Outside of a Dream, Episode 6 - Black Christmas

Warner Bros. Pictures

Silent night, deadly night, everyone! It's Outside of a Dream's first Yuletide episode, in which we explore two Christmasey selections, one from the Great White North and the other from the Great White Much Farther North. The first is Black Christmas, a Canadian proto-slasher from 1974. The second is Rare Exports, a very, VERY alternative take on Santa Claus from modern Finland.

Also in this episode, Daniel appreciates Finnish actors' commitment to their art and Cameron grapples with director Bob Clark's incredibly varied filmography.

Black Christmas and Rare Exports are available to rent on YouTube and can be streamed on Shudder.

If you're interested in Black Christmas' surprisingly prescient themes and dynamics, we highly recommend Aja Romano's essay on Vox on the subject. 

Outside of a Dream, Episode 5 - The Interior

Low Sky Productions

In Trevor Juras' The Interior, Patrick McFadden plays James, a young, quietly bitter man whose life is upended upon being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Leaving behind his girlfriend and dead-end office job, he travels deep into the interior of British Columbia on a solo backpacking trip. But the solitude he craves in the Canadian wilderness is violated by something perhaps as lost and confused as he is. Speaking of solitude, Cameron relates his own backpacking experiences plus that time he nearly died in the desert.
　
Note: Due to a recording error, Daniel's audio sounds very, very bad. We apologize if this affects your listening experience and promise to have the problem fixed by the next episode. For now, simply imagine Dan is a robot.
　
The Interior can be rented on YouTube.

VIDEO: Unedited Footage of a Bear

Outside of a Dream, Episode 4 - It Comes at Night

A24

Cameron Suey stops by again to discuss It Comes at Night, Trey Edward Shults' second film and his first foray into horror. Set during an unspecified viral outbreak, two families are brought together at a woodland cottage and are torn apart through paranoia, tribalism, and poor communication. Steel yourself, as It Comes at Night is psychological horror at its most raw and ambiguous. On much lighter notes, Daniel nerds out over movie commentaries and Cam goes buckwild with discount Halloween decorations.

It Comes at Night can be rented on YouTube.

VIDEO: Curve

Story: SCP-001 - Kate McTiriss' Proposal

Outside of a Dream, Episode 3 - The Blackcoat's Daughter

A24

Horror writer and video game narrative designer Cameron Suey stops by to discuss The Blackcoat's Daughter, the debut feature film of Osgood Perkins. Set at a Catholic girls' boarding school during a snowbound winter break, it's a harrowing story of possession and violence that makes The Exorcist look positively cheerful by comparison. We also delve into an oddly grounded short film of cosmic horror and a chilling blog series whose previously anonymous author has a surprising identity.

The Blackcoat's Daughter can be streamed on Shudder or rented on YouTube.

Cameron's short horror fiction can be found at The Josef K. Stories. 

VIDEO: AM1200

STORY: The Dionaea House

Outside of a Dream, Episode 2 - The Witch

A24

In the early 17th century, a Puritan family, recently exiled from their colony in Massachusetts, build their home at the edge of the wild, unwittingly trespassing on the territory of a witch. The wood's resident crone is less your Margaret Hamilton, "I'll get you my pretty" type and more a nightmarish servant of literal Satan. Yet the witch herself is only the catalyst for the actual conflict, which is the paranoia and zealous fervour that starts to rip the family apart. Tuck yourself in for Robert Eggers' The Witch.

VIDEO: Local 58 - Weather Service

STORY: Ted's Caving Page

Theme music is "Deep Blue" by Bensound, found at https://www.bensound.com/

Outside of a Dream, Episode 1 - The Babadook

Entertainment One

For the inaugural episode of Outside of a Dream, my new podcast discussing new horror cinema, I take a look at Jennifer Kent's unnerving 2014 feature debut, The Babadook. In reading a disturbing children's book at bedtime, beleagured widow Amelia and her troublesome boy Samuel inadvertently invite an unwanted guest into their home, upturning their lives and relationship.

VIDEO: No Through Road

STORY: The Whistlers

Theme music is "Deep Blue" by Bensound, found at https://www.bensound.com/

Daniel's Horror Digest, 07/18/17

A24

*turns cap around, sits backwards in chair*

　

Hey folks, I don't often give shoutouts to Brands, but I would be remiss if I didn't give Shudder its propers. It's basically Netflix for horror (plus other obscure, uncategorizable movies) and it's where I watched a few of the movies I've very briefly reviewed below. The others can be streamed on Netflix or rented on YouTube as indicated.

Review: Blair Witch

All photos courtesy of Lionsgate

Blair Witch, 2016
Directed by Adam Wingard
Written by Simon Barrett
Distributed by Lionsgate
　
Last September, select moviegoers were more than a little surprised to learn that The Woods, a found footage horror movie premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, was in fact a stealth sequel to the landmark film The Blair Witch Project. Briefly (and somewhat confusingly) titled Blair Witch, it picks up over a decade and a half after the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of student filmmakers Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard deep in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland. It's actually the second sequel, with 2000's Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 being a non-found footage cash-in so bad and unlike the original that most people reading this have forgotten it, if they even heard of it in the first place.
　
I finally got around to watching the new Blair Witch a couple days ago and to sum things up really quickly, I wasn't a fan. I am, of course, absolutely biased here. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's The Blair Witch Project is the scariest movie I've ever seen and one of my favourite films in any genre. So my standards are high, to say the least. But I don't think the Blair Witch sequel is a bad movie, just really misguided, and in fact I even want to give its few shining moments their propers when I get around to discussing them. So without further ado, and knowing that I am NOT going to shy away from spoilers, let's dig in.

Resumption

Guess it won't be a surprise when I say I don't think I have it in me anymore. Writing, I mean.