Collective Nightmares

Collective Nightmares
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Sociologists Talk Horror

  1. 3D AGO

    The Substance (Fargeat 2024)

    The Substance (Fargeat 2024) The Substance is the second film from Fargeat that we have discussed on our podcast. With both this film and Revenge (2017) we were overall very impressed, with The Substance being a big step up especially in terms of style and production design. We are very excited to continue to follow her career. The film addresses topics of gender, aging, and the Hollywood expectations for appearance. The intention is clearly an indictment of specifically Hollywood’s perpetual demand for young women with speciifc appearances. While we largely agree that the film does implicate and comment critically on this, we have concerns about if the film also contributes or adheres to these expectations just as it admonishes them. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE The Substance (Fargeat 2024) Minor Spoilers for: I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi 1978) Carrie (Demme 1976) All of The Purge films Severance The Fly (Cronenberg 1986) TOPIC INDEX – The Substance (Fargeat 2024) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 2:30 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – whom does the film implicate? 6:00 – Sociology scene: Mills’ private troubles and public issues 6:30 – SPOILERS section begins 7:30 – split consciousness? 15:00 – does the film implicate women (in addition to the Hollywood system) 26:00 – does the film offer answers? 30:00 – Hollywood or beyond? 35:00 – Fred 38:00 – the alternative man trope 45:00 – does the film implicate us as viewers 54:00 – divided person (spoilers for Severance) 1:03:00 – camera work 1:09:00 Demi Moore 1:15:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Revenge (Fargeat 2017) I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi 1978) Rabid (Soska Sisters 2019) Related Films The Fly (Cronenberg 1986) 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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com 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 134 The post The Substance (Fargeat 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 20m

  2. JAN 26

    A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024)

    A Quiet Place Day One (Sarnoski 2024) A Quiet Place Day One is an odd film. Laura very much enjoyed the primary plot and characters, and so for her this film worked well. And while Marshall did also, for him that felt summarily disconnected from the Day One universe and therefore did not work at all. Of possible interest at a larger scale is this is another big name horror franchise doing a sequel in New York City. This could be reflective of the right wing’s recent intense demonization of major cities as cesspools of crime and violence. While that simply is not true, the narrative has still be aggressively pushed by the neo-Right. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024) Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis 1995) Midsommar (Aster 2019) Minor spoilers for A Quiet Place (Krasinski 2018) A Quiet Place Part 2 (Krasinski 2021) TOPIC INDEX – A Quiet Place Day One (Sarnoski 2024) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts 6:00 – Marshall’s thoughts 8:00 – SPOILERS section begins 8:15 – Lupita Nyong’o’s performance 11:45 – What Laura liked 14:45 – Cat’s gonna cat 17:00 – Marshall’s complaints and horror films in NYC 24:00 – Is Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) the protagonist? 24:30 – Midsommar spoilers 35:00 – Leaving Las Vegas 42:30 – More positives especially non-hegemonic masculinity 45:15 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:05:00 – Marshall’s thoughts on Twisters (Chung 2024) Related Episodes Midsommar (Aster 2019) A Quiet Place (Krasinski 2018) A Quiet Place Part 2 (Krasinski 2020) Related Films Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis 1995) 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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com 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 134 The post A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    53 min

  3. JAN 13

    Longlegs (Perkins 2024)

    Longlegs (Perkins 2024) While we think Osgood Perkins seems to be a genuinely wonderful human, sadly this film is not wonderful. This is not so much a movie as it is a series of trope vignettes with similar production desgin. Longlegs is all vibes with no substance; no character development, no timeline, no rationales, and no real reasons for anything. In many ways it’s a perfect film for the TikTok era, and we don’t mean that as a compliment. Laura started out thinking Marshall would hate the film. While he didn’t initially, through our discussion we found out she was absolutely correct to think that. This is not what we want in our horror films, without some cohesion of diegetic reality, there is no real fear, no real horror. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Longlegs Minor spoilers for The Conjuring Silence of the Lambs Se7en Smile Dahmer Story of a Monster TOPIC INDEX – Longlegs (Perkins 2024) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts and The Age of Cage 6:00 – ethical challenges of serial killer films 7:00 – The most hated of the films we’ve discussed on the podcast and where LongLegs stands 8:30 – vibes movies 11:00 – Marshall on Nic Cage 13:30 – SPOILERS section begins 14:00 – Laura on Nic Cage 15:00 – the ethics of glorifying serial killers 20:30 – back to LongLegs 23:00 – lack of character development 42:00 – a modern fairy tale 48:00 – the ending 52:00 – serial killer genre vs possession genre 58:00 – popularity of the film 1:01:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:05:00 – Marshall’s thoughts on Twisters Related Episodes Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Berlinger 2019) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Prisoners (Villeneuve 2013) Related Films Talk to Me (Philippou and Philippou 2022) The Blackcoat’s Daughter (Perkins 2017) The Witch (Perkins 2015) 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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 132 The post Longlegs (Perkins 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 13m

  4. JAN 7

    Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986)

    Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) In anticipation of Alien Romulus (Alvarez 2024), this episode we revisit the epic films Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986). We discuss how the films hold up after approximately 40 years. This is a rare episode for us as it is both a sci-fi horror film and a creature film. We have very few episodes of films in these sub-genres. Marshall first saw this film when he was 10 and offers his perspective as to why Aliens in particular is one of his all time favorite films. In contrast, this might be Laura’s second time viewing the film so she is coming in mostly blind except for the cultural references. Laura watched with her 10 year old son, so he added a perspective as to how this film might be understood by a young person today. And Laura has a hot take as an Alien sympathizer! Listen for the tea. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Alien (Scott 1979) Aliens (Cameron 1986) AvP: Alien vs Predator (Andersen 2004) TOPIC INDEX – Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 3:30 – Laura watching Aliens with her son 6:15 – Laura’s history with Alien and Aliens 9:00 – Marshall’s history with Alien and Aliens 11:00 – Alien 3 + 18:00 – SPOILERS section begins 20:00 – gender neutrality 21:00 – focus on Alien 30:30 – focus on Aliens 38:00 – caregiving and gender roles 50:00 – historical context 53:00 – middle management technocrat as villain 59:00 – mothers standoff 1:01:00 – species-centrism vs species relativism? 1:12:30 – earlier musings on Aliens being post-gender 1:23:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Crawl (Aja 2019) Related Films All of the alien franchise films. 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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 131 The post Alien (Scott 1979) and Aliens (Cameron 1986) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 30m
  5. Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024)

    12/09/2025

    Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024)

    Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) Directed by Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who have made very solid Scream requels and the really excellent Ready or Not, we had high hopes for Abigail. With lots of promise and overall good audience reactions we were unfortunately very disappointed. Abigail is bad. Real bad. No character development, no movitations, no sense of geography, and any even remote potential for fear or suspense was undermined by the marketing. Any hope that it would challenge or disrupt tropes and stereotypes, given that the vampire is a girl, are compromised completely by the film’s ending. It is reasonably watchable as a second-screen film, or something to have on in the background, which is not meant to be a compliment. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Pitch Black (Twohy 2000) Tower Heist (Ratner 2011) Last Stop in Yuma County (Galluppi 2024) TOPIC INDEX – Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 5:30 – Film discussion begins 11:30 – the trailer for Abigail 13:30 – SPOILERS section begins 13:30 – spoilers and wasted potential 32:00 – geography 38:00 – comparatively bad parenting 43:30 – everybody sucks 48:00 – sociology moment – Final Girl 55:00 – ending scenes 1:07:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Scream 5 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2022) Scream 6 (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2023) (forthcoming) Becky (Milott and Murnion 2020) (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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 130 Keywords sociology, horror, vampire, gender, enshittification, geography, bad mothers, final girl, parents, gore, blood, girl, The post Abigail (Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 23m
  6. Late Night with the Devil

    11/18/2025

    Late Night with the Devil

    Late Night with the Devil (Cairnes and Cairnes 2023) Late Night with the Devil became somewhat of an immediate indie cult classic. According to Wikipedia “The film grossed $16 million and was met with widespread critical acclaim.” While Laura found the film to be quite an entertaining watch, Marshall was not a fan. And then when we delved into the messaging and subtext of the film things really went sour. The film not only perpetuates sexist horror tropes but it does significant work to validate the caustic Satanic Panic of the late 1970s and early 1980s that is still toxically present in aspects of QAnon insanity. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Untraceable (Hoblit 2008) The Conjuring (beginning only) Carrie (De Palma 1976) TOPIC INDEX – Late Night with the Devil (Cairnes and Cairnes 2023) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 3:45 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – Marshall’s overall thoughts 9:30 – Laura’s overall thoughts 13:00 – SPOILERS section begins 13:30 – opening montage 16:00 – From Satanic Panic to Qanon 18:00 – The Conjuring opening spoilers 19:45 – Sociology Moment – Clover’s conversion plot 23:00 – additional gender dynamics 31:00 – subjective perspectives and wasted potential 37:00 – implications of the ending 1:15:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Berlinger 2019) The Conjuring (Wan 2013) Related Films Talk to Me (Philippou and Philippou 2022) 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 • podcast@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 129 Keywords sociology, horror, Satanic Panic, conspiracy theories, gender, Carol Clover, conversion plot, possession, real time, cults, subjective perspective, religion, secret society, psychic, cultic abuse, abuse, forgiveness, exploitation, sexuality, chastity, Puritan values, tropes, Qanon, The post Late Night with the Devil appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 34m
  7. Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023)

    10/28/2025

    Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023)

    Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) Poor Things cause quite a stir on the film scene when it was released. While not exactly horror it is definitely bizarre and has some macabre and fantastic elements, so here we are to discuss it. We had mixed feelings about this film but if nothing else, we appreciate the big swings it took in terms of stylization, acting, and narrative. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) Forrest Gump (Zemeckis 1994) It Follows (Mitchell 2014) very minor spoilers TOPIC INDEX – Poor Things  (Lanthimos 2023) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins 4:30 – genre 5:30 – SPOILERS section begins 5:30 – recap of events 19:00 – born sexy yesterday trope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_Sexy_Yesterday 21:00 – continuum of relationships 51:00 – indulgent hedonism vs detached practicality 1:01:45 – God Godwin and daddy issues 1:03:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Weiner-Dog (Solondz 2016) Related Films Frankenstein (Rose 2015) 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 • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 128 Keywords sociology, horror, suicide, born sexy yesterday, frankenstein, sexuality, macabre, grotesque, sex work, jealousy, possessiveness, pleasure, cruelty, misery, life course, fetus, infant, tabula rasa, Freud, disillusionment, sex positive The post Poor Things (Lanthimos 2023) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 14m
  8. Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016)

    09/29/2025

    Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016)

    Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) Following up on our discussion of The Babysitter is a film that is sort of similar in terms of vibe, and very different in terms of execution. At least this is true for the first segment of the film. Luckily for all of us, this film is not The Babysitter. While it has some originality and there is evidence of effort to break out of problematic messaging, it ultimately only has mixed success. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE Bottoms (Seligman 2023) Becky (Milott and Murnion 2020) The Babysitter (McG 2017) TOPIC INDEX – Better Watch Out  (Peckover 2016) (times are approximate)  0:30 – Introductions 1:00 – how we found the film and initial impressions 3:00 – Film discussion begins 5:30 – male gaze and scopophilia 8:00 – twin films 12:00 – acting 14:00 – SPOILERS section begins 14:00 – acting, writing, direction 22:00 – villain who is outside hegemonic masculinity 31:00 – monstrous feminine vs villainous fathers 57:00 – Martyrs mention 58:00 – SPOILERS FOR BOTTOMS 1:05:30 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 1:11:00 – additional chat 1:13:00 – Laura’s award-winning short film The Silent Generation (Solorzano 2024) Related Episodes Relic (James 2020) Summer of ’84 (Simard, Whissell, and Whissell 2018) Related Films The Visit (Shyamalan 2015) Old (Shyamalan 2021) Them (Ils) (Moreau aned Palud 2006) The Stepfather (Ruben 1987) 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 • Marshall@collectivenightmares.com • Laura@collectivenightmares.com Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into or otherwise be used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 127 Keywords teenagers, adolescents, Christmas, babysitter, children, villains, values, socialization, Reagan, familial imaginary, nuclear family, child care, patriarchy, Martyrs, elderly, aging, The post Better Watch Out (Peckover 2016) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

    1h 17m
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About

Sociologists Talk Horror

Information

  • Creator
    Collective Nightmares
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Marshall Smith - Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.
  • Show Website
    Collective Nightmares