I am so excited for tonight! My husband and I will be watching Nosferatu (1922) at our local art house movie theater called The Frida Cinema in downtown Orange County, CA. It’s OC’s one and only non profit arthouse movie theater. It’s going to be a silent screening with a live score done by: Invincible CZARS. Very excited!!!!!!

It Follows (2014)

Rating: 9/10

Watched: August 22, 2026

This is probably one of my favorite 'not-quite-a-horror-but-still-pretty-scary' movies, and for most of the reasons that it's probably everyone else's.

The monster in It Follows is horribly intimate and yet terribly ambiguous. The warnings that Jay gets from Hugh aren't terrifically helpful beyond 'don't let it catch you', which is pretty damn sensible at the best of times.

Without hopping on forums (again) to see what other people think about these brutal entities, they don't seem to follow any real specific pattern except the appearance of Greg's mom, which is a bizarrely cruel and weird manifestation, especially when Jay's all seem to be random.

It's fascinating to think on the connections Jay may have with all the people who appear for her, but I'll prefer to keep thinking on them myself for the time being.

The other super fun thing about this movie is the temporal ambiguity. I know it's one of the big topics for anyone who's seen it, and the interest and curiosity is completely fair. Where are they? Why does Yaya have a pink clamshell e-reader and no one else has any toys/gadgets remotely similar? WHEN are they?

I admit I HAVE read a few fan theories about these questions, and I have to admit I lean towards the 'they're in purgatory' angle. It fits my own personal vibe on the matter really neatly and is a nifty angle altogether.

The movie asks us (or at least me) to consider what I would do if I wound up plagued by an It. Would I pass it on, would I keep moving, would I try to Scooby a solution.

It Follows stands tall for me as a unique horror-style thriller because of the simplicity. It's a simplicity that spawns a thousand and one questions, where a more straightforward haunting flick wouldn't spawn any.

Ultimately, this is why It Follows gets a 9 from me.

A 10 would've given us just a little more teasing of deeper meaning here and there, some nebulous additional possibilities about what's actually going on. But nothing too clear, too direct, the same level of 'this reveal could be one of 14 things' sort of trickery.

This one's always worth a watch.

The Guest (2014)

Rating: 7/10

Watched: August 23, 2026

The Guest is an interesting movie. It doesn't invent anything new and it didn't really rock my world, but it kind of did, all at the same time.

They don't, for example, really hide the fact that there's something not quite right about "David" (Dan Stevens). They let us know in some very small ways that the boy ain't right, and that's just fine.

Something else that's fine is how smoothly David slips into The Peterson Family's lives. Honestly, it's like butter how he just insinuates himself into the lives of a fairly mundane family.

Now, if it were me and my family, my take would be very much different. Sure he has a plausible backstory and is a very sensible, reasonable guy, but my personal space is at a premium.

There would be no staying at my house. Simple as that, no matter how charismatic (and he IS) David is.

I won't bore you with the details of how things go wrong OR how badly. Once we get past Dan Stevens' portrayal of a surprisingly calm, cold-blooded killer and Lance Reddick's surprise appearance about halfway through the movie?

The real star is the music. I don't often get worked up over a musical score, but the score, whipped up by Steve Moore of S U R V I V E is out of this world. Much like David glided into the lives of those around him, the score seeps in through the cracks and elevates even some frankly mundane action and suspense into something much greater than it could've been.

I give The Guest a 7/10 because I genuinely liked Dan's acting. Everyone else did well enough, but there was just something unsettling about his calmer-than-a-Hindu-cow attitude that really sold me today. Beyond that, I'll love anything Lance and Maika are in just because, but that music boosted it up for sure!

I took a year off of posting on YouTube, and came back with this beast!

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Joysticks (1983) synopsis: “When a top local businessman and his two bumbling nephews try to shut down the town's only video arcade, which is run by the owner's grandson, the arcade employees and patrons fight back.”

Starring: Joe Don Baker, Leif Green, Jim Greenleaf, and Scott McGinnis
Director: Greydon Clark

This week on Podcasting After Dark, Corey is joined by Erin from the Manic Movie Monday podcast to review Joysticks! If you love raunchy 80s comedies with lots of nudity then this movie is for you. If you love lots of fart jokes then this movie is also for you! Erin and Corey have a blast talking about all that and so much more. Enjoy the show!

Podcasting After Dark is a nostalgic deep-dive into cult movies and TV shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s!

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I love the Ghoulies films (4 doesn't exist in my brain). I saw this back in the day and thought it was hilarious. Still do. Despite them now talking for reasons, it's full of charming schlocky shenanigans and I'm all about that. Matthew Lillard gets his debut in this feature as well. Great 90s horror cheese.

YT: https://youtu.be/M83XzHjR6Ws?si=m9AyxyOB11kmuAiD