Film Utopia – Details, episodes & analysis

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Film Utopia

Tv & Film

Frequency: 1 episode/19d. Total Eps: 125

In-depth movie talk hosted by three fellas with a passion for film. Detailed retrospective movie reviews and filmography discussions of directors, actors, composers, and more!

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124. Dario Argento: Part 1 – The 1970s: Razor Blades, Red Rooms & Red Herrings.

Episode 124

Thursday, June 25, 2026 • Duration 01:50:22

The Italian Horror journey continues as Steven and Sean begin a brand-new five-part retrospective on the work of Dario Argento, charting his theatrical filmography decade by decade. With new episodes arriving fortnightly, we begin where it all started: the 1970s, the decade where Argento emerged with black-gloved killers, garish rooms, impossible camera movements, and enough stylised murder to permanently alter horror cinema.

For this first chapter we focus exclusively on Argento's theatrical horror and thriller output, leaving The Five Days and his television work on the sidelines, as we revisit The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Cat O'Nine Tails, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Deep Red, and Suspiria.

Ever the movie geeks they are, Steven and Sean come armed with plenty of background knowledge on both the films and Argento himself. Still, we attempt to approach these rewatches with fresh eyes and reassess what still works, what surprises us, and what decades of horror fandom may have built up in our minds.

There’s predictable admiration for Argento’s latter 70s masterpieces, with Deep Red and Suspiria receiving the sort of glowing praise they routinely inspire (expect the usual enthusiastic gushing over Suspiria). Elsewhere, battle lines are drawn over the Animals trilogy, with Steven proudly flying the flag for Cat O'Nine Tails, while Sean showers Four Flies on Grey Velvet with perhaps more affection than anyone reasonably should.

join us as we step into the first decade of one of horror cinema’s most influential and distinctive voices.

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123. Lucio Fulci: Beauty, Brutality & (the) Beyond

Episode 123

Thursday, May 28, 2026 • Duration 01:40:47

This month on Film Utopia, Sean drags a deeply reluctant Steven kicking and screaming into the blood-soaked world of cult Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci. Sean, naturally, argues that Fulci was far more than just “the gore guy,” championing the dreamlike atmosphere, bleak surrealism, and nightmarish logic that made his films unlike anything else in horror cinema. Steven, meanwhile, stubbornly refuses to budge from his position that Fulci’s work is riddled with ropey dubbing, shonky production values, and unapologetic trashiness.

Thankfully, things remain surprisingly amicable as we work through a curated selection of Fulci’s horror, murder mystery, and Giallo work, including One on Top of the Other, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Don’t Torture a Duckling, The Psychic, Zombie Flesh Eaters, City of the Living Dead, The Black Cat, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery, The New York Ripper, Manhattan Baby, Conquest, Murder Rock, The Devil’s Honey, Aenigma, and A Cat in the Brain.

Along the way, we discuss Fulci’s evolution from stylish thriller director to the undisputed godfather of eyeball trauma, his fascination with surrealism and decay, his uneasy relationship with narrative coherence, and why his films continue to inspire horror fans decades later.

Dreamlike, gruesome, atmospheric, ridiculous, mesmerising. Lucio Fulci cinema is many things, but Steven would just prefer if at least one actor sounded like they were in the same room as each other.

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122. 1984 in Film

Episode 122

Thursday, April 23, 2026 • Duration 01:50:40

This month on Film Utopia, Steven, Benjamin, and Sean head back to 1984, a year where blockbuster spectacle, cult oddities, and bleak-as-hell TV movies somehow all coexisted quite happily; and barely any were sequels or retreads. Hollywood, please take note!

As is tradition, we go month by month, revisiting the highs, the lows, the first watches, and the films that have aged like fine wine… or questionable milk. We also dig into the awards season, box office battles, and notable births, painting a full picture of a year that refused to sit still.

Sean once again flies the flag for the weird and wonderful, bringing deep cuts like Blastfighter, Razorback, and the soul-crushing Threads. Steven rolls out the encyclopaedia to spotlight the year’s busiest actors while indulging his love of 80s fantasy with nods to The NeverEnding Story and The Company of Wolves. Benjamin, naturally, lobs in a few curveballs—The Killing Fields and Top Secret! among them.

And of course, we pay tribute to the heavy hitters: Ghostbusters and Gremlins (released on the same day!!!), alongside The Terminator, Body Double, Beverly Hills Cop, Star Trek III, and Amadeus.

We wrap things up by revealing our personal Top 12s, our “Dirty Dozen” of the year, where nostalgia, taste, and mild chaos collide.

A packed, nostalgic trip through one of cinema’s most stacked years.

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121. Duncan Jones: Small Filmography, Big Ideas

Episode 121

Thursday, March 26, 2026 • Duration 01:58:23

This month on Film Utopia, it’s Sean’s director pick, and he’s gone for a lean but fascinating body of work: Duncan Jones. With just four theatrical features, Steven, Benjamin, and Sean take the rare opportunity to slow things down and really get into the weeds.

We go deep on the quiet brilliance and existential ache of Moon, unpack the knotty mechanics and moral implications of Source Code (spare a thought for the poor bloke whose complete existence gets hijacked), and assess Warcraft as a surprisingly earnest attempt to wrangle decades of lore into something resembling a coherent blockbuster.

Then there’s Mute; a film that takes a hard left into some genuinely bleak territory, giving us plenty to chew on in terms of character, tone, and just how dark mainstream sci-fi is willing to get.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, we inevitably derail into an argument about Planet of the Vampires (again), with Benjamin doing a frankly questionable job as referee.

A thoughtful, occasionally chaotic deep dive into a filmmaker whose small output punches well above its weight.

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120. Mario Bava: Shadows, Stilettos, and Slaughter

Episode 120

Thursday, February 26, 2026 • Duration 02:30:57

The Italian Horror tour descends into velvet-draped madness as Steven and Sean tackle the horror legacy of Mario Bava; a filmmaker whose gorgeous lighting, elegant murders, and stunning brunettes didn’t just shape Gothic and Giallo cinema, but practically colour-graded it into existence.

Across first-time watches and long-standing favourites, we work our way through the candle-lit hallway of Bava’s greatest hits (and strangest detours), including Black Sunday, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Black Sabbath, The Whip and the Body, Blood and Black Lace, Planet of the Vampires, Kill, Baby… Kill, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, A Bay of Blood, Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, and Shock.

There’s glowing praise for Blood and Black Lace as the visual and structural blueprint for future Giallo, a heated debate over the ending of Planet of the Vampires (in which one host is categorically wrong but refuses to admit it), and a mutual lambasting of the 70s fashion choices of Baron Blood. We also dig into just how outrageously influential these films were, from A Bay of Blood basically inventing Friday the 13th, to Planet of the Vampires laying the groundwork for Alien, and take several opportunities to respectfully swoon over Fabienne Dali, Barbara Steele, and especially Edwige Fenech, all while marvelling over Bava’s ability to make murder look impossibly cool.

Stylish, opinionated, and occasionally thirsty, join us for a tribute to one of horror’s true architects. Mario Bava. The man who made shadows dance, colours leap, and murder look like theatre.

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119. 1986 in Film

Episode 119

Thursday, January 29, 2026 • Duration 01:27:37

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean wind the clock back to 1986 and take a month-by-month wander through one of the most eclectic, chaotic, and fondly remembered years in modern cinema.

From summer blockbusters to cult oddities, we revisit our first watches, reassess our long-held opinions, and shamelessly don the nostalgia goggles as each of us picks a favourite from every month of the year. Along the way, we celebrate the era-defining highs of Aliens, Highlander, The Fly, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Big Trouble in Little China, and gleefully tangle with the stranger corners of the year such as House, Troll, and The Golden Child.

There’s plenty of love for Labyrinth, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Three Amigos, and plenty of irritation from Steven when The Wraith inevitably enters the conversation.

We also take a detour through the 1986 awards season (what won, what didn’t, and what absolutely should have), alongside notable births, deaths, and the broader cultural context of the year.

A nostalgic, opinionated tour through a year when cinema swung for the fences, and often hit something wonderfully strange.

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118. The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions

Episode 118

Thursday, December 25, 2025 • Duration 02:41:59

For this year’s Christmas episode, Film Utopia heads back to Middle-earth as Steven, Benjamin, and Sean tackle The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions in full – from The Fellowship of the Ring to The Return of the King. Not a misty-eyed holiday special, but a long, honest fireside reckoning with one of cinema’s most beloved trilogies.

While still a fan overall, Steven uses the extended runtime to reflect on the criticisms he’s developed over the years, particularly with Return of the King, from its ever-stretching length to its ageing CGI. Benjamin finds his affection for the finale has also waned, taking issue the Witch-king’s demise, and Smeagol’s transformation.

Sean remains the trilogy’s most steadfast defender Though he acknowledges many of the same flaws, his love for the films endures. Especially The Two Towers, much to Steven’s ongoing bafflement.

What IS unanimous, however, is the enduring brilliance of The Fellowship of the Ring: Ian McKellen’s Gandalf, the location shooting, Howard Shore’s iconic score, the majesty of Rivendell, and the purity of its single-journey structure remain untouchable.

Join us for a festive return to Middle-earth, brimming with admiration… and the occasional raised eyebrow.

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117. 1995 in Film

Episode 117

Thursday, November 27, 2025 • Duration 01:52:34

This week on Film Utopia, Steven, Benjamin, and Sean hop in the cinematic time machine and cruise back to 1995, a year stacked so high with bangers, bruisers and cult classics that even John Doe would struggle to catalogue them.

We stroll month-by-month through our first-watch memories and rediscover why ‘95 was an all-timer. There’s expected reverence for Se7en, Casino, and Heat (the holy trinity of grimy crime masterpieces); love for Crimson Tide, 12 Monkeys, The Usual Suspects, and Strange Days, and even a warm salute for Tank Girl. Yes, even Steven, who has bizarrely softened on the film since his last watch.

From prestige thrillers to neon-splattered comic chaos, from time-travel gloom to mobster cool, 1995 gave us a cinematic buffet we’re still chewing on today.

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116. Predator: Badlands - Reaction

Episode 116

Thursday, November 20, 2025 • Duration 58:55

With Benjamin off-world, Steven, Sean, and special guest Max suit up for a deep-dive reaction to Predator: Badlands. After a quick surveying of the state of the modern Disney/Trachtenberg-verse, touching on Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, we zero in on the new film itself and each give our tuppence on this latest entry in one of our most beloved movie series’.

How does Badlands stack up against the broader Predator legacy? How does the series fare as a whole compared to other long-running favourites like Terminator and Alien? Short version: It’s holding it’s own better than most! We get into the Riddick-alike plot, the sound design, score, visual style, the Predator creature design, and even the evolving Predator language with largely positive remarks on all aspects. But looming over it all is the question we keep circling back to:

“It’s a tidy, punchy sci-fi action romp – but is this what we want from a Predator movie?”

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115. Halloween Special: A Nightmare on Elm Street - Complete Retrospective

Episode 115

Thursday, October 30, 2025 • Duration 01:50:54

This spooky season, Film Utopia sharpens its glove and dives head-first into the complete A Nightmare on Elm Street movie series; the final corner of what we lovingly call “the Big Four” of 80s horror, following our previous years’ deep dives into Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Hellraiser.

Steven, Benjamin, and Sean stalk their way through the original six films plus Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, Freddy vs Jason, and… yes, even that 2010 remake (which everyone happily agrees belongs in the bin).

Along the way, we chart Freddy’s evolution from terrifying dream-stalking boogeyman to latex-grinning stand-up comic, debate the best Elm Street entry (no one agrees), and celebrate the gloriously ridiculous mayhem of Freddy vs Jason. Sean compares Freddy’s Dead to Malcolm in the Middle, Benjamin vents his disdain for Part 4 and confesses he didn’t realise Tuesday Night’s Kristen was supposed to be the same character portrayed by Patricia Arquette, and Steven once again professes his love for New Nightmare - and shockingly defends Freddy’s Revenge!

Expect sharp claws, sharper opinions, and the cosy comfort of horror nostalgia. Sweet dreams…

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Film Utopia – Details, episodes & analysis

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Film Utopia – Details, episodes & analysis

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