The ISA Podcast

Episode 4 – An American Haunting

After visiting the Tennessee location where the Bell Witch Haunting took place, ghost hunters Scott Markus, and Wendy Lynn Staats analyze how screenwriters Brent Monahan and Courtney Solomon struggled to bring this historical haunting to the screen.

SYS Episode 253:

This week on the SYS Podcast I talk with Writer/Director Jermey Ungar. We talk through how he got his new thriller, Ride, produced. He originally wrote and directed a short film as a proof of concept, which helped him gain traction with the feature version, which he recently completed.

“Widows” goes deep into character to tell its unique heist tale

Director Steve McQueen doesn’t seem interested in telling a typical heist film story. His new film “Widows” is gravely serious instead of a raucous romp like the “Ocean’s Eleven” trilogy, and his characters wear angst on their sleeves like they’re in another genre altogether. That makes for an involving movie that bends so many rules, it can be confounding. McQueen and fellow screenwriter Gillian Flynn twists timelines, character motivations, and expectations throughout. Sometimes it feels a bit indulgent and takes too long to get where it’s going, but it never fails to fascinate. And with its focus on its empowered female characters, it can’t help but feel like an ‘of-the-moment’ film exploring their rejection of patriarchy.

SYS episode 252:

This week on the SYS Podcast I talk with Writer/Director Ari Gold. We talk through the early days of his career directing theater, which lead him to short films, and eventually feature films and his new indy drama, The Song of Sway Lake.

The remake of “Suspiria” adds little to the classic horror tale.

Despite the talents of director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich, their remake of Dario Argento’s classic 1977 horror tale “Suspiria” doesn’t come to much. The film is well-shot, edited, and scored, but most of the rest of it feels muddled or too self-conscious. The story never gets a proper bead on its lead character and whether or not she’s aware of her witchy powers when she joins a Berlin dance academy. The excessively violent set-pieces veer from arthouse to grindhouse. And so much of what Tilda Swinton does in her three roles comes across as showing off. Such tricks take the viewer out of the movie, rendering this an admirable exercise in filmmaking, but not nearly enough of an actually involving movie.

Episode 3 - X–Files: Jose Chung’s From Outer Space

Taking a break from horror movies, Scott sits down with English Professor, Dr. Patrick Gonder to discuss the many layers of the classic X-Files episode “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space."

Episode #2

On the heels of the breakout success of "The Conjuring," James Wan tells the story of the Enfield Poltergeist case as framed by real life paranormal investigators Ed & Lorraine Warren (despite them only actually being on the case for a day or two).  Do the storytellers report right? More than you may expect. This episode is hosted by Scott Markus of WhatsYourGhostStory.com and Connor Bright of the Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles (or GHOULA).

“The Haunting of Hill House” is an eerie and moving mystery of a mini-series.

Again, Netflix creates a watercooler show, one that dominated most of the Halloween conversation in 2018. This adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s titular 1959 gothic horror novel is perhaps the most compelling one yet. Mike Flanagan’s superb expanding of the story combines potent scares with a “This Is Us” modernity. Eschewing jump scares and cheap violence in favor of character development and surprising twists, all 10 hours of this fare were frightening and affecting. The never-better Carla Gugino headed the superb cast of actors playing a family as haunted by their individual choices as they are by the cursed house they lived in.

SYS Episode 251

In this week's episode of the podcast I talk with Jeremy Wechter about his his new horror film, E-Demon. We talk about his background writing/directing/producing short films and how that lead to this new feature.

After visiting the real life locations in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, ghost hunter Scott Markus, and paranormal podcast host, Wendy Lynn Staats analyze how screenwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington adapted this incredible story and the book by John Kleel for the screen.