The Scariest Things

The weather is indicating it’s approaching Summertime, which means a few things for Spooky Time!

No Mike this week… he had mic problems. (sad trombone)

It’s the Original Crew of Mike and Eric for Episode 13! We gave Robert and Liz the day off…

In EPISODE 13:

We have an entire cast for Spooky Time 12! (How did we pull that off?)

In this jam-packed episode of Spooky Time:

You know, it felt good to have everybody on the call for a change. It means more scary tidbits for you!

When I was asked if there were any new trends in horror movies, I could say with complete confidence: Social Media Horror. Quite clearly this is a type of horror made available largely within the last fifteen years, dating back to the formal introduction of the iPhone back in 2007. True, cell phones and the internet have been effective communication devices since the ’90s but social media influencing is a creature of the 2010s and beyond. (Though The Net and Fear.com gave us an early preview of what was to come… those films were based on PC’s with CRT monitors. Old School!)

The desire, and the ability to jump from anonymity to fame, (in which we at the Scariest Things are ironically self-aware), has led to all sorts of abusive and downright scary conditions. Often, the protagonists in these exercises are narcissistic wanna-bes or abjectly lonely people trying to make a connection through the treacherous maze of the internet.

Oddly, it also manages to push the horror as something indirect. It usually isn’t the device itself, ala The Ring, but rather it is a conduit to shady and dangerous people. In a way, it is indirect horror. If the ’90s and ’00s were the domain of tumbling around a picture frame with the shaky cam-found footage trend, this new delivery of horror puts you up very close to the protagonists, who are usually looking at their screens up close… ready for their ZOOM or YouTube moment.

Perhaps the most successful, and most clever, use of this trope is Host. which might be the perfect distillation of the loneliness and dread we all went through during the Pandemic of 2020. Everybody had to use ZOOM to interact with friends and family, and the remarkable adoption of video conferencing applications made us all aware of the elements of a ZOOM call. That familiarity allowed that little movie to punch way above its weight class.

A film that was not yet released that we have seen at The Overlook Film Festival 2023 was Accused, which managed to perfectly capture the scariness of an angry digital mob and what they are capable of. It is a highly recommended watch as soon as it gets released.

Pardon the geezery tendencies of The Scariest Things. A lot of the material here is geared toward Millenials and Gen Z, but we recognize the directions and trends of the genre, and we are definitely seeing Media Influence as a big theme for the upcoming years. The life-consuming quality of the smartphone has its sights set squarely on horror movies now. Tune into Episode 165 to hear your podcast hosts try and deal with this new reality!

In This Episode of Spooky Time:

Another year, another Overlook Film Festival is in the books! 2023 was a welcome return to form with several films that will likely make significant waves in the horror genre for years to come. Though we have loved most every version of the festival, even when it had to go fully digital, something felt renewed about this year’s event. The buzz was just bigger this year, and I am certain that there will be films that will be hugely influential for years to come that were just released at this festival.

The world premiere of Renfield, a Universal picture, as well as the premieres of the excellent real-world social media horror of Accused, the zealous misfortunes of Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism, the fear-of-menopause Clock, the stoner horror Trim Season, it appears that Overlook is once again an important platform launching showcase.

The Overlook Film Festival has a very important legacy for The Scariest Things. In 2018, I attended the New Orleans event for the first time, and it is where I met Liz, who has been an essential (if not THE essential) piece of The Scariest Things for the past four years. It also was the location of our first director interview (Darren Lyn Bousman), my first red carpet event (St. Agatha), my first big feature after-show party (Hereditary), and all of the wonderful immersive events that Overlook does so well.

This year, the immersive events that have been missing since the pandemic are now back in force. The inclusion of the repertory films was well used this time, with Joe Dante, John Goodman, and David Dastmalchian doing the great double feature of Matinee and The Tingler. The 1927 Hitchcock movie, The Lodger: A Story of The London Fog, his first thriller got a new live score. So, some very unique events, and a great time that isn’t going away.

Star ratings out of ★★★★★ possible
Intensity ratings out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

ERIC’S HIGHLIGHTS

ERIC’S LOWLIGHTS

Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of ALL AGES! Step right up and amaze at the sights and spectacles that are Circus and Carnival Horror. You will be thrilled! You will be astonished! You will be horrified! There is a special relationship between horror films and the Circus, the Carnival, and the Amusement Park. In days before movies were able to deliver unbelievable visions to the masses. there was a live freak show. a fun house, a hall of mirrors, and a thrill ride. Scary, yes. But Colorful and oddly, creepily, cheerful at the same time.

Whether it was Coney Island or a traveling carnie show with the seven-fingered carnies, people came to see things that would excite them. Sure, the three-headed calf in a jar may make you want to puke, but you know you just have to see it. It’s a FREAK, ladies and gentlemen, A FREAK! And, 100% real. That Feejee Mermaid is the real thing, we got it from real FeeJee mariners. What do you mean FeeJee isn’t a place? (Checks his Atlas) I meant Fiji!

And, lest we forget perhaps the scariest members of this sub-genre: CLOWNS. The exaggerated, distorted, and genuinely frightening visages and oddly behaving performers. Truly, clown horror could be a whole category unto itself, but if they happen to inhabit these carnivals… they count.

This is a special request fulfillment for our Patreon patron, Sharon Yablon, one of our long-time favorite friends of the site. If you too would like to have a special request fulfilled, all you need to do is join our Patreon Group! (For the cost that is less than one lunch a month…)

For more information check out the Big Top Dead List that was dedicated to this very subject! And now, run… don’t walk, to listen to THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, in Episode 164 of The Scariest Things.

Though the weather in some places in the US would indicate otherwise (Portland, for example, where it snowed yesterday!), Spring Break is right around the corner. The Scariest Things, in Episode 9 will have you ready for your Scary Spring Break Needs:

Liz and Mike have returned from the mad media event known as SXSW. Perhaps no other event brings more world premieres to the table like the big Austin showcase. Crazy? Sure! But worth it? The Scariest Things Reports back, where they were able to get some time with some notable personalities like… Patton Oswalt:

Eric, not jealous AT ALL! Not in the slightest! (OK, maybe a little jealous).

Also in this Episode:

The Film Festival season gets going in earnest in March. Sundance, at the end of February usually marks the beginning of the season. The Midwest Weird Fest (which our writer Joseph Perry) starts off March 5, and is followed by Frightfest Glasgow (March 9), the massive SXSW festival (March 10), The Boston Underground Film Festival (March 22), and rounding out with one of our favorites, the Overlook Film Festival (March 29).

Mike and Liz are just now in Austin to cover the SXSW festival, in which we have been in the press pool for the past three years, and Eric will be traveling to New Orleans to join Liz at the Overlook Film Festival, to participate for the fifth straight year. For those of you who are not familiar with the Overlook, in Episode 7 of Spooky Time, the Scariest Things gives you a history of the films shown in New Orleans (We’d love to see you there!) and we share our impressions and expectations for both of the big showcases we are attending.

Check out our preview of SXSW and Overlook right here: