Podcasts

The Horror Homeroom Conversations podcast. Listen on Spotify.

School’s Out Summer Special Part 2: Talking Queer Horror

From using queer bodies to shock audiences to lecherous lesbians to effeminate gay men, the history of LGBTQ+ horror film is a very mixed bag. In part two of our School’s Out series for June, we’re diving into the history of queer horror film and considering how evolving concepts of monstrosity correlate to cultural attitudes […]

School’s Out Summer Special Part 1: But I’m a Cheerleader and Psycho Beach Party

What do murder sprees and conversion therapy camp have in common? According to our latest podcast, everything! In part one of our School’s Out series for June, we’re pairing one horror film with one non-horror film in order to show the fluidity of the genre. In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride 2019 by breaking down […]

Eat ‘Em All: Talking the Piranha Franchise

Think Jaws is the scariest reason to stay out of the water? Well, think again! In today’s episode, we’re deep diving into the Piranha franchise. A glorious mixture of exploitation and, at times, shockingly relevant social critique, Piranha is often dismissed as an uninspired parody but does it deserve that label? We’re breaking it all down on […]

Retro Dread: Talking The Final Girls and Summer of 84

It’s a totally bitchin’ two for one on this episode of Horror Homeroom Conversations in which we head back to the 1980s with Todd Strauss-Schulson’s The Final Girls (2015) and François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell’s Summer of 84 (2018). Criminally underrated, both films deploy depictions of nostalgia in order to reflect and then […]

Erasing Empathy: Talking Pet Sematary (2019)

The Horror Homeroom crew rarely agrees completely on a film but in this case, we’re unanimous in our criticism of the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. From its privileging of male grief via the systematic erasure of adult female characters to its deeply misguided use of the Wendigo, this film had us wondering […]

dopplegangers from movie Us

Doppelgängers of Death: Talking Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) has inspired a multitude of think pieces dissecting everything from its ridiculously good soundtrack to its striking visuals to its very open to interpretation plot. While few would argue its status as an interesting film, does that make it a good horror movie? We’re a divided crew on this episode of Horror […]

Breaking & Entering: Talking The People Under the Stairs (1991) & Don’t Breathe (2016)

On this episode of Horror Homeroom Conservations, we’re tackling two of our favorite films: Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs (1991) and Fede Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe (2016). While both films share a startling number of similarities, there is a pointed difference in where the audience’s sympathies ultimately reside. Is The People Under the Stairs an […]

The Forest

Appropriating Aokigahara?: Talking The Forest (2016)

Directed by Jason Zada, The Forest is ostensibly the journey of a young woman who travels across the world to find her twin sister who has gone missing. But lurking beneath this benign narrative is a complicated web of PTSD, trauma, and grief. Situated in Aokigahara, a place in Japan known internationally as The Suicide […]

Feminist Exploitation?: Talking The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

It’s Women in Horror Month and we’re taking on Amy Holden Jones’ The Slumber Party Massacre (1982). Both adored and reviled, this cult classic consistently divides audiences. Is it feminist? Is it exploitative? Can it be both? Today the Horror Homeroom crew is weighing in on those questions as well as asking whether death by […]