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Woodstake is the vampire graphic novel that sends a Dracula-style predator to Woodstock 1969, and we sat down with the man who made it. Shawn Hainsworth (who writes as Darin S. Cape) joins Meaghan and Arthur to talk about how rereading Bram Stoker's Dracula alongside Michael Lang's The Road to Woodstock turned into a pun, then a screenplay, then five years of work on the Woodstake graphic novel. The elevator pitch is simple: hippies vs. vampires. What's underneath it is a lot more interesting. Shawn wanted to take one of the most cynical creatures in horror (a centuries-old predator who knows human failings better than anyone) and set it loose on a generation that honestly believed it could change the world. Woodstake: Hippies vs. Vampires at Woodstock 1969Shawn Hainsworth's elevator pitch for the Woodstake graphic novel: a vampire descends on Woodstock in 1969.The idea hit while he was rereading Bram Stoker's Dracula and reading Michael Lang's The Road to Woodstock at the same time. The pun came first; the scenes followed.He didn't want it to just be campy, so it took a while to find something bigger inside the concept.A Dracula-Style Vampire vs. the Peace and Love GenerationA cynical, centuries-old vampire who knows human failings better than anybody, set against people who believed they could change the world.Three kinds of hippie: Nina, the true believer; Artie, who might sell out and become a yuppie; and Jon, chasing his own career.The Vietnam War divide runs through the villains, including a vampire who argues about the war while trying to kill Artie.Recreating Woodstock 1969 in a Graphic NovelShawn and Felipe Kroll watched the Woodstock documentary on repeat to get the details right.Every act appears when it actually played, and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising lands right as things come to a head.Michael Lang makes a cameo, and the story ends with a conversation between the vampire and Jimi Hendrix.Shawn's dream backstage passes: Richie Havens stretching his set into Freedom, Santana, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Arlo Guthrie, and Hendrix.From Screenplay to Graphic NovelWoodstake started as a screenplay; the whole prologue was added after the first two issues were written.Felipe Kroll's painted art style looks nothing like a typical comic book, and he repainted pages to get them right.Woodstake took about five years from idea to finished graphic novel.Vampire Movies and Why Vampires Never DieShadow of the Vampire, Willem Dafoe and the Max Schreck legend from the making of Nosferatu.Meaghan's festival pick Los Vampires, about the Spanish-language Dracula crew that shot at night.Shawn calls vampires the Swiss Army knives of the horror world: What We Do in the Shadows, Interview with the Vampire, and even Star Trek's salt vampire.Woodstake '99 and What's Next from SHP ComicsWoodstake '99 concludes the story at Woodstock 1999, with darker art and a vampire who is back for vengeance.Issues are named after songs: Going Up the Country, My Generation, Freedom, Bad Moon Rising and Purple Haze. There's a companion Spotify playlist too. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Other Mommy review, fresh from the theater: Jessica Chastain plays a mom and the thing wearing her face, and it should have wrecked us. It didn't. Rob Savage (Host, The Boogeyman) directs this adaptation of Josh Malerman's 2024 novel Incidents Around the House, produced by James Wan through Blumhouse-Atomic Monster. The cast is stacked: Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass, Arian Moayed, Dichen Lachman and Karen Allen (yes, Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark). Other Mommy Review: Our Verdict and Scare FactorOther Mommy gets 4 digs out of 10 from both of us; a stacked cast and great visuals can't fix a story with no build.Scare factor: Fun and Wild, with Light scares (and yes, we argued about it).Meaghan's tagline for the movie: "Don't lie to your children."Incidents Around the House: Josh Malerman's Novel vs the MovieThe novel is told entirely from eight-year-old Bela's perspective, which Meaghan compares to Emma Donoghue's Room.In the book, the entity is tall, boxy, and wrong (eyes on its chin), and it stays in Bela's closet far longer.The book's ending is much darker than the film's, which Meaghan refuses to spoil on mic.Want the full book breakdown? Our friends at Drawn to Darkness are covering it.Why the Dread Never BuildsThe Other Mommy movie reveals its entity in the opening minutes, before we know anyone in the family.One throwaway line explains why the entity can suddenly leave Bela's room.There's almost no ambiguity between Ursula and Other Mommy; the novel's impersonation scenes are where the real fear lives.What Works: Practical Effects, the Ball Pit and the Upside-Down PartyThe melting face and the seven-foot entity land some genuinely creepy moments.The ball pit to bedroom to ocean transitions look great (and feel very James Wan, very Insidious).The upside-down party sequence with babysitter Kelvin is Meaghan's favorite scene in the film.Jessica Chastain's Dual Role and the Motherhood ThemeJessica Chastain is grounded as Ursula and deeply unsettling as Other Mommy; her glued-on smile made a kid on set scream.Arabella Olivia Clark carries a hard role as Bela, and Jay Duplass makes Russ easy to root for.The film keeps the book's honest take on parenthood: you can love your kid and still want your own identity.Coming Up on Grave ToneNext week: Whalefall, Brian Duffield's adaptation of the Daniel Kraus novel.We're catching Fresh Meat, Dead Meat's horror shorts anthology.Not sure what to watch? Try the Horror Movie Picker at gravetonepod.com. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

V/H/S/Mixtape review time, and this one is cuckoo nuts bananas. The ninth V/H/S film turns sound, music and heavy metal into the horror, and we came out of it with our jaws on the floor. Arthur and Meaghan break down Shudder's newest found footage horror anthology, starting with GWAR's deranged MTV-style wraparound and moving through all four main segments: Renee Zhan's Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance (killer puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, plus Barbara Crampton), David Moreau's Heartbeat (two urban explorers, a soundproof chamber and the sound of your own body), Ernest Dickerson's The Music of Mr. Sze (a film student, a violin and something cosmic living in the attic) and RZA's Death Tone (Neela Jolene, a dead producer's tape and a very literal hunt for the perfect sound). We also get into the two music video interludes, Flying Lotus's stop-motion Another Cabin and Tobias Forge's Premature Burial. V/H/S/Mixtape: Shudder's Sound-Driven Horror AnthologyThe ninth V/H/S film, streaming on Shudder October 9, 2026, builds every segment around sound, music and heavy metal.Spoiler-free verdict: gory, wild, and easily one of the most unhinged V/H/S movies yet. Arthur compares its sound-horror focus to Undertone.How it stacks up against V/H/S/Beyond and V/H/S/Halloween, the two entries that got the franchise back on a roll.GWAR's MTV-Style Wraparound and the Music Video InterludesGWAR host a deranged, metal-only music video show that sets the tone in the first five minutes (don't eat dinner during this one).Flying Lotus directs Another Cabin, a stop-motion nightmare about a boy, his awful grandmother, and a 30-foot monster in the woods.Tobias Forge of Ghost directs Premature Burial, a metal music video about revenge and being buried alive.Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance and HeartbeatRenee Zhan's killer puppet segment: Jim Henson's Creature Shop builds Muppet-style monsters, Barbara Crampton plays the studio exec, and the song is a genuine earworm.Watch for the V/H/S/Halloween Easter egg in the warehouse and the post-credit scene.David Moreau's Heartbeat (from the director of MadS) traps two urban explorers in a soundproof chamber where their own bodies become the horror.The Music of Mr. Sze and RZA's Death ToneErnest Dickerson's The Music of Mr. Sze: a film student, a forbidden violin piece, and a cosmic entity in the attic. Lovecraft fans, take note.RZA's Death Tone: a dead producer's tape, a step-by-step recipe for the perfect sound, and a descent into madness carried by Neela Jolene.V/H/S/Mixtape Segments Ranked and RatingsDigs: Arthur 8/10, Meaghan 7/10 (huge highs, a little less cohesive overall).Arthur's top two: Death Tone and Heartbeat. Meaghan's top two: Heartbeat and Death Tone.Plus favorite segments from past entries, including Mike P. Nelson's V/H/S/85 work and Kate Siegel's V/H/S/Beyond segment.Also on Our Horror RadarBlack Zombie, Maya Annik Bedward's documentary on the Haitian roots of the zombie. Other Mommy hits theaters, Dead Meat's Fresh Meat anthology is coming, and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival coverage is on the way.Find your next watch with the Horror Movie Picker Quiz at gravetonepod.com. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Beware Boiúna review is here, and this giant snake movie does not care who it eats. Spoiler-free first, full spoilers after Gary's warning. Meaghan and Arthur review Beware Boiúna, the new creature feature from director Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn, Silent Night, Deadly Night), shot on location in the Amazon rainforest near Leticia, Colombia. A team of doctors on a medical mission heads upriver, an illegal gold mining operation is tearing up the jungle, and the Boiúna (the colossal river serpent of Amazonian folklore) wants every last one of them gone. Beware Boiúna Review: Spoiler-Free First ImpressionsMike P. Nelson's Amazon creature feature was shot on location near Leticia, Colombia, and it shows: sweaty, gritty and fully immersive.A stacked cast: Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Kiana Madeira (Fear Street trilogy), Logan Marshall-Green (Upgrade), plus Juan Pablo Shuk, Will Close and Jackson Bews.Meaghan's tagline keeps it simple: stay out of the jungle.The Boiúna: Amazonian Folklore Meets Giant Snake HorrorThe Boiúna is the giant river serpent of Amazonian folklore, here roughly titanoboa-sized and grounded in that legend.An illegal gold mining operation sets the stakes, and the snake plays more like nature restoring balance than a monster looking for lunch.Real-world context: Indigenous communities are confronting illegal miners destroying the rainforest.Practical Effects, Stunts and a Brutal Location ShootThe snake is digital, but the explosions, the collapsing structures, and a character getting flung into the air were done for real.From our interview: a flash flood wiped out a set and forced a reshoot that Mike P. Nelson now prefers.Huge credit to the stunt team, and to Kiana Madeira for that mud pit.Why This Giant Snake Movie Beats the Creature Feature StigmaNot silly snake fodder in the Anaconda mold; we're measuring it against Jaws and Jurassic Park.The snake hunts in the water, in the jungle, and in a machinery yard, by day and at night. No safe rock like in The Devil's Mouth.A midway twist (spoiler section) flips the movie in a direction we did not expect.Scare Factor and Final ScoresScare factor: Fun and Wild. Scare level: Solid Scares.Meaghan gives it 7.5 digs; Arthur gives it 8.Best seen in a theater with friends on a weekend.Mike P. Nelson's Next Move: SawMike P. Nelson is directing the next Saw film after reviving Wrong Turn and Silent Night, Deadly Night.Coming up on Grave Tone: Whalefall (October 16) and more Shudder drops. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Beware Boiúna director Mike P. Nelson is back on Grave Tone, and this time he brought stories from the Amazon. Floods, a jungle blessing, a poison dart frog on set, and a giant snake that does not care who you are. We sat down with Mike P. Nelson ahead of Beware Boiúna hitting theatres October 2 to talk about how this giant snake movie actually got made. He almost turned it down (giant snake movies come with baggage, and he knew it). What changed his mind was finding the link between Titanoboa, the real prehistoric snake discovered in Colombia, and the Boiúna of Amazonian folklore. Add a structure borrowed from William Friedkin's Sorcerer and a lot of respect for how Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Tremors hold back their monsters, and you get a creature feature built on dread instead of camp. How Beware Boiúna Became a Giant Snake Movie Worth MakingProducers Robert Kulzer and Jeremy Bolt, with Tony Giglio, wanted a giant snake story. Mike P. Nelson almost passed because of the stigma the subgenre carries.What won him over: tying Titanoboa, the real prehistoric snake found in Colombia, to the Boiúna of Amazonian folklore.Why William Friedkin's Sorcerer was his main comp (one movie at the start, a different movie by the end).Shooting a Horror Movie in the Colombian AmazonAsking permission to film near Leticia, then a blessing ceremony (chicha included) where a healer told Mike to be "the father of your team."Heavy rain floods the location of the opening gold mining siege, so the whole sequence gets shot from the other side.Mike's favorite days: shooting aboard the Hermes, moving down the Amazon River with the cast.A poison dart frog lands on a chair right across from Kiana Madeira. The snake wrangler handled it.Practical Effects Behind the VFX SnakeA stunt performer was yanked 40 feet into the air with foliage blasting out, all in camera.Real TNT brings down the lumber camp structure while the leads run down the ramp.Mike's rule: if there is a VFX snake in the movie, something real has to go along with it.The Cast of Beware BoiúnaKiana Madeira as Lena: soft-spoken between takes, fully switched on in the mud and the viscera.Logan Marshall-Green pushing buttons during the bar scene with Jessica Rothe, then checking in on her after the cut.Why Mike lets his actors play: if a moment surprises him, it will surprise the audience too.Protector or Predator: Boiúna, Folklore and Gold MiningIs Boiúna the jungle's guardian or just a hungry snake? Mike wants you arguing about it after the credits.The opening illegal gold mining siege reflects a real fight Indigenous communities in the Amazon are in right now.The viral poster campaign that fed internet animals like Moo Deng and Jimothy to Boiúna.Monster Matchups and Fill in the BlankBoiúna vs. Shardik from Stephen King's The Dark Tower, a matchup Mike first chewed on with Eric Vespe on The Kingcast.Boiúna vs. the original King Kong (1933), the movie Mike grew up on.Mike's rule for the genre: every creature feature needs a character who doesn't deserve to die. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The IT 1990 miniseries is the reason Janine of Graeae Horror spent more than a decade unable to look at Tim Curry. She snuck downstairs at six, caught Pennywise taking Georgie through the banister, and the nightmares followed her home from school for years. Childhood Trauma is back, and this might be the most traumatic entry in the series so far (that is saying something). Janine joins Arthur and Meaghan to revisit the 1990 ABC adaptation of Stephen King's IT, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, and to explain how one TV movie turned into a real phobia, a mid-screening exit from Burke & Hare and, eventually, a Pennywise tattoo. We go through the Losers Club casting, from Jonathan Brandis and Emily Perkins to John Ritter, Seth Green, Annette O'Toole and Tim Reid, and we have strong feelings about Bill Denbrough's ponytail (it is not okay). How the IT 1990 Miniseries Created a Real Tim Curry PhobiaJanine was six when she snuck downstairs during the miniseries premiere and caught Pennywise taking Georgie; recurring nightmares of Pennywise waiting outside the local sweet shop lasted for years.The fear spread to everything Tim Curry touched: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legend, Muppet Treasure Island, and a mid-screening exit from Burke & Hare.A forced VHS rewatch in her late teens, IT (2017) in a theatre with a dozen friends, and a Pennywise tattoo later, she is fine. Mostly.Casting the Losers Club: IT 1990 Kids vs AdultsJonathan Brandis carries young Bill Denbrough's grief; Richard Thomas's ponytail does not survive the rewatch.Emily Perkins (Ginger Snaps) and Annette O'Toole (Smallville) give Beverly Marsh the most emotional weight, and the miniseries gives Bev's marriage far more time than IT Chapter Two does.John Ritter is a better Ben Hanscom than we remembered, Seth Green has had the same face since 1990, and Adam Faraizl plays Eddie Kaspbrak as the kid everyone wants to protect.Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid, Marlon Taylor) and Stan Uris (Richard Masur, Ben Heller) still get overlooked, in every version.IT Miniseries vs IT 2017 and IT Chapter TwoThe miniseries jumps between timelines like the book; Andy Muschietti's films split kids and adults, which made the story easier for a new generation to get into.Kicking the spider to death vs. bullying Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise into nothing: two endings, both a little funny.Mike Hanlon's lore is the backbone of IT: Welcome to Derry, and the Black Spot fire makes a lot more sense with that in mind.What the Miniseries Cut from Stephen King's ITNo Ritual of Chüd, no turtle, and very little cosmic mythology (think Terry Pratchett's Discworld, but horror).The spider loses its eggs, and graphic content gets trimmed for ABC network standards.A 30-year time jump instead of the 27-year cycle, plus a ponytail moment that might be a quiet nod to the book scene nobody wants adapted.Practical Effects and Tim Curry's PennywiseThe skeletal hand grabbing Ben in the Barrens, the I Was a Teenage Werewolf transformation, and the exploding library balloons still look great.Tim Curry's accent slipping when the mask drops is one of the scariest choices in the whole adaptation.Henry Bowers and the Cycle of ViolencePennywise shows up every few decades; Henry Bowers is there every day after school.An abusive father, zero outlets, and a monster happy to use him as its Renfield.Check out : Graeae HorrorCheck out her horror movie festival: Shared Sight Film Festival Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Resident Evil 2026 review, and the short version is that Zach Cregger cracked the video game movie. Arthur and Meaghan sat down right after seeing Resident Evil in theatres, and this is one of those episodes where the two of us do not land in the same place at all. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier taking a package up to Raccoon City General Hospital on a night that goes very wrong. That is basically the whole premise, and it works. No Leon, no Jill, no legacy characters, just an everyman with a handgun and a delivery to finish. We get into why going off-script inside the Resident Evil universe might be the smarter move after seven previous films, what the practical creature design actually accomplishes, and whether the humour helps or dilutes the horror. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Reboot and the Off-Script GambleCregger wrote Resident Evil as an original story with Shay Hatten and dropped it inside the game universe instead of remaking a game. No Leon, no Jill, no legacy roster.Eight films in, we argue a tangential character at the eve of the Raccoon City outbreak beats another straight reboot. That is the question of the episode.Meaghan rewatched the 2002 original before this and still found it badly explained, which is a big part of why this one works for her at all.Cregger's Barbarian and Weapons DNA is all over the tone, especially the way the jokes land in the middle of the gore.Austin Abrams Carries the Whole MovieAbrams plays Bryan, a medical courier, and he is on screen for nearly every minute. Arthur's take: without him, there is nothing here.Meaghan's point about the everyman quality is the best argument in the episode. No celebrity sheen, just a guy having the worst night of his life.The wet socks moment. The grumbling to himself. A lot of the humour in this film is one actor alone in a room.Sara Paxton, Cregger's wife, voices Michelle on the phone, continuing her cameo streak from Barbarian and Weapons.Creature Design, Practical Gore and the Rooftop DropThe infected are not tame Resident Evil zombies. They fuse, grow limbs, puke acid, and the final design is the best of the lot.The rooftop drop sequence was done practically with weighted blood bags on cranes, and one of them landed inches from Austin Abrams.The sewer creature is a Whopper-style bruiser, or as Meaghan put it, the fat vampire from Blade.Meaghan's comparison point for the creature's movement: the alpaca creature in Color Out of Space.Video Game DNA: Save Rooms, Padlocks and Weapon UpgradesThe typewriter room got an audible cheer in our theatre. If you have played the games, you know why. If you have not, we explain it.Weapon progression from handgun to hunting rifle to Uzi is straight out of a game loop.The padlock running gag is the tagline: don't lose your keys. Shooting the lock does not work because the game says find the key.The settings work like levels. Hospital, road, farmhouse, Raccoon City, then the hospital building.Scores, Scare Rating and What Is NextScare factor: Fun and Wild. Scare level: Solid Scares. Arthur: 8.5 Digs. Meaghan: 6.5 Digs.Meaghan's criticism is fair and worth hearing: it is a great time with very little under the surface.Coming soon: our Mike P. Nelson interview for Beware Boiuna, in theatres October 2. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hope (2026) movie review: Na Hong-jin spent ten years away and came back with a creature feature that is not a creature feature at all. Arthur and Meaghan review Hope, the Korean sci-fi horror epic that premiered at Cannes, opened in South Korea in July, and finally hit North American theatres on September 9 through Neon. The setup is small. A remote fishing village called Hope Harbor, a police chief who is in way over his head, a dead cow that a bear did not kill. Then the thing in the mountains walks through a concrete wall in broad daylight, and the movie gets very, very big. This Hope movie review covers what works (creature design you can actually see, a setting that feels lived in, characters who make smart decisions and bring grenade launchers), and what does not (a middle section that lags, ten straight minutes of toilet humour, and a lore drop saved for the last twenty minutes). Hope (2026) Movie Review: Na Hong-jin's Creature Feature SwingNa Hong-jin's first film since The Wailing opens small and gets enormous, and the scale jump is the whole experience.Both hosts land on a six out of ten. Good movie, real problems, no hedging about either.The middle section lags and the toilet humour runs about ten minutes past funny.Creature Design and Practical Effects in HopeThe creatures show up in broad daylight, in slow motion, in full view. No one-tenth-of-a-second monster nonsense here.Each alien is designed differently, and the close-up work holds up even when the chase CG does not.Arthur's number one pick of the episode, and the reason the first reveal lands so hard.Hope Harbor: Setting, Scale, and the DMZA shabby little fishing village near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, full of elderly residents and no backup coming.Meaghan's favourite element: storefronts that feel real, forests that feel enormous, overhead shots worth the ticket.Communications are cut, and reinforcements are off fighting wildfires, which is how a small town becomes a sealed box.The Alien Reveal and the Lore DropWhat looks like a Korean folklore sea monster turns out to be something else entirely.Four aliens, four designs, a language built from a Mongolian dialect and actually spoken by the actors.The lore arrives in the final stretch and answers maybe half of what you want answered.Casting Fassbender, Vikander, Russell, and BrittonMichael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander perform through motion capture as Ma'veyyo and J'aur.Taylor Russell plays Ai'dovor, and Cameron Britton plays Va'migere. Britton is the Mindhunter and Umbrella Academy guy.Hwang Jung-min carries the human half as a police chief who is scared, hesitant, and completely out of his depth.Hope Ending Explained and Sequel TalkThe ending opens more doors than it closes, and the hosts argue two different readings of why the aliens are here.Na Hong-jin has a sequel script written. Nothing is greenlit.Closing question of the episode: is Asian cinema the only place keeping action movies interesting? Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Return to Oz and The Peanut Butter Solution both came out in 1985; both were sold as children's movies, and both are genuinely upsetting. Meaghan and Arthur team up with Annie and Caroline from the Drawn to Darkness podcast for a Childhood Trauma double bill made entirely of films that were technically made for kids. RETURN TO OZ: THE DISNEY SEQUEL THAT STARTS IN AN ASYLUM The first thirty minutes are a straight horror film. Dorothy has insomnia, Aunt Em hands her to Dr. Worley, and we get a silent nurse, a dark corridor, restraints, and screaming from other rooms.The electroshock therapy is a Disney invention. It appears nowhere in L. Frank Baum's Oz books.Fairuza Balk was actually the right age for the character in her feature debut, which makes the stakes land harder than the 1939 version ever did.The lightning cuts the power right before the machine fires. Everyone on this episode thinks it worked anyway.THE OZ BOOKS, MGM'S COPYRIGHT, AND WHAT DISNEY COULD NOT USE The film combines The Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). Baum wrote fourteen Oz novels before he died in 1919.MGM owned the 1939 designs, so Disney paid for the ruby slippers (silver shoes in the book) and left the gingham dress alone.Book two is a girls' revolt fought with knitting needles, and the messaging has not aged into anything coherent.The Gump's reward for saving Ozma is asking to be taken apart. That is in the novel.PRINCESS MOMBI, THE WHEELERS, AND THE NOME KING Jean Marsh plays Nurse Wilson and Princess Mombi, the same doubling trick the 1939 film used. She also played Bavmorda in Willow.Mombi's hall of heads is Elizabeth Bathory logic in a Disney film. Trophies, kept young, screaming.The Wheelers sit between Freddy Krueger's stretched silhouette and Biff's gang in Back to the Future Part II. The book defuses them. The film does not.Nicol Williamson plays Dr. Worley and the Nome King, so Dorothy's real trauma follows her into Oz wearing a different face.THE PEANUT BUTTER SOLUTION AND QUEBEC'S TALES FOR ALL SERIES The second Tales for All entry, directed by Michael Rubbo and produced by Rock Demers. The series now runs to twenty-seven films and markets itself as family-friendly.Michael gets a fright, loses his hair, ignores the ghosts' measurements, and everything after that is consequences.The art teacher kidnaps a neighbourhood of kids for a paintbrush sweatshop and wears Michael's hair as a jacket. His dog gets a matching vest.Celine Dion recorded her first English-language songs for this soundtrack at seventeen.MONTREAL ON SCREEN AND TRAUMA THAT ACTUALLY STICKS Three characters are brothers with three different accents, none French Canadian, which contradicts a claim made on the How Did This Get Made episode.Return to Oz earns real credit for admitting the first film broke its protagonist, then tells her to keep quiet or go back to the asylum. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jonathan Janz on Marla, the horror novel that sold out before it went on sale and then spent four years being the book nobody could find. Now it is everywhere, and he came back to Grave Tone to explain how that actually happened. Marla was published in 2022 by Earthling Publications as a 500-copy limited edition hardcover. That was the whole run. Paul Miller told Janz it was the most requested post-sellout book he has ever had. Four years, one agent change, one manager change, and a three-book deal later, Weird Tales and Blackstone Publishing gave Marla a wide release on August 18, 2026, and Janz walks us through every turn of that road (including the parts most authors would not say out loud). Marla, From 500 Copies to Everywhere Marla was a 2022 Earthling Publications limited edition, 500 copies, and that was the entire run. Paul Miller told Jonathan Janz it was the most requested post-sellout book he has ever had.Weird Tales and Blackstone Publishing released it wide on August 18, 2026, with a foiled cover, sprayed edges, and interior art.The text is about 98 percent identical to the 2022 edition after a full editorial pass. If you read it in 2022, you are not getting a different book.Inside King's Branch: Marla, Carl, Annie and Dylan A reclusive young woman lives with her mother Irene in a house on the edge of town. Some say witch, some say prisoner, and nobody actually knows.Detective Carl Lancaster connects her to a string of murders. Social worker Annie Frost carries a vague memory of her. Twenty-one-year-old Dylan Ellison sees someone he wants to know.Moonflowers and the Marla TV Series Marla is in development for television through Weird Tales and Lit Entertainment. Janz is working with a showrunner he cannot name yet.Moonflowers is an 11,000-word novelette prequel covering the Halloween night eleven years before the novel. It ships with the hardcover and the audiobook.The prequel introduces a character intended to matter in a possible second season, and it came out of Janz and the showrunner building the lore together (there is a Pinterest board).How Marla Got Here: Agents, Managers, Weird Tales A former agent read Marla as a reprint that would not sell. Janz disagreed; they parted, and he is clear that nobody was a villain.Ryan Lewis introduced him to Patrick White at Lit Entertainment; Adam Kolbrenner became his manager. Lane Heymont at The Tobias Literary Agency opened their first call with what the hell is going on with Marla.John Harlacher at Weird Tales read it and offered a three-book deal. Next up: The Stars Have Left the Skies, then Panopticon.Adapting Books to Screen Without Being Precious Janz has taught film lit for twenty-five years. Asked how he handles adapters changing his work, his answer was let the ultraviolence begin.Patrick White wrote a 35-page treatment of Marla and pitched it as The Outsider meets Mare of Easttown, which is why it went to series instead of feature.Widow's Bay, Horror Towns and Staffing One Janz, Meaghan, and Arthur all love Widow's Bay. Patricia, the painting scene, the taser episode. Derry and Castle Rock get their due as towns that feel lived in.We played a game where we asked Jonathan to staff a fictional town with horror characters. These were his awesome choices that we totally agree with!Sheriff: Stu Redman. Doctor: Beverly Marsh. Teacher: Patricia. Funeral director: Clancy Brown's mortician from The Mortuary Collection. Neighbor: Eddie Dean, with Oy included.Patricia Santomasso and Sean Patrick Hopkins narrate the Marla audiobook. Janz cried at his own book during a lunch break.  Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Barnett built a horror epic out of eternal night, and the Nightmareland omnibus is only the halfway point. Twelve volumes are planned. We sit down with horror author Daniel Barnett to talk about the Nightmareland Chronicles, the horror fantasy series he pitches as The Dark Tower meets The Last of Us (the games, and he is a purist about that). John Hawthorne is crossing a darkened America to reach his daughter's blue house by the Atlantic Ocean, with Mariah Nowak and thirteen-year-old Marcos Walker beside him. Marcos is deaf, and in this world, that turns out to be a defense rather than a limitation. Nightmareland Chronicles: Premise, Scope and the Omnibus Daniel describes Nightmareland Chronicles as one man's journey to reach his estranged daughter in a world claimed by eternal night, then admits that the logline does not cover all of it. The illustrated omnibus collects volumes one through six, a complete first season rather than an arbitrary halfway cut. Twelve volumes are planned; he originally thought ten. Individual volumes stay available for serialized readers. Dark Tower Meets The Last of Us: Influences and Genre His pitch is The Dark Tower plus The Last of Us, the games specifically. John Hawthorne shares an archetype with Roland; his dark tower is a blue house by the Atlantic. The revenge odyssey of The Last of Us Part II fed the dread of volume six. He also notes an accidental overlap: both stories put a brother in Wyoming. Nightmareland has fantasy bones (a quest, a small party, a great evil) but the architecture is all horror. Building the Book: Illustrations and Design Leslé Kieu created six original black-and-white illustrations that run in both the hardcover and the ebook, so digital readers get the art too. Daniele Serra's volume cover artwork runs as chapter title page backgrounds in the hardcover. Todd Keisling assembled the package. Writing Process: Gardens, Lullabies and Unwritten Lines He compares drafting to tending a garden; some things you plant will not bloom for years. A key lullaby in the first six volumes originally belonged to someone else. Moving it years later made it much more significant. The biggest lines at the end of volume six were never written down. He let them burn in him for years, so writing them became the reward. Lily is the book he always set out to write. Found Family in the Dark: John, Mariah and Marcos The trio is John Hawthorne, Mariah Nowak, and Marcos Walker, a deaf thirteen-year-old whose deafness is a real protective advantage here. Asked how long he would survive in his own universe, his answer is short: grab the dog, run somewhere remote. The defining survival trait is enduring and holding onto hope, the thematic spine of the whole series. Horror Is a Big House: Stigma and Recommendations His horror origin story is being shown Legend at two years old by a father who still claims he does not like horror. [LINK: Legend] He argues horror is a foundational genre, and emotional resonance rings sharper against the darkest material. Recommendations: the original version of The Stand, Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, and Doctor Sleep, which he says almost makes up for what Kubrick did to The Shining. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Buddy (2026) review: Casper Kelly's killer unicorn horror comedy is the most unhinged thing in theaters this week, and we are fully on board. Meaghan and Arthur caught Buddy at its international premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, about a month before the wide theatrical release, and walked out of that screening loud about it. Casper Kelly (the Too Many Cooks guy, the Adult Swim Yule Log guy) built a pitch-perfect recreation of a 1990s children's television show called It's Buddy!, then let the giant orange unicorn at the center of it start turning on the kids. That is the setup. What the movie does after that is stranger, funnier, and a lot meaner. Casper Kelly Goes Feature Length with Buddy Casper Kelly made his name on Too Many Cooks, the 2014 Adult Swim short that ate the internet alive. Buddy is his feature directorial debut, co-written with Jamie King. The same obsessions carry over: disposable 80s and 90s family media, hand-built sets, puppetry, and post-production elements treated as real things characters have to survive. It premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance in January 2026, then took its international premiere at Fantasia on August 1 before Roadside Attractions and Saban Films opened it wide. What If Barney Was a Horror Movie The film builds a fake 1990s kids show called It's Buddy! and commits to it completely, down to the theme song, the credits, and the episode reset. Barney & Friends ran fourteen seasons and 268 episodes between 1992 and 2010. That is the shape Kelly is working from, and the recreation is close enough to hurt. Kelly's hook came from a real question: what if one of the kids refuses to follow the script? Five minutes in, we find out. Buddy Cast and the Young Performers Delaney Quinn plays Freddy, the first kid to clock that something is wrong. She is the reason the film works, and she told Kelly she wanted to play a final girl. Cristin Milioti (Emmy winner for The Penguin) plays Grace, a suburban mother running a parallel modern-day storyline. Topher Grace plays her husband Ben. Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy, Patton Oswalt voices Strappy the sentient backpack, and Michael Shannon voices Charlie the Train and Willie. Every kid in this thing is believable as a child trapped in an impossible situation, which is harder than it sounds. Practical Effects, Puppets, and Production Design The practical effects work is the headline. Buddy takes damage across the runtime, and the costume changes tracking that damage are excellent. The set is period accurate in a way that feels almost aggressive: oversized cartoonish props, matte painted woods, a clubhouse, a treehouse, and the Worry Well. Supporting characters include Mr. Mailbox, Betty Bunny, Charlie the Train, a bluebird, a junior puppeteer designed, and talking flowers. None of it feels out of place. Every lesson arrives as a song, exactly like the shows it is riffing on. Diamond City, Wizard of Oz, and the Lore Buddy tells the kids their missing friend went to Diamond City. The kids come to believe it is a way out. The Wizard of Oz influence is all over the escape, and Kelly has named The Shining as another touchstone. There is a spin-off tease planted in the film, and Kelly talked about wanting to do more if this one connects. Content Warnings and Where to Watch Rated R. Children are in real danger throughout, and the violence is not implied, so know that going in. Runtime is 95 minutes. It plays best loud, in a full room, with people who react. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colony (2026) review: Yeon Sang-ho went back to zombies and made them learn. Meaghan and Arthur break down the Train to Busan director's newest outbreak. Colony traps biotechnology professor Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun, credited internationally as Gianna Jun) inside a mixed-use Seoul high-rise when disgraced scientist Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan) releases an engineered virus at a biotech conference and announces that he is the only vaccine. The infected do not just bite. They share a hive mind, they trade information, and they get better at hunting you every hour.### Colony 2026 Review: Yeon Sang-ho Returns to the Zombie Movie Colony is a standalone story with no ties to the Train to Busan timeline, and the outbreak starts in a completely different way. World premiere at Cannes Midnight Screenings on May 15, 2026, South Korean release May 21, Canadian premiere at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival, North American theatrical release August 28, 2026 through Well Go USA. Scores: Meaghan 7.5, Arthur 8. [LINK: Colony] Hive Mind Zombies and the Fungal Virus Explained The infected share information across a hive mind, so a skill one of them picks up spreads to all of them within minutes. They start on all fours like animals, then stand, then learn to use their senses, then start throwing each other at people. The fungal and spore basis gives the film a real Last of Us flavour, and it is also why everything eventually turns sticky.  The Colony Cast and Who Survives the Lockdown Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun) plays Kwon Se-jeong, a blunt biotech professor attending the conference with her ex-husband Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo). Koo Kyo-hwan plays Seo Young-chul, the ousted scientist who engineers the virus, keeps the only vaccine in his own body, and has a real reason for doing it. Ji Chang-wook is security guard Choi Hyun-seok and Kim Shin-rok is his older sister Choi Hyun-hee, an IT employee and wheelchair user spending the day with him. Shin Hyun-been plays scientist Gong Seol-hee, working the outbreak from outside the building. A Sealed Seoul Tower: Mall Horror After Dawn of the Dead Retail at the bottom, office tower above, and the whole thing locked down once the authorities clock the bioterror attack. The film uses the full building (mall floors, offices, parking garage) with an actual reason to move each time, rather than clearing levels like a video game. Very Romero, with a bit of [REC] in the quarantine.  Zombie Choreography and Practical Body Horror Movement was designed by choreographer Jeon Young, who also shaped the zombies in Train to Busan, Peninsula and Hellbound, using breakdancers, contortionists and modern dance troupes. The first person to turn gets an iconic contortion scene, the same way Train to Busan handled its first turn. The set degrades across the runtime, going from clean and shiny to fully overtaken, and characters start getting stuck to walls. The horde reminded us of the dancer sequence in Smile 2. Is the Zombie Subgenre Oversaturated in 2026? Measured against We Bury the Dead, This Is Not a Test and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, plus a decade-plus of The Walking Dead spinoffs. The verdict: the standard zombie is exhausted, but the twists are not. Colony and The Bone Temple both prove there is room left. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Insidious: Out of the Further review, and we did the homework first. We rewatched all five previous Insidious films in one week, then walked into the sixth one with fresh eyes and a much better understanding of what this franchise is actually building. Vote for us at the Sacred Crypt Awards for the Rising Star category! Vote here, thank you! Insidious: Out of the Further Review and Our Rating We rewatched all five previous Insidious films before seeing the sixth, and it changed how much of this one landed. You do not need to, but it helps. Both of us landed on 5.5. It is a solid installment that does more with its lore than we expected going in. Not scary so much as gross. Multiple "ew, yuck" moments and almost no gore, which is a strange trick to pull in a PG-13 supernatural horror movie. The makeup and practical effects are the best they have looked in a few installments. Cast: Amelia Eve, Lin Shaye and Sam Spruell Amelia Eve plays Gemma Hall, a single mother raising her daughter Maya (Island Austin) in her childhood home. Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, the only person to appear in all six Insidious films. Sam Spruell plays Cyrus Lam, a cult leader who kept the job after death. Tall, blindfolded, genuinely menacing. Brandon Perea (Nope) plays Nick, Maisie Richardson-Sellers plays Clare, and Joseph Lopez turns up as Lester after starring in Passenger earlier this year. Set Design, Lighting and the Pillow Fort Sequence The pillow fort scene is the best set piece in the movie. It looks soft in the trailer; it is metal underneath, and she cannot get through it. Rooms in the Further open outward as the camera moves, revealing four walls floating in nothing. Clever, cheap, effective. Insidious has always loved a nice house, from the Lambert home to Elise's childhood place to Dalton's dorm in The Red Door. Take a safe space, make it unsafe. Six movies in, someone finally bought a working flashlight. You can actually see things. Further Lore, the Doors and the Post-Credits Scene The entities in the Further have a hierarchy, and Cyrus brought his cult with him. Everyone over there wants out. Gemma does not just astral project. She can pull things out and shove them back in, which is a genuinely new ability for this franchise. Every film pushes harder toward our world. This one gets the furthest without fully succeeding, and we think that is deliberate.  The post-credits scene resolves Cyrus and leaves the door open (literally and otherwise) for whatever comes next. Our Biggest Gripe: No Specs and No Tucker Specs and Tucker have appeared in every other Insidious film. They are not in this one at all. Not even a cameo. Clare fills their narrative slot as the in-between helper, except she has an ability and they never did. Spectral Sightings, their in-universe company, used to have a real website. It is now a parked domain for sale. Huge missed marketing opportunity. If we missed a second credits scene, tell us in the comments. We checked. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fantasia Film Festival 2026 is over, and we saw more than 20 films between us. These are the six that stuck. Meaghan and Arthur close out Grave Tone's Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage with a mini wrap-up of their best horror films of the fest. No ranking (Meaghan ranked hers anyway). Just the movies that are still living in our heads two weeks later, plus honorable mentions and the release dates you actually need. Fantasia Film Festival 2026 wrapped, and we saw more than 20 films between us. No ranking, just the six that stuck, plus when you can watch them. Fantasia 2026 Vampire Horror: No Rest for the Wicked Kasper Kalle's queer vampire period piece, set on the Faroe Islands in 1862, follows a young fisherman and a stranded whaler. The vampire lore here is not the lore you know, and that is the whole point. Gorgeous start to finish (the Robert Eggers comparison is earned) with chemistry that carries the entire film. Won two Cheval Noir awards at Fantasia. Opens in Danish cinemas September 3. No North American date yet. Korean Zombie Horror: Colony from Yeon Sang-ho The Train to Busan writer-director returns to zombies a decade later, and it is nothing like Train to Busan. A biotech conference gets sealed off after a bioterrorism attack. The infected share information through spores and function as a hive mind. Characters make smart decisions, which is Arthur's entire personality at this point. Yeon Sang-ho's zombie run: Train to Busan, the animated Seoul Station, then Peninsula in 2020. Colony is a standalone. Killer Mascot Horror: Buddy and the Too Many Cooks Effect Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks, Adult Swim Yule Log) made a horror movie that asks what if Barney was a monster. We caught the international premiere at Fantasia and stayed for the Q and A. It uses the uncanny sitcom-credits trick from Too Many Cooks and pushes it somewhere much worse. Funnier than you expect and considerably gorier than you expect. Superpowers as Horror: Freaks Part II Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein's sequel closed the festival as a world premiere. Think X-Men, except the powered people are the ones being hunted. Each generation born to powered parents comes out stronger, which is where the sequel expands past the first film's isolation. The original Freaks (2018) is streaming free with ads on Plex. Watch it first. Queer Slasher Joy: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Jane Schoenbrun's film is a full 180 from the sadness of I Saw the TV Glow. Made from joy and love for the horror genre, and every frame shows it. Self-aware about slasher tropes without ever sneering at them. Instant cult classic (the merch already exists). Our full review episode is up. Honorable Mentions and Release Dates The Leader dramatizes the Heaven's Gate UFO group, with Vera Farmiga and Tim Blake Nelson. Colony and Buddy both land in theatres the same day at the end of August. Make a weekend of it. Freaks Part II has distribution but no date yet. More Grave Tone incoming: mini episodes, childhood trauma entries, and interviews. Follow us & Subscribe: SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.