Second Cut

We're wrapping up our Halloween season with Freddy Krueger. Wes Craven returns to the Nightmare on Elm Street series with New Nightmare, where Freddy escapes the movies and enters the real world.Read us here: https://secondcutpod.substack.com/Follow us everywhere @SecondCutPod

Our Halloween season continues with the brutal thrillers and supernatural horror of South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin. We're discuss The Chaser, The Yellow Sea, and The Wailing.Read us here: https://secondcutpod.substack.com/Follow us everywhere @SecondCutPod

Our second film in our Halloween Spooky Season Slasher-thon covers Halloween H20 and Michael Myers.

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We're starting off the Halloween season with one of Hollywood's most iconic slashers.Read us here: https://secondcutpod.substack.com/Follow us everywhere @SecondCutPod

It's Kieran's favorite movie, Jacob had never seen it, and it is an icon of cyberpunk visual aesthetics. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner has undergone many iterations, could its Final Cut be the best film of all time?Read us here: https://secondcutpod.substack.com/Follow us everywhere @SecondCutPod

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is out, so we're watching Weapons. Read us here: https://secondcutpod.substack.com/Follow us everywhere @SecondCutPod

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe tried to build a connected franchise around Spider-Man villains and supporting characters... without Spider-Man. In this episode of Second Cut, we revisit Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter to ask why Sony’s spin-offs never became a functioning cinematic universe and why making every film an origin story only made the problem worse.

We trace Spider-Man’s film-rights history, Sony’s Sinister Six plans, its relationship with Marvel Studios, and the varying fortunes of Venom and Morbius. We then discuss Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Madame Web’s unused Spider-Women, precognition, catastrophic ADR, Pepsi, disability representation, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, J. C. Chandor, Rhino, the Foreigner, Ariana DeBose, Kraven’s R-rated violence, and Sony’s failure to find a magnetic franchise lead. Finally, we debate why Madame Web is the worse-made but more rewatchable film—and why Kraven’s greater competence ultimately makes it more forgettable.

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Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:24 How Sony got Spider-Man’s film rights

04:41 Sony, Marvel, and Spider-Man’s “joint custody”

07:26 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the Sinister Six plan

09:31 Venom, Morbius, and the SSU’s track record

13:58 Why Spider-Man’s villains need Spider-Man

19:00 Madame Web: an origin story set in 2003

23:38 Dakota Johnson and a workable premise

30:14 Abandoned teenagers, Peru, and time powers

33:58 The Spider-Women who never become Spider-Women

38:26 Why Madame Web is more rewatchable than Kraven

40:16 Ezekiel Sims, catastrophic ADR, and the Pepsi can

43:23 Madame Web and disability representation

45:13 Kraven the Hunter: a better idea?

47:07 Kraven’s Last Hunt and the antihero rewrite

49:48 Why Sony never found its Robert Downey Jr.

51:22 Russell Crowe, Rhino, and the Foreigner

54:32 Ariana DeBose and the digital-mouth disaster

57:07 Why Kraven’s violent first half works

59:20 Where Kraven loses its way

01:01:32 Russell Crowe and the father-son story

01:05:48 J. C. Chandor and a painfully generic blockbuster

01:07:32 The Kraven-Venom crossover Sony never made

01:10:47 The SSU’s origin-story trap

01:12:47 Madame Web vs. Kraven: bad or boring?

01:16:09 Final verdict: good riddance

01:16:47 Plugs and outro

Music: Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi

https://soundcloud.com/wataboi

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Music promoted by FDL Music

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Pedro Almodóvar can move from drug-taking nuns and a pet tiger to surgical body horror and an aging filmmaker confronting his past without losing his unmistakable voice.

Jacob, Sam, and Kieran trace that voice across Dark Habits, The Skin I Live In, and Pain and Glory. They explore Almodóvar’s emergence from La Movida Madrileña, his vivid visual style, his blend of melodrama and genre, his treatment of sexuality and identity, and his decades-long creative partnership with Antonio Banderas.

Across three radically different films, the conversation examines how Almodóvar transforms taboo, desire, pain, and memory into cinema.

Full spoilers for Dark Habits, The Skin I Live In, and Pain and Glory.

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Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

07:24 From Franco to La Movida

14:10 Almodóvar’s style and themes

22:42 Dark Habits

40:26 Almodóvar’s career and Antonio Banderas

42:22 The Skin I Live In

54:51 Eyes Without a Face and body horror

57:50 Gender and identity

1:07:46 Pain and Glory

1:13:31 Autofiction and memory

1:21:36 Authorship and lost love

1:31:04 Final thoughts

1:32:34 Bitter Christmas and outro

Music: Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi

https://soundcloud.com/wataboi

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Music promoted by FDL Music

https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

Sam Neill became a movie icon as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, but his career stretched across New Zealand and Australian cinema, Hollywood spectacle, psychological horror, comedy, and character drama. In this episode of Second Cut, we remember Neill through two of his most revealing performances: Mark in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession and Hec in Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

We discuss Neill’s career and New Zealand identity; Isabelle Adjani, marital breakdown, doppelgängers, violence, and the famous subway sequence in Possession; and Julian Dennison, Rachel House, foster care, New Zealand humor, and the wilderness chase in Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Along the way, we consider Neill’s surprising horror legacy, his discomfort with Possession, the reinvention of Alan Grant, his range of accents, and why no single role—not even Jurassic Park—could contain his career. We close by remembering Kaylee Hottle and discussing disability representation in blockbuster cinema.

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Follow Second Cut:

YouTube: @SecondCutPod

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Socials: @SecondCutPod

Email: [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 Cold open: Sam Neill’s horror contradiction

00:27 Remembering Sam Neill

02:47 From New Zealand to James Bond and Jurassic Park

05:12 New Zealand identity and the Event Horizon flag

07:22 Alan Grant and Spielberg’s Jurassic Park

09:44 Possession: Żuławski’s marital nightmare

12:11 Exile, censorship, and cinematic breakdown

14:49 Divorce, Bob, and art as therapy

17:08 What “possession” really means

19:33 Isabelle Adjani and the subway breakdown

21:56 Violence, performance, and ethical discomfort

24:23 Mark, Helen, and the idealized doubles

26:47 Doppelgängers and Sam Neill’s horror legacy

28:48 Bob, the ending, and collateral damage

29:44 Parker Finn’s Possession remake

32:09 Camera movement and visual control

33:00 Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Taika Waititi

35:24 Ricky Baker, Hec, and Bella

37:45 New Zealand humor and Taika Waititi’s ensemble

39:36 Julian Dennison and directing young actors

41:41 Foster care, grief, and Hec’s legal danger

43:57 Rachel House, Psycho Sam, and the manhunt

46:23 Is Wilderpeople a kids’ Badlands?

48:24 Prison, reconnection, and the ending

49:26 Haikus, Julian Dennison, and staying homegrown

51:48 Thor cameos and Sam Neill’s accents

56:16 Final thoughts on Sam Neill’s legacy

58:35 Remembering Kaylee Hottle and representation

1:00:53 The Odyssey and outro

Music: Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi

https://soundcloud.com/wataboi

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Music promoted by FDL Music

https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey turns Homer’s homecoming epic into a test of what war does to the hero who survives it. In this solo episode, Jacob reviews the film with full spoilers, discussing its IMAX cinematography and formats, historical accuracy, production design, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, the ensemble cast, Ludwig Göransson’s score, the Sirens, the gods, and Nolan’s practical approach to the creatures and spectacle.

The Trojan horse provides the episode’s central thread: a gift that conceals violence and a victory that teaches Odysseus to control the stories other people inhabit. From broken hospitality to the journey home, the discussion asks whether a warrior can recover the relationships that conquest taught him to manipulate.

Full spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

Subscribe for more film criticism, history, and theory-driven conversations.

Follow Second Cut:

YouTube: @SecondCutPod

Substack: https://secondcutpod.substack.com

Socials: @SecondCutPod

Email: [email protected]

CHAPTERS

0:00 Cold Open: Christopher Nolan vs. Arthur

0:24 Review and Spoiler Warning

2:42 Nolan’s Approach to Homer

4:16 Cinematography, Color and IMAX

9:40 Historical Accuracy and Production Design

13:33 Performances, Casting and Dialogue

19:14 Sound, Score and the Sirens

21:38 Gods, Monsters and Practical Effects

23:39 The Trojan Horse, Spectacle and Trust

26:57 Narrative Control and the Journey Home

28:20 Penelope, Athena and Moral Responsibility

29:10 The Final Battle and the Homecoming

30:27 Final Verdict

Music: Awakening (Instrumental) by Wataboi

https://soundcloud.com/wataboi

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Music promoted by FDL Music

https://youtu.be/X2oQNUOmk2k