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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, Chelsea Stardust, 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
  • Overstayed

    Overstayed
    Jan 30 2026
    You know that moment when the room doesn’t change, exactly… but you do? A joke lands a little sideways, a silence settles in, and your brain starts doing that ridiculous math where staying feels safer than leaving—even when every part of you is quietly screaming, “Go.” That’s the engine of this month’s Sitting in the Dark, as Pete Wright sits down with Tommy Metz III, Chelsea Stardust, and Kynan Dias to unpack “Overstayed”: three films built around the fear of the open door you don’t walk through.They start with Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, a dinner party that weaponizes politeness, history, and that stubborn desire to not be the first person to say what everyone’s thinking. From there, they pivot to David Bruckner’s The Night House, where the trap isn’t social pressure—it’s grief, isolation, and a house that seems to rearrange itself into meaning when you’re not looking. And then there’s Damien McCarthy’s Caveat, a movie that takes the idea of being “stuck” and makes it aggressively literal, daring you to decide whether you’re watching realism… or a fable with teeth.Along the way, the conversation keeps circling one question: what is it in us that wants answers more than safety? It’s a theme that feels uncomfortably familiar—and the kind of horror that lingers because it doesn’t ask what you’d do in a haunted house. It asks what you’d do at a party, in a marriage, in a moment where the cost of being wrong feels higher than the cost of staying.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:1 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd2 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd3 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(02:15) - The Concept(03:09) - The Invitation(29:23) - The Night House(48:49) - Caveat(01:07:49) - Coming AttractionsSupport The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • All Smiles

    All Smiles
    Dec 26 2025
    This month, Sitting in the Dark smiles politely, locks the door, and then asks you to reconsider every coping mechanism you’ve ever trusted. Tommy Metz III is joined by filmmaker Chelsea Stardust and Pete Wright to excavate the uneasy trilogy formed by Smile, Smile 2, and the short-film patient zero, Laura Hasn’t Slept, all courtesy of writer-director Parker Finn—a man who looked at the concept of healing and said, “Yes, but what if absolutely not.”The conversation begins with Laura Hasn’t Slept, a short film so assured it feels like a résumé quietly slid across the table while maintaining unsettling eye contact. Therapy, dreams, and sleep deprivation collide in a space that should feel safe and instead feels like a trapdoor with a co-pay. The group wrestles with the idea that this story may not be a beginning at all, but a closed loop—what it looks like once the monster has already moved in and started redecorating.From there, the episode moves into Smile, a film that takes the metaphor of trauma and strips away subtlety. It’s tired of pretending this is going to end well. Broken promises pile up. Authority figures fail spectacularly. “Safe space” becomes an ironic term at best. The panel digs into the film’s clinical color palette, its fixation on mirrors, and its unrelenting thesis: awareness is not protection, healing is not guaranteed, and sometimes the best you can do is not make things worse for the next person.Then Smile 2 kicks the door off its hinges. By shifting the curse to a global pop star, the sequel swaps quiet dread for public spectacle without sacrificing cruelty. Addiction, celebrity, parasocial obsession, and relentless visibility all become accelerants, pushing the franchise into its most confident—and most punishing—form. Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley is surrounded by people at all times and still utterly alone, a neat trick the film performs while tightening the noose.Across all three entries, the episode circles the same bleak conclusion: these movies aren’t interested in defeating trauma. They’re interested in how efficiently it spreads, how convincingly it blends in, and how easily it convinces you that you’re doing just fine. Smile for the camera.🎬 Featured Films🍿 Tonight's Triple Feature:Laura Hasn’t Slept - Daily Motion | LetterboxdSmile - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdSmile 2 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(01:31) - All Smiles(04:43) - Laura Hasn't Slept(12:21) - Looking Out the Window(14:17) - SMILE 1(26:37) - Smile 1(27:09) - Smile 2(27:55) - Smile 3(28:15) - Smile 4(28:29) - Smile 5(28:51) - Smile 6(29:03) - Smile 7(41:43) - SMILE 2(51:43) - Smile 8(52:13) - Smile 10(52:33) - Smile 11(58:29) - HS 1(58:47) - HS 2(59:15) - Smile Necklace(59:51) - Smile Mug(01:00:47) - Smile 12(01:01:25) - Smile 13Support 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 14 mins
  • Night of the...

    Night of the...
    Nov 28 2025
    The 1980s were a golden age of VHS horror excess — when night was the time to party, die, or both. This month, Chelsea Stardust takes the hosting reins and brings us a triple feature of midnight mayhem: Night of the Comet (1984), Night of the Creeps (1986), and Night of the Demons (1988). What begins with a Christmas-morning apocalypse of Valley Girls and zombies spirals into brain-slug infestations and ends in a demon-filled funeral-parlor rave that only the most caffeinated teenagers could survive.Pete, Kynan, Tommy, and Chelsea pull each film apart like a possessed VCR — celebrating Comet’s pastel apocalypse and genuinely progressive sister-heroes, Creeps’ mix of alien parasites and B-movie heart, and Demons’ glorious, unhinged chaos. Expect debates over whether these movies actually knew they were camp, why 1980s “fun horror” felt lighter even when dripping in blood, and how mall culture, frat parties, and Halloween nights all became stages for teenage empowerment and bad decisions.They also crown the best survivor of the trilogy (spoiler: justice for Roger!), nominate the worst audio mix in horror history, and reveal which lipstick trick broke Pete’s brain. Plus, Tommy announces next month’s pick — the Smile franchise, beginning with the short Laura Hasn’t Slept — proving that even in 2025, we’re still chasing trauma through the dark with a flashlight and a laugh.🎬 Featured Films🍿 Tonight's Triple Feature:Night of the Comet - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdNight of the Creeps - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdNight of the Demons - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(00:43) - Night of the 80s(03:05) - Night of the Comet(24:19) - Night of the Creeps(39:45) - Night of the Demons(01:00:58) - Coming AttractionsSupport 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
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