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Luke, Chris, and Peter break down the horror phenomenon of the year. Kane Parsons started posting Backrooms videos on YouTube at 16, teaching himself Blender from his bedroom. Four years later he directed A24's highest-grossing film ever, starring two Oscar nominees, on a 30,000 square foot practical set so large the cast and crew actually got lost in it. $402 million worldwide on an $8 million budget. The youngest director to open number one domestically and globally. We break down how a creepypasta became the biggest horror movie of 2026. Live at 8:15pm CT. New setup, first episode. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere:Spotify: Franchise AddictsApple Podcasts: Franchise AddictsYouTube: @FranchiseAddictsLinktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Backrooms #KaneParsons #A24 #ChiwetelEjiofor #RenateReinsve #Horror #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot fresh off opening weekend. The Barbarian director made a video game movie that actually feels like playing a video game. Austin Abrams is a medical courier, not a supersoldier. Paul Walter Hauser is here. Zach Cherry shows up. The camera angles literally mimic the game's second and third-person perspectives. Cregger spent thousands of hours playing the games and channeled his frustration at missing shots into Bryan's hilariously terrible aim. He wrote the script so it could work without the Resident Evil name if Capcom said no. The initial cut was funnier until test audiences said tone it down. And this is his first and last franchise film because the pressure of fan expectations nearly broke him. $60 million opening weekend. Is this the best video game movie ever made? Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #ResidentEvil #ZachCregger #AustinAbrams #PaulWalterHauser #Horror #Capcom #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Luke, Chris, and Peter take on the biggest horror movie of the year. Obsession was made for $750,000 by a 26-year-old YouTube sketch comedian and has grossed over $500 million worldwide. Curry Barker wrote, directed, and edited it. He fought the MPAA over head smashes to avoid an NC-17 rating. The music store where they filmed got shut down a year after they wrapped. It was also featured in Wayne's World. Andy Richter is in this movie. The whole thing was partly inspired by a Treehouse of Horror episode from The Simpsons. And Inde Navarrette delivers a performance that hasn't left our heads since we saw it. Is this the horror movie of the decade? Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Obsession #CurryBarker #Horror #Blumhouse #IndeNavarrette #MichaelJohnston #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

The isolation series finale. Luke, Chris, and Peter close it out with the most literal isolation movie ever made. Tom Hanks gained 50 pounds, production shut down for a year so he could lose it all, and Zemeckis made an entire other movie in the gap. Wilson the volleyball had actual written dialogue that was cut from the final film. FedEx didn't pay a cent for the placement and saw a 30% spike in job applications after release. There is almost no musical score for the entire island sequence because Zemeckis wanted the audience to feel as alone as Chuck. The screenwriter spent a few days alone on a deserted island in the Sea of Cortez to research the script and nearly died from dehydration. Four films. Four kinds of isolation. This one strips away everything except the self. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #CastAway #TomHanks #RobertZemeckis #Wilson #FedEx #Isolation #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week three of the Isolation series. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Spike Jonze's 2013 masterpiece. Her is a love story between a lonely man and his operating system, and the scariest thing about it is that none of it feels like science fiction anymore. Jonze conceived the idea after reading about an AI chatbot in the early 2000s. The original voice of Samantha was Samantha Morton, who performed on set with Phoenix every day for the entire shoot. Jonze replaced her with Scarlett Johansson in post-production. Phoenix and Rooney Mara play a divorced couple in the film and later married and had two children in real life. Arcade Fire scored it. Jonze wrote it as a reflection on his divorce from Sofia Coppola. And Johansson starred in both this and Coppola's Lost in Translation. Two hosts. One film. The isolation series gets personal. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Her #SpikeJonze #JoaquinPhoenix #ScarlettJohansson #AmyAdams #ArcadeFire #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week two of the Isolation series. Luke and Chris go back to the movie that made them friends. Drive isn't an action movie. It's a fairy tale set in Los Angeles about a man who built walls around himself so carefully that the one time he lets someone in, it destroys everything. Refn doesn't have a driver's license. Gosling restored the Malibu himself. Carey Mulligan summarized making the film as "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours." Albert Brooks shaved his eyebrows to play a killer. And a woman sued the studio because the trailer made her think it was Fast & Furious. Two hosts. One movie. The one that started it all. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Drive #RyanGosling #NicolasWindingRefn #AlbertBrooks #CareyMulligan #OscarIsaac #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

The isolation series begins. Luke, Chris, and Peter kick off a brand new custom franchise with John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece. The Thing isn't a monster movie. It's a trust movie. Twelve men trapped in Antarctica with a creature that can perfectly imitate any of them. The paranoia doesn't come from what the alien looks like. It comes from the fact that anyone could be it. Rob Bottin was 22 years old when he designed the practical effects and literally hospitalized himself finishing them. The movie bombed at the box office because it opened the same day as E.T. and audiences wanted wonder, not terror. Kurt Russell almost burned his face off with a flamethrower prank. And John Carpenter still won't tell anyone who was the Thing at the end. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #TheThing #JohnCarpenter #KurtRussell #PracticalEffects #Horror #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Week four of our alien invasion franchise. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece. Arrival isn't about aliens. It's about a woman who learns to see time the way they do and has to decide whether knowing how the story ends changes whether it's worth living. Amy Adams accepted the role in 24 hours. The ship interior was built practically 50 feet off the ground. Villeneuve made his screenwriter rewrite one line of dialogue for weeks and then didn't subtitle it. The composer Jóhann Jóhannsson began scoring before they finished shooting and died two years later at 48. And the original ending had the aliens gifting humanity futuristic technology, which would have ruined everything. From obsession to spectacle to refuge to understanding. This is the film that earns the word. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Arrival #DenisVilleneuve #AmyAdams #JohannJohannsson #TedChiang #AlienInvasion #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

Fresh out of the theater. Luke, Chris, and Peter just saw Disclosure Day and are going live with their instant reaction. Steven Spielberg's return to alien contact closes out our five-week alien invasion franchise series. From Close Encounters' obsession to Independence Day's spectacle to District 9's refuge to Arrival's understanding to this. No prep. No notes. Just raw first impressions. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #DisclosureDay #Spielberg #FranchiseAddicts #MovieReaction #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia #MoviePodcast #AlienInvasion

Description: Week three of our alien invasion franchise. Luke, Chris, and Peter take on the most politically charged film in the series. District 9 flips the alien invasion on its head. The aliens have been here for 20 years and humanity's response isn't wonder, isn't spectacle, it's a refugee camp, barbed wire, and forced relocations. Neill Blomkamp grew up during apartheid in South Africa and made a $30 million sci-fi film that holds a mirror to everything from immigration policy to corporate exploitation to what happens when the "other" has nowhere left to go. Peter Jackson gave a first-time director full creative control after their Halo movie collapsed. The lead actor had never acted before. Every alien in the film is played by one guy. And the whole thing was nominated for Best Picture. From Close Encounters' obsession to Independence Day's spectacle to District 9's refuge, the alien invasion franchise gets real. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere: Spotify: Franchise Addicts Apple Podcasts: Franchise Addicts YouTube: @FranchiseAddicts Linktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #District9 #NeillBlomkamp #SharltoCopley #PeterJackson #AlienInvasion #SciFi #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia

The podcast covers the film 'Independence Day' and explores its marketing, box office success, character development, and political and social commentary. The film is discussed in the context of its spectacle and ensemble cast. In this conversation, the hosts discuss the magic of summer blockbusters in the 90s, the impact of Independence Day on the film industry, the compelling characters of the movie, and the presidential heroics portrayed in the film. They also explore the character development and iconic scenes that made Independence Day a memorable cinematic experience. The conversation delves into the themes of alien invasion as a reflection of imperialistic colonization, Bill Pullman's impactful performance, and the use of simple graphics in action scenes. It also explores the survival and impact of the alien invasion, American bravado in the 90s, Bill Clinton's connection to the movie, casting choices and character dynamics, Bill Pullman's career and the impact of Independence Day, the use of graphics and special effects, discussion on the movie Stargate, Bill Pullman's career trajectory, and Russell's impactful moment in the movie. The conversation delves into the impact of special effects and iconic moments in the movie, highlighting the significance of these elements in creating a lasting impression on the audience. Takeaways SpectacleEnsemble Cast Summer blockbusters in the 90sCharacter development and iconic scenesImpact of Independence Day on the film industry Alien invasion as a reflection of imperialistic colonizationBill Pullman's impactful performanceThe use of simple graphics in action scenes Impactful special effectsIconic movie moments Chapters 00:00 Marketing and Box Office Success07:00 Political and Social Commentary21:14 The Magic of Summer Blockbusters27:44 The Explosive Impact of Independence Day35:24 The Compelling Characters of Independence Day42:01 The Presidential Heroics01:02:43 Russell's Impactful Moment in the Movie

The Franchise Addicts are joined by special guest Zach to talk through 1977s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Check him out on all his platforms: https://open.substack.com/pub/zachonarthouse Tik Tok: zachonarthouse Letterboxd: Zsmith33 The podcast episode covers the movie 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and delves into the themes of wonder and obsession. The discussion explores the initial impressions of the movie, the first encounters with UFOs, and the character of Roy Neary and his journey into obsession. The themes of wonder and obsession are central to the narrative and are explored in depth throughout the conversation. The conversation delves into the themes of family dynamics, visual storytelling, and Spielberg's personal connection to the film. It explores the impact of family dynamics on the characters, the use of visual motifs and storytelling techniques, and the personal elements that Spielberg incorporated into the film. The conversation delves into Spielberg's visual mastery, favorite scenes and performances, the obsession with alien encounters, casting and character dynamics, consulting with UFO experts, interdimensionality, and concludes with ratings and final thoughts. Takeaways Wonder and obsession are central themes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.The movie captures the emotional response of people who have had drastic encounters with UFOs. Family dynamicsVisual storytellingSpielberg's personal connection to the film Spielberg's mastery of cinematography and visual storytellingThe emotional vulnerability and esoteric nature of Close Encounters Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Close Encounters28:21 The Wonder and Obsession of Roy Neary35:00 Visual Storytelling42:14 The Climactic Finale59:45 Visual Mastery of Close Encounters01:11:35 Consulting with UFO Experts01:16:41 Rating and Final Thoughts

The conversation covers the disnification of the Predator franchise, the use of practical effects and CGI, the reception and audience response to the film, and a humorous discussion about the Disneyfication of horror franchises. The conversation delves into the portrayal of characters in movies, highlighting the impact of video games on character development and the influence of video game dynamics on movie characters. It also explores the significance of character performances and the challenges of portraying dual roles within a single movie. The conversation methodically reviewed and ranked the Predator movie franchise, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each film. The themes of the franchise were explored, including the evolution of the Predator character and the impact of corporate influence on the franchise. The conversation covers the creation of a new franchise, specifically an Alien Invasion franchise, and discusses the challenges and excitement of building a movie franchise. It also delves into the exploration of various movie franchises and the anticipation of upcoming movies. Takeaways Franchise DisnificationPG-13 Success Character portrayal in moviesInfluence of video games on movie characters Franchise RankingPredator MoviesFranchise Themes Franchise CreationAlien InvasionMovie Franchises Chapters 00:00 Predator Badlands: Disnification14:01 Disneyfication of Horror Franchises22:46 Character Portrayal in Movies40:50 Influence of Video Games on Movie Characters53:57 Franchise Ranking01:03:00 Next Franchise Reveal

Luke, Chris, and Peter cover the two best Predator films since the original. Prey takes the hunt back to 1719 with a Comanche warrior who earned the franchise its best reviews in 35 years. Killer of Killers sends Vikings, samurai, and WWII pilots against the Yautja in an animated anthology that builds the first Predator cinematic universe. After weeks of suffering through sequels, the franchise finally delivers. Also: Michael Biehn joins the Predator kill club, Naru's dog is a 4,500-year-old breed, and the post-credits scene changes everything.Live at 8:15pm CT.🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku.SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays.📍 Find us everywhere:Spotify: Franchise AddictsApple Podcasts: Franchise AddictsYouTube: @FranchiseAddictsLinktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods#Predator #Prey #KillerOfKillers #AmberMidthunder #DanTrachtenberg #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/6700067129982976

Luke, Chris, and Peter attempt to survive three Predator sequels in one night. Predator 2 moves the hunt to 1990s LA with Danny Glover and Gary Busey. Predators drops Adrien Brody on an alien planet and asks you to believe he's an action star. The Predator brings back Shane Black, the guy who wrote bad jokes in the original, to direct an entire movie that somehow makes even less sense than his jokes did. Three movies. No Arnold. One episode. Pray for us. Live at 8:15pm CT. 🎙️ Part of the PodNation Media Network. Available on Roku. SUBSCRIBE for weekly franchise deep-dives, film analysis, and video essays. 📍 Find us everywhere:Spotify: Franchise AddictsApple Podcasts: Franchise AddictsYouTube: @FranchiseAddictsLinktree: linktr.ee/podnationpods #Predator #Predator2 #Predators #ThePredator #DannyGlover #AdrienBrody #ShaneBlack #FranchiseAddicts #MoviePodcast #FilmTwitter #PodernFamily #PodcastHQ #PodNationMedia