Podcasts
Peeling Off the ‘Layers of Fear’ in Bloober Team’s Horror Hit [Safe Room Podcast]
Before listening to this week’s discussion on Layers of Fear, check out last week’s episode of Horror Bytes: Safe Room’s indie horror spotlight!
To say that Bloober Team is striking while the horror iron is hot would be an understatement. The studio’s prolific rise within gaming, thanks to helming several beloved IPs and crafting its own, is nothing short of noteworthy.
Over the last six years, the Polish studio released seven games that, while all different, abide by Bloober’s commitment to horror experiences that largely strip away the conventional survival trappings of the genre. And while this has led to varying success over the last decade, one thing remains steadfast in its approach to games: Narrative is king, with few better examples in its portfolio than 2016’s Layers of Fear.
The tortured artist trope is one that anyone even remotely interested in horror, or honestly, any medium of fiction, has encountered countless times. And yet, Layers of Fear smartly took this tired trope and applied a level of vague and hallucinatory horrors to the experience, that it reinvigorated the premise into something that felt exciting again.
So for this week’s episode, Neil and I recruited the host of Knight Light: A Horror Movie Podcast, Prince Jackson, to help us unpack Layers of Fear’s unique approach to storytelling, the inherent potential of remakes, and to fill us in on just what the heck a horror movie consultant is?! – Jay Krieger
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday on
iTunes/Apple, Sticher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Linktree for additional streaming services.
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The Children, Eleanor!
We’ve spent the month of July discussing the badass babes of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror (listen), the queer undertones of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (listen), and the “very bad weather” of Jan de Bont‘s 1996 tornado film, Twister (listen).
Now we’re wrapping up our de Bont double bill with his less successful 1999 special effects remake, The Haunting!
In the film, sheltered Eleanor (Lili Taylor) is recruited for a dubious insomnia study at the infamous Hill House by questionable doctor David Marrow (Liam Neeson). Along with bisexual Theo (Catherine Zeta-Taylor) and horny Luke (Owen Wilson), Nell is terrorized by annoying ghost children and the monstrous owner of the house, Hugh Crain (Charles Gunning).
As the spectral hauntings become more and more severe, Nell must uncover her tenuous connection to the previous victims before the terrible CGI swallows her and the other participants whole.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.
Episode 292 – The Haunting (1999) feat. Kill by Kill
Answer that insomnia study ad and beware of griffins because we are checking back into Hill House for our second Jan de Bont film in as many weeks: 1999’s “don’t call it a remake,” The Haunting.
Joining us for an episode that immediately goes off the rails and into angry rant territory are five-time returning champions, Patrick Hamilton and Gena Radcliffe of Kill By Kill podcast.
We have *lots* of questions: where’s the bisexuality? Why is the body count so low? How much should Steven Spielberg be blamed? If Crain is part of the house, then why isn’t he everywhere? Oh, and who the hell called Eleanor in the first place?!
Poor Lili Taylor…and poor us!
Cross out The Haunting!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re wrapping up July with our first foray into Alejandro Jodorowsky territory with his pseudo-quasi remake of Psycho: 1989’s Santa Sangre!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 320 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 1 Episode 7, A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine and Longlegs. And to tie in with Longlegs, our audio commentary for the month will be on David Fincher’s 1995 film Se7en.
Friday, July 26 – These Six New Horror Movies Just Released Today
‘The Long Walk’ – Stephen King Movie Adaptation Expands Cast as Filming Begins
NECA Turns Classic Universal Monsters Burger King Toys into Deluxe Action Figures!
‘Alien: Romulus’ – NECA Toy Gives Us a Better Look at the “Scorched Xenomorph”
‘The Last Breath’ Exclusive Clip – Preview a Bloody Shark Attack Sequence
