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.
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On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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Episode 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.