For this episode, I sat down with Amber Toro to discuss the release of her upcoming science fiction novel, Umbra. Umbra is the first book in the Sentient Stars Trilogy, an intergalactic, space opera, adventure story, with a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance, told from 3 POV’s, with fully sentient starships, a militaristic society, alien worlds, and a signal in the darkness that threatens to destroy humanity.

I was able to learn a little bit about how the passing of Amber’s father helped to motivate her to finally pursue her dream. Amber also goes into great detail on stories have influenced her writing as well as the detail she has considered when creating her universe.

Amber’s Kickstarter is live until April 3rd so I encourage you to have a look to see the stunning artwork on display along with the creative story she has crafted.

View Kickstarter

The isolation, the silence, the feeling that something is just… off. It’s the perfect setting for fear, paranoia, and psychological breakdowns, even if the genre doesn’t use it as often as it should.

In this Sub-Genre Deep Dive, we take a look at horror movies (and one show) set against the backdrop of snow and freezing temperatures, from classics like The Thing and The Shining to more modern entries like Krampus and True Detective: Night Country.

Along the way, we break down what makes winter such an effective horror setting, highlight some personal favorites, and uncover a few underrated entries that deserve more attention.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:37 John Carpenter’s The Thing

00:13:35 Stephen King’s The Shining

00:18:05 Harbinger Down

00:23:14 Stephen King’s Misery

00:28:06 Wind Chill

00:33:10 Dead Snow

00:39:22 Werewolves Within

00:44:00 The Wolf of Snow Hollow

00:47:25 Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin

00:56:00 Pontypool

01:03:40 Krampus

01: 07:54 Gremlins

01:12:32 True Detective: Night Country

01:16:21 30 Days of Night

01:22:29 Honorable Mentions

01:22:44 The Hateful Eight

01:23:33 Eye See You & Whiteout

01:25:17 Frozen

01:25:40 The Grey, The Edge, Alive, and Ravenous

01:26:20 The Brood

01:27:28 A Cold Night’s Death

01:27:50 Dreamcatcher

Interview with Robin Block, Executive Producer and CEO of CreatorVC, about the development of the their upcoming documentary, The Thing Expanded, based on the John Carpenter classic from 1982.

CreatorVC focuses on crowdsourced projects and bases the entire documentary structure on the feedback of their backers while simultaneously working to build and leverage communities around their subject's fanbases. They previously produced the In Search of Darkness, In Search of Tomorrow, and the upcoming Aliens Expanded documentaries.

To become a part of the community behind this groundbreaking documentary and to have your voice heard, complete the survey now: https://bit.ly/47qkms2

As another Halloween season arrives, Dan and Patrick meet to discuss horror movies. They kick off with a session on their Highlights & Lowlights of their 31 Days of Halloween Movie Marathon. They then move to a Remake Showdown of The Amityville Horror 79’ vs 05’ comparing the two and discussing what they like and dislike about each. After that, they ponder the question, “If you could reboot any franchise, canceling out the sequels similar to Halloween (2028) and Exorcist: Believer, what franchise would you choose?” with some examples and honorable mentions.

If you could create a horror maybe in any non horror franchise, what would it be? Find out what Patrick and Dan would do in this segment. They then do a session of From Worst to First: Halloween Franchise followed by their Must Watch October/Halloween Movies before rounding out the episode with some horror news.

Other Topics Covered:

Totally Killer, #alive, As Above, So Below, no one will save you, Silence of the Lambs, The Faculty, Ringu, Ring, The Ring, The Void, Unwelcome, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, The Boogeyman, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Thirteen Ghosts, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Return of the Living Dead, Funhouse, Freddy vs Jason, I know What You Did Last Summer, Skinamarink,  A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, V/H/S/85, The Amityville Horror, Shout Factory, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Dan Hedaya, Ron Perlman, Addams Family, Terminator, The Matrix, Tremors, Shaun of the Dead, Dog Soldiers, An American Werewolf in London, An American Werewolf in Paris, It Follows, The Fog, Trick r Treat, Spirit Halloween, Night Swim.

In this episode of The Bark Knight Podcast, Patrick and Dan kick off Season 2 with a deep dive into the Evil Dead franchise and a broader discussion around possession horror.

We break down each film in the series, from The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 to Army of Darkness and the 2013 remake, while debating our favorite entries and where the franchise could go next. The conversation also branches into Sam Raimi’s broader filmography, including a tangent into Darkman.

From there, we expand into a wide-ranging discussion of possession movies, covering everything from genre-defining classics like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby to modern standouts like Hereditary, The Taking of Deborah Logan, and The Conjuring universe.

The episode wraps with a full spoiler review of Evil Dead Rise, breaking down its place within the franchise and how it builds on the series’ legacy of practical horror, possession, and relentless chaos.Want more Bark Knight content? Visit https://barkknightmedia.com/Chapters00:00:00 Intro & Agenda00:00:46 Dan Breaks Down the Evil Dead Franchise00:02:33 What is each of our favorite Evil Dead Movie?00:07:58 What setting would we like to see in the next Evil Dead movie?00:13:52 Thoughts on Evil Dead (2013) Remake00:19:18 Sam Raimi's Darkman Trilogy Tangent00:21:13 Our Favorite Possession Movies00:45:25 The Evil Dead Video Game00:51:56 Evil Dead Rise Review01:09:24 Outro/ClosingTopics: Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead (2013), Evil Dead Rise, Ghost Ship, The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, Fallen, The Conjuring, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle Comes Home, Child's Play, Chucky, Megan, Insidious, Christine, Annabelle Wallis, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Tom Wilkinson, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism, The Last Exorcism Part 2, Get Out, Hereditary, Midsommar, Rosemary's Baby, The Wicker Man, Sinister, Deliver Us From Evil, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, The Pope's Exorcist, A Fistful of Boomstick, Dead by Daylight, Friday the 13th, Bruce Campbell, and Ash vs the Evil Dead.

Patrick meets with Paige Lyndaker, a close friend from the Adirondack Mountains, to discuss western movies and horse training culture in film. Her and her family have a long history of raising and training horses as well as raising other animals, logging, and cultivating maple syrup.

In the episode, she gives an introductory look at the world of equestrianism with some history including a WWII era story on the Nazi Attack on the Vienna Riding School. She also gives insights on some of the big names of the sport such as the famous Stacy Westfall and Bob Avila.

We finish with a discussion on various horses in popular movies, our favorite classic and modern westerns, and how horse training is involved behind the scenes in such movies/shows as Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923. We also touch on spaghetti westerns and do an in-depth Tombstone Review.

Other Topics Covered Throughout:

Taylor Sheridan, Kurt Russell, Bone Tomahawk, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, True Grit, Harrison Ford, The Man From Snowy River, and more.

In this episode, we start with a bit of Q&A before our main event: our Favorite Movie Soundtracks of 2022, our Favorite Underutilized Movie Settings, and what we're looking forward to in 2023.

Main Event: Grizzly II: Revenge, a cobbled together monstrosity of a movie. This film was partially shot in 1983 until the production ran out of money. It sat on a shelf for decades until it was finally pieced together into the final product we have today. To add to the lore, this also represents some of the first roles for George Clooney, Laura Dern, and Charlie Sheen. We go into fully spoilers for this, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the ridiculousness of the experience.

Topics:

Everything Everywhere All At Once, Prey, X, Pearl, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Tár, Firestarter, The Batman, Michael Giachinno, Morbius, Black Adam, Them!, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Booksmart, Superbad, Mars Attacks!, The Day After Tomorrow, Sunshine, The Thing, Dead Snow, Krampus, Hateful Eight, Bone Tomahawk, Tombstone, Tremors, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, The Marvels, Secret Invasion, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, John Wick: Chapter 4, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Dying Light, Dead Island, James Mangold, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Copland, Identity, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, The Wolverine, Logan, Ford v Ferarri, Evil Dead Rise, Devotion, Creed III, Jonathan Majors, Kang the Conqueror, Train to Busan, and Last Train to New York.

In this episode, I sit down with my dog, Lena Bark, to discuss our favorite movies and shows from 2022.

Favorites

• What is the New Year Special?

• Action Movies

• Horror Movies

• Animated Movies

• TV Shows

• Limited Series

• Murder Mysteries

• Comedies

• Favorite Movie

• Lena's Favorite Movie

• Worst Movie

• Best Movies From Other Years That I Didn't Watch Until This Year

Some movies we discussed were In Bruges, Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Prey, Top Gun: Maverick, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Adam Project, The Northman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Batman, Smile, Nope, Scream (2022), Umma, Hellraiser (2022), Barbarian, Disney's Pinocchio, Guillarmo Del Torro's Pinocchio, Outer Range, The Rings of Power, The Sandman, House of the Dragon, Wednesday, Resident Evil, Peacemaker, Moon Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Black Bird, Glass Onion; A Knives Out Mystery, Day Shift, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dog, Morbius, Hostiles, The Night House, Paddington, The Endless, and Tubelight.

I sit down with Paul Beverly to talk about his podcast, Reset and Rewind, and we go into detail on our favorite science fiction movies and video game movies.

Patrick asks, "What in Popular Culture Defined Who You Are Today?" which leads to some interesting conversations on Power Rangers, toys, and action figures.

We also go on a few tangents, as usual, on mourning the loss of Batman star, Kevin Conroy, Max Payne, Silent Hill, Memento / Christopher Nolan, and much more.

We finish the episode with a non-spoiler and spoiler review of the new Star Wars show, Andor.

Other Topics Covered: