Mind Over Splatter

Dylan, Sheldon, and William discuss the entire Halloween franchise chronologically, from start to finish, ranking the films separately as they go. We weigh the various filmmakers' approaches, break down the meanings and the cultural contexts behind different turns the movies took, and get into heated, half-drunken arguments over the merits of oddities like Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and Halloween: Resurrection. At the end of the contentious, beer-fueled marathon session, we've come up with ranked lists that reflect different perspectives for appraising slasher flicks.

The second part of our exploration of the Nightmare on Elm Street films probes the notorious gay themes in Freddy's Revenge (1985), and the contentious ways that the AIDS crisis, and the homophobia of the period, are incorporated into the movie.
Dylan, Sheldon, Will, and Scott then move on to dissecting and debating the wild, influential A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and we finally get to start ranking these things.

For this special holiday episode, Dylan, Sheldon, and Will have decided to gift one another horror movies that they know (or hope) the giftee has never seen. The six strange, wonderful, lesser-known gems that we've helped each other discover are unveiled and discussed one at a time. Along the way, we learn about some fascinating filmmakers, like Lucio Fulci and Tom McLoughlin, unpack bizarre slashers, unearth a breathtaking early Italian vampire flick, and expose Sheldon to a Mexican luchador oddity that nearly breaks him. It's a seasonal grab-bag of weird horror-cinema wonders!

For the tenth installment of Mind Over Splatter, we decided to do our first video episode (currently available on YouTube!) and play a drinking game involving some of our favourite movies to celebrate. Dylan, Sheldon, and Will unveil their number-one horror film of every decade, while trying to guess one another's secrets picks, and debating the many controversial selections along the way. It was a ton of fun, plenty of surprising and brilliant films are under discussion, and you can even play along at home (if you have enough beer).
For the full experience, visit Mind Over Splatter's YouTube page!

A comprehensive discussion of Clive Barker’s 1987 classic Hellraiser – then all nine sequels – featuring Dylan, Sheldon, and Will, plus an interview with Peter Tupper, a cultural historian of BDSM, who provides some fascinating insight into the traditions and aesthetics channeled by the movies. The boys talk about Barker, the series' tortured production history, and the themes of the films, exploring the relationship between pain and pleasure, desire and disgust, and why uncomfortable activities – like watching scary movies – can feel so good. After analyzing and comparing every last entry, we eventually get three separate ranked lists reflecting three different perspectives on one of horror’s most beguiling and unclassifiable franchises.