- Horror Movie - Horror Homeroom

person in a slicker raises a hook in the air. Their face is obscured.

Posted on August 18, 2025

“What Are You Waiting For?”: Talking I Know What You Did Last Summer

Podcast

In this episode, we’re talking all things I Know What You Did Last Summer. Loosely based on the novel by Lois Duncan, this story of adolescent guilt and moral consequence has demonstrated remarkable cultural longevity but why? We’re breaking down this legacy sequel with spoilers, so stay tuned.

Works Cited

Khalid, Haliyana, and Alan Dix. “I Know What You Did Last Summer: What Can We Learn from Photolog.” ECSCW Conference, 2007.

Loock, Kathleen. “Reboot, Requel, Legacyquel: Jurassic World and the Nostalgia Franchise,” 173-88, Daniel Herbert and Constantine Verevis (eds), Film Reboots, Edinburgh University Press, 2020.

Och, Dana. “Beyond Surveillance: Questions of the Real in the Neopostmodern Horror Film.” Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015, pp. 195-212.

Patterson, Valerie O. “Writing Books that Hold Up, from Pay Phones to Cell Phones: An Interview with YA Suspense Novelist Lois Duncan,” North Carolina Literature into Film, vol. 21, 2012, pp. 123-32.

Schneider, Steven Jay. “Kevin Williamson and the Rise of the Neo-stalker.” Post Script, vol. 19, no. 2, 1999, pp. 73-87.

A man screams to warn people to get out of the ocean.

Posted on June 20, 2025

50 Years Later: Talking the Jaws Franchise

Podcast

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws by looking back at Spielberg’s genre-defining original and its progressively wilder sequels. A quartet of films that not only redefined summer horror but also played a pivotal role in shaping contemporary fears of the ocean, the Jaws franchise embraced genre hybridity, influenced public perception of sharks, and contributed to the rise of the summer blockbuster. But are there other reasons that explain the original film’s enduring cultural relevance? We’re diving in today with spoilers, so stay tuned!

Works Cited

Caputi, Jane E. “Jaws as Patriarchal Myth.” Journal of Popular Film, vol. 6, no. 4, 1978, pp. 305-326.

Caputi, Jane. “Jaws as Patriarchal—and Ecocidal—Myth.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 9 – 17.

Edgerton, Gary R. “Summer Spielberg, Winter Spielberg: Generational Transitions from Jaws to the Age of Convergence.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 227-244.

Howe, Andrew. “Amity Means Friendship: Jaws and the Post-Vietnam Politics of Perception.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 31 – 45.

Jackson, Kathy Merlock, and Philip L. Simpson, eds. ” This shark, swallow you whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws. McFarland, 2023.

Jameson, Fredric. “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture (1979).” Cultural Theory: An Anthology, edited by Imre Szeman and Timothy Kaposy, 1990, pp. 60-71.

“Jaws (franchise).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 May 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity. Accessed 6 June 2025.

Le Busque, Brianna, and Carla Litchfield. “Sharks on Film: An Analysis of How Shark-Human Interactions Are Portrayed in Films.” Human Dimensions of Wildlife, vol. 27, no. 2, 2022, pp. 193-199.

Lucken, Melissa Ford. “Struggling Against the Tide: Narrative Structure and the Human Connection in Jaws.” “This Shark, Swallow You Whole”: Essays on the Cultural Influence of Jaws, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Philip L. Simpson, McFarland, 2023, pp. 46 – 58.

Melia, Matthew. “Relocating the Western in Jaws.” The ‘Jaws’ Book: New Perspectives on the Classic Summer Blockbuster, edited by IQ Hunter and Matthew Melia, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Rubey, Dan. “The Jaws in the Mirror.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, no. 10-11, 1976, pp. 20-23.

a closeup of a lion looking out at its kingdom

Posted on April 26, 2025

Environmental Anxiety: Talking Day of the Animals (1977) and Nature’s Grave (2007)

Podcast

In this episode, we’re exploring the intersection of environmental anxiety and horror cinema via the tangled roots of eco-horror. In Day of the Animals (1977), high altitude radiation stemming from the hole in the ozone layer triggers an animal uprising in the mountains and leaves a group of stranded hikers battling the elements and each other. In Nature’s Grave (2007), a troubled couple descends upon a remote beach where their careless and, at times, cruel treatment of the natural world finally causes nature to push back. Both films serve as generative time capsules in understanding our current escalating climate crisis and leave us wondering what happens when the natural world refuses to stay silent. We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers so stay tuned.

A woman clutches her steering wheel while she screams in her car.

Posted on March 25, 2025

The Man Downstairs: Talking Longlegs (2024)

Podcast

On today’s episode, it is Nicolas Cage unleashed to somewhat questionable results in Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs. In the film, FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), a woman with possible clairvoyant abilities, is drawn into a series of murder-suicides spanning decades. A Lynchian crime procedural that leans into a fusion of supernatural and religious horror, Longlegs is a highly stylized descent into darkness that has left audiences divided. We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers so stay tuned.

A woman stands in front of bold wallpaper looking out vacantly.

Posted on February 28, 2025

Smoking, Drinking and Ring Dings: Talking The Stepford Wives (1975)

Podcast

In this episode, plastic smiles and perfectly coiffed doppelgängers are a veneer of perfection obscuring suburban darkness in Bryan Forbes’ The Stepford Wives (1975). Based on the novel by Ira Levin (1972), the film follows a woman named Joanna (Katherine Ross), who moves to a seemingly perfect suburban town only to discover that the women are being replaced with emotionless, submissive robots created by their husbands. Blending social commentary, satire and suspense, the film has been criticized for its “vision of feminism.” But given the current political landscape, does its themes deserve reconsideration? We’re breaking it all down today with spoilers, so stay tuned.