Jacob's Ladder

This week Nikki and Kate watched The Ruins and discussed nuclear semiotics, gore levels, and guarding beans.   Rated R for strong violence and gruesome images, language, some sexuality and nudity Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, cutting, amputation, body horror, someone struggling to breathe, broken bones, stabbing, death of a child, jump scares, trypophobia, vomit, anxiety attack, claustrophobia, self harm, gun violence   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon   Sources: 99PI. (2014, May 12). Ten Thousand Years. 99% Invisible. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/   SciShow & Savannah Geary (Host). (2025, August 29). How to Make a Warning Last 10,000 Years. SciShow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj1oITXzqyg&t=600s   Maya Bridge. (2023). Languages. Maya Bridge Language Services. https://www.mayabridge.org/languages   Na'atik Mexico. (2025, April 30). Is Maya a living language? https://naatikmexico.org/blog/is-maya-a-living-language   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages   https://wipp.energy.gov/pdfs/site_markers.pdf

This week Nikki and Kate watched Infinity Pool and discussed Nepo Babies, emotional substance vs. viscous substances, and twenty twenty splits.    Note: This film unlocked a feral energy and as such there is some audio clipping. They’ll monitor their levels more rigorously should a future recording also contain unprecedented primal energy.   Rated NC-17 or R Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, bodily fluids (all of them), vomit, gun violence, car crash, a head is squashed, cutting, flashing lights/images, mentions of rape, someone struggling to breathe, torture, broken bone, eye mutilation, trypophobia, jump scares, anxiety attack, shakey cam, antisemitic caricature. If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon   Show Notes: Konnikova, Maria. (2014, December 10). Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/science-misheard-lyrics-mondegreens   Lathan, Nadia. (2023, September 20). 50 years after being outlawed, redlining still drives neighborhood health inequities. UC Berkeley Public Health. https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/articles/spotlight/research/50-years-after-being-outlawed-redlining-still-drives-neighborhood-health-inequities   Mimbela, Ricardo & Akselrod, Olga. (2024, May 30). The Long History of Discrimination in Job Hiring Assessments. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-long-history-of-discrimination-in-job-hiring-assessments   Rank, Mark R. & Eppard, Lawrence M. (2021, March 13). The 'American Dream' of upward mobility is broken. Look at the numbers. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/13/american-dream-broken-upward-mobility-us   Wikipedia Editors. Social mobility. Wikipedia. Accessed on Jan 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility   Wikipedia Editors. Nepo baby. Accessed on Jan 7, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepo_baby   Cambridge Dictionary. Accessed on Jan 7, 2026. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/nepotism

This week Nikki and Kate watched Blood Quantum and discussed the complicated history behind the title, wide shots and disorienting camera angles, and how they’d unalive each other in the event of zombification.   Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, gun violence, eyeball mutilation, the dog dies (at least twice), a head is smashed, cutting, death by suicide, death of a baby, death of a child, vomiting, racism, slurs   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon   Sources: Cameron, Michael.  (2021, July 13). On The Marrow Thieves and Blood Quantum: A conversation with Krista Collier-Jarvis. Dalhousie University. https://blogs.dal.ca/openthink/on-the-marrow-thieves-and-blood-quantum-a-conversation-with-krista-collier-jarvis/   TIFF. (2022, November 22). Jeff Barnaby on a Shared Love of Horror in BLOOD QUANTUM | From Studio 9. Original interview 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ohALDgihso   Blood Quantum and Sovereignty: A Guide. https://nativegov.org/resources/blood-quantum-and-sovereignty-a-guide/   Rule, Elizabeth. (2018, February 7). It’s Not Just About the Blood. As quoted in NPR’s Code Switch. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/583753149   Maher, Savannah. (2018, February 7). The Difficult Math Of Being Native American. NPR’s Code Switch. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/07/583665568/love-and-blood-quantum-buy-in-or-die-out

This week Nikki and Kate watched The Amityville Horror (1979) and discussed 1970s fashion, the Based on a True Story Effect, and the fulfilling of the demon pig prophecy.   Rated  Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, bugs, intimate partner violence, child abuse, finger mutilation, a head is squashed, death of a child, jump scares, vomit, claustrophobia, panic attack, car crash, gun violence If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon   Sources: Radford, Benjamin. (2005, April 8). Voice of Reason: The Truth Behind the Amityville Horror. LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/6962-voice-reason-truth-amityville-horror.html   Vassar, Shea. (2020, October 15). Digging Up the Indian Burial Ground Trope. Film School Rejects. https://filmschoolrejects.com/indian-burial-ground-trope/   https://web.archive.org/web/20110707133921/http://www.amityvillemurders.com/catholic.html   https://amityvillemurders.com/the-haunting/lutz-vs-weber.html

This week Nikki and Kate watched We Are Still Here and discussed towns with dark secrets, smoky lighting, and turtleneck counts. Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, a head is squashed, possession, car accident, gun violence, cutting, someone is burned alive, eye mutilation, jump scares, shaky cam, self harm, references to death by suicide   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon

This week Nikki and Kate watched 28 Days Later (finally!) and discussed the tension invoked by abandoned cities, the challenges in turning a bustling city into an empty one for filming, and Kate’s worsening British Brain infection.   Rated  Content warnings: Sexual assault, r*pe, p*edophilia, blood, gore, audio gore, death by suicide, gun violence, car crash, eye mutilation, cutting, amputation, animal death, a head is squashed, death by hanging, child death, jump scares, vomit, hospital scene, needles, shaky cam, flashing lights/images   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon

This week Nikki and Kate watched Barbarian and discussed hate sinks, subverting expectations, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.    Rated R Content warnings: Blood, gore, audio gore, sexual violence (mentions of serial r*pe and p*d*philia), inc*st, gun violence, car crash, eye gore, child sexual abuse, someone struggling to breathe, amputation, torture, jump scares, vomit, death by suicide, shakey cam, homophobic slurs   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon

This week Nikki and Kate watched Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and discussed Murphy’s Law, Alan Tudyk’s genius, and tapeworms.   Rated R Content warnings: Bees/wasps, mention of r*pe, sexual assault, cutting, finger mutilation, someone struggling to breathe, someone is burned alive, torture, blood, gore, audio gore, gun violence, car crash, hospital scene, ableism, jump scares   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon

This week Nikki and Kate watched Se7en and discussed pathetic fallacy and precipitation, meticulous set dressing, and the origin of PBR.   Rated R for grisly afterviews of horrific and bizarre killings and for strong language Content warnings: Death by suicide, sexual assault/r*pe, torture, anti-fat bias, homophobia, ableism, slurs, dead animals, cutting, blood, gore, audio gore, decapitation, finger mutilation, genital mutilation, gun violence, jump scare, hospital scene   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon

This week Nikki and Kate watched Jacob’s Ladder and discussed undercranking, heaven and hell in lighting, and being jumpscared by Macaulay Culkin.   Rated R Blood, gore, audio gore, racial slurs, homophobic slurs, ableist slurs, ableism, institutionalization, needles/syringes, gun violence, PTSD   If you like what we’re doing, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts- it really does help!  You could also stop by our Patreon and check out ways to support!    Our intro and outro music is Spooky Drill by AlisiaBeats and the cover art is by Nikki Solomon