The Willies - Episode 1: Crouching Ghosts & Bothersome Sausages

Episode Summary After a long hiatus since February, Damien and Lily are back with a brand-new name, a brand-new focus, and a slight technical mishap (apologies for the microphone blunder!). Goodbye A Series of Stupid Decisions, and hello to The Willies—a podcast dedicated to exploring the uncanny, the creepy, and the downright bizarre things that give us the chills. In this premier episode, the duo dives into the unsettling nature of human crouching, the culinary horror of an overly thick sausage skin, the macabre history of Victorian post-mortem photography, and the terrifying real-world science behind zombie ants.

Chapter Markers

• 00:00 - The Long-Awaited Return & Audio Apology Damien and Lily address their extended break since February and Damien confesses to a major microphone blunder.
• 01:30 - Saying Goodbye to A Series of Stupid Decisions Why focusing strictly on horror movie characters making bad choices became a chore, and how a signature sound from the movie Hereditary stuck with them.
• 03:10 - The Sweaty UK Heatwave & Unwritten Rules of the Restroom Surviving the intense summer heat and a tangent on why "sitting down" is a selfless act for men.
• 04:40 - Introducing the New Name: The Willies Damien shares the backstory of how he came up with the title, the struggle of finding a unique name, and Lily's childhood history with the word.
• 06:20 - Damien’s Creepy Thing: People Crouching An exploration of why people crouching on the balls of their feet is inherently unsettling, featuring the ghost boy from Sinister and Japanese horror icon Sadako.
• 09:10 - The Uncanny Valley & Glitch Movements in Horror Discussing the cinematic tricks that freak us out, from Jacob’s Ladder to birds-of-prey head tracking, and why slow-moving zombies trump rage zombies.
• 11:00 - Lily’s "Ick": The Bother some Jumbo Sausage Lily shares a disturbing sensory experience from her work summer party involving wooden cutlery and an incredibly thick, impenetrable hot dog skin.
• 13:10 - Flubbed Movie Scores: The Mummy vs. Evil Dead Rise A look at why Rotten Tomatoes got it wrong with Lee Cronin's The Mummy (which they loved) versus Evil Dead Rise (which Lily hated).
• 15:00 - The Macabre World of Victorian Post-Mortem Photography A dive into the 19th-century luxury of posing with deceased relatives, painting eyes on eyelids, and why the practice faded out by the 1930s.
• 19:25 - Zombie Ants: The Horror of Ophiocordyceps Damien explains the terrifying reality of the mind-controlling fungus that puppets ants, explodes their heads, and inspired The Last of Us.
• 23:05 - Technical Paranoia & The Happening Realizing mid-show that the mics are definitely off, and a quick nod to M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening and Smile.
• 24:40 - Listener Callout & Haunted School Trips How to submit your own creepy stories, and Lily's childhood memory of a portrait whose eyes followed her at Often Court.
• 26:40 - Collective Ghost Stories & Childhood Fears Lily shares a terrifying shared experience of hearing a phantom voice with her sister, and Damien recalls running from "red-haired monsters" on Winter Hill.
• 29:45 - Damien's Zombie Walk & Sign-Off Damien boasts about his perfected zombie walk simulation used to terrorize his wife, and the duo wraps up their first official episode of The Willies.

Links & Resources Mentioned:

• Horror Films: Hereditary, Sinister, The Ring (Ringu), Jacob's Ladder, The Mummy (Lee Cronin), Evil Dead Rise, The Happening, Smile.
• Video Games: The Last of Us.
• Historical Figures: Louis Pasteur & Robert Koch (The Germ Theory trailblazers).

Hereditary is one of those films that stays with you — and in this episode we dig into exactly why. We start with the party scene that changes everything, and the awful, suffocating quiet that comes after. Then we follow the thread: Annie's desperate need for control, Charlie's strange little rituals, and Joan showing up at just the right moment with just the right amount of sympathy. Spoiler — she's not being kind.

We also get into the small stuff that makes the film so unsettling: the cluck, the flickering blue light, that symbol that keeps turning up where it shouldn't. Peter's slow unravelling is a big part of this one too — there's a classroom scene that's easy to miss but says everything. And once we get to the attic, it all starts to click into place in the most horrible way possible.

The ending is divisive, and we get into why — what it means, how it connects to films like Rosemary's Baby and The Witch, and why the whole thing lands hardest if you read it as a story about a family whose grief was being used against them the entire time.

If you're into horror that actually rewards paying attention, this one's for you. Give us a subscribe, leave some stars, and let us know what you made of that ending — we'll read out our favourites next time.

And if this episode entertained you, unsettled you, or mildly ruined your evening — we'll take that as a win.

Damo & Lily :)

• (00:00) - Cold Open And Sunday Banter

In this episode, Damien and Lily delve into the horror film 'Hereditary', exploring its themes of family trauma, grief, and the supernatural. They discuss the character dynamics, the impact of loss, and the role of art as a coping mechanism. The conversation highlights the film's psychological depth and the chilling portrayal of possession and cult dynamics, culminating in a discussion about the film's climax and its unsettling conclusion.

Damo and Lily shake off the New Year cobwebs with Return of the Living Dead — a film that somehow manages to be hilarious, horrifying, and weirdly philosophical all at once. Expect stupid decisions, pain-feeling zombies, punk energy, nuclear fallout, and the eternal horror question: why does everyone always make the absolute worst possible choice?

The new movie is being made! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31350873/

Damo & Lily :)

The scariest mask isn’t the one with horns. It’s the one that feels possible. 

We dive into The Black Phone and its sequel to test a simple claim: horror hits hardest when it stays close to the ground. The first film is a masterclass in tight dread—school, home, a basement—and a villain whose calm menace lingers long after the credits. A disconnected phone that won’t stop ringing, a boy learning to fight back, and Gwen’s visions that blur trauma and second sight: this is horror that respects our nerves.

Then we pivot to Black Phone 2, a sequel with big ideas and bigger moves. The early promise is there—snowbound landscapes, eerie dream-logic, and threads of the Grabber’s past flickering through ghostly footage—but the tone drifts. Instead of claustrophobic terror, we get an ice-rink showdown and lore that over-explains while undercutting risk. When almost no one dies, danger starts to feel optional.

We talk about why spectacle rarely replaces fear, and how a single choice—shifting from human evil to supernatural theatre—changes everything.

Along the way we compare notes with Sinister, call out script choices that dull sharp edges, and map the moments that still deliver genuine unease. We also rank the “stupidity index” for both films, share the blunders that pulled us out of the story, and yes, imagine how each of us would meet our end in both universes. If you care about what makes horror stick—pacing, performance, plausibility, and the power of suggestion—this one’s for you.

Enjoy the breakdown? Follow the show, share it with a horror-loving friend, and leave a review. Your messages help us pick the next film—and your best “how I’d die in a horror” ideas might make the show.

Join Lily and Damien as they dive into the world of horror films with humour, insight, and caffeine. From cult classics to guilty pleasures, they prove there’s no such thing as a bad horror movie.

Damo & Lily :)

• (00:00) - Cold Open And Host Banter

A rickety bridge, a locked cabin, and a book bound in skin—what could go wrong? We kick off our horror series by putting The Evil Dead under the brightest, blood-splattered microscope, asking a simple question that unlocks everything: why do stupid choices make scary movies so satisfying? From the clumsy charm of our show’s naming saga to a crash course in Video Nasty history, we set the stage for a lively, no-fluff breakdown of Raimi’s cult classic.

We trace the dominoes of doom with forensic glee: driving over a bridge that should end the trip, splitting up to explore, descending into the cellar alone, spinning the tapes, believing the demon’s “I’m better now,” and not finishing the job. Along the way we dig into Raimi’s grammar of dread—low-budget ingenuity, wild POV shots, fog-laced frames, and those unforgettable practical effects. Blood filling sockets and bulbs, stop-motion decay that’s both dated and delicious, and Foley work that makes the cabin feel possessed; this is the tactile horror modern CG can’t quite fake. We also unpack the uneasy legacy of the forest assault scene, the censorship that followed, and how the film’s audacity still provokes.

Character-wise, we argue about Ash as a “final boy” who barely earns it here, and how the genre’s clichés work like stage cues: we need the bad decision to fuel suspense and give us permission to shout at the screen. Our Stupidity Index rates Evil Dead’s decision-making a three out of ten, and that low score is exactly why the film endures—horror needs transgression to breathe. If they all chose wisely, there’d be no film, no fear, no fun.

Subscribe for more sharp, funny, and thoughtful dives into horror’s best worst choices. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend and leave a quick review—it helps more genre nerds find us. What infamous bad decision should we tackle next?

Join Lily and Damien as they dive into the world of horror films with humour, insight, and caffeine. From cult classics to guilty pleasures, they prove there’s no such thing as a bad horror movie.

Damo & Lily :)