Collective Nightmares

Laura found Weapons to be entertaining but vapid; bizarrely agnostic in terms of messaging or subtext. Marshall found Weapons to be entertaining but also infuriating for invoking the horrors of mass school shootings only to say nothing about that topic whatsoever. Another entry in the vibes horror subgenre that has gained prominence of late. These films are more a series of vaguely scary or upsetting moments rather than films with a broader effort to create meaning. We discuss this as an early indicator of the decontextualization of narrative (and indeed everything) that has been radically accelerated by vertical, short-form, media platforms e.g. TikTok.

An entertaining and well made watch. Some great body horror. But in the end they pull back instead of leaning in and that keeps this film from being a real standout horror film.

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the horror film Alien Romulus. We've had an uneven history with Fede Alvarez's film here at Collective Nightmares. While Alien Romulus isn't groundbreaking, it is a solid film. And it continues some of the best messaging of the franchise: anti-corporate, pro-worker, and good diversity of representation especially within the sci-fi genre. Also, overall very well made and entertaining!

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the horror film 28 Years Later. Well, 23 years later, not 28, but that’s okay. 28 Days Later was a groundbreaking film that introduced pop culture to fast, angry zombies. It established Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris as stars. This film, does not do those things. While there was some very impressive visuals, the world-building is lacking, the characters are terribly under-developed, and the actions are often asinine.This is also the first of two films made together. We were not impressed and remain skeptical that the second film can redeem this one.

Sinners (Coogler 2025) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2025 film Sinners, written, produced, and directed by R. Coogler. Sinners is an original film from Ryan Coogler who returns to working with Michael B. Jordan as the acting lead. Sinners is an original film that is a much appreciated entry into the horror genre generally and more specifically black horror cinema. Sinners is an all around brilliant film that manages to be both intellectually robust, hugely entertaining, and exquisitely constructed. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE   TOPIC INDEX – Sinners (Coogler 2025) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:30 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 3:30 – overall thoughts without spoilers, we strongly recommend viewing the film before listening to our full episode 5:00 – Laura’s hesitation and speculation on a new golden age of horror 11:30 – SPOILERS section begins 12:00 – representation in this specific sub-genre; see Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Burgin 2019) 14:45 – diving into Sinners 15:30 – evil and music and religion and race 22:30 – music performance sequence 27:00 – white disruption of black spaces 31:00 – role of the vampires 35:00 – negotiated read of the film 37:00 – final scene 39:00 – brainstorming music, religion, and vampirism 1:03:00 – vampirism in this film 1:05:30 – exploitation of black music by white people 1:10:00 – hive mind 1:16:45 – twins 1:18:30 – sin 1:22:30 – Republican slavery denial 1:25:00 – money and capitalism 1:35:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Cruising (Friedkin 1980) The Blackening (Story 2022) Candyman (DaCosta 2021) Related Films Blade (Norrington 1998) Vampire in Brooklyn (Craven 1995) Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Burgin 2019) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 146 Keywords sociology, horror, revenge, empathy, siblings, music, good and evil, history, race, civil rights, alcohol, Irish, Choctaw, West African, church, oppression, religion, history, slavery, cultural appropriation, racial integration, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, melting pot, twins, money, capitalism, plantations, Black horror, The post Sinners (Coogler 2025) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2025 Norwegian film The Ugly Stepsister, written and directed by E. Blichfeldt. This film is fantastic! A dark inversion of a Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister creates a twisted fantasy world where the aesthetics are grotesque but we learn all the right lessons.

It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2024 film It’s What’s Inside, written and directed by G. Jardin. This film is closer to the edge of horror than we usually venture, but the premise of the film was interesting enough that we gave it a chance. We hoped the film would explore the component of the sociological imagination that stresses the significance of fomenting strong empathy for others. It did so, but not in ways we found overall constructive. We felt the film kept the exploration of experiencing the perspective of another person at a very superficial level and it presents hegemonic beauty as the ultimate prize especially for women. We also struggled just to keep track of everyone and who was who throughout the film. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) TOPIC INDEX – It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 4:00 – name and character confusion 6:00 – a fun watch, not really a horror film 7:15 – SPOILERS section begins 7:30 – why this film? 16:00 – provoking insecurity 20:00 – Nikki, hegemonic beauty, as prize 24:30 – men characters 25:00 – spending several minutes trying to figure out who TF is who 32:00 – Beatrice character arc 40:15 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 44:00 – end matter 45:00 – phantasms: altering consciousness, body swapping, Related Episodes Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) Freaky (Landon 2020) forthcoming Talk to Me (Philipou and Philipou 2022) forthcoming Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 144 Keywords sociology, horror, revenge, empathy, siblings, body swap, bodies, hegemonic beauty, comedy, woman as prize, science fiction, The post It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

The Brood (Cronenberg 1979) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the classic 1979 David Cronenberg film The Brood. While this is a Canadian film, we wanted to include this in our mini-series on pregnancy and women’s bodies because it came out in 1979. Reagan would be elected in 1980 after having married the racist Southern Strategy of Atwater with the opportunistic politicization of abortion by the evangelical christians. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The Brood (Cronenberg 1979) MINOR SPOILERS (thematic elements and/or tone) Pet Sematary (Lambert 1989) L’interier (Inside) (Maury and Bustillo 2007) Excision (Bates Jr. 2012) TOPIC INDEX – The Brood (Cronenberg 1979) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 4:00 – thoughts on Cronenberg generally and The Brood specifically 10:00 – why we chose the film 10:30 – SPOILERS section begins 11:30 – monstrous feminine 16:00 – Freudian bad parenting psychology 22:00 – it’s monstrous feminine all the way down 30:00 – gender of characters 34:00 – women’s anger 37:00 – sociology moment – Carroll’s paradigm scenarios 40:30 – Audition effect – villainizing disempowered folks 43:00 – historical comparison 45:00 – generational 48:00 – anti-abortion contested read? 51:00 – nuclear family and heterosexual imaginary 54:20 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:00:00 – end matter 1:14:30 SPOILERS for The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (Hanson 1992) 1:15:30 – more on ethics 1:25:00 – Sony buys Alamo Drafthouse 1:33:00 – next film choices including mention of In A Violent Nature and Companion Related Episodes Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) Immaculate (Mohan 2024) The First Omen (Stevenson 2024) Birth/Rebirth (Moss 2023) Related Films Excision (Bates Jr. 2012) The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Hanson 1992) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 143 The Brood poster artwork by Sam Wolfe Connelly The post The Brood (Cronenberg 1979) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

Birth/Rebirth (Moss 2023) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2023 film Birth/Rebirth. This is a vaguely Frankensteinian film, that addresses control of women’s bodies from a unique perspective.  We very much appreciate a novel take especially given the current political climate. Laura was really impressed with the dominant read of the film as well as the representation of pregnancy, IVF, and prospective motherhood. Marshall had concerns of a possible contested reading of the film as critical of fetal science and respecting the choices of pregnant women. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Birth/Rebirth (Moss 2023) Pet Sematary (Lambert 1989) L’interier (Inside) (Maury and Bustillo 2007) Excision (Bates Jr. 2012) TOPIC INDEX – Birth/Rebirth (Moss 2023) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:00 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 3:00 – overall thoughts 10:30 – SPOILERS section begins 12:00 – a new take on pregnancy body horror 14:00 – as much as Marshall was emotionally disengaged, Laura was engaged 18:00 – import of variety of stories and voices 20:00 – other pregnancy horror films 22:30 – all women 25:00 – neurodiverse representation 27: 00 – villainy and ethics 33:00 – demonizing stem cell research 36:00 – anti-choice? 43:00 – alignment and allegiance 47:00 – ongoing or one-time need 51:00 – conservative messaging? 54:00 – film ending 1:09:20 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:10:00 – Laura’s bodily experience of pregnancy 1:14:30 SPOILERS for The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (Hanson 1992) 1:15:30 – more on ethics 1:25:00 – Sony buys Alamo Drafthouse 1:33:00 – next film choices including mention of In A Violent Nature and Companion Related Episodes Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton 1986) Proxy (Parker 2013) Martin (Romero 1978) Related Films Excision (Bates Jr. 2012) The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Hanson 1992) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 142 Keywords The post Birth/Rebirth (Moss 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

Sociologists discuss the horror film Immaculate especially as it compares to The First Omen.