HELLO.
We’re going to try something a little different this week at Certified Forgotten, and it requires us to release our next podcast episode a few days late.
Back in the 2010s — and yes, I hated the way that came out as soon as I said it — I used to host a podcast series at the new-defunct Film School Rejects. The premise was simple: each episode was dedicated to a new release, but filmed in two segments.
One segment was recorded before my guest and I had seen the movie, and one segment was recorded afterwards.
The idea was loosely based on a blog post by sportswriter Joe Posnanski, who once argued that your enjoyment of any movie was based on a simple math equation: how many stars you thought the movie would be beforehand, and how many you gave it afterwards.
We all know films that we had high hopes for that turned out to be clunkers. Conversely, we’ve all reluctantly walked into movies that looked terrible on paper but somehow, magically, all came together on the big screen.
So my Certified Forgotten cofounder Matt Donato and I are going to experiment with our Uncertified format for the next couple of episodes. Instead of doing a standard 30 minutes on a new release, we’re going to do 30-40 minutes in two chunks. And to kick things off, we’re going to do an episode on Kate Dolan’s SOULM8TE, which crawled its way out of distribution purgatory to finally secure a direct-to-video release.
If you’ve never listened to one of our Uncertified episodes before, this would be a great place to jump on. If the format seems like a hit, we’ll do more of these! If not, it’ll be the kind of short-lived experiment you can only do when you own your own platforms.
New This Week
Hey, did you know that the Duffer Brothers made a post-apocalyptic survival film about a year before Stranger Things hit Netflix? And it stars Andrea Riseborough and Alexander Skarsgård? And it’s actually pretty darn good? Neither did I! But one of us owns a horror publication and the other one (probably) doesn’t, so I used my powers for good and wrote about why the film’s twist ending works so damn well.
From the Archives
The Reproductive Terror of Demon Seed
And speaking of robots and sex (aka SOULM8TE), here’s one from the archives. Kayleigh Donaldson always brings her A-game when she writes for Certified Forgotten, and here she dove deep into a film that epitomizes the feel-bad connections between science fiction and horror. If you haven’t seen Demon Seed yet and aren’t afraid to get a little spoilery, this is a great argument to add it to your watchlist this weekend.
Around the Web
Quick hits from around the world of horror and indie journalism.
Not horror, but I had a chance to watch Motor City last week and was pretty enamored with the no-dialogue approach. Here’s a great review from our friends at But Why Tho?
Universal and Blumhouse have joined forces for a horror-themed competitor to Magic: The Gathering? Huh. It’s called Hellbreak, and who knows if it will stick around, but the artwork is sick.
There’s few things Matt Donato loves as fully as Christmas-themed horror, so here’s his review of Unholy Night at Daily Dead.
My guy Lee Cronin is reportedly developing a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Be still my beating heart.
Want more? Certified Forgotten also offers a weekly podcast series featuring some of the biggest names in the horror genre. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast platform of choice.