Plug It Up: A Horror Movie Podcast About the Monstrous Feminine

Caitlin is joined by two moms - Lara and Elizabeth - to discuss a dark but beautiful monstrous motherhood movie: The Others. It's a spooky and atmospheric retelling of The Turning of the Screw, and Nicole Kidman gets it exactly right. Suck it, Tom Cruise. We share our love of the costuming, the fog, and a tried and true horror trope done exceptionally well. Since the movie is, uh, dark, the motherhood fact is about mothers from the animal kingdom! Lots of cute mom/baby animal facts. Be sure to check out On Our Sleeves, the organization Lara mentioned. You can find them at onoursleeves.org.

Zach and Charlie join Caitlin to cover Late Night with the Devil, one of 2024's most anticipated horror movies. We all loved the movie, which is a bottle piece told in real time. We dig a little deeper into Bohemian Grove ("the grove" mentioned in the movie), the AI controversy, the effects, the acting, and the film's overall themes.

Tangents are many, and include: abortion Big Gulps, talk shows, museum disasters, Last Podcast on the Left (and lots of Henry Zebrowski), Triple D, eating organs, cryptids, overhyped movies, dream podcast guests, tiktok, horror at the Oscars, villains, pet names, and tattoos.

Maddie and Colleen join Caitlin to cover Poor Things, the new surrealist, steampunk epic from Yorgos Lanthimos. We talk about the stellar performances from Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe, and we look at themes around sex, sexuality, identity, existentialism, gender, and bodily autonomy. There's also lots of silly joking around. The review starts around 21:45.

Tangents include: running bits, Barbie, boyfriend jumpscares, "weird Mormon pants cults," turning non-horror properties into horror properties, putting our consciousness in other bodies/robots, sleepwear, favorite toes, inedibles, wedding desserts ("that make you nut"), sperm (sorry), and letting it linger.

Ariel and Rachel from the Zombie Grrlz Podcast Network join Caitlin to talk about the new A24 movie False Positive. It's one that we had conflicting feelings on, but had a blast dissecting. From Pierce Brosnan and his speculums (specula?) to flying babies: we cover it all. Ariel shares one of the best water birth stories I've ever heard, Rachel recounts her life of menstrual crime, and I ask Joe Bob Briggs for boner stories.

Caitlin and Mary talk about one of their all-time favorite movies: Rosemary's Baby. That's right, folks, we're introducing a second trope to the line-up: monstrous motherhood! We talk about the ways motherhood can seem monstrous - horrific pregnancies, demonic births, raising a monster, and moms committing the unspeakable. Don't fret - there are plenty more period movies on the docket, but we had a lot of fun adding this trope to the mix. We both love Rosemary's Baby, and we give it all our love. The anthropologist I mentioned at the end was Barbara Ehrenreich, if you'd like to look her up. The book I cited at the beginning was The Monster Within: The Hidden Side of Motherhood, by Dr. Barbara Almond. Two great Barbaras.