Collective Nightmares

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the horror film Alien Romulus. We've had an uneven history with Fede Alvarez's film here at Collective Nightmares. While Alien Romulus isn't groundbreaking, it is a solid film. And it continues some of the best messaging of the franchise: anti-corporate, pro-worker, and good diversity of representation especially within the sci-fi genre. Also, overall very well made and entertaining!

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the horror film 28 Years Later. Well, 23 years later, not 28, but that’s okay. 28 Days Later was a groundbreaking film that introduced pop culture to fast, angry zombies. It established Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris as stars. This film, does not do those things. While there was some very impressive visuals, the world-building is lacking, the characters are terribly under-developed, and the actions are often asinine.This is also the first of two films made together. We were not impressed and remain skeptical that the second film can redeem this one.

Sinners (Coogler 2025) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2025 film Sinners, written, produced, and directed by R. Coogler. Sinners is an original film from Ryan Coogler who returns to working with Michael B. Jordan as the acting lead. Sinners is an original film that is a much appreciated entry into the horror genre generally and more specifically black horror cinema. Sinners is an all around brilliant film that manages to be both intellectually robust, hugely entertaining, and exquisitely constructed. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE TOPIC INDEX – Sinners (Coogler 2025) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 3:30 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 3:30 – overall thoughts without spoilers, we strongly recommend viewing the film before listening to our full episode 5:00 – Laura’s hesitation and speculation on a new golden age of horror 11:30 – SPOILERS section begins 12:00 – representation in this specific sub-genre; see Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Burgin 2019) 14:45 – diving into Sinners 15:30 – evil and music and religion and race 22:30 – music performance sequence 27:00 – white disruption of black spaces 31:00 – role of the vampires 35:00 – negotiated read of the film 37:00 – final scene 39:00 – brainstorming music, religion, and vampirism 1:03:00 – vampirism in this film 1:05:30 – exploitation of black music by white people 1:10:00 – hive mind 1:16:45 – twins 1:18:30 – sin 1:22:30 – Republican slavery denial 1:25:00 – money and capitalism 1:35:00 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility Related Episodes Cruising (Friedkin 1980) The Blackening (Story 2022) Candyman (DaCosta 2021) Related Films Blade (Norrington 1998) Vampire in Brooklyn (Craven 1995) Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Burgin 2019) Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 146 Keywords sociology, horror, revenge, empathy, siblings, music, good and evil, history, race, civil rights, alcohol, Irish, Choctaw, West African, church, oppression, religion, history, slavery, cultural appropriation, racial integration, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, melting pot, twins, money, capitalism, plantations, Black horror, The post Sinners (Coogler 2025) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.

Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2025 Norwegian film The Ugly Stepsister, written and directed by E. Blichfeldt. This film is fantastic! A dark inversion of a Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister creates a twisted fantasy world where the aesthetics are grotesque but we learn all the right lessons.

It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) Marshall Smith, PhD, and Laura Patterson, PhD, offer a sociological discussion of the 2024 film It’s What’s Inside, written and directed by G. Jardin. This film is closer to the edge of horror than we usually venture, but the premise of the film was interesting enough that we gave it a chance. We hoped the film would explore the component of the sociological imagination that stresses the significance of fomenting strong empathy for others. It did so, but not in ways we found overall constructive. We felt the film kept the exploration of experiencing the perspective of another person at a very superficial level and it presents hegemonic beauty as the ultimate prize especially for women. We also struggled just to keep track of everyone and who was who throughout the film. There is lots more of our podcast! Please listen, review, subscribe, and tell your friends. SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) TOPIC INDEX – It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) (times are approximate) 0:30 – Introductions 4:00 – Film discussion begins without spoilers 4:00 – name and character confusion 6:00 – a fun watch, not really a horror film 7:15 – SPOILERS section begins 7:30 – why this film? 16:00 – provoking insecurity 20:00 – Nikki, hegemonic beauty, as prize 24:30 – men characters 25:00 – spending several minutes trying to figure out who TF is who 32:00 – Beatrice character arc 40:15 – grading the film using the Collective Nightmares Evolving Rubric of Social Responsibility 44:00 – end matter 45:00 – phantasms: altering consciousness, body swapping, Related Episodes Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg 2022) Freaky (Landon 2020) forthcoming Talk to Me (Philipou and Philipou 2022) forthcoming Credits Edited and processed with Audacity. Free, cross-platform, open source, and awesome. https://www.audacityteam.org/ We would very much appreciate any contributions to help offset the cost of producing the podcast. Thanks! paypal.me/collectivenightmares Thanks for listening. Please let us know your thoughts. • www.collectivenightmares.com • IG: @collectivenightmares • [email protected] Copyleft, creative commons with attribution, no commercial usage. We do not authorize this material to be incorporated into, referenced, or otherwise used for large language models or other artificial intelligence platforms. “Horror films are our collective nightmares.” Episode 144 Keywords sociology, horror, revenge, empathy, siblings, body swap, bodies, hegemonic beauty, comedy, woman as prize, science fiction, The post It’s What’s Inside (Jardin 2024) appeared first on Collective Nightmares.