Monstrous Flesh: A Horror Film Podcast

Monstrous Flesh
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Film Reviews
  • Updated Biweekly

A podcast dedicated to exploring the origins of horror tropes, the folklore behind it, and the representation of women and non binary folks within it! In each series we deep dive a particular theme or trope, and we dissect it to an inch of its life! Hosted by Dr Megan Kenny and Clelia McElroy, and edited by Adam Hynes.

  1. 6d ago

    DARK ACADEMIA 1. Urban Legend (Blank, 1998)

    Summer’s over kids, you’ve had your fun in the sun, now it’s time to get those brain cells back into action… before they end up splattered on your mid terms paper! In this first episode, we discuss the 1998 vintage that is Urban Legend. **** Synopsis: The film follows Natalie Simon, a University student who begins to suspect that a killer is turning famous Urban Legends into reality. From the stranger hiding in the back seat of a car to the terrifying tale of the babysitter and the calls coming from inside the house, each murder appears to be inspired by a contemporary myth. As paranoia spreads across campus, Natalie and her friends must work out who is behind the killings — and whether the clues to the murderer’s identity have been hiding in the stories they thought were just folklore. **** Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg **** Show Notes Top 10 Most Haunted Colleges ⋆ College Magazine  Creepy Urban Legends: 5 University Myths That Spook Students

    DARK ACADEMIA 1. Urban Legend (Blank, 1998)

  2. Aug 25

    HEATWAVE 4. Lake Placid (Milner, 1999)

    In this final episode we discuss LAKE PLACID, a film which subverts the traditional "vengeful nature" trope by exposing humanity’s absurd, possessive, and contradictory relationship with the wild. Instead of treating the giant 30-foot crocodile as an evil abomination that must be eradicated, the film turns the creature into a focal point for a clash between modern science, archaic local symbiosis, and bureaucratic cluelessness. **** Synopsis: When a diver is eaten alive by an unknown creature in a remote lake in Maine, the local game warden and sheriff team up with a paleontologist and an eccentric philanthropist to find the crocodile before it kills anyone else. **** Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg **** Show Notes The Crocodile in Ancient Nile and Aboriginal Creation Myths  CROCODILE SPECIALIST GROUP NEWSLETTER 141A  Crocodile - Wikipedia

    HEATWAVE 4. Lake Placid (Milner, 1999)

  3. Aug 18

    HEATWAVE 3. C.H.U.D (Douglas Cheek, 1984)

    Before “toxic waste” became one of genre cinema’s favourite clichés, C.H.U.D. made it feel genuinely unsettling. There’s no glowing green sludge here, magically transforming unsuspecting victims into mutants. Instead, the film taps into something much more insidious: the fear that something dangerous is festering right beneath the city we think we know. Like The Incredible Melting Man, Alligator, and The Stuff, C.H.U.D. channels growing anxieties around pollution, contamination, and the hidden consequences of human negligence. But what makes it particularly effective is the way it turns those anxieties into an urban nightmare. The threat isn’t some distant, abstract environmental catastrophe — it’s literally underneath our feet. **** Synopsis: Photographer George Cooper is documenting the lives of subterranean homeless people in New York City. After receiving information from a reporter regarding a conspiracy theory about cannibalistic monsters lurking in the sewers. George teams up with a policeman and a priest to fight two battles: one against the ‘cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers’ and the other against a corrupt government official, who may be lying about what the acronym C.H.U.D stands for? **** Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg **** Show Notes Cast John Heard as George Cooper Daniel Stern as A.J. "The Reverend" Shepherd Christopher Curry as Captain Bosch Kim Greist as Lauren Daniels J.C. Quinn as Murphy Michael O'Hare as Officer Fuller Peter Michael Goetz as Gramps Sam McMurray as Officer Crespi Frankie R. Faison as Sergeant Parker Graham Beckel as Val Jon Polito as Newscaster George Martin as Wilson John Bedford Lloyd as "Shadow" Laure Mattos as Flora Bosch Cordis Heard as Cop Patricia Richardson as Ad Woman Eddie Jones as Chief O'Brien John Goodman and Jay Thomas as Diner Cops Hallie Foote as Waitress Sandford Clark, Lou Leccese, James Dudley and Carey Eidel as C.H.U.D. suit performers Research bibliography Alligators-in-the-Sewers: A Journalistic Origin. Loren Coleman The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 92, No. 365 (Jul. - Sep., 1979), pp. 335-338 (4 pages) https://doi.org/10.2307/539420. https://www.jstor.org/stable/539420. Sewer alligator - Wikipedia  Londoners Once Wondered If Feral Hogs Roamed Victorian-Era Sewers  The Monstrous & Terrifying Wild Pigs of Hampstead's Sewers - David Castleton Blog - The Serpent's Pen

    HEATWAVE 3. C.H.U.D (Douglas Cheek, 1984)

  4. Aug 12

    HEATWAVE 2. Piranha (Dante, 1978)

    In this episode, we discuss ‘the best Jaws rip-off’ - Joe Dante’s original sci-fi horror Piranha stands out from the countless array of nature-bites-back flicks thanks to its in-your-face and unapologetic ode to genre filmmaking.  Synopsis: When two hapless teens disappear after trekking past an abandoned military compound, skip tracer Maggie McKeown is sent to find them, unenthusiastically aided by local drunkard Paul Grogan. Whilst investigating the military compound, Maggie and Paul unwittingly release a swarm of blood thirsty, genetically modified piranhas into the river. Realising their mistake, they race against the clock, and the current, to save the town from a school of very hungry fish! Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg **** Show Notes Cast Bradford Dillman as Paul Grogan Heather Menzies as Maggie McKeown Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Robert Hoak Keenan Wynn as Jack Dick Miller as Buck Gardner Barbara Steele as Dr. Mengers Belinda Balaski as Betsy Melody Thomas Scott as Laura Dickinson Shannon Collins as Suzie Grogan Bruce Gordon as Colonel Waxman Barry Brown as Trooper Paul Bartel as Dumont Shawn Nelson as Whitney Richard Deacon as Earl Lyon John Sayles as Sentry Piranha! | Plantasia Tropical Zoo  How a President Propagated a Piranha Myth – Greater Cleveland Aquarium  The Myth of the Sacred Piranha: The Fearsome Fish - Babylonian Mythology  The Myth and Mayhem of Piranhas: Debunking the "Deadly" Reputation  Piranha director Joe Dante on B-movies, Spielberg and ripping off Jaws - SciFiNow

    HEATWAVE 2. Piranha (Dante, 1978)

  5. Aug 4

    HEATWAVE 1 . Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954)

    Welcome to our summer series- Heatwave Horror. As the world quite literally burns around us, we will be exploring the use of the environment in horror cinema. In this first episode, we discuss the creature feature that started it all: Jack Arnold’s 1954 masterpiece Creature from the Black Lagoon. Synopsis: Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, an archaeological expedition uncovers the fossilized claw of a mysterious prehistoric creature, prompting a team of scientists to investigate its origins. Their search leads them to a remote lagoon, where they discover that the creature is far from extinct. Hidden beneath the water is the Gill-Man – an ancient amphibious humanoid that fiercely defends its territory while becoming captivated by the expedition's lone female scientist, Kay Lawrence. As the creature stalks the team, killing those who threaten it and repeatedly attempting to abduct Kay, the scientists become divided over whether it should be studied or destroyed. Trapped in the isolated lagoon, the expedition is forced into a deadly confrontation with the last survivor of a forgotten prehistoric world. **** Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg **** Show Notes: Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954) Cast Richard Carlson as Dr. David Reed Julia Adams as Kay Lawrence Ginger Stanley as Kay Lawrence (underwater; uncredited) Richard Denning as Dr. Mark Williams Antonio Moreno as Dr. Carl Maia Nestor Paiva as Captain Lucas Whit Bissell as Dr. Edwin Thompson Bernie Gozier as Zee Henry Escalante as Chico Rodd Redwing as Luis Perry Lopez as Tomas Sydney Mason as Dr. Matos Ricou Browning as the Gill-man (underwater; uncredited) Ben Chapman as the Gill-man (on land; uncredited) Video links: “Back to the Black Lagoon” an Original Documentary on "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmiy6R9sT5Y Research bibliography I Spit on Your Celluloid, (Heidi Honeycutt - 2024) The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, (Mallory O’Meara - 2019) Monster Theory: Reading Culture (Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, 1996)

    HEATWAVE 1 . Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954)

  6. 12/31/2025 ·  Bonus

    BONUS . 2025 Wrap Up

    In this last episode of the year we discuss our cinematic highs and lows of 2025, as well as looking back at our achievements this year and a preview of what we have in mind for 2026... Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous new year!

  7. 12/24/2025 ·  Bonus

    BONUS . Christmas Special - Ghost Stories

    Did you know that before the tinsel and the Coca-Cola truck, Christmas in Britain was a time for... terror? In the penultimate episode of the year (wink wink), Meg and Clelia gathered around the fire to discuss the great British tradition of Ghost Stories for Christmas. Long before the Victorian era, the winter solstice was seen as a thin place—where the veil between the living and the dead was at its most fragile. But it was Charles Dickens who truly cemented the 'Christmas Ghost' into our DNA with his 1843 masterpiece, A Christmas Carol. From the chilling 1951 Alastair Sim version to the high-budget Hollywood spectacles, we’ve seen Scrooge redeemed a thousand times. But... there is one version that stands above them all. A version that captures the heart, the thrills, and the humour of the original text perfectly. Talking, of course, about the 1992 cinematic force majeure: The Muppet Christmas Carol! We’re diving deep into why Michael Caine’s straight-faced performance and a cast of felt characters created, in our very biased minds, the most authentic Dickensian adaptation. Join us as we explore the folklore behind the ghost stories tradition, discuss our favourite tales from the beyond, the fear… and the fuzzy felt!

    BONUS . Christmas Special - Ghost Stories

  8. 11/26/2025 ·  Bonus

    GUEST EP . The Lords of Salem (Zombie, 2012) with Payton McCarthy-Simas

    We are joined by a very special guest: Payton McCarthy-Simas, author of That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film, to dive deep into Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem (2012) — a hypnotic, polarising, and deeply uncanny entry in modern witch cinema. Payton brings their expertise on American witch narratives to unpack the film’s hallucinatory imagery, its lineage in Puritan panic, and its portrayal of witchcraft as both a site of feminist resistance and profound horror. We trace the film’s depiction of addiction, grief, and bodily vulnerability, and explore how Zombie reimagines the witch’s coven as a force that is at once communal, grotesque, and defiantly powerful. Join us as we interrogate whether The Lords of Salem offers liberation or damnation; how the film echoes real histories of persecution; and what it means to place a woman at the centre of a cosmic ritual she cannot escape. Expect discussions of trauma, ritual spectacle, psychedelic horror, and the complicated politics of representing female and non-binary bodies within witchcraft narratives. Tune in for an episode that’s part cultural excavation, part fever dream. ****Payton is an author, programmer, film critic, and video artist with a focus on horror and genre film. Their writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Film Daze, and The Brooklyn Rail among others, as well as spotlighted in The New York Times, CNN, and RogerEbert.com. Her short films and screenplays have been featured in several film festivals as well as shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is also the author of two books of nonfiction and film criticism, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture (2024) and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film (2025).  Payton holds a Masters in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University and is a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics and GALECA. *** Editing and theme music by Adam Hynes @adamnarrows Follow the hosts of Monstrous Flesh on social media @monstrous_flesh and @monstrousmeg

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A podcast dedicated to exploring the origins of horror tropes, the folklore behind it, and the representation of women and non binary folks within it! In each series we deep dive a particular theme or trope, and we dissect it to an inch of its life! Hosted by Dr Megan Kenny and Clelia McElroy, and edited by Adam Hynes.

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