The Desire of Horror

Charla Ferguson and Martin Essig
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Film Reviews
  • Updated Biweekly

Charla's love of horror movies combine with Marty's love of psychoanalysis and history of religions. This is a review and analysis of horror movies and what they say about desire.   You can purchase a t-shirt here: http://tee.pub/lic/tN64T8XLATU

  1. Sep 20

    True Detective S.1, Ep.6: What Is Redemption?

    Marty may have pushed things beyond any possible redemption arch. He continues to cheat on his wife with an very young woman whom he previously sought to protect as an underaged sex worker, beats up his daughter's two teenage "boy-friends," and in an extreme rage, threateningly puts his hands on his wife's throat. What would redemption look like for him? What does redemption look like at this point in the story for any of its characters given the fallen state of the world as depicted by Nick Pizzolatto? Perhaps, this is a narrative arch that doesn't tend towards justice, nor redemption of any sort, but towards indifference, pointless suffering, and moral turpitude. Is it true that any "true" detective will only ever uncover sin and endless horror in this dark night? Or is there something else in the darkness of this fallen place that is luring us to the light? Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  2. Sep 15

    In the Mouth of Madness: Hyperstition Gone Wild

    "Hyperstition" is a word invented by Nick Land to describe when something that doesn't exist yet, intervenes from the future in the past to bring itself into being. Land uses "Terminator 2" as an example of how this might happen. In Terminator 2, robots from a future time travel to the past to realize their future selves by effecting the timeline of their creation. Closer to John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" is Land's example of HP Lovecraft's "Necronomicon," which appeared in Lovecraft's fiction in the early 1900s as if real until it actually became real as a published book in the late 1970s, even though it contained "fake" incantations and supernatural beings, perhaps. And, the characters in Sam Raimy's film "Evil Dead," covered in an earlier episode, use the Necronomicon's necromancy to bring evil spirits into the unsuspecting bodies of the movies characters. In this episode of the "Desire of Horror," come join us unpack how the fictive author of the book "In the Mouth of Madness," Sutter Cane, a reference to HP Lovecraft's "In the Mountains of Madness," becomes all too real when he is able to effect the "real" world with his authorial intentions, or perhaps, they aren't his intentions at all. Perhaps, they are the hyperstitional intentions of the "Old Ones" themselves. Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  3. Sep 13

    True Detective S1, E5: Would Nietzsche Agree?

    Nietzsche never said that "Life is a flat circle." But the quote sort of gets attributed to him in this episode. Would Nietzsche have agreed with this sort of pessimism? Nope, but it is illuminative to consider how the misuse of his "Myth of the Eternal Return," demonstrates the shows most basic themes, which seem to align more with the extreme pessimism or even nihilism of Thomas Ligotti and Eugene Thacker. Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  4. Sep 2

    39. The Serpent and the Rainbow

    In a political environment in which racial and cultural stereotypes have been weaponized against our Haitian brothers and sisters, this movie hits a little different. However, it provides a good talking point about how Haiti is imagined in the US. Wes Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow," based on the book of the same name by "Wade Davis," hits on two of any of our worse fears, one, being buried alive, and two, losing control over our own bodies. Zombies have long been a metaphor for involuntary servitude, which had its worst expression in chattel slavery, so it is no wonder that Zombies are so closely associated with Haiti and its origins in the domination of the French plantation system over the lives of enslaved Africans. Voodoo is an African derived religion that can both liberate and/or captivate its adherents. It is paradoxically both a symbol of freedom in the Haitian revolution as well as of control from an outside force. Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  5. Aug 27

    True Detective S.1, E.4: What would you risk to stab at the Beast himself?

    Rust shows that he's wiling to sacrifice just about anything to get at Reggie Ledoux, including putting his life and the lives of others at great risk. Worth it? Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  6. Aug 17

    38. The Evil Dead

    Watch out for Demons! Nobody knows what they'll do if they get ahold of you or your magical books made out of human skin and written in blood. Demons seem to enjoy racing through the woods in frantic POV tracking shots, and then smashing into Michigan State undergraduates on a wild-party vacation in rundown cabins in the utterly desolate Tennessee backwoods. Demons love to possess people and make them do stupid things with makeup, writing implements, and reel to reel tape recorders because they never seem to realize that if you just let folks alone, they'll debase themselves without any supernatural assistance. Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" seemed to scratch an itch that emerged around the late 70s / early 80s horror community for extended, slapstick battles between humans and occult forces, and Ashley "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell) is the all time champ! Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  7. Aug 12

    True Detective season 1, episode 3: Freedom from Sin, Freedom from Self

    Two types of freedom are on display in this Episode of True Detective, and they may be related. Is the sense of having a self an illusory torture better ended sooner rather than later? Is it the sense of having a self that causes us to fall into sin, or put another way, do we sin because we want to defend the self and acquire what it desires? What if there is no sin in the pursuit of the ultimate end, which is to end life, and thus end the illusion of the self? What is freedom if life is a "flat circle" destined to repeat itself time and again for all of eternity? If there was an escape from this bad infinity, and if there was, wouldn't whatever it takes to get free of it be justified?  This episode is full of moral turpitude and some small gestures of forgiveness, full of the illusions of the false self, but is there actually a true self free of this fallen material world? Or is there nothing behind all of the masks? Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

  8. Aug 4

    37. The Omen 1976

    In the book of Revelations it is suggested that the Devil rules of the Earth, but only for a time. Revelations is about the overthrow of the rulership of Roman authorities, coded by its anti-Roman writer, John of Patmos, as "Babylon." The infamous number "666" refers specifically to the Roman Emperor Nero, who was a particularly ignominious figure to some early Christian communities, but the idea of Nero's return after his suicide to take back the emperorship comes from the Fifth Sibylline Oracle, which John of Patmos was riffing off in his vision of an evil ruler's return from the sea and subsequent, temporary, earthly reign. However, if Satan had read the apocalypse of John carefully, which one assumes he did, given that Satan is able to quote scriptures so well, Satan would have quickly realized that things don't end  great for him. It's difficult to understand why the Devil would be so keen on accelerating the end times since John of Patmos clearly indicates that the Devil gets his ass kicked. Maybe, the Antichrist thinks that the part of John's vision in which he comes from the sea and causes a bunch of mayhem was accurate, but that he could somehow escape the ass-kicking part by having a son who will some day become the president of the United States, as Damien aspires to do. Let's see if we can follow the logic of this 1976, Satanic classic. Follow us @thedesireofhorrorpodcast: Instagram

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Charla's love of horror movies combine with Marty's love of psychoanalysis and history of religions. This is a review and analysis of horror movies and what they say about desire.   You can purchase a t-shirt here: http://tee.pub/lic/tN64T8XLATU

Information

  • Creator
    Charla Ferguson and Martin Essig
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    46
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Desire of Horror
  • Show Website
    The Desire of Horror

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