 Years Later, the latest film in a series that was groundbreaking in its use of digital technology. We look back on the legacy of 28 Days Later (02:00) and 28 Weeks Later (17:08) - including the burning question: are these zombie films? - before diving into 28 Years Later (20:50). We start by giving our thoughts on the visual style and the general ways that it comments on our current times and expands the series mythology. Then we get into spoiler territory (39:01), going deep into the film's thematic elements and speculate on what could be coming up in future installments.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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We begin our new season by focusing on just one film (which just happens to be Liam's favourite film): Stanley Kubrick's monumental masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Firstly though we have a catch up on some really exciting things that have been happening (01;12), explain what our new season is all about (08:18), and then get stuck right into our main feature (10:50). We thought given that we had only one film to discuss that this would be a shorter episode, but we were wrong about that! There is so much to unpack with this film, so consider this the deepest of dives - into the infinite and beyond.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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In this episode we conclude our season exploring the legacy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by looking at the greatest monster humanity ever created: society itself! We begin with a discussion of how the evils of capitalism and systemic inequality seem to have been a recurring theme throughout our previous episodes, and follow on from this by analysing 70s dystopia classic Soylent Green (07:08) and Brian Yuzna’s splatstick satire Society (01:01:24), We end with some Honourable Mentions of other films where society itself becomes monstrous (01:40:05). Yes, this one gets a bit political but the best horror and sci-fi films often do, don't they?

Content warning: Just a heads up that some pretty gnarly stuff happens in Society and our discussion gets right into the gory details.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

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In this episode we go beyond testing the limits of the human body to exploration of the mind. Liam gives us a rundown of the history and representation of mind control (01:17), then we discuss Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange (14:45), followed by Brandon Cronenberg’s gruesome and disturbing tech thriller Possessor (1:00:03). As always, we end with some Honourable Mentions of our favourite mind control movies (1:35:24). Listen out also for a cameo appearance from our cat, Angelo!

Content Warning: please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual assault.

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

Visit our website: https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

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In this episode we go under the knife, examining the weird trend of films in the 1960s about face transplants. After discussing the representation of the surgeon and Liam’s squeamishness about seeing surgery on screen (01:10), we then explore Georges Franju’s classic of art horror fantastique from 1960, Les yeux sans visage/Eyes without a Face (13:25) and John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi oddity Seconds (59:29). We end with some Honourable Mentions of other films with some truly diabolical surgery (01:46:57).

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

Visit our website: https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

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In this episode we become the monster, exploring what its like to be the one considered abnormal or inhuman. Lindsay examines this notion of the Other in horror and science fiction (01:12), then we discuss Brian DePalma’s coming-of-age horror classic Carrie (07:55), and Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi action satire Robocop (50:12). We finish with Honourable Mentions (01:32:02) of other films that also take us into the monster's point-of-view .

Hosted, produced, and edited by Liam Dunn and Lindsay Hallam

Music composed and performed by Damo Alexander and Rosie Gilbey

Artwork by Millie Hallam

Visit our website: https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

Email us at [email protected]

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