Grave Tone: Horror Podcast

Grave Tone
  • 4.0 (2)
  • Film Reviews
  • Updated Weekly

Grave Tone is a horror podcast covering the genre across books, film, TV, and games. From cult classics to fresh nightmares, we dig into the stories that scare us — and why we can’t stop coming back for more. Whether it’s a blood-soaked slasher, a slow-burn psychological thriller, or the horror novel everyone’s talking about, we cover it all. If it bleeds, reads, streams, or screams… it’s on Grave Tone.

  1. 3 hrs ago

    Colony Review: Train to Busan Director's Goopiest Outbreak Yet

    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.

    Colony Review: Train to Busan Director's Goopiest Outbreak Yet

  2. 3d ago

    Insidious: Out of the Further Review + Post-Credits Explained

    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.

    Insidious: Out of the Further Review + Post-Credits Explained

  3. Aug 12

    Fantasia Film Festival 2026: The Best Horror Films We Saw Out of 20-Plus Screenings

    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.

    Fantasia Film Festival 2026: The Best Horror Films We Saw Out of 20-Plus Screenings

  4. Aug 8

    Junction Row Review: Katharine Isabelle Fights Cosmic Horror at Fantasia 2026

    Junction Row review time, and this Fantasia 2026 world premiere is the one that split us right down the middle. Meaghan and Arthur close out their Fantasia International Film Festival minisodes with Ashlea Wessel's feature debut, a Canadian sci-fi horror creature feature starring Katharine Isabelle as Juno, an army veteran in recovery who returns to the housing compound she walked away from. Her friend Ruby is missing. A new drug called The Link is tearing through the place. And something underneath Junction Row is a lot worse than the dealers running it. Junction Row Review: Ashlea Wessel's Sci-Fi Horror Feature Debut Ashlea Wessel moves from festival shorts (Tick, Weirdo, and segments in the anthology Creepy Bits) to her first feature, and the ambition is all over the screen. Katharine Isabelle plays Juno, an army veteran in recovery who returns to the Junction Row compound to find her missing friend Ruby. Co-written by Wessel with Adam Cesare (the Clown in a Cornfield novels) and Matt Serafini. Meaghan came out of it satisfied. Arthur wanted the film to reveal more instead of asking him to reverse-engineer it. Katharine Isabelle as Juno and the Junction Row Cast Making Juno an army vet is a real choice, not set dressing. She has the tactical knowledge, she can fight, and she can plan an infiltration. Isabelle kicks a genuinely absurd amount of ass here (Ginger Snaps and American Mary fans, this is your action-star era). Kyle Mac plays Miles, Juno's former dealer, and steals every scene he lands in. He is an a*****e, and he is very funny about it. A lot of familiar Canadian faces round out the compound, which Meaghan is never going to stop enjoying. Sci-Fi Horror Design: Retro Ads, Future Tech, Budget Limits The film mixes 60s and 70s styling in its advertising and posters with technology that feels well ahead of ours. The phones and tablets look like sheets of paper. A pharmaceutical company is weaponizing addiction inside the compound with a new drug, and what it does to people is where the horror lands. Some of the visual effects get wonky, which is what a lower budget buys you. Meaghan is fine with that here and would not be fine with it from a studio sitting on all the money in the world. Sci-Fi Horror That Withholds: Meander, Coherence, and Ambiguity Arthur's whole issue is explanation. He wants a film to reveal more as it goes, even if the ending stays strange. Coherence is his counter-example for slow, conversational sci-fi that still tells you what is happening. Meaghan raised the same complaint about Home Bodies a few episodes back and it did not bother her at all here. Junction Row's open ending worked for her. Bagman Short Film Review: Wildlife Cams and Recursive Dread Bagman, from brothers Connor Gaston and Vaughn Gaston, screened with Junction Row and Arthur loved it. [LINK: Bagman] Nat monitors a wildlife camera feed tracking deer and bears. One frame there is nothing, the next frame there is a black garbage bag in the brush. Her supervisor goes to check it out while she watches through the live feed, and it gets very bad very fast. The ending did not land for Meaghan. Arthur calls it a solid jump scare with recursive implications that get worse the longer you sit with them. 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.

    Junction Row Review: Katharine Isabelle Fights Cosmic Horror at Fantasia 2026

  5. Aug 6

    The Glorious Dead Review: The Adams Family Go Full Apocalypse

    The Glorious Dead review: the Adams Family wake a small town to blood in the taps and dead that will not stay buried. Meaghan and Arthur close out their Fantasia 2026 coverage with a mini review of The Glorious Dead, the sixth consecutive film from the Adams Family to world premiere at Fantasia. John Adams and Toby Poser wrote and directed it. Poser stars as Sheriff Deb McCloud, who wakes up on her day off to a total blackout, blood coming out of faucets, missing people, holes in the ground that should not be there, and creatures in the woods. Zelda Adams plays her deputy Mikey. The whole thing unfolds over roughly twenty four hours in the dead of an upstate New York winter, and it goes exactly where you do not expect. The Adams Family and Their Sixth Fantasia World Premiere John Adams and Toby Poser write and direct together, Poser stars, and daughters Zelda and Lulu Adams act in the films. They shoot, score, and edit as a unit out of upstate New York. The Glorious Dead is the sixth consecutive film from the family to world premiere at Fantasia, following The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams, Hell Hole, and Mother of Flies. John Adams told the room before the screening that Fantasia is where they find out what their movie is actually about. They screen it, they read the reaction, then they know what they made. The Glorious Dead: Blood in the Taps and a Town Coming Apart Toby Poser plays Sheriff Deb McCloud, woken on her day off by a full blackout in the dead of an upstate New York winter. No power, no wifi, no cell service. The cars still run (do not think about it). Zelda Adams plays Deputy Mikey, bringing in reports of blood from faucets, missing people and holes in the ground that nobody can explain. The story covers roughly twenty four hours. Calling it a zombie movie is technically true and completely misleading. Adams Family Style: Quick Cuts and a Heavy Metal Score Fast interspersed cuts, deadpan performances everyone fully commits to, and a metal score the edit syncs to. There is a shot of windshield wipers moving in time with the beat and it rules. Every film in their catalogue is a different subgenre: supernatural thriller, folk horror, Great Depression period piece, creature feature body horror, dark fantasy. Mother of Flies is streaming on Shudder now if you want an entry point  The Ratings and the Ending Nobody Called Meaghan started around a six on the night and moved up to a seven after a few days. The first two thirds landed immediately, the ending took time. Arthur went a hard seven, setting the film's closing message aside. The last ten minutes are wild enough that he wanted more of that energy earlier. TERM: Dean Norris, Mark Hamill and a Hell of a Short Written and directed by Chadrick Preuss, also a Fantasia 2026 world premiere, playing before The Glorious Dead Dean Norris of Breaking Bad carries the whole thing basically alone as a state senator facing a miracle that turns into a nightmare across one night before a major vote on abortion. Every other character speaks to him over the phone, and one of those voices is Mark Hamill. The producing team reached out to Hamill on a maybe and got a yes. Ask for the thing. Where Fantasia Shorts Go After the Festival Shorts this good are almost impossible to watch again once the festival ends, and that is a real problem worth naming. Fingers crossed for a Shudder pickup on The Glorious Dead, since most of the family's catalogue already lives there. One more Fantasia 2026 minisode is coming for the closing film 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 Glorious Dead Review: The Adams Family Go Full Apocalypse

  6. Aug 5

    Home Bodies Review: Casey Walker's Fantasia 2026's Creepiest Smart Home

    Home Bodies review time. Casey Walker's Canadian sci-fi horror had its world premiere at Fantasia 2026, and it left us with a lot to chew on. Two children, Red and Blue, have been raised in total isolation by an automated house. The fridge restocks itself the second you close it. The dishes vanish into the trash. A disembodied voice they call Papa runs the whole operation. Then a stranger arrives as a Christmas gift, the kids name it Pal, and twelve years of routine come apart. Home Bodies Fantasia 2026 World Premiere Home Bodies had its world premiere on July 23, 2026, at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Casey Walker directs. The pitch is simple and nasty: two children raised in total isolation by an automated house start asking questions after an enigmatic stranger arrives from outside. We call it dystopian science fiction more than straight horror, but the premise alone is horror enough if you sit with it for a second. No wide release date yet. VVS Films is handling distribution, and the film also screens at Tubi FrightFest 2026 in London. The Cast: Emma Ho, Ian Ho, and Ess Hödlmoser Red and Blue are played by real-life twins Emma Ho and Ian Ho, and that is the single biggest reason the film works. The arguments land because the chemistry is real. Ess Hödlmoser plays Pal, the silent gift who arrives at Christmas. Hödlmoser is a Toronto contortionist, aerial performer, and stunt artist. Their credits are a genre deep cut list: Pennywise motion capture and contortion work on It, Cindy on The Boys, S on Station Eleven, M on Motherland: Fort Salem, plus The Expanse, Titans, Code 8, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Retro-Futuristic Production Design That Steals the Movie The house is the best thing in Home Bodies. Seventies futurism, worn in and lived in, and every appliance is doing thematic work. Close the fridge and it restocks. Throw dishes in the trash and they disappear. Arthur wants to live there. That is a problem the film is aware of. Total automation is why the kids never learned to take care of themselves. The convenience is the cage. Cain and Abel: The Sibling Dynamic One sibling starts questioning everything. The other does not want to anger Papa. That split is the engine of the whole film. Pal's arrival is what tips the balance. Two becomes three, and the routine that held their world together stops holding. Screenwriters Adrian Murray and Marcus Sullivan build the rules carefully, which makes the breaks land hard. Where Home Bodies Loses Us Meaghan's issue is the final quarter. Too much gets revealed too quickly and there is not enough time to sit with any of it. Arthur's counter is that we only ever see what the kids see, so the abruptness is the point. Take your pick. Both of us want more. The door for a sequel or an expanded universe is wide open, and we would watch it. Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast 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.

    Home Bodies Review: Casey Walker's Fantasia 2026's Creepiest Smart Home

  7. Aug 1

    Los Vampires & The Leader Review | Fantasia 2026 Double Bill

    Los Vampires review, plus The Leader, both caught at Fantasia 2026 and both built on things that actually happened. Meaghan went to these two solo (Arthur could not get into either screening) so this one runs as a spoiler-free double feature. Los Vampires is Craig Mitchell's fictionalized account of the 1931 Spanish Dracula, the version George Melford shot overnight on Tod Browning's sets while Bela Lugosi's crew slept. Henry Ian Cusick plays Luis de Ossario, the Spanish actor handed the Count and ordered to copy every mannerism off the dailies of Kürt Orlov (Thomas Kretschmann), his English-language counterpart. The rivalry turns ugly. Then people start dying on the soundstage. Meaghan calls it the more fun of the two and the period detail is why: 1930s costumes, one location worked every way it can be worked, English and Spanish trading off inside the same scene. It runs a little long and starts repeating its ideas, which is the only real knock. Rating: 8/1- digs. The Leader is the harder watch. Michael Gallagher wrote and directed this one about Heaven's Gate, the UFO cult that ended in 39 deaths at Rancho Santa Fe in March 1997. Tim Blake Nelson plays Marshall Applewhite. Vera Farmiga plays Bonnie Lu Nettles, the nurse who went from dissatisfied wife and mother to co-running one of the most notorious cults in American history. Jim Parsons plays Warren, a follower, and it is one of the best things he has done. The tone swings between absurd and awful on purpose. Not horror by category. Real-life horror by every other measure. Rating: 9/10 digs. The Spanish Dracula Night Shoot That Los Vampires Rebuilds In 1930 Universal ran two Dracula productions on the same sets. Tod Browning had the day with Bela Lugosi. George Melford had the night with a Spanish-speaking cast, because dubbing technology did not exist yet. The Spanish version starred Carlos Villarías as the Count and Lupita Tovar as Eva Seward. Tovar died in 2016 at 106. Plenty of critics now argue the Spanish cut is technically the better film. Melford's crew watched the day's dailies before shooting, which is the exact detail Los Vampires builds its entire rivalry on.  Los Vampires Cast, Craig Mitchell, and What Actually Works Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume on Lost, Marcus Kane on The 100) plays Luis de Ossario, the Spanish actor handed the Count. Peruvian-Scottish, debonair, exactly right for the period. Thomas Kretschmann plays Kürt Orlov, the Lugosi stand-in. Their scenes in the dailies room are where the tension actually lives. Oscar Nuñez (The Office), Daniela Couso, Jefferson Mays and Jorge Diaz fill out the cast. The film switches between English and Spanish and it never feels forced. The real complaint: it runs long enough to start repeating its own ideas, and the single-location staging starts to feel like a play. Meaghan's rating: 8/10 digs. The Leader and the Heaven's Gate Story Michael Gallagher wrote and directed. World premiere at Tribeca on June 5, 2026, Canadian premiere at Fantasia, with distribution reportedly in motion for the US, UK and Canada. Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Minority Report, Syriana, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) plays Marshall Applewhite. Vera Farmiga plays Bonnie Lu Nettles, and she was at the Fantasia screening. Jim Parsons plays Warren, one of the followers, and it is one of the best things he has done since The Big Bang Theory. The film tracks Nettles from nurse and unhappy wife to cult co-leader, which is the 180 that makes the whole thing land.  Why a Cult Movie Belongs on a Horror Podcast The tone swings between absurd and awful on purpose. You laugh at what these people believed, then the next scene is a humiliation ritual and it stops being funny. Heaven's Gate taught that the body was a vehicle to be shed, and sexual desire was repressed hard. The film gets into what that did to people. Bonnie Nettles died of cancer in 1985, twelve years before the 39 deaths at Rancho Santa Fe in March 1997 that were timed to Comet Hale-Bopp. Meaghan's rating: 9/10 digs. Not horror by category. Real-life horror by every other measure. What Is Coming Next From Fantasia 2026 Colony from Yeon Sang-ho, Buddy from Casper Kelly (the Too Many Cooks guy), and Freaks Part II from Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, which closes the festival. Shorter episodes are coming while festival coverage runs, and most stay spoiler-free since wide release dates are not locked yet. 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.

    Los Vampires & The Leader Review | Fantasia 2026 Double Bill

  8. Jul 30

    No Rest for the Wicked Explained: Fantasia's Award-Winning Queer Vampire Film

    No Rest for the Wicked is a queer vampire love story from the 1862 Faroe Islands, and it wrecked us in the best way. This one had our attention before the festival schedule even dropped, and it earned every bit of that hype. Kasper Kalle's world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival follows Baldur (Egor Venned), a young fisherman stuck caring for his widowed mother on a treeless island in the North Atlantic, and Helge (Pilou Asbaek), the drifting whaler who washes into his life and changes everything. What starts as a reluctant friendship turns passionate, then turns strange; there is a supernatural element folded into the story that gives us one of the most unusual takes on vampirism we have seen on film. A Queer Vampire Love Story in the 1862 Faroe Islands Kasper Kalle's world premiere follows Baldur (Egor Venned), a bored young fisherman caring for his widowed mother, and Helge (Pilou Asbaek), a drifting Danish whaler who washes into his life. A reluctant friendship turns into a passionate, secret relationship on a tiny, deeply religious island where hiding is survival. Set on a treeless island in the North Atlantic, with dialogue in both Faroese and Danish (yes, it is subtitled, and worth it). The Cast: Egor Venned and Pilou Asbaek Carry It Newcomer Egor Venned (himself from the Faroe Islands) plays Baldur, and we would have handed him a performance award too. Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, Overlord) plays Helge, a full swing away from the villains he usually gets, and it is a great look for him. Sofia Nolsoe Mikkelsen plays the mother, and Johannes Haukur Johannesson (Succession, Captain America: Brave New World, Vikings: Valhalla) turns up as a villager. Robert Eggers Vibes and Nordic Gothic Atmosphere The natural light, the fog, the night shots with barely any lighting (because 1862): it all felt very Eggers-esque, just softer and more romantic. The score is beautiful the whole way through, and there is a funeral song halfway in that nearly had Meaghan crying in the theater. The film leans on the real landscape instead of manufactured spectacle, and it earns that authenticity. A Vampire Movie Unlike Any We Had Seen This is a vampire film at its core, but nobody is running around biting the village. The supernatural element is quieter, stranger, and much more beautiful. No Dracula crossing from Transylvania, no jump-scare machine. The dread is woven in naturally, and the horror stays understated. Underneath it all: religious oppression, repression, and a real theme of acceptance by the end that a lot of these stories skip. Fantasia 2026 Awards and Where to Watch No Rest for the Wicked won Best Director (Kasper Kalle) and an Outstanding Performance award (Pilou Asbaek) in Fantasia's Cheval Noir competition. Screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival on August 9, with a Denmark release on September 3 through SF Studios. No North American release confirmed yet. We are hoping for a VOD or limited theatrical run, so keep an eye on a cinema near you that plays foreign genre films.  Coming Up on Grave Tone: Fantasia Closing Week The Glorious Dead, the new one from the Adams family (Hellbender, Mother of Flies, The Deeper You Dig). Junction Row, the Katharine Isabelle creature feature, plus the Comic-Con darling Buddy and the festival closer Freaks Part II. 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.

    No Rest for the Wicked Explained: Fantasia's Award-Winning Queer Vampire Film
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About

Grave Tone is a horror podcast covering the genre across books, film, TV, and games. From cult classics to fresh nightmares, we dig into the stories that scare us — and why we can’t stop coming back for more. Whether it’s a blood-soaked slasher, a slow-burn psychological thriller, or the horror novel everyone’s talking about, we cover it all. If it bleeds, reads, streams, or screams… it’s on Grave Tone.

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  • Creator
    Grave Tone
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Grave Tone Podcast
  • Show Website
    Grave Tone: Horror Podcast

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