Welcome to Spooky Season | Slasher Digest FM: September 2025

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Greetings and salutations and don't touch that dial, you're listening to Slasher Digest FM. It is I, your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast Chris, and as always, we're joined by our contributor and famed demonic darling, Chell. That's cheating. I'm not even dead yet. Now, if you're not in the loop on Slasher Digest, it's actually our free newsletter where our listeners can learn and have a one-chop shop to find the latest on Hackerslash. Now that ranges from content we've produced to discourse in our community, behind the scenes perspective on the show, and some of our upcoming attractions. Absolutely. Now, this episode takes things a little bit further, and it also gives us a deeper look at what's happened on the show, what's specifically going on behind the scenes and leading up to the next month. Now, normally this episode is available only for our patrons, but we want to bring everyone in on the fun during our favorite time of year.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yes, we would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the Slasher FM newbies who may be watching or listening to us for the very first time today. We hope you enjoy hearing some of these deeper cuts and decide that you want to keep hearing from us throughout the rest of the year and signing on as a patron.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Absolutely, because the time has finally come, my friends. Spooky season's fast approaching. Actually, nope, it's here right now, September 1st. We're all breaking out the fall candles, and it's time to get down to business.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

September, it means spooky season is getting serious, and you know what September means, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

I think it means cue the four tops in Greece, too, because we're going to back to school, baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Back to school time it is, and that time of year where you're still so excited to be back, school spirit is high, and you have all that motivation in the world to start out on the right place.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Oh, yeah, that's right. So this year to celebrate spooky season, we're actually gonna all look at the alma mater and all the time that we've spent together basically getting an education on horror, and all of our listeners and community members will officially be enrolled in Hackerslash University. Now it's also run by the passionate and capable faculty of hosts and contributors and content creators that you've all come to know and love. So, Chell, please, we've been chomping at the bit. We're dying to know. Tell us a little bit about what's on the syllabus for the next few weeks.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Sure thing, Chris. All of us here attending Hackerslash University are going to be getting schooled in the absolute best way possible. This spooky season, we have so many coming attractions, so many great opportunities for you to expand your horror horizons. And we cannot wait to bring some of these exciting things to you guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Absolutely. And I'm actually super pumped because the first thing that we're announcing is honestly a huge passion project of yours and something that you've been bringing to the table. Now, when this episode comes out, so to would the 31 Days of Horror theme calendar for 2025. This is now the third year that we've had this theme calendar as part of the hackerslash spooky season extravaganza to help our community collectively enjoy the spooky season together by watching movies in similar genres. So, Chel, what can we expect from your brain in this year's calendar?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yes, absolutely, Chris. I have been working on this calendar for a couple months now. I'm a girly who loves a theme, which is what inspired me to do the themed calendar way back in the day is just a fun thing for me and a few friends to do. So this year, in addition to the handpicked themes, some are new, some are some really classic favorites that you gotta have on your watch list every year. But we added some fun new twists. This year in particular, our listeners and community members will see that we've got some dedicated days for all of our hosts and content creators and people in Hackerslash you've come to know and love, uh featuring the genres and flavors of fear that we all fancy must.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

I am really excited about this in particular because as I looked at this, and honestly, it was just such a brilliant move and also a complete stroke of coincidence. So great job on your planning chell. You have, I think, influenced the natural order of things because the day that Sean and he were celebrating his day on the calendar, me, him, Ari, and Allie are all gonna be in Halloween horror nights. So, what better way to take over the Instagram than by going to Halloween horror nights?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yes, and that is what we're we're looking for. You're gonna want to follow us on all the different socials to see how our hosts are celebrating their days. They'll be doing some Instagram takeovers. They may be running stories on their own platforms of their favorite horror movies in their genres. You'll also see them getting more engaged in the Discord on those days. So opportunities to talk to them about some of their favorite movies, ask them some questions about their time on the show or just their love of horror in general. It'll be a great day and a great way to really just open it up to really have everyone celebrate with everyone during the spooky.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

You know, we're gonna get to so much of this like theater kid energy here in a little bit, but the second you said that, Chell, and I'm sure people who are watching this episode instead of listening are gonna clock it on my face. The second you said that, all I could think about was Ariel saying, Ask them my questions and get some answers. What's a fire and why does it what's the word? Burn. When's it my turn? Okay, I'm not gonna go into it, but we'll do that on a B-side one day. Now, listeners, as soon as you're done watching or listening here, hop over to the hackerslash social media platforms, website, or Discord to check out the calendar, and we want you to start planning your lists. We want you to field recommendations from your fellow horror fans and really just get pumped up for October 1st.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Absolutely, especially in our Discord. We have a channel just for 31 Days of Horror. And there are some people who just have some chef's kiss recommendations in there from a whole breadth of them. So definitely, if you're having you're stumped, go ahead and jump in there and see if you can get a little inspo.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

There is so much happening, and I know that we've had, I mean, shout out to Perfect Organism, that's this handle name in our Discord server. Just such a great level of enthusiasm and just wanting to share a great horror movie. So I promise you, if the thought of coming up with 31 different movies is daunting, our community has you covered for sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Absolutely. Think of it as the most fun group project you may ever do here at Hackerslash United.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

And you're not gonna get let down and have to do all the work yourself.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

No, this is a truly uh, truly as much of a collaborative project as you want it to be. And everyone, everyone wins, everyone aces it as long as you put in the effort. Now, speaking of effort, Chris, you have also been cooking up a little bit of something on the side as well for spooky season for some of our more ambitious listeners and movie watchers. You want to tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, okay. So picture this, friends. The year is 2024, and we had the idea of making a shared community tracker. And the idea behind that was giving our listeners who don't already use like letterboxed or maybe just find the idea of like posting in a Discord channel a little like daunting. I don't know what my Capricorn brain said, let's do a fucking spreadsheet. So we made one master spreadsheet with like a calendar kind of interface and with charts that came up so that when you clicked packslash or first time watch or etc., it would automatically populate the data. And then that kind of fed into a master sheet where we could look back and kind of collect some insight from our community to see how everyone's 30 to 1 days went. For some people, it worked really smoothly. For some people, also I realized that doing this in Google Sheets and retrospect was ambitious and bold and not in a great way. It was a stretch, but also I love a spreadsheet, and also this is just how my brain works. But that's okay, it's neither here nor there. This year we're going simpler. And when we think about that, it's actually gonna be a form that you fill out, and it can be as robust or as simple as you like. At least that's the goal. We're gonna talk about it more in October once every all the all the kinks are worked out. We're also gonna have a couple beta testers, I believe, this month. But essentially it's gonna ask you, hey friend, what's your name? What's today's date? October 1st through 31st. And then it's gonna say day one, I'll spoil it all here for you, Stephen King. It's gonna give you a little bit of inspiration. It's gonna ask, hey, do you want some recommendations? Do you need some help looking for the work of Stephen King? And then it's gonna recommend some films that we can personally attest to based on covering them on the podcast. You can either say yes or no to that, so it can be really quick. Then you're gonna be able to log the movie once you've watched it, and it's gonna actually ask you, do you want to answer more? Do you have so many thoughts about this movie? And if you say yes, you're gonna then be introduced to a form that allows you to fill in as much of the review as you want, as if you're basically on an episode of Hack or Slash. You're gonna go through all the same talking points and sections that we do, or you can just say, nah, I'm good, and then keep it pushing to the next day. I'm really excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Absolutely. And Chris, I'm with you on the on the spreadsheet. I'm excited to get some sweet, sweet data to and hear some really great commentary, you know, some gems from those movies that people watch. So definitely if you're someone who likes to give your views, please include those in there. We'll be going through and you know, maybe on a future Slasher FM we're able to kind of pull some of our favorites out.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

100%. I'm honestly just so excited to see how many people do like a first-time watch situation in their 31 days calendar. Now, obviously, this is like the peak and the pinnacle of what we have going on in spooky season, but there's also a lot of other stuff happening. And let's actually start by looking ahead at the episodes that are coming out this month. And before we even dive into the lineup that we actually just posted on our Instagram, I want to remind you, Chell, that this is the season of Freesides.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

You bet the best time of year.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

It's the most wonderful time. Okay, I don't know why I'm feeling so musical tonight, but it's it's a stretch. I know I keep doing this, but if you're new here, free sides are actually a season within Hackerslash, within the spooky season. We allow our regular listeners the chance to experience a patron benefit. So typically we have B-sides at the end of every single episode, and that's really where we're doing everything besides the point. It's like off-script tangents, it is thinking about like rants, raves. Sometimes it's like funny bloopers and stuff that, like, oh, I wish we could leave it in, but also let's not waste anybody's time unless you actually really like us. And so we have that going on. A lot of the time, it's also like really interesting conversation that is more tangential to the movie and inspired by the movie. And when I've thought about this in the past, and we've actually seen a lot of the addition and influx of people into our community, a lot of it has stemmed from Freesides themselves because it's a way to, you know, see how the other half lives.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Absolutely. It is such a great way to get to know these hosts outside of the format of the normal show, and just hearing their sides and some of their personal life perspectives. It's definitely one of the ways I got to know everyone was through the the free sides when I first joined in. So I love the free sides because it definitely helped me bring you know myself closer into the community. And I really think it does it for a lot of folks in this community.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Oh, I absolutely love it. Back in the day, there used to be way more bloopers, and I think as we've like kind of like gotten more solid in our recording, there's a little less of that. But friends, if you don't know the term hacker slash after dark, you clearly haven't been a B-sides listener.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

That is an elective that happens after all the other classes are done at Hacker Slash University in the Discord. So please reach out to myself, Dina the Damned, or our slasher-in-chief, Chris, for more information about that.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Absolutely. Now, looking ahead at what episodes are gonna have these free sides? We've got first up the conjuring last rights. Are you excited for this show?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I am so excited. I am a conjuring mega fan. I love the Ed and Lorraine Warren. I know there's a lot of controversy about the real, real people, but Vera Fermiga and Patrick Wilson as the characters, I love them. I love them, so I am thrilled to see them on my screen at least one last time.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Absolutely. I'm actually really looking forward to it. This is the new release that we're doing this month. Also, folks, if you don't know about this and you're new to the show, hi, welcome. So glad you happen to find us here on this bonus episode. But we have new releases that come out in theaters and we do a same-night release. We'll typically go to the earliest showing that we possibly can on a Thursday night, the day the film comes out in theaters. We immediately get home, we record, and I stay up all night. And now Sean has been joining me in this, and it's been such a great bonding experience. And we stay up all night editing and then publishing the episode. So we tend to be, I think, one of the earlier, like full in-depth reviews you'll see on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. But that's the staple, like that is the conjuring for us this month. In addition to that, we got a little ahead and we did Hellhouse LLC Lineage. That's all I'm gonna say about that, but it's a really fun episode.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Absolutely agree. I do think it's uh it's a fun episode to listen to. We'll just keep it at that regarding the movie itself. Can't confirm it was a movie that was in a theater. Go ahead and listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Can confirm that this was a piece of media that was excluded from A-list, so you still had to pay $15 to go see it. Yeah, those those details are there. But the third week of September, we have what has been the most hotly contested and requested movie for us to cover this year, and that has been Sinners. Chell, I know this has been such a big talking point in our community. I believe you saw this movie back when it first came out. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yes, I I was really excited. I remember Sean coming on and doing a slasher FM, and I think that was one of his movies that he talked about as well. And yeah, it's just it, it's it's mind blowing. I I haven't stopped thinking about it. It's now on streaming. I've already watched it a couple times with people, so yeah, and I think now it's almost better for us to be diving into this because a lot more people are seeing it. Some people are doing a second or third watch on it. So I think a lot of people will be open to the conversation a little bit more and really digging into what I think our hosts will have to say about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I'm really excited about this one. It's one where we wanted to catch in theaters, but then there was a lot of stuff that was going on where we couldn't catch it like opening night in theaters. And especially when you like find out and hear, like, oh man, this is really good. This is a lot to sink your teeth into. I just didn't want to like not do the episode justice and just kind of like rush to do it. But we thought, okay, it's probably gonna be on streaming closer to the time that we're in spooky season. We're gonna hold it for the when we have free sides because then that's an extended version of the episode. That's an extended version of the just the conversation that we're gonna be able to invite more people into. So I thought I mean this honestly personally, this is the episode that I am most excited about this month.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Well, Chris, the next episode that we're using to wrap up the month is the one I am particularly most excited about.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Oh, of course it is, Chell. It's celebrating an anniversary. How could you not be excited about the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

I am I'm thrilled. I love this movie. It is one of the first horror-esque movies I watched. Definitely was a very pivotal movie for me as a weird little seventh grader watching this in the basement, wondering if I should I be watching this? Am I allowed? It was on like MTV or something, it was fine, but I'm so excited to have you guys talking about this and screening it. And I know there's a lot of people in the community that are really excited and saying, Finally, we are finally getting this movie. So, how does it feel to finally be there?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

You know, it feels great. And I was just remembering the other slasher digest FM where we talked about, ooh, should I just watch this for the first time in its entirety live on Discord? And I think maybe, yeah. I think that was also a question that came up in our Discord server. Fuck it. We're gonna do it. I had to figure out the day for it because this month is a super swamp month, and like we had to watch it a certain time to catch the recording window, but we're absolutely gonna make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Absolutely, you heard it here for first folks. Keep an eye, especially on the Discord and our social media, for a little bonus elective coming your way.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah, now obviously, with that, I know we're kind of jumping ahead a little bit here, Chell, but when you think of Rocky Horror Picture Show, we have some blog posts that are coming up. One we're gonna get to in just a bit, it's the it's the syllabus really of the spooky season activities, but also jump scares and jazz squares, or is it jazz squares and jump scares? Your alliteration is just mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Either way works. Basically, what we're gonna be talking about in this blog is the incredible marriage of horror and musicals. Because when you think about it, I mean, Chris, you and I, we have bonded over horror and musicals over the years, and so are with a lot of our patrons and hackerslash community folks. But you think about it, and there's so much in common. The camp, the drama, the social commentary, the absolute need to scream it and holler it to the cheap seats. I mean, what's not to love about that magical mix when you can get horror and musicals put together? So it seemed only right to do it with the campiest just absolutely chewing the scenery movie of Rocky Horror It Pictures.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

I'm honestly just really excited about this because I think about the musicals that we've done and the apocalypse. Okay, that was a thing. Repo the genetic opera, a cult classic that is beloved by many, not by me. But also, I think about one of my favorite movies, Sweeney Todd. How we haven't done that, I mean, again, we all know it's a fucking horror movie, we know that, but also I just need to see it like written down somewhere to abide by a very specific set of rules, a la Randy from Scream. And believe me, the second I can confirm that I have license to sing Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, that's what it is. True, sir, true, it's fucking on.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Oh man, I'm so excited. We may have to do a little act out. We'll do, we'll have a little priest. Maybe we have to have a single.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, I think. Oh fuck. Shell, a sing along. That's not the content we need to get in that in the podcast player because I can't sing.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

All right. Well, it looks like we may have to cook something up. That might not happen for a little bit. That may be a next year thing. Sound off in the comments and let us know if you'd want us to do a horror musical single. Yeah. Let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Let us know. Let us know. Let it go. Don't hold it back anymore. Okay. Right. We talked about the musicals. We're gonna have so much fun there, but back to the spooky season spirit of it all. Michelle, you penned an incredible blog post that really helps people get into the spirit of the season. Tell us more.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

You bet. So think of this blog post, uh, be true to your goal 101 as your student handbook for hackerslash university. Included in it are all the tips and tricks to help you absolutely ace this spooky season. And there's just so many great ways to be involved. So we wanted to make sure that there were some opportunities for everyone, every student, every major, every uh passion to have a little fun and really get a lot out of this season.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Now, Michelle, who are we if not people who care enough about our audio and video listeners, and to just give them a little love here? What are some of the quick tips and cliff notes that you can share?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

You bet. So the first one, and you and I are both demonstrating it right now, is dressing for success. There it is. There it is. Treat every week this spooky season like Spirit Week in high school. We want you wearing your hackerslash swag. We want you wearing your good guy overalls you bought at Spirit Halloween two Halloweens ago. We want you rocking your t-shirts. I've got a great t-shirt here with some favorite horror icons. We want you rocking that all season because when you look good, you feel good. You look spooky, you feel spooky. And then we want you to take pictures. We want you to share that with us, share that with the community. Post it on Instagram on your feed or a story and tag hackerslash. Drop it in the Discord. We have we have plenty of places for you to show off your your style there. So make that maybe your first way of introducing yourself through what you're rocking, what you're wearing this year.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yeah, I am honestly really, really excited. Especially because you know we got a comment recently from a listener who watched us on Instagram in terms of like our reels after listening to the show. He was like, Finally, I got faces for the voices. My life is complete. But bro, we want to see your face. We want to hear your voice. Please. If you got some hackerslash merch, launt it. We want to know. April was kind enough to come into the Discord and actually share a little bit of a review of some of the merch that she's gotten, which always warms my heart because I think it's super easy to set up a shop for like a podcast merch store, etc., and it just kind of be like, okay, slap the logo on literally any other product that comes out. And for sure, like there's something to be said for just like the convenience of that and the accessibility of that. But I've also confirmed that like every single thing that we have in the store is something that I have held in my hands and also purchased and have owned. I think about, you know, I'm actually bummed with the shipping situation that we have going on right now in the United States. My favorite product is like a very soft touch cover notebook that has last year's poster on it. I wish that was still accessible in the United States, but I'm really excited about this merch and I cannot wait to see what our listeners come up with.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yes. So get start getting dolled up and start start sharing and posting. The next one is again reviewing the the syllabus in the course catalog. Make sure you know all of the great things that are going to be happening these next couple of months and do not miss out.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah. It's important to be prepared, especially because we're talking about a lot here right now in this moment. But when I tell you there are other events that you're gonna want to stay tuned to both Patreon and our Discord for, you're gonna be in for a ride the spooky season.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

You bet. And we'll make sure to keep you guys posted on all the social medias, especially on Discord. That's where a lot of those events kind of kind of meet. So we'll make sure as soon as we know those dates that you guys know those dates. So you can, you know, check your calendars, fill out your time, work on your time management. And yeah, we'd love to see your uh your faces and your icons and your thoughts and everything in those events because that that's what it's about. We want you to really get the full experience here, and half of the the fun of it is getting together and enjoying some of these events.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

You know what the other half of the fun is? Homework. Homework. Who doesn't love homework? Oh god, I'm such a fucking Capricorn.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Honestly, I love it. I love that for you. And that's why you are such a cheap. Now, yes, as Chris said, there are a couple homework assignments. I mean, we can't just simply give you A's. We want we want you to work for it a little bit. So the first assignment is prepping your 31 days calendar. Study Buddies, again, recommended. Get your buddies together, meet some new people in the Discord and on socials, and get this group project going. See what you can come up with. Maybe you guys all want to do the same calendar. Maybe you guys want to divide and conquer special ones and talk to each other about them. Whatever you want to do, you're gonna want to prep that now so that when October 1st comes, you kind of have an idea of what you're watching. So you don't get too far behind.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Now there's other things that you can keep up with too, because it's not just like, you know, I think about like reading, for example. I love reading nonfiction, I love learning a lot of things. I also love what reading like a novelization of a horror movie, so I love the fiction. And we're gonna have also a little bit of a blend of that in terms of the things that we're discussing later this month.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yes, absolutely. We also want you to dive into the nonfiction side of things with some horror documentaries. These have you Chris, have you ever watched like any horror documentaries about any of your favorite movies?

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yeah, so I've seen so many of like the quick documentaries that we've done. A, we've done some on the show, but also B, I think about like Never Sleep Again. I think about Crystal like memories, I think about just the oodles and oodles and oodles of like behind-the-scenes footage and in interviews for the Halloween franchise. Oh my gosh, I could go on. Also, Scream Queen, My Nightmare in Elm Street, and Horror Noir, History of Black Horror, are both documentaries that we've actually covered on our Patreon in years past.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny that you mentioned Never Sleep Again because actually when I was uh still a baby horror fan in college, I just it was I think it was like the day before Thanksgiving, or I was alone in my art apartment. I was an RA in college, and for some reason, the whole never sleep again documentary was on, God, I don't know, some cable channel. I didn't have I didn't have Wi-Fi, some cable channel, and I ended up watching this documentary, not having really watched. I think I'd seen maybe the first nightmare on Elm Street and watching it, and that's really what got me in the future into horror movies because it kind of makes them less scary sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

That is incredible, and I can't imagine watching a behind the scenes on Nightmare on Elm Street before having the glory of watching it for the first time in its entirety. So, hmm. Okay, that's an interesting take.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yes, and again, if you have no idea where to start, oh gosh, what are the ones I'm worth watching? We're gonna give you a cheat sheet, we're gonna give you a study guide. Later this month, we will be dropping some horror documentary recommendations on the blog of documentaries that we love and especially ones that cover some of the movies that have been featured on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

We have so much. Oh my gosh, I'm really just foaming at the mouth thinking about how much fucking fun we're gonna have. What a time to geek out about horror.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

It is a great time to geek out in horror this year, especially. We're just we have so much to be excited about. And that kind of brings us to the final tip we want you to all embrace is making new friends. Because all work and no play makes hackerslash university a very dull place.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

We need your spirit to help us really come alive. Listen, when I think about how our community has grown and expanded, it's happened in waves, and it's happened by people just tuning in and showing up. I think about Paris and I like somehow ending up being the only people on the the fifth scream movie, the scream episode, and that's when Nathan joined. And Nathan joined the community, caught the wave of our Discord as it was like before he was even like really open to the public. And then I think about you, Chell, and Meggie and Drew and others just like coming in and really like turning our house into a home. So thank you. We have plenty of bedrooms left for everyone else. Come by, we travelers. Let us be your safe light in the night.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Yes, yes. So if you have not explored some of these channels, especially the Discord yet, if you haven't come around, maybe you're not sure when the right time was, definitely dive in now. We are a very welcoming community. We'll help you get situated. We've got a fun little campus map to help you find your way. And again, kind of make those friendships so that when we really kick it into high gear in October, you already have those friendships. You've got those inside jokes, and you're gonna find that it is such a fuller experience when you're enjoying the spooky season as a part of that big hackerslash.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

100%. And why not make your first moment by really joining some of the community events that we're gonna have coming up? We're gonna have a bunch of watch parties, actually starting with Mystery Meat Theater.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Yes, this is something that has happened for the past few months. We have Adjunct Professor Meat in our Discord, who was actually kind enough to announce his theme for his September double feature, and we're going with a fall vibes theme again, the autumnal, getting us into those, you know, those fall feelings.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

I cannot wait for this. This is actually one where I have seen both of the movies, so I'm very excited about this, and they're actually really great choices.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, I'm really excited. Um I have seen both of them multiple times, so I'm excited to be able to chat in the Discord a little bit more instead of having to really take it all in. And for those of you who are dying and chomping at the bit at wondering what those movies are, uh Meat has announced in the Discord, so we're not spoiling anything. It will be 1985's Fright Night and 2009's House of the Devil. Oh my gosh. Chris, who would think to put them together and yet they always seem to be meant to beat Mystery Meat.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I just love it. I just love it. How does he I know I just keep trying to make mystery meat happen and it hasn't been adopted by anyone else, but I I I feel like if I just make a graphic for this, then it's gonna be great. But The House of the Devil, oh my gosh, I have had such a specific and intense relationship with this movie, and we've covered it on the podcast. I shared a story about this movie on the podcast. I don't know if you ever listened to that episode. Oh yeah, yeah. I I I had a fresh girlfriend who did not speak to me for a long period of time. I'm I'm I feel I'm being dramatic. She didn't speak to me for like an evening because she was not into horror yet, like she couldn't do bloody, she couldn't do gory, and I was like, no, no, no, no, I would never do that to you. For sure, I would never. Because like I also fucking hate when people are just like jerks. Like, I am I want to be a good steward of bringing people into horror.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

And then another one of my shipmates and one of my friends, he actually appeared on the Susperia episode. Now that I think about this, but he was like, I got the perfect movie for us to watch, the three of us. And I was like, it can't be bloody because she can't do that, she can't do gory. He's like, nah, none of that. Someone gets their fucking face shot off. What the fuck? Yeah, anyway, great movie. Cannot wait. If you love fucking like Ty West in general, this is like really just a phenomenal film from him.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Chris, I think we're gonna have to have a B-side or free side about horror movies that have ruined date nights. Because I know I've talked about my recent experiences with my horror novice husband Evan when I took him to Untilt on. Very sure that it was gonna be your run of the mill, video game, slasher, and I'm still not allowed to pick the movies on date nights. That is hilarious. Story for another day, but I do think we need to dig deep into that on some of the free sides, b-sides.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Maybe a whole bonus episode to it. Why not? But listen, we talked about Mystery Meets theater and and the double features, incredible stuff. But this whole last month we had some good ones. Child, you mentioned that Meat also had a double feature, and it was giving sci-fi in August.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Yeah, so Meat's double feature in in August was Aliens and and all that sort of stuff, but didn't go with the you know the expected alien movies that we've come to know and love. Instead, he went with Altered and Extraterrestrial, which were not on my radar, but I tell you what, they they piqued my interest.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Listen, I feel like if I owned a drive-in, I would just trust him with a projector all night long. This man knows how to mix some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

He is he could basically, and he has been teaching a master class in curation 101 for quite a while, and we are thrilled to have him on our back.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Absolutely. But in addition to that, come on now. The famed, famed found footage fanatic, Nathan, has really done us all a service. And I want you to also picture this Hellhouse LLC lineage. That episode is about to drop in September. During this episode, you're gonna realize just how much Sean and Binks wish they had watched the entire fucking franchise again, leading up like for a fresh watch. Because holy shit, you really need like a conspiracy board of just information and data going into that movie, which I feel like is a little unfair. But Nathan, Nathan blessed us. Nathan coordinated weekly watch parties where he really just welcomed the community in to watch every single Hellhouse LLC movie leading up to the release.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

I honestly I I love the Hellhouse LLC series. I did not realize how popular it was in our community. They started coming out of the woodwork. We had people hopping in, especially with their hot takes. I was able to commiserate in my genuine distaste for some characters, but people were just jumping out, they had their favorites that they made sure not to miss, and it really was a really great way to kind of rally the troops, and which is Nathan's forte, always has been, is bringing us all together on common grounds. And this time those common grounds were the haunted abadotties.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah, the hollowed grounds, really.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

The hollowed grounds.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Wow. Woo man, when I think about just the fun that we have in store, it's it's there's just so much to get into. We're gonna have live streams, we're gonna have live recordings, we're gonna have watch parties, we're gonna have bonus content for patrons. Folks, just like get ready, get ready because these next two months are gonna be magical for Hacker Slash. But what is a slasher digest FM if we don't take a minute to digest what we just did last month?

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yes, in August, amongst all of the planning that everyone at HackerSlash has been doing for spooky season, we still managed to crank out some great content in August. And the numbers showed we had 447 users in August, which is pretty good for kind of a lull time, the dog days of summer, and 432 of those were new users.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

That feels significant. That feels like majority were brand new checking on our website. I wonder what they were poking around for. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

Yes, yes, and you can kind of see on some of the pages they looked at, but a lot of them were some of those episodes, especially the ones in July and August, some of the high demand ones that we'll talk about in a little bit. People were seeking out that commentary and they somehow found their way to Hackerslash, clearly liked what they were listening to, wanted to learn more, wanted to see what more the podcast was about, or what other movies have been covered. So we're seeing a lot of that translation from finding us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to them checking us out online and seeing what we're all about.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

And folks, if you've visited the home of Hackerslash, please let us know your feedback. We're always looking to update and refresh and move some things around a bit. Maybe you have a recommendation of how to arrange the couch in the living room. Please, we want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Yes, yes. And in addition to all of these new users, uh our average active time was 41 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot during July when we were really, you know, hitting it hard with summer ween, we were getting up to about the minute 30 mark for average active time. But 41 seconds is not so bad. That's that's pretty right around the the industry average for podcasts like hours on our websites. But that basically means that on average, people are spending 41 seconds on our website. Now, you think about the folks who just click on and they click off, they're counted just as much as the folks who they're scrolling the blogs, they're reading our bios, they're kind of really getting to know us. So considering the the amount of users we had, 41 seconds is is pretty great. So we hope to up that. We especially during spooky season, we hope you guys are hanging out a little bit more, poking around the website. Maybe there's something you missed, some Easter eggs or some added bonuses that you want to you want to take a look for. But yeah, it's it's pretty good, it's pretty solid having our website like this. And I'm excited to see it go up for you.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Yeah, I'm also just like super grateful to you and thankful to you because this website wasn't doing absolutely nothing till Chell came onto the scene. So thank you. It was literally just dumping around for like, hey, here are our episodes. Go listen to it if you want, I guess. But thank you so much, Chell, for all the love and energy that you pour into it consistently. Like, truly, it is such a gift and a gem for our community, especially with some of the blog posts that you would that you did this last month.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We had three fantastic blog posts from one of each. We had one from you, one from me, and one from Nathan. So I kicked off the month with I called it in this economy, a case for living, making a case for living in a haunted house. Because Chris, I mean, look around. The housing market, it's a mess. It's a pretty bad lumber. It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. It's rough. And you know, and I have been watching haunted house movies for years. I love them, and there's always the trope of the family who finds out some horrific murder is taking place, but it's such a good deal for the house, or they're or they're stubborn and they're saying, Well, no, I bought this house, I'm sunk, all my money's sunk into this house, I can't leave. So we explored what to do in those situations where maybe your only option is to accept that you have a spectral housemate.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Listen, they can pitch in, they can do the dishes, they can pay the bills, they can come pick you up in the middle of the night. Whatever, man. Just earn your keep.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Absolutely. And not every uh ghostly roommate has to be a jerk. You know, you can set boundaries and ground rules just like you would with a normal roommate, and maybe you make peace, maybe you make friends. Um it's definitely an opportunity. And if all else fails, you can always get gasoline in a match and just burn the whole thing to the ground for the insurance. We do not recommend. We do not recommend, but it is an option. And then we had uh Nathan with another one of his iconic curated lists. This time we had a host highlight for the one and only Banks.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

And listen, it's her birthday.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

It's her birthday.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

What a better way to celebrate.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

Yes. Saint Banks is uh definitely, you know, she has always had some fantastic insights on our episodes as well as some of her recommendations. And Nathan uh does just a beautiful job of taking you on the journey of Binx through Hackerslash, through some of her key episodes, some of the movies that she loves most. And it's definitely great if maybe you don't know Binx, you want to get to know Binks a little bit more, or maybe you've been a longtime fan of Binx and you want to check out the greatest hits. Either way, Nathan has you covered with this one.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

It's honestly just such a like a huge gesture of just like love and to know, to see and to understand someone. So I always really, really enjoy like re-examining these episodes from the lens of you know, Nathan is someone who did not meet Binks at a trivia night locally down here, you know what I mean? So it's it's always so special to know that across the miles you have someone who can just sit back, listen to the show, be in the community, become friends with all of us, and then also be like, nah, this is what makes Binks special. So that's great.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Yes, yes. Nathan has a knack for making you feel seen and just getting you. Um Chris, we were talking with Nathan earlier about some of our theming for this year, and he almost clocked it immediately that we would be leaning into some Grease Grease 2 vibes, and he even picked up on the Beach Boys song that inspired Be True to Your Ghoul. I don't know how he does it. I don't know which witchcraft he possesses, but to be friends with Nathan is to be seen and to be seen as I think he's the director of the occult in Hackerslash University, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:03

So this makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

That hen is a little witchy, he has the powers, and then Chris, just as we rounded out, August, you dropped a bomb into the blog and you gave us your rankings of the Friday the 13th franchise. Tell us, tell us where this came from.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

You know what? Nobody fucking asked for it, so I thought, why not? Listen, okay, listen. We are getting in to Halloween Horror Nights with Jason Universe. We got Sweet Revenge with Jason back on a screen, which we'll talk about in a bit. The lawsuit is over, Jason is on the come up. And when we had the one lonely Friday the 13th this year, I mean a mega Friday the 13th, because it was on his birthday in June. Yeah, we had that. But I thought, hmm, why not approach this so unscientifically? It's really just an interchangeable filter throughout this entire list of when I view the franchise, what stands out most to me personally, subjectively? I love Friday the 13th, part three because of Chris Higgins. She's my favorite final girl in Friday the 13th. And I thought, okay, but also Jason from part two is my favorite Jason. And it just goes back and forth in there. Listen, when you get to a certain point in this franchise, pretty much everything above maybe Jason Goes to Hell is honestly tied for like fourth place at some point, quite frankly. This is a franchise that I've never been super passionate about, but have developed a really special relationship with having a lot of fun with in my most like recent years, right? As I've gotten into my 30s. And I just find them to be like really easy schlock. So I thought, hey, fuck it. Why not? Now we get to Halloween. Y'all, there's gonna be like 90 different rankings because then it's like. Halloween by Timeline, Halloween by continuity, Halloween by Best Michael, Halloween by Best Lori, Halloween by Best Fall Vibe. There's so much happening.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Yes, it's I'm excited to see, and already, Chris, since you have dropped that blog, people have been sounding off on their thoughts. But the the common sentiment is that uh Jason Goes to Hell is at the bottom. One could say that the bar is literally in hell when it comes to ranking your Jason movies. So we thank you for that. And you can definitely check out the blog with the breakdown. Um you can also check out our letterboxed list, which includes the ranking in order of Chris, as well as a little bit of her insights included in the descriptions. And if you click on it in the letterbox, it tells you right where you can watch that particular movie and make the decisions for yourself. So if you decide that you want to use a letterbox list, let us know which movies you pull from it and what you thought. And yeah, we're still we're still fielding your comments on what you think your ranking of the best chasing.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Yeah, I'm still debating like, do we need to do a live stream where we just kind of go over this? I don't know, we'll see, but there's a lot to come. And if you imagine the chaos of a Friday the 13th ranking on a blog post, imagine what we have in store for October, folks. It's gonna be great. Now, again, looking ahead, there's so much to be excited about, but I'm actually really, really proud of the August that we had. So this is typically a low of a month. Typically, we try to like drive a lot of engagement with a spooky preseason, but honestly, we've all been so like scattered to the winds and just like building up and preparing for this moment that we didn't do our official like pre-season like we've done in years past. Even then, we had just six shy of 22,000 downloads, which is almost as much as we did the entire first month of spooky season last year. That is honestly A, it's a great period. B, it's great for a fairly quiet August within the context of the movies that we did.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah, absolutely. And as we'll talk about in a minute, it ran the gamut. We had some we had some deep cuts on there that maybe not a lot of people have seen, as well as some new releases, some really buzzworthy movies and things like that. So I just I think that again attests to people knowing that Hacker Slash is getting ready for their spooky season. They're starting to circle a little bit, starting to get the vibe, get a feel. What what should they expect going into September and October? So yeah, I think we had a lot of overachievers this year that wanted to get summer school in early and get prepped for Hacker Slash, you know, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Now listen, we kicked off the month with Sinister 2, which is it's Sinister 2. That one did pretty solid with its downloads. Then we had Near Dark, which I randomly picked for our lineup by opening a page from a book of horror movies that I have. I didn't realize that this movie was kind of a fucking big deal. That's so great. I love that. But then of course we rolled right into weapons, which blew it out of the water. That movie was hot. We're gonna talk about it in a little bit in terms of its box office performance. But what a way for even more people to find us. When I look at weapons in particular, when I think of like bring her back 28 years later, a lot of these new releases this year have such an incredible amount of comments, even on our Spotify for our show. So listen, folks, keep it coming. We want to know, we want to hear your thoughts. There's a lot of opinions on this one.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of hype leading up to it. Everyone kind of had their plan for when they were going to see weapons, and clearly you guys had a plan as well for when it was going to be released. So a lot of people, I think, really, I know I did. I hustled to the theater opening weekend because I wanted to be a part of that conversation right away. And as you said, Chris, you guys were some of the first people to the conversation. So it just was a match made in heaven for people that wanted to jump right in, and you guys were there with the commentary and thoughts to to welcome them.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Yeah, and I think that's really fun, especially when you think about like the context of the new release episodes, because again, there's a duality to our show. First half is do you want to see if this is even worth seeing in a theater? That's really what it is. Like, is this movie worth you watching, or should you skip straight to the highlights and see what's up? We have a moment to pause, really make your decision, and then you can join us in the spoiler zone for a place to really dig deep. And you know, I think Binks likes to talk about these moments where you know you're standing around with your friends outside of the movie theater, debriefing what you just saw. That's kind of like the spoiler zone here. So there's just really so much that goes into it. I can't wait to see that continue with the conjuring The Last Rights that's coming out in a couple days. But actually, even speaking of that, we had two more episodes in August. One, the Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It. That did pretty well, and we rounded out with Heretic that got almost just as many downloads only after two days. What a runaway that movie has been for us.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

That is definitely impressive, especially because it is not your your typical horror movie, but it did get a lot of buzz, and once it dropped on streaming, everyone flocked to go see Hugh Grant, former, you know, rom-com heartthrob of of yesteryear, jump into a more sinister role. I mean, I loved it, I adored it, and so yeah, I think it's another one of those movies you want to sit, you want to chew and stew on a little bit. So I think the fact that you guys came in and did it a little bit later in the season when people were able to ruminate it on it, I think people were ready for those conversations that you guys were gonna bring up.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Absolutely, and I'm so glad we waited because I also linked in the show notes of that episode a YouTube video, which I really cursed the hell out of my YouTube algorithm researching this movie. But the video is ex-Mormon Reacts to Heretic, and it's a woman who was a sister doing this work on a mission, and she just reacts after exiting the Mormon faith and exiting the church, and she has just so much incredible insight, and there's so many layers to her perspective, folks. We personally do not have like a lot of that like knowledge and firsthand experience, right? So to just a defer that table to someone who does, it's a fun episode for sure. Listen to it, but also go watch that video because it is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Yeah, gosh, and yeah, I'm excited to to again see these people ride the wave. They've gotten to know us in August, and I'm ready to see them dive into spooky season with us. So welcome. If you were a new blood in August, welcome. And we cannot wait to see what you guys have to say and hear in September and August.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Absolutely. Now let's go ahead and make our way to some headlines because horror was really on fire this month, starting with Sweet Revenge, the short vignette that actually dropped and went public. What a time this was!

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Tell us about it, Chris, because you were hyped when the trailer came out and this finally dropped. Tell us about it.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

I think ultimately I watched it and I was like, okay, that's generally the vibe. Listen, am I mad at it? No, I still think it's fun. Like the gore in it, we don't see enough of the kills actually take place, like we see some of it. But a lot of what you see in that movie is like aftermath and it looks pretty fucking good. And listen, I'm okay with brands giving money to make horror happen. I'm cool with that. We want more of it, please. The Angry Orchard was a little heavy for sure. Yes, you can see a lot of apples, you can see some Angry Orchard bottles in the background, etc. But also just fucking sit back and enjoy the fact that Jason is on screen. A little short for my taste, a little lean for my taste, but still a lot of fun. The other side of this actually is I after this came out, I went hunting on a day off for the thriller pack from Angry Orchard because it's very limited in terms of where you can get it. I mean, I think some random grocery stores or your local market probably has it, but down here in South Florida, there was exactly one store, one shop that has it in my area. And I drove 45 minutes to get there. Everything online said that they were open, and as it turns out, they were not. So I sat out there for a little while. Now, bless Sean in all his infinite wisdom and experience. He went to Total Wine and he ordered a case, so he got a pack and I got a pack, but I have to go pick it up from him. Listen, sweet revenge, Angry Orchard. I like Angry Orchard, I'm into it, but it has it has some stuff. We have some beef.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

You know, that's definitely fair, but I mean, it's a it's a great way, you know, everyone's loving a cider during fall. So I guess I mean, I guess Angry Orchard knew what they were doing with their Sweet Revenge short film, but I'm I'm thrilled for all the Jason fans out there that they get a little bit of taste because it's the first of many that we're supposed to be getting here in the next few months, couple years, so gotta start somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

There will be more, and there's also more, actually, something I'm way more excited about of Halloween. My boy Michael's coming back to video games, and I am so fucking pumped for this, Chell. We have Halloween the game. Woo!

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Yes, yes, and we have uh reports that say that Nick Castle is coming back as the shape, doing some heavy breathing as well as some of the motion capture for the shape in this game. So it it's exciting.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

I am honestly so fucking pumped. I want you to know that I have bought so many of these horror video games. I bought Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I bought the Evil Dead game, I I bought Killer Clowns from Outer Space and didn't really even get to play it. Like I think it probably just like disassembled before the time I even got around to to maybe having the time to play it. And a lot of what happens is when these games come out, they have there's a reputation that they're kind of abandoned. The exception semi-being the Friday the 13th game, because that was stopped after a legal case. Like they could not keep the servers online for it. So when you think about games having a shelf life, you invest this much money, you invest in the DLC, the different skins, etc. But then the server shut down. Well, what good is it anymore? But Halloween Halloween's gonna have a story mode, and Halloween is gonna allow you to be Michael Myers to play the night he came home. And what's also significant about this, and I've been like stalking the artwork for it, the artwork and the design for like a map for uh Smith's Grove is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

Wow. Well, Chris, I personally am not a video gamer, but I love watching people play video games. I watch my husband play them. I love just watching people who are better at mashing buttons than I am. So I'm really excited to hopefully maybe see. I know Binx does some Twitch stuff, or maybe we can just get someone sharing their screen in the Discord. I'd love to watch someone who knows what they're doing to play the game, and I will just watch it as if it's a movie, and you know, I I'm excited from a spectator's point of view as well to see what this could look like for me.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

I can tell you with absolute confidence, I will be playing this game. I hope that Binks will, because I think that'll be so much fun, right? But even if I'm not good at games, I'm a fucking crazy Halloween fan. I'm playing this game and I'm streaming this game. So watch out, 2026. Here we come.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Yes. Some other great news of some future announcements. This is exciting for some folks, not as exciting for others, but Anna Ferris and Regina Hall have been confirmed to be returning for Scary Movie 6.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

Yeah, I think that's a big deal. Listen, I only recently saw the first scary movie, and I think I would now have seen like maybe a couple more of them. I don't love this with the the fiery passion that a lot of people do, but also I get it if you do. I also think it's so funny now in retrospect. Man, I'm just clocking this now because we watched scary movie. Allie showed me scary movie, so she showed me that the first time, and then I showed her right before we saw the re the requel in theaters, I Know What You Did Last Summer. And she hadn't seen them before, so it was hilarious hearing that perspective of oh now I get it. When all you had known of I Know What You Did Last Summer was scary movie. Damn.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

Yeah, absolutely. My husband, Hornovice husband Evan, he never watched Scream, but he had seen Scary Movie, and I tell you what, he was he was a little bit surprised by the ending, but he also picked up on the dynamic between Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard much quicker than I did on my first watch of it. So there is something to be said about the scary movies. I am on record as saying they're not my favorites, but I am thrilled that another one is coming out for those who love it. I am excited. I'm excited to hear what they say and kind of what they expect and what they hope for this one.

SPEAKER_00 57:41

Yeah, I think the reality here, Chell, is that we just love joy, and it's so good for people in the horror community to have something to be joyous about. Not unlike the folks who put together weapons who topped the box office.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Yes, I mean there has been some marketing for this for months and months, and people really intrigued by it, and they did a really good job with a lot of the trailers, not giving it a lot away. So people felt like they had to be in the theaters. And yeah, it topped the box office. It even did recently in the last few weekends when there were still new movies coming out, and weapons was still able to land at the top of the box.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

I genuinely, before leaving work today, had two of my team members ask, Have you seen Weapons? I really need to go see it. What do you think? And oh my gosh, I'm just A, so excited about that. B, love that a horror movie in theaters has staying power. We saw this with Terrifier. Terrifier really had a good run. Terrifier got more money from me than I think I gave Halloween 2018, which is insane. I saw that shit everywhere I could. But good for weapons, good for weapons, and good for Zach Craigers. I mean, bless you for doing a movie that I enjoyed more than Barbarian.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

Yes, we were we were both thrilled to have, I think that at our disposal. And as we kind of look into the next few months here, some other trailers have dropped, including the good boy trailer.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

Yeah. Oh boy, the trauma. What a great perspective. This is another like the same two gentlemen I was having the conversation with. The Good Boy also came up because everybody's so fucking excited for it, right? A horror movie about a haunted house, but from the dog's perspective. Come on now. This is like presents for better.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Yes, and clearly a lot of people were very invested in the main character in this trailer because Google reported that after the trailer dropped, there was a significant spike in people searching Does the Dog Die in Good Boy?

SPEAKER_00 59:53

Oh, I searched it.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Because let's be real, let's be real. I Googled it as well. I am someone who was more than happy to have that spoiled for me for the sake of my enjoyment of the movie. I will not spoil it, but I did look it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

Yeah, I looked it up and I'm still unconvinced because I don't trust the internet. But if you are also concerned, you dear friend, come on, join the Discord. When you get in the Discord, agree to the community rules, but they're not that many, then message Shell and she will give you the answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

Yes, I will. Absolutely. Happy to do it. But yeah, so I'm excited for this. I'm excited to be able to kind of go in, know what to expect, and yeah, it's a it's a great premise for a horror movie, and I think I think it'll be one that a lot of casual horror fans are gonna go out to see. So I I'm excited to kind of see what this brings to the horror world and the cinematic universe.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

I'm personally very excited about it. We built our October lineup before news of this movie's release date came out. So as of right now, it's not on the schedule, but we're gonna find a way to get this in for sure. We we can't miss the good boy Indy, who is gonna be starring in this movie. Yeah, we're not missing that by a long shot. Now, somehow, between all the things that we do, Chell, we still find movies and we still find time to spend with these movies. And I would love to know what else you watched this month.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

Gosh, yes. So I'm still keeping strong. Week 34, 35 of the 52-week horror challenge from Oh My Horror. And so I've gotten to see a few movies really expand my horizons, but one that I watched, it was during Horror Technology Week. And let me tell you, Chris, it was it was quite the ride. I decided to watch 2006's Stay Alive.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

What a specific choice.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

It it's so funny. So again, I was a baby, almost basically a non-horror fan growing up, but I distinctly remembered watching the last half hour or so of this movie broad daylight in my living room with my whole family. My dad was flipping through channels and stopped on this. So I remember seeing like the last half hour and but never like never registered to me until I started watching horror movies again. And it hit me. It's like, wait, what the heck was that horror movie that I watched the last third of that had Frankie Muniz in it? And eventually figured out the name of the movie was Stay Alive, and never really found it streaming, but finally the stars aligned. It was horror technology week. It was available on Hoopla through my my public library, and I said, I have to watch it, I have to watch it, and boy am I glad.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

Are you glad?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

Because you know, closure, a lot of closure.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

Honestly, y'all, my trauma response to what you just shared. I was just immediately triggered because I, as soon as I saw the word alive, thought you meant that you watched what keeps you alive, and I got mad at that fucking movie all over again.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Oh my lord. I can't remember. Was that a slasher pick? Was that a recommendation?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

Oh, I it's so tough to even say. I think we did it for Pride Month, maybe. It was just fucking rough. If you're a bird, I'm a bird. What the fuck was that kind of dialogue? Listen, folks, if you don't know the lore of what keeps you alive, hop in the Discord, join it, then search what keeps you alive. You're gonna see Spooky Bitch and I dragging that movie thoroughly, and you'll learn all the reasons why we thoroughly hate it. Now, a movie that I watched, I went to the theater for, Trust. And trust, by the poster and by the description of the movie, sounded fucking great. It was giving home invasion horror. It's more like thriller, it's more like psychological. And I think going in and maybe expecting it for what it is, I think is a way more interesting movie. But I just remember sitting through that movie thinking, like, well, this is fucking weird. Like it's it's one of those that I think I'm actually really curious to see what Paris would think about it. Because I bet Paris would love it. But essentially, a Hollywood starlet is in the news cycle for something scandalous, so she gets away for a little while in an Airbnb and people come into the Airbnb. People violate her trust, and you're gonna see all the layers and the extent to which her trust was violated all throughout the movie. But it was actually again complex because not great, but also some parts of it really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:47

Yeah, I think we're we're warmed up and we are ready to take on whatever spooky season comes at us. If we can handle movies like Stay Alive and some bait and switches like Trust, Chris, next couple months are gonna be a breeze.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:01

Oh yeah, we're gonna get there, Chell. And you're really for now, there you have it, folks. That wraps up this edition of Slasher Digest FM. And we've covered a lot here for sure, but there's always more lurking beneath the surface.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Want to dive deeper into the stories we've covered? Make sure you're subscribed to the Slasher Digest newsletter. You'll get all the links, updates, and horror highlights delivered straight to your inbox. So sign up now by clicking the link in our show notes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

And if you're one of our patrons, thank you so much. Your support is actually what keeps this whole thing alive. It actually is what keeps us alive. Wow, I fucking hate that movie, but I love you. For everyone else, consider this your invitation to be part of the family. We're unlocking Slasher Digest Fem Fam for everyone this spooky season. So if you've been curious about what's behind the curtain, now is the perfect time to jump in and see what our community is all about. We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, always check your candy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

Go on and get out of here. I've got these punk ass. Bitch motherfuckers handled.

unknown 1:06:01

What's your favorite story? What's your favorite story?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:33

We all know the little mass is to do this.