Podcast Extra: An Interview with Jakob’s Wife director Travis Stevens!

One of the big features released in the SXSW film festival Midnighter selections was Travis Steven's sophomore feature effort, Jakob's Wife, starring Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden. It was a wonderful character study of a middle-aged woman finding the most unusual (and bloody) way to break out of a mid-life crisis. The Scariest Things got a chance to break down this remarkable film with Travis.
Read More

The 2021 Thingy Award Nominations: Open Ballot!

It's awards season! And for horror genre fans, it is time for the third annual Thingy Awards! 2020 was a scary year for more ways that we could have imagined, but despite the cinemas being closed down, movie makers delivered some great movies for us. The Scariest Things once again invites our valued fans to vote for who they thought was the best of 2020. Our industry insiders will also be weighing in, for what should be a very interesting award!
Read More

Zombie Comedy “Brain Freeze” Kicks Off Fantasia’s 25th Edition This August

Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival follows up its massively successful virtual version in 2020 with another online fest this year as it celebrates its 25th edition from August 5 through August 25, 2021. Opening Fantasia this year will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo. Fanstasia has also revealed the super cool poster for its 2021 edition.
Read More

Mike’s Review: Offseason (2021) (SXSW Festival)

★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Pulling the perfect Lovecraftian film is a feat like no other. It’s been tried again and again. You might even say film makers repeated attempts to crawl inside Mr. Lovecraft’s tortured brain is rife with peril, failure, and madness. Or more to the point, it’s a cursed mission. Many have attempted to bring Lovecraft to the silver screen and most have failed. In the case, of 2021’s Offseason, it’s not so much a failure, but a dull attempt.
Read More

Joseph’s Review: The Power

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ The Power is a riveting U.K. supernatural horror film set in a hospital during that country’s 1970s rolling blackouts, following a nurse on her first night on the job. Real-world horrors are exposed by an otherworldly force in this first-rate chiller. Directed by Corrina Faith
Read More

The Scariest Things Podcast Extra: SXSW Recap

South by Southwest (SXSW), the biggest arts and culture festival in the US had a fully virtual presentation in March. Mike and Eric take a moment to discuss the Midnighter Films presented at the big Austin streaming showcase.
Read More

Happy Easter Horror Hounds!

This Easter 🐰🐰🐰 you haven't a hop in hell! Because...here comes Peter Cottonhell! If those aren't two of the most hackneyed and shoe-horned taglines we don't know what are. Because Beaster Day is real, it's coming for you, and we've digested more crappy films that anyone should!
Read More

Mike’s Book Report: Video Palace: In Search of the Eyeless Man: Collected Stories (2020)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ The rise of the podcast generation paired with a nation’s emerging fascination with rampant conspiracy theories is the perfect backdrop for a horrifying and mercurial folk tale. In both the case of podcasts and conspiracies people don’t stop until they’ve reached the ever-loving bottom of the barrel. The problem is these barrels have no bottoms.
Read More

Joseph’s Review: Sound of Violence (SXSW Online 2021)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ A young woman who saw her family murdered tries to recreate through music the feeling that occurred at that time in this horror outing that is heavy on human suffering but light on logic. Directed by Alex Noyer
Read More

Eric’s Review: The Spine of Night (2021) (SXSW Film Festival)

★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ The Spine of Night channels its inner Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi in this bloody rotoscoped production. This is dark high fantasy, with a touch of horror, and though it mines very familiar fantasy tropes for its plot, it does find an original voice. The whole presentation feels more like a curiosity than a revelation.
Read More

Scary Radio Plays: A Garden of Terrible Blooms

Award-Winning playwright Sharon Yablon taps into her noir sensibilities for a new podcast of genre radio dramas, A Garden of Terrible Blooms. Prepare for the surreal one-act dramas that touch on elements of mystery, horror, and true-crime centered around L.A.'s famed Sunset Boulevard.
Read More

Eric’s Review: Alien on Stage (2021) (SXSW Festival)

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ Alien on Stage is a documentary about a troupe of bus drivers turned community theater actors who got the opportunity of a lifetime to perform their production on stage in a theater in the famed West End of London. Though you sweat out whether these charming neophytes can pull it off, there is enough of an inkling that they've got something special that this endeavor is so crazy that it just... might... work!
Read More

Mike’s Review: The Feast (2021) (SXSW Festival)

★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Don’t. Turn. This. Movie. Off. Seriously, it’s a slow burn in grand tradition of slow burn horror films, but the payoff off is so deliciously evil and filling. If you stop after the aspic and the salad course you’ll miss a rather grisly desert.
Read More

Joseph’s Review: Witch Hunt (SXSW Online 2021)

★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★

Teen horror and social commentary make for a fine union in this feature about a deadly U.S. government clampdown on witchcraft and the women who practice it. Directed by Elle Callahan
Read More

Jakob’s Wife (2021) Review (SXSW Festival)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★

Intensity 🩸🩸 for vampiric violence

Jakob's Wife is an essay on a mid-life menopausal crisis, by way of vampirism. Jakob's Wife delivers great character arcs and engaging acting. Barbara Crampton has been given a meaty role, and she delivers perhaps her best screen performance in memory. Larry Fessenden also is stellar as the well intentioned minister Jakob.

Read More

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982)

★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★ To describe this film, one must invoke the voice of Bill Hader's Saturday Night Live character, Stefon. The audience cheers as Stefon slides in from stage right. Hands rise to face. Breathe deep. And release.
Read More

Eric’s Review: Gaia (2021) (SXSW Festival)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Mother Earth just may have it in for us, according to the South African Eco-Horror showcase Gaia, which had its World Premiere at the SXSW film festival. It's beautiful, quiet, creepy, and full of spores. (Cough! Cough!)
Read More

Movie Posters We Love: Amityville Horror (1979)

If you're a regular listener to our little ol' podcast you've probably heard us wax poetically about the (sadly) uneven implementation of one of the greatest horror plot lines of all time -- the Amityville Horror. If you're of a certain age Amityville and the Lutz family was all the talk. On the newsstands, in the classroom, at the water cooler. People were...um...obsessed...with this sad family and their demonic plight.
Read More

The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXX: Heavy Metal Horror!

Put on your best spandex, studded leather straps, and break out the hairspray. It's time for Heavy Metal Horror! Your professors for this episode are Mike and Liz, true metalheads both, as Eric plays the role of the general population of metal familiar, but not metal saturated fandom.
Read More

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Give us your email and get The Scariest Things in your inbox!

Scariest Socials