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Sitting in the Dark

Sitting in the Dark

By: TruStory FM
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 Sitting in the Dark is a podcast about horror, but not the kind that hides in a single shadow. Each month, hosts Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, and Pete Wright pick a theme — an idea, a trope, a nightmare that keeps winding back — and explore it through three films that share its DNA. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they’re unexpected, and sometimes they lead you deeper into the maze than you expected to go. One month might bring The Drac Pack, three wildly different takes on cinema’s most famous vampire. Another, a journey through The Bride, the Boy, and the Firetruck, unpacking coded queer horror across decades. We’ve explored maternal terror in Mommy Acts This Way Because She Loves You, broken into the home-invasion subgenre, tiptoed through haunted houses, and stared down both classic monsters and blockbuster franchises. What ties it all together is a love of horror as a labyrinth — a twisting path where every turn reveals something new about our fears, desires, and cultural obsessions. With smart conversation, dark humor, and a willingness to look behind the curtain (or under the bed), Sitting in the Dark invites you to settle in, turn down the lights, and find out what connects the nightmares.© TruStory FM Art
Episodes
  • The Drac Pack

    The Drac Pack
    Jul 25 2025
    Dracula may never stay dead, but his film incarnations sure evolve—or devolve—across decades. In this episode, Kyle Olson guides Pete Wright, Kynan Dias, and Tommy Metz III through three flavors of Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Dracula 2000, and Dracula Untold.They dig into Coppola’s sweaty gothic melodrama, where Oldman chews the scenery and Keanu Reeves gets chewed out. Then it’s on to Dracula 2000, where Gerard Butler’s vampire has some serious history, and finally Dracula Untold, where Luke Evans broods his way through a Marvel-ified antihero origin story.The team debates: Is Dracula sexy? Is he even supposed to be? Is he best as a metaphor for carnal desire, theological vengeance, or medieval honor? And what happens when you declaw the monster in hopes of building a cinematic universe?Kyle signs off with a legacy worthy of the Count himself, and Tommy reveals next month’s theme: rug-pulling horror films with Barbarian, Strange Darling, and the legendary British TV special Ghostwatch.Film SundriesThe List on LetterboxdWatch the movies discussed:Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdDracula 2000: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdDracula Untold: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdThe Drac Pack (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(03:07) - Bram Stoker's Dracula(29:07) - Dracula 2000(45:02) - Dracula Untold(01:03:37) - The Drac Pack(01:10:09) - But Kyle promised immortality!(01:12:08) - Coming Attractions Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • The Bride, The Boy, and the Firetruck: Coded Queer Horror Cinema

    The Bride, The Boy, and the Firetruck: Coded Queer Horror Cinema
    Jun 27 2025
    This Pride Month edition of Sitting in the Dark shines a lavender light on the long-standing but often invisible relationship between horror cinema and queer identity. Host Kynan Dias traces horror’s appeal to outsiders—particularly LGBTQ+ viewers—who find coded representation in monsters, victims, and the margins of genre storytelling.The episode dives deep into three genre-defining films.The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)James Whale’s campy sequel is reevaluated as a foundational queer text. The panel explores how Whale, an out gay director, infused the film with coded themes of same-sex companionship, rejection, and theatricality. From Dr. Pretorius’s foppish villainy to the Bride’s brief, iconic scream, the film is bursting with subtext—much of it retroactively interpreted through the lens of queer longing and societal othering. The group also riffs on Whale’s tonal whiplash, Elsa Lanchester’s cultural impact, and why “We belong dead” might be the most tragic queer line in horror history.A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)Often derided as a messy sequel, this film is now embraced by many as a camp classic of queer horror. The conversation covers the now-notorious creative denials around its subtext, the dynamic between actor Mark Patton and the filmmakers, and the striking presence of a “final boy” whose journey blurs lines between possession, repression, and queer awakening. The film’s overt homoeroticism—locker rooms, leather bars, and sweaty dance sequences—is discussed not just for laughs, but as meaningful queer coding in the Reagan-era horror landscape. The panel also reckons with Freddy as a metaphor for internalized shame, and what it means when a horror film can’t quite let its subtext become text.Titane (2021)Winner of the Palme d’Or and easily the most divisive film of the trio, Titane pushes the panel into complex conversations about gender fluidity, body horror, and the relationship between performance and identity. Is this a trans allegory? A critique of binaries? Or just a deeply weird tale of trauma and transformation? The hosts wrestle with the film’s ambiguity, discussing its uncompromising visuals, unexpectedly tender surrogate father-son relationship, and what it means to build a chosen family amidst radical bodily change. Some saw it as alienating; others, transcendent. All agreed: this one will be analyzed for decades.This episode doesn’t wrap everything up with a rainbow bow—and that’s the point. Horror isn’t tidy, and queerness rarely comes with clean lines or clear labels. But if you’ve ever felt like the monster, the final someone, or the person who’s just a little too into the firetruck, this conversation might feel like coming home. Or at least like sitting in the dark with people who see what you see.Film SundriesThe List on LetterboxdWatch the movies discussed:The Bride of Frankenstien: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdA Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge: Apple • Amazon • LetterboxdTitane: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(01:33) - Coded Queer Horror(04:31) - Dealing with the Morality Police(10:49) - Bride of Frankenstein(29:42) - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge(48:23) - Titane(01:16:14) - Coming Attractions: The Drac Pack Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Mommy Acts This Way Because she Loves You

    Mommy Acts This Way Because she Loves You
    May 30 2025
    Pete Wright hosts a brutally personal Mother’s Day episode of Sitting in the Dark, joined by regular co-conspirators Kyle Olson, Kynan Dias, and Tommy Metz III, as they dig into three films that ask a profoundly unsettling question: What if Mom is the monster?We start with Run (2020), a film that’s more “Lifetime original” than it has any right to be. It’s clean, tight, and distressingly effective. Sarah Paulson’s performance is terrifying not because she twirls her mustache but because she doesn’t have one. And newcomer Kiera Allen rolls (yes, rolls) away with the movie by doing exactly what her character does best—staying two clever steps ahead.Next, Goodnight Mommy (2014). Austrian, austere, and absolutely harrowing. It’s a film about maternal misrecognition, grief-fueled delusion, and the dangers of not labeling your twins’ toothbrushes. There’s a twist, and if you see it coming, that won’t make the third act any less of a gut punch. It’s what happens when grief curdles, and no one’s left to explain bedtime.And then: mother! (2017). Darren Aronofsky’s symphonic descent into allegorical madness. Sure, it’s “about” the Bible. It’s also about climate change. It’s about patriarchy, artistic ego, and the cosmic price of hospitality. Or maybe it’s just a guy on a cocaine bender writing a play he’ll never finish. Whether you think it’s pretentious or profound (hint: it’s both), one thing is clear—Jennifer Lawrence earns every ounce of your attention and maybe a few gallons of blood.Across these three films, the panel explores how motherhood in horror isn’t just about nurture gone wrong. It’s about architecture—both of the home and the psyche. It’s about women who are worshipped, consumed, blamed, and erased. And yes, sometimes it’s about cockroaches.Films Discussed:Run (2020) – dir. Aneesh ChagantyGoodnight Mommy (2014) – dir. Veronika Franz & Severin Fialamother! (2017) – dir. Darren AronofskyComing AttractionsFor Pride Month, Kynan’s curating a trio of queer-coded and queer-explicit horror: from the monstrous repression of Nightmare on Elm Street 2, to the camp and creaturehood of Bride of Frankenstein, to the raw queer body-horror ballet of Titane. You won’t want to miss it.Film SundriesThe List on LetterboxdWatch the movies discussed:Run: Apple • Hulu • LetterboxdGoodnight Mommy: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxdmother!: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(02:57) - The Horror Bond of Motherhood(10:33) - Run(27:35) - Goodnight Mommy(44:31) - Mother!(01:04:41) - Coming attractions Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible
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    1 hr and 8 mins
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