Podcasts
A ‘Castlevania Homage’, Cursed ‘Animal Crossing’, and More In ‘Horror Bytes’ [Safe Room Podcast]
It’s our favorite time of the month, that being Horror Bytes: our monthly indie horror segment, in which Neil and I highlight several bite-sized slices of horror that can typically be completed in less than an hour.
While some of these titles we’ll be discussing may be free, we believe it’s important to support the developer’s hard work: So, if you can, please support them through their itch.io, steam, or Patreon pages.
While I am unfortunately absent from this week’s episode, have no fear as Neil is accompanied by returning friend of the show and Dread XP writer Ian Marvin to chat bite-sized horrors! – Jay Krieger
Ian’s Picks
For fans of classic dungeon crawlers, Out of the Blue meets Dark Souls in its intricately designed labyrinth world with the added challenge of a limited amount of moves before returning to the start of your adventure.
There is truly no rest for the dead in Don’t Dig Up the Dead, as the player is tasked with discovering items scattered throughout a forest before engaging in bullet hell-style encounters with ghosts.
For fans of N64-style graphics and Harvest Moon-style sims, Harvest Festival ’64 will be right up your alley. A proof of concept that impresses in more ways than one, and it was made in just three days!
A love letter to Castlevania reinforces just how pivotal the beloved action horror original was.
Neil & Jay’s Picks
A proper 90’s point-and-click horror homage with a dreamlike approach to storytelling and scares makes Feet in the Snow a memorable nightmare.
The monotony of posting party fliers in an apartment building is broken up by Elevated Dread’s increasingly surreal floors and that which stalks its halls.
A detective’s job is never easy, and in The Red Abyss Deep Below, the presence of a Cthulhu-esque abyss complicates finding the mayor’s missing wife in this stylized adventure.
A fair bit of juggling in this one.
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.
Feel free to follow the show and hosts on Twitter:
Free cable is the ultimate aphrodisiac…
After kicking off June with discussions of our very first Vincent Price film in Theater of Blood (listen) and revisiting the world of Anne Rice (kinda) in Queen of the Damned (listen), we’re stepping out of our usual area of coverage to discuss Ben Stiller‘s genre-adjacent black comedy The Cable Guy (1996).
In The Cable Guy, newly single Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick) gets more than he bargained for after he bribes his eccentric cable installer, Ernie “Chip” Douglas (Jim Carrey), for free movie channels. While attempting to woo back his ex Robin (Leslie Mann), Steven must contend with Chip’s desperate need for companionship. Chip’s relationship-building tactics quickly escalate into obsessive stalking, making for a darkly comedic take on thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Single White Female.
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 390: The Cable Guy (1996)
Get ready to tell us where you like it as we head to Medieval Times because we’re discussing Ben Stiller’s Jim Carrey-starring black comedy The Cable Guy (1996) for its 30th anniversary! Tagging in for the conversation are Patrick Hamilton and Gena Radcliffe of the Kill By Kill Podcast.
Join us as we go all in on the oddly prescient (and highly media literate) film made famous by Jim Carrey’s $20 million paycheck. From Carrey’s incredibly creepy performance to a nightmare sequence straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street, there are a lot more horror (and homoerotic) undertones to this film than you might expect!
Plus, that iconic karaoke sequence, sexy Jack Black and comparisons to Single White Female, So I Married an Axe Murderer and Scream.
Cross out The Cable Guy!
Coming Up Next: We’re licking the drain as we check in with the Catton family in Emerald Fennel’s not-remake of The Talented Mr. Ripley in her 2023 sophomore feature Saltburn!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 498 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 5 & 6, Backrooms, Passenger, Leviticus, an audio commentary on the original Scary Movie (2000), and the return of our Requel Tier as we begin our episode coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.