
Strap on your gas mask, crack open that sketch pad, and astrally project yourself into The Further as we continue our James Wan mini-series with an assessment of Wan's 2010 Insidious. With a script by key collaborator Leigh Whannell and a cast featuring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, and the ethereal Lin Shaye, this is the Insidious that started them all. Joining us at the séance table is Allison Broder, host of the Who's There? podcast.
Intro, Debate Society, To Sir With Love (spoiler-free): 00:00-28:58Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 28:59-1:04:02Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:04:03-1:21:19
Director James WanScreenplay Leigh WhannellFeaturing Joseph Bishara, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Angus Sampson, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Leigh Whannell, Patrick Wilson
Allison Broder has been the host of the Who's There? podcast since 2020; on the pod she interviews horror fans and creatives about why they love the genre.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Insidious by Joseph Bishara.
For more information on this film, writing by your hosts (on our blog), and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get yours. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
May 6, 2024
1 hr 21 min

Hooray for Captain Spaulding! And some Fireflies. Writer and early-00s horror authority Ariel Powers-Schaub joins us to vivisect Rob Zombie's 2003 roadside attraction of sin and debauchery, House of 1000 Corpses, starring Sid Haig, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, and a young, nubile, young Walton Goggins as "Deputy Steve Naish." So strap in, (fish)boys and girls. It's gonna be a bumpy night.
Intro, Debate Society, To Sir With Love (spoiler-free): 00:00-28:27Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 28:28-54:47Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 54:48-1:14:46
Director Rob ZombieScreenplay Rob ZombieFeaturing Karen Black, Erin Daniels, Dennis Fimple, Walton Goggins, Sid Haig, Chris Hardwick, Jennifer Jostyn, Matthew McGrory, Bill Moseley, Michael J. Pollard, Rainn Wilson, Sheri Moon Zombie
Ariel Powers-Schaub is a horror film critic and analyst from the great American midwest. She is a writer and a podcaster who champions 2000s horror. Ariel served as a senior contributor to and Administrative Assistant for Ghouls Magazine, and is a regular contributor to The Pod and the Pendulum. Her first book, Millennial Nasties, will be released on September 17th from Encyclopocalypse Publications. Pre-order the book here.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from House of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie and Scott Humphrey. Thanks to Liz DeGregorio and Jerry Sampson for introducing us to Ariel.
For more information on this film, writing by your hosts (on our blog), and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get yours. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Apr 29, 2024
1 hr 11 min

Watch out for that piano! And the well! And the light fixture! And the... clock? This week, we're joined by the one and only Dawn Luebbe (co-director, Greener Grass, Wayfair's "Welcome to the Wayborhood") to discuss Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's mindbending horror cult comedy House. Will we make it out alive? Only Auntie's cat Blanche knows for sure.
Intro, Debate Society, To Sir With Love (spoiler-free): 00:00-27:40
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 27:41-58:48
Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 58:49-1:15:41
Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Screenplay Chiho Katsura, based on a story by Chigumi Ôbayashi
Featuring Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Asei Kobayashi, Ai Matsubara, Yôko Minamida, Masayo Miyako, Kumiko Ôba, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Saho Sasazawa, Mieko Satô, Eriko Tanaka
Dawn Luebbe is known for her debut feature, Greener Grass, which she wrote and directed with Jocelyn DeBoer. Variety deemed the film, “The most pleasant surprise of this year’s Sundance” following its 2019 world premiere. Their screenplay was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. It was theatrically distributed by IFC and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and AMC. Dawn and Jocelyn have directed two episodes of TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything.” They've made four short films which have appeared in over 100 film festivals across the globe. Most recently Dawn directed a documentary short called Dress A Cow which premiered at the SXSW film festival. She has directed dozens of commercials in the US, Mexico, and Europe for brands such as GEICO, Coca-Cola, Wayfair, and Google, as well as environmental campaigns for the organization "Science Moms" and the fossil-free hydrogen company, Vattenfall.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from House by Asei Kobayashi and Mickie Yoshino.
For more information on this film, writing by your hosts (on our blog), and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com.
Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Apr 22, 2024
1 hr 15 min

We're back from Spring Break, discussing James Whale's 1935 classic featuring Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, and Ernest Thesiger. Our guests are the authors of the new book Peggy Webling and the Story Behind Frankenstein: The Making of a Hollywood Monster, about the woman who wrote the stage play from which Universal's Frankenstein (1931) was adapted. Also: a new superlative honoring one of our favorite actors, the inimitable Béatrice Dalle.
Intro, Debate Society, To Sir With Love (spoiler-free): 00:00-27:40
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 27:41-56:04
Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 56:05-1:16:04
Director James Whale
Screenplay William Hurlbut, adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley by John Balderston & Hurlbut
Featuring Colin Clive, E.E. Clive, Dwight Frye, Gavin Gordon, O.P. Heggie, Valerie Hobson, Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Una O’Connor, Ernest Thesiger, Douglas Walton
Bruce Graver has taught British Romantic literature and art at Providence College since 1985. He has prepared scholarly editions of the works of the Wordsworth family, has a special interest in 19th-century 3D photography (The Stereoscopic Picturesque is about to be published), and is a classically trained pianist and tenor who has performed with various New England choirs and chamber ensembles. In good weather, Bruce can be found hiking along the Appalachian Trail, or across the mountains of the English Lake District, where the Wordsworths and Beatrix Potter once lived.
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum is an ancient historian who teaches postgraduates at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, and writes on the history of astrology, divination, and ancient medicine. She has been an amateur genealogist for the past 23 years. Peggy Webling is Dorian’s great-grandaunt, and she grew up hearing family tales about her writing of the play Frankenstein. In 1991, she and her mother discovered a large cache of letters that Peggy and her sisters wrote to Dorian’s great-grandmother over almost 30 years, and Dorian now owns an unpublished archive of Peggy’s letters, papers, manuscripts, and photographs.
To find out more about Bruce and Dorian’s book, click here.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Bride of Frankenstein by Franz Waxman.
For more information on this film, essays from your hosts (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com.
Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Apr 15, 2024
1 hr 16 min

When music journalist Myles Clarkson visits ailing piano virtuoso Duncan Ely at his palatial California home, ostensibly to interview the man, Duncan notices something distinct about Myles: his hands – they’re beautiful, the bone structure perfect for a concert pianist. Myles, it turns out, is a Juilliard-trained musician whose career tanked after receiving some bad reviews. Taking an interest in Myles, Duncan introduces him to his artist daughter Roxanne. Soon Myles has entered the pianist’s inner circle, much to the chagrin of Myles’ wife, Paula, who feels more than a tinge of jealousy at the attention being paid to her husband. But things are about to take a turn for the uncanny. Roxanne casts a plaster life mask of Myles, and with Duncan on his way out, Myles donates blood to help him. While Myles is asleep, something happens, and when he awakes, he’s changed. It’s almost as if he’s someone else. His urge to live, to love, to play music, is revived, leaving Paula to wonder: just what, or who, is inhabiting the body of the man she loves?
Intro, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-28:50Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 28:51-1:02:54Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:02:55-1:22:19
Director Paul WendkosScreenplay Ben Maddow, based on the novel by Fred Mustard StewartFeaturing Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Bradford Dillman, Pamelyn Ferdin, Curt Jurgens, Barbara Parkins, Kathleen Widdoes, William Windom
David Cote is a playwright, opera librettist, and critic based in New York. His operas include Lucidity – which will be produced by On Site Opera in New York and Seattle Opera in fall 2024, Blind Injustice, which premiered at Cincinnati Opera and will be presented at Peak Performances at Montclair State University February 16 & 18. Other operas include Three Way at Nashville Opera and BAM; The Scarlet Ibis for the Prototype Festival; and 600 Square Feet with Cleveland Opera Theater. His plays include The Müch, Saint Joe, and Otherland. David wrote lyrics for Nkeiru Okoye’s Black Lives Matter monodrama, Invitation to a Die-In and the dating-app song cycles In Real Life, composed by Robert Paterson. David’s TV and theater coverage appears in The A.V. Club, Observer, 4 Columns, and American Theatre. He was the longest serving theater editor and chief drama critic of Time Out New York. He’s also the author of popular companion books about the Broadway hits Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Spring Awakening, Jersey Boys, and Wicked.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from The Mephisto Waltz by Jerry Goldsmith.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Feb 5, 2024
1 hr 22 min

Behold – the late, great Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor whose performances in Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, Cymbeline, and others left him the laughingstock of London theatre critics, is dead. And yet somehow, someone is knocking off said critics one at a time in truly Shakespearean fashion… albeit with slight alterations to the text. Shylock may have wanted his pound his flesh – this killer takes the heart. Joan of Arc might have burned at the stake – this killer fries his victims in a hair salon. Peregrine Devlin, head of the London Critics Circle, is baffled, as are the police. And yet – the order of the killings bear a striking resemblance to Lionheart’s last repertory season. What’s going on with the Thames-side meths drinkers that have taken up residence in the crumbling Burbage Theatre? And what might Edward’s daughter, Edwina, have to do with everything? Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend us your ears – for herein lies the tale of the deceased actor who set out to exact revenge, and succeeded, and the rest – is silence.
Intro, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-26:10Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 26:11-1:07:38Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:07:39-1:28:17
Director Douglas HickoxScreenplay Anthony Greville-Bell, based on an idea by Stanley Mann and John KohnFeaturing Harry Andrews, Coral Browne, Robert Coote, Diana Dors, Jack Hawkins, Ian Hendry, Joan Hickson, Michael Hordern, Arthur Lowe, Robert Morley, Milo O’Shea, Dennis Price, Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Eric Sykes
Ben Viccellio is an actor, writer and Associate Professor of Drama & Film at Kenyon College. His acting credits include the role of Oedipus in Frank Galati's Oedipus Complex at The Goodman Theatre; Cherry Orchard, Theatrical Essays, and the world premiere of Men of Tortuga at Steppenwolf; the role of Petruchio in Short Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth in Short Shakespeare: Macbeth, and Guildenstern in Hamlet at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Ben has also also acted for film and television, as well as in the odd commercial... some of them, he claims, very odd. His writing for the stage has been produced in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Aspen.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Theatre of Blood by Michael J. Lewis.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Jan 29, 2024
1 hr 28 min

World War II. Somewhere in Germany. Accompanied by a cameraman shooting propaganda for Mother Russia, a ragtag platoon fighting the Nazis receives a distress signal from fellow soldiers and heads off to investigate. They approach a church where no Russians can be found, but the church is inhabited by creatures who appear to be constructed from weapons, parts of machines and vehicles, but still have blood flowing through their veins. The creatures seem like part of the Nazi war machine, but then, one can’t be sure in the fog of war. Soon, cut off from the outside world, the platoon is surrounded, their C.O. down. It’s up to the rest to get inside the factory of a mad scientist, and soon discovers just where the creatures are from, who created them, and why they exist.
Intro, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-26:30Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 26:31-1:01:38Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:01:39-1:24:28
Director Richard RaaphorstScreenplay Chris Mitchell & Miguel Tejada-Flores, story by Richard Raaphorst & Miguel Tejada-Flores, original idea by Richard RaaphorstFeaturing Cristina Catalina, Robert Gwilym, Alexander Mercury, Luke Newberry, Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse, Mark Stevenson, Hon Ping Tang, Andrei Zayats
Bobby Frederick Tilley is a costume designer for theater, film, and TV. His theater credits include Be More Chill on Broadway, for which he received one of his two Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Costume Design. His work has also been seen at the Atlantic Theatre Company, the Geffen Playhouse, the Signature Theatre, the Roundabout, Second Stage, LAByrinth Theater Company, Rattlestick Theater, and Ars Nova, among other venues.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Jan 22, 2024
1 hr 24 min

Following a double mastectomy, and hoping to recover in peace, actress Veronica Ghent travels to what she believes will be a solitary retreat in the Scottish Highlands. She’s accompanied by a young nurse, Desi, who through sheer will and a good heart is able to put up with Veronica’s brusque, standoffish nature. There are other forces at work: the land on which their cabin sits was the burial ground of thousands of alleged witches, whose ashes have fertilized the soil and created ground rich with supernatural power. When her dreams are haunted by visions of witches being burned and silenced, we learn of an incident from Veronica’s past involving a famous director and possible abuse. It’s an incident that’s scarred Veronica as much as her recent surgery. But now, imbued with powers thanks to the the Highlands, Veronica finds herself able to confront the damage done to both mind and body.
Intro, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-29:52Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 29:53-1:01:52Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:01:53-1:23:23
Director Charlotte ColbertScreenplay Charlotte Colbert & Kitty PercyFeaturing Jonathan Aris, Layla Burns, Kota Eberhardt, Olwen Fouéré. Rupert Everett, Alice Krige, Amy Manson, Malcolm McDowell
Jerry J Sampson is a female horror screenwriter whose main thematic focus is on generational trauma and the effects of repression on the psyche. She has four feature scripts in various forms of production, including one feature supernatural horror optioned and filming in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She is currently in pre-production on her directorial short film debut, In Dreams, working together with local crew and talent to create a truly haunting short that encapsulates the feeling of grief and loss through a lyrical and gorgeous narrative. In addition to her filmmaking pursuits, Jerry is also a film critic for such online publications as Ghouls Magazine, Rue Morgue, Moving Picture Film Club, and others, offering deep dives and editorials on current and classic horror films. She features on podcasts and panels, attends film festivals as both a creative and as press. Her collection of fiction The Scream & Other Dark Stories can be ordered here. Per her website, “She is here to offer a different voice in the horror sphere, always striving to prove the value of the horror genre as a means of catharsis and social commentary. The genre is so often overlooked, but she believes that through horror we, especially women, are able to safely explore the dark corners of the world, of our communities, of our homes.”
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from She Will by Clint Mansell.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Jan 15, 2024
1 hr 23 min

Somewhere on the outskirts of Paris, a woman, Louise, is driving alone at night. There’s a body in the back seat of her car. Its face is obscured, and it’s slumped over, lifeless. Because said body is a corpse, and Louise is soon dragging it into the Seine. Meanwhile, after giving a speech about the perils and pleasures of skin grafts, a doctor, Genessier, is called to the morgue to identify a body. It is that of his missing daughter? So he claims. On his way out, Gennessier is accosted by a man, Tessot, who asks if the body is that of his missing daughter, Simone. Gennessier tells him no, it’s his daughter, and that’s that. But back at the doctor’s home/clinic is indeed his daughter, Christiane, alive and well, but hiding behind a white mask that obscures a badly scarred face, the result of a recent car accident. The police, meanwhile, are suspicious – who is the body in the river, and why is IT missing its face? And why does it appear someone surgically removed said face with a scalpel? Louise, meanwhile, has located and lured a new facial donor / candidate / victim back to the clinic, a victim who’s soon undergoing a gruesome surgery that may or may not spell freedom, as it were, for poor faceless Christiane Genessier.
Intro, Math Club, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-27:46Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 27:47-1:06:09Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:06:10-1:26:50
Director Georges FranjuDialogue by Pierre Gascar, adaptation by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Jean Redon, and Claude Sautet, based on the novel by Jean Redon Featuring Béatrice Altariba, Pierre Brasseur, François Guérin, Juliette Mayniel, Alexandre Rignault, Edith Scob, Alida Valli
Liz DeGregorio is a poet, writer, and editor. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Lucky Jefferson, Anomaly, Catapult, Dread Central, BUST, Ghouls Magazine, OyeDrum Magazine, and many other publications. She’s also performed at Providence’s Dorry Award-winning storytelling series Stranger Stories.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Eyes Without a Face by Maurice Jarre.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Jan 8, 2024
1 hr 26 min

Jennifer Check and Anita “Needy” Lesnicky are best friends living in the town of Devil’s Kettle, best known for its waterfall and high school football team. When Jennifer suggests she and Needy step out to see a band, Low Shoulder, at the local roadhouse, Melody Lane, Needy’s reluctant. She’s rather spend the night with Chip, her boyfriend. But Jennifer's nothing if not persuasive. Upon arriving at Melody Lane, it’s clear the band is a bunch of locals posing as hipsters from the city. But Jennifer’s entranced by the lead singer, Nikolai, who she finds “salty,” and as the set heats up, so does Melody Lane. A fire soon engulfs the bar, and after escaping, Jennifer and Needy are beckoned to the band’s van. Jennifer succumbs, but Needy runs home, only to find Jennifer in her kitchen, beaten, bloody, and gorging herself on Boston Market chicken. What's happened? And what does it mean when certain members of their high school class end up dead, mangled, drained of their blood? Needy suspects something bigger than a few random murders at play, and wonders if maybe, just maybe, her bestie’s at the center of it all.
Intro, Math Club, Debate Society, Hot for Teacher (spoiler-free): 00:00-31:16Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 31:17-1:03:26Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:03:27-1:18:27
Director Karyn KusamaScreenplay Diablo CodyFeaturing Adam Brody, Megan Fox, Kyle Gallner, Chris Pratt, Amy Sedaris, Amanda Seyfried, J.K. Simmons, Johnny Simmons, Cynthia Stevenson
Kate Thompson is a small animal veterinarian by day and a horror movie aficionado by night who has a special affinity for the campy, gory, and feminist side of horror. As co-host of The Nightlight Horror Movie Club podcast with her best friend and fellow vet, Ariana, they explore the darkest corners of horror cinema, presenting a unique blend of movie reviews and mini-episodes, true crime, creepypastas, urban legend, and all things 'spoopy.’
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Jennifer’s Body by Andrew Ampaya and Ryan Levine.
For more information on this film (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), the pod, essays from your hosts, and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com. Please subscribe to this podcast via Apple or Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating. Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Instagram.
Jan 2, 2024
1 hr 18 min
Load more
