The Big Picture · Review · Discussion · Awards
October 6, 2023/ 94 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan take on 'The Exorcist: Believer,' the Blumhouse legacy sequel that brings Ellen Burstyn back for a movie with too many priests and not enough Chris McNeil. Then: 'Saw X,' the Argentinian creeper 'When Evil Lurks,' a stack of October releases, and five years of overdue Horror Oscars.
69 films across 8 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Exorcist: Believera direct sequel to the 1973 original, planned as the first of a trilogy
Leslie Odom Jr.'s daughter and her friend get possessed after a woods ritual gone wrong; Ellen Burstyn's Chris McNeil is brought in to help, then sidelined for 45 minutes. A promising opening act - Haitian earthquake prologue aside - gives way to an overcrowded, interfaith exorcism that both hosts found a big disappointment.
The comparison point throughout the episode: a single mother's arc from cynicism to belief, and the uncrowded, single-location tension the new film can't replicate.
Cited alongside the original Exorcist as proof that stripping a story down to its scariest idea beats overpopulating it.
The 'mob justice' entry in Green's trilogy - Laurie Strode spends nearly the whole movie in a hospital bed, which Chris compares to Chris McNeil's fate here.
The trilogy closer; Sean says the advance buzz on Green turned around by the time this one came out.
The one they actually love, precisely because it drops Michael Myers entirely.
David Gordon Green, shape-shifterfrom Malick disciple to comedy guy to legacy-sequel director
Green's breakout - the film that got him compared to Terrence Malick out of Sundance.
The start of the Danny McBride/Rough House comedy run and the Apatow-universe pivot.
Green as for-hire comedy director, with Jonah Hill.
One of a run of star-driven, contemporary-set dramas that didn't connect with audiences before Green pivoted to horror.
Chris calls it one of Jake Gyllenhaal's best performances, even though the movie didn't find an audience.
When Evil LurksChris's homework assignment for Sean, playing in theaters and hitting Shudder Oct. 27
Argentinian film from Damian Rugna: a demon is about to be born inside a resident of a small, feudal rural town, and it's taken as a given from minute one that this is real. Both hosts call it one of the year's most upsetting, effective horror movies - Sean's calling it this year's 'Speak No Evil.'
Rugna's previous film.
The comparison point for the slow-dread structure of 'When Evil Lurks.'
Saw Xthe events take place between Saw and Saw II
Tobin Bell's Jigsaw travels to Mexico for a scam cancer cure, then traps the scammers. Sean: not really a good movie, but a new thing for the franchise - it wants you to feel for Jigsaw, and mostly gets there.
Chris's stopping point in the franchise.
The other Saw movie Chris has seen - 'the Chris Rock one.'
Tobin Bell trivia: he's the guy who shoots Gary Busey.
Horror on decktrailers, VOD drops, and the rest of October
Eli Roth's holiday slasher, starring Addison Rae and Patrick Dempsey - built out of the fake trailer from 'Grindhouse.'
Jason Statham as a vengeance-seeking beekeeper going after scammers, directed by David Ayer.
John Woo's dialogue-free, extremely violent lone-man-vengeance movie.
The sixth VHS anthology, framed around 1985; segments from Scott Derrickson and Mike P. Nelson were the hosts' favorites.
Another Blumhouse release, day-and-date in theaters and on Peacock - 'what if Chuck E. Cheese was a haunted hellhole,' starring Josh Hutcherson.
Day-and-date on Paramount+, which Sean reads as a bad sign.
David Slade's film, shelved for three and a half years before its VOD release.
William Friedkin's final film, also landing on Paramount+, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Studio horror's James Wan problemwhen everyone copies his style but not his eye
Sean's example of the post-James Wan cloudiness that afflicts a lot of studio horror - CGI and set dressing you can feel.
Gareth Edwards's counterexample: a purposeful, practical-feeling look achieved by shooting on a $3,500 prosumer camera and keeping VFX spending down.
Marvel's one horror detour - a 50-minute Michael Giacchino-directed special dumped straight to Disney+.
2023 horror they hadn't gotten to
Stuart Thorndike's queer riff on 'The Shining,' set at an inherited motel frozen in the '80s. Sean singles out Gayle Rankin's central performance.
Curtis David Harder's satire of Instagram/TikTok lifestyle influencers, with a lure-and-subsume premise. Chris's Shudder shout-out.
Lizzy Caplan as an overprotective, maybe-monstrous mother - part haunted house, part Stephen King bullied-kid story.
The Horror Oscarsbest horror movie of the year, 2019-2023
Also mentioned raised along the way
Deliberately left off the Horror Oscars ballot Nope
In passing Chariots of FireGuy Ritchie's The CovenantReptileDicks: The MusicalFoeDoctor StrangeSuicide SquadThe Hunger GamesThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & SnakesInfinity PoolFinal CutMaXXXineWeaponsI Saw the TV GlowGerald's GameHushOculusOuija: Origin of EvilRiver's EdgeHorizon: An American Saga
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV True Detective: Night CountryThe BoysRighteous GemstonesEastbound & DownVice PrincipalsThe Fall of the House of UsherMidnight Mass
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