This week, we’re putting our calls on hold to bring out our second Super Chiller episode. This audio essay focuses on why Camp is such an integral part of horror and what we really mean when we call something campy. This essay acts as a tentpole between the two halves of our Glamp Month coverage, allowing us to better understand all the wonderfully campy films we’ve been dying to watch with you.

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Hey, guess you're not answering your phone. Just wanted to send a quick message to tell you about the movie I just saw, WATCHER.

We’ve made it through the wilderness, and now it’s time to feel like a virgin as we make our debut into Society. This film is the definition of 1989, with wall-to-wall denim, fashion mullets, and Day-Glo swimwear, and we couldn’t resist putting former guest Ian Voltaire Deanes through the trials and tribulations of the bizarre Shunting. Then, we pair Society up with a second ‘80s melt movie, the grimy, low-budget ectoplasm-sploitation, Slime City.

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Referenced in this episode:

Society: Party Animal [sequel comics to the original film]: http://www.roughcut-comics.com/pages/society.html

Pack up your bags because it’s time to go glamping! This week, we kick off Glamp Month, as we look at Camp horror films that don’t take place at a summer camp. We’re starting off with a recent hall-of-famer, Malignant, and joined by returning guest Matthew James Marquez to gush about Gabriel, unpack all James Wan’s horror references, and try to decide what a lollipop has to do with detective work.

Follow Matthew James Marquez on Twitter @MarqueztheGM

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This week, we’re injecting you with the last hit of our sugar rush on the Sweet Treats of Summer. We’re staying put and making the treats travel light-years to come to us as we welcome back guest David Nesbitt Taylor to talk to us about the Killer Klowns from Outer Space–cue cotton candy cocoons, pregnant popcorn, and flesh-melting cream pies! We’re also staying on Earth but traveling across the planet for our double-feature recommendation, the New Zealand classic, Bad Taste.

Check out David on Instagram and TikTok @acting_like_I_want_to

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In our first Super Chiller bonus audio essay, we explore the themes of Neil Jordan's 1984 film, The Company of Wolves, most importantly, the connection between horror stories and folk tales. We tackle how unconscious desires, coming-of-age narratives, and the werewolf trope all boil together to offer us a different perspective on genre, gender, and the meaning of horror.

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Referenced in this episode:

Keith Hopper - Hairy on the Inside: Re-Visiting Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves. The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Fall 2003. https://doi.org/10.2307/25515470

Sweet dreams are made of… well, Annie Lennox has yet to tell us. But we do know that dreams and nightmares play a role in our featured film this week, Coraline, as well as our super-secret bonus movie to be revealed. Writer C.M. Crockford joins us to talk about Coraline’s impact as a gateway horror, its clever use of stop-motion and digital animation, and how food and candy are used to create a false sense of security. Then, we provide a teaser of our upcoming bonus audio essay on this week’s choice double-feature.

Neil Gaiman - Coraline. HarperCollins, 2002.

The Fangirl - Coraline Theory - Part 13 - Car Accidents and Technology. YouTube.

Thomas J. McLean - On the Set with ‘Coraline’: Where the Motion Doesn’t Stop. Animation World Network, Sept. 16, 2008.

The Sweet Treats of Summer continue to drip deliciously. Suspiciously deliciously. This week, we talk with Mr. Hollywood Burlesque himself, Viktor Devonne, about Larry Cohen’s 1985 creepy dessert satire, The Stuff. Some topics include why horror needs some sweetness, the dangers of corporate marketing, and Murder, She Wrote connections. Then, we cap off the Stuff-jar and pour a nightcap with our double-feature recommendation, 1987’s Street Trash.

Follow Viktor Devonne on Twitter and Instagram @viktordevonne

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Referenced in this episode:

Steven Mitchell - King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (Documentary), 2018.

Philippe Pignarre and Isabelle Stengers - Capitalist Sorcery: Breaking the Spell. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Welcome to our Sweet Treats of Summer coverage! What’s a hot summer day without a refreshing ice cream treat? We’re kicking off this month's saccharine horrors with the 1995 cult classic, Ice Cream Man. We talk with Dr. Marianna Staroselsky about Pied Piper allegories, depictions of mental illness in horror, and clown cones, and we answer the real question this movie poses: what the heck is hard-pack? Then, we top off with a double-scoop of suburban dairy drama with 2017’s The Ice Cream Truck.

Follow Marianna online through her website, or on Instagram @mariannastar.

Follow our show on social media @CallsInsidePod and our host Kevin Sparrow on Twitter @dirtydevlin

Referenced in this episode:

D.L. Ashliman (translator/editor) - The Pied Piper of Hameln and related legends from other towns. University of Pittsburgh.

Tanya Luhrmann - Of Two Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at American Psychiatry. Vintage Books, 2000.

Susan Sheehan - Is There No Place on Earth for Me? Vintage Books, 1982.

Frederick Wiseman - The Titicut Follies (1967 documentary).

Pride Extension! We’re finishing up our month dedicated to queer horror bypassing America’s birthday and traveling over to France to cover the giallo-splashed gay porno horror love letter, Knife+Heart (Un couteau dans le couer) with writer and performer Chelsea Fiddyment. We discuss the complicated relationship of being a queer monster, reclaiming slurs (if you can’t tell from the title, the F-slur is going to make a few appearances), and how a film about the 1970s has a lot to say about the LGBTQ+ community today. Then, we’ll double-up our gay excursion with the 2014 Spanish film, Amor eterno (Everlasting Love).

Follow Chelsea at chelseafiddyment.com, or check out their work with the Chicago Review of Books

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Referenced in this episode:

Daisy Jones - Introducing: The tenderqueer, the softboi of the queer community. Vice, January 24, 2020.

Emily St. James - How Twitter can ruin a life. Vox, June 30, 2021.

Altered Innocence