Are you the one your friends turn to for horror recommendations? Do you have a running list of the best practical effects? Then you're one of us. The THING about Films is your weekly sanctuary for all things horror. We review the new, revere the classics, and unearth the hidden gems of the genre. From the goriest body horror to the quietest ghost story, no subgenre is off-limits. This is more than a podcast; it's a community for those who truly love to be scared.
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This week we're talking Obsession, the new Curry Barker horror movie that's blowing up on word of mouth. It's about a lonely guy who'd rather make a cursed wish than risk hearing the word "no" — and we get into why the scariest thing in this movie isn't the trinket at all. It's the cowardice behind it.
We break down how the whole idea started from a Treehouse of Horror Simpsons rerun while Barker was killing time before his own TV episode aired.
We dig into Inde Navarrette's performance as Nikki, including those frozen-smile moments that are 90-95% practical, no CGI safety net.
We argue over the movie's biggest debate: is it secretly guilty of the same "nice guy" entitlement it's criticizing?
We cover the wild behind-the-scenes stuff, from the real working cursed-trinket hotline to the party location that burned down in the L.A. fires.
The Dead Letter Want more horror between episodes? The Dead Letter is our free horror newsletter and the perfect companion to the show. Every issue is packed with five sections: Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's a fun little dose of horror straight to your inbox, and a great way to keep the conversation going after the episode ends. Come join us.
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it."
That's it for this one, folks. If you had a good time, do us a favor and subscribe, leave a review, and tell a horror-loving friend, it really helps the show. Thanks for hanging out in the crypt with us.
We finally did it. After making everyone wait, we're cracking open Clive Barker's Hellraiser (1987) — and we're here to argue it was never actually the Pinhead show. This one's a nasty little story about marriage, betrayal, and obsession, where the demons are almost the least human thing in the house.
How Barker adapted his own novella with a million bucks, a handful of drawings, and two directing books he couldn't even check out from the library.
The resurrection scene breakdown — a body torn apart and run backward, plus a "demon heart" that was really just a tube and a guy blowing into it.
Why Julia is the real engine of the movie, and why Clare Higgins gets way too overlooked.
The score that almost was: Coil's rejected version vs. Christopher Young's gothic "sick romance" sound.
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Want more horror in your inbox? The Dead Letter is our free newsletter companion to the podcast, and it's stuffed with five sections every issue: Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's where we go deeper on the movies, the makers, and the weird stuff we couldn't fit into the episode. Come hang out with us there.
That's a wrap on Hellraiser — go solve the box responsibly, subscribe so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if we earned it this week. As Jessica always says:
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it."
|Scream 7: The Franchise Almost Didn't Survive Its Own Chaos
Scream 7 almost didn't exist. Fired leads, a resigned director, death threats, and an emergency nine-week rewrite later and Ghostface was back. This week, Ambrose and Jessica dig into whether the movie that rose from the ashes actually delivered, or just survived.
The behind-the-scenes collapse: Melissa Barrera fired, Jenna Ortega out, Christopher Landon gone — all within days of each other
Kevin Williamson's emergency return and what he built around Neve Campbell as a mother protecting her kids
The sound design doing heavy lifting — that bar kitchen scene with just a fridge hum and footsteps is old-school terrifying
The deepfake mechanic: timely and clever in theory, but does using A.I. to resurrect Dewey and Stu break the rules of the game?
The dual-killer reveal and why it feels like two totally different movies stitched together
Final rating: a jointly agreed three and a half coffins out of five
Want more horror content between episodes? The Dead Letter is a free monthly horror newsletter that goes deeper on everything we cover. Each issue includes Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's the perfect companion if you want more horror in your life.
Thanks for listening to The THING About Films. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and leave us a review — it genuinely helps us reach more horror fans. We'll be back next Friday with another one, and it'll probably destroy us.
Can horror comedy actually make a comeback? Or did the internet ruin the spoof movie forever? This week, Ambrose and Jessica go deep on five films — Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, M3GAN, and the upcoming Scary Movie 6 — to answer one question: what makes a horror comedy actually last?
They break down how Keenen Ivory Wayans ran two weeks of character rehearsals to make Scary Movie feel like a real slasher underneath all the filth.
The story of how a volunteer zombie army built from a Spaced fan site helped make Shaun of the Dead on just six million dollars.
Tucker & Dale isn't really a slasher parody — it's a movie about class prejudice and how horror films trained us to assume the worst about working class people.
A single TikTok dance cut M3GAN from a hard-R horror movie into a PG-13 cash machine — and both Ambrose and Jessica have feelings about it.
The Dead Letter If you want more horror between episodes, The Dead Letter is the free monthly newsletter from TheTHINGaboutFilms. Each issue includes Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's horror that goes deeper without the homework.
Sign-off Thanks for hanging out in the dark with us. If you're enjoying the show, subscribe and leave us a review — it really does help. We'll be back next Friday with something that'll probably wreck us emotionally. See you then.
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it."
|Thir13en Ghosts (2001): The Most Underrated Haunted House?
This week, Ambrose and Jessica step into Cyrus Kriticos's glass house of horrors to break down Thir13en Ghosts (2001). They tackle the wild Black Zodiac lore, the practical effects masterclass behind those twelve ghosts, and the question that splits horror fans down the middle — is this movie a glorious mess, or a misunderstood cult classic?
The bisection death scene and the practical body gag that put this movie on every horror top-ten list
Why the Angry Princess, the Jackal, and the Torso are still some of the best ghost designs ever put to film
Matthew Lillard chewing scenery as Dennis vs. Tony Shalhoub's grounded sad dad performance
The grief metaphor hiding under all the glass, gore, and chaos — plus the rumored TV series in the works
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Thanks for hanging out in the crypt with us this week, horror fam. If you dug the episode, hit follow, drop us a rating, and share it with the friend who still won't admit they were terrified of the Jackal as a kid. The Dead Letter newsletter is waiting for you — Jessica, take it home.
|Dolly (2025): The Doll-Masked Killer You Can't Unsee
Ambrose and Jessica head into the woods for Dolly (2025), Rod Blackhurst's nasty backwoods nightmare about a giant masked woman who doesn't want to kill you — she wants to keep you. We break down the brutal cold open, the nursery from hell, and the ending that flips the whole movie on its head.
Why the opening shovel scene tells you exactly what kind of movie you're in for
The nursery, the crib, and the genuinely unsettling thing Dolly actually wants from Macy
Max the Impaler's performance and how that doll mask does so much heavy lifting
Where the script slips, the Texas Chainsaw shadow it walks in, and that ring shot at the end
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Want more horror between episodes? Sign up for our free monthly newsletter, The Dead Letter — the official companion to the podcast. Every issue brings you Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's everything we're obsessed with, packed straight into your inbox.
Thanks for hanging out in the crypt with us. If you had fun, follow the show, leave us a review, and tell a friend who loves a good doll-mask nightmare. New episodes drop every Friday.
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it."
This week we're breaking down Good Boy (2025), the seventy-thousand-dollar indie horror that out-grossed The Rock at the box office and won its golden retriever a real acting award against actual humans. We dig into whether the monster is real, why this movie is secretly a grief story, and which one of us would survive moving into a haunted family farmhouse. (Spoiler: Jessica is Todd. We're sorry, Jessica.)
Ben Leonberg shot the entire movie at nineteen inches off the ground using his own dog Indy, his own house, and four hundred shooting days
The Kuleshov effect, ADR'd dog whines, and the wild fact that Indy was never actually scared in a single frame
The lantern reveal in the bedroom, the dog skeleton in the basement, and the ending that's been wrecking horror fans for weeks
Is the monster real, or is it just what dying looks like to a dog who has no words for it?
The Dead Letter
Want more horror in your inbox? The Dead Letter is our free monthly newsletter and the perfect companion to the podcast. Every issue gives you Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. Sign up at our website and we'll meet you in your inbox once a month.
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it.”
Thanks for hanging out with us this week. If you liked the show, hit subscribe, leave us a review, and tell a friend who can't watch a movie without checking if the dog dies first. We see you.
|Demons (1985): The Movie That Makes Horror Contagious
What if watching a horror movie was the thing that got you killed? That's the question at the heart of Demons, the 1985 Italian splatter classic from Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento — and Ambrose and Jessica are here to make the case that this film invented meta-horror a full decade before anyone gave it credit.
Ambrose argues that Demons beat Wes Craven's New Nightmare to the "horror-as-infection" concept by ten years — and he's not wrong
The hosts break down Geretta Geretta's iconic demon transformation, which was entirely improvised and ended up setting the physical blueprint for every demon in the film
Jessica and Ambrose go deep on the practical effects — glowing demon eyes made from street sign material, teeth pushed out by mechanical fangs, and a spine-bursting scene straight out of a fever dream
Coffin ratings are in: Ambrose lands at four and a half, Jessica goes full five — and makes a pretty convincing argument for why the unexplained stuff is actually the point.
The Dead Letter is our free monthly horror newsletter, and it's the perfect companion to the show. Each issue includes Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It goes out once a month and it's completely free to subscribers.
Thanks for listening to TheTHINGaboutFilms. If you're enjoying the show, subscribing and leaving a review goes a long way — it helps more horror fans find us, and we genuinely appreciate every single one.
|The Serpent and the Rainbow: The Zombie Movie That Got It Right
What if the scariest thing in a horror movie wasn't a monster, it was a drug? This week, Ambrose and Jessica are covering The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Wes Craven's wildly underrated Haitian zombie film based on real events. And yes, there is a real tarantula on a real open eyeball. We warned you.
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The film's opening shot — a single tear rolling down a buried man's face. Sets up the entire movie's central terror before a single word is spoken
Ambrose breaks down the real science behind zombie powder, Wade Davis's controversial ethnobotany research, and how tetrodotoxin can drop your vital signs to clinically dead
The hosts debate Zakes Mokae's terrifying, ice-cold performance as Peytraud and why his stillness is scarier than any supernatural moment in the film
Jessica loved the first two acts and hated the third. Ambrose gave it five coffins anyway, and they're not letting it go quietly
The Dead Letter is the free monthly horror newsletter that goes deeper than the podcast. Each issue includes Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's the companion piece the show deserves.
Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at TheTHINGaboutFilms — we want to know: when Dennis Alan wakes up at the end, did he actually beat it? Or is he still trapped and just doesn't know it? Start the conversation. We'll see you next week.
It's 1979. A film crew rolls up to a Texas farmhouse to shoot an adult movie, and the ancient couple who owns the place has some... strong feelings about that. Ti West's X is a gonzo slasher wrapped around a genuinely sharp argument about desire, aging, and who gets to be seen. Ambrose and Jessica break down why this one hit so much harder than anyone expected.
Mia Goth plays both Maxine and Pearl — two women at opposite ends of desire — and somehow makes you terrified of one and heartbroken for the other
The crew dissects the famous alligator kill, which West built using multiple practical puppets in a full Jaws-style production nightmare
The hosts debate whether the film critiques society's discomfort with elderly sexuality or quietly reinforces it
Ambrose rates it four and a half coffins, Jessica holds firm at four — and they both agree the lawnmower scene is exactly the right amount of unhinged
The Dead Letter: Want more horror between episodes? The Dead Letter is the free monthly newsletter from TheTHINGaboutFilms. Every issue comes packed with five sections: Anatomy of a Scene, Cutting Room Floor, Casting Shadows, Whispers in the Dark, and Summoning Soon. It's horror content you actually want in your inbox.
Sign-off: Thanks for listening — if you're enjoying the show, a subscribe or review goes a long way. We'll see you next week with something else that'll mess you up.
"And the best part it's absolutely Free, and you can cancel anytime you want if you don't like it."
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