Podcasts
Exploring the Surreal Nightmare of ‘Paratopic’ [Safe Room Podcast]
Before listening to this week’s episode covering Paratopic, be sure to check out last month’s edition of The Inventory: Safe Room’s Review show!
I will always cherish our (now) weekly segment Horror Bytes for broadening my horror palette. The experimental nature of bite-sized slices of horror allows for truly original experiences within the horror space. Abstract concepts, bizarre aesthetics, and even a few unique scares along the way have made me seek out games that I maybe wouldn’t have just a few years prior.
Horror Bytes has also helped me to change my stance on shorter games. Previously, I could get on a board with a game that was a few hours long (Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch), but an experience that was a mere 40 minutes would have been a much tougher sell for me. And yet, finally playing Arbitrary Metric’s Paratopic further reinforced my feeling that an experience is just that, an experience, regardless of its length.
In less time than a TV show episode, Paratopic can immerse the player into not one, not two, but three storylines intertwined within a nightmarish world engulfed in mystery. And in this week’s episode, Neil and I do our best to unpack Paratopic’s unique approach to anthology storytelling, its nightmarish world building, and just how unimportant the length of a game is to provide a memorable experience. – Jay Krieger
Also, this week’s Horror Bytes sees us play two entries from Ludum Dare 53, the indie game jam event. This edition’s keyword was ‘delivery’ and we picked two entirely different games in FMV/Flash hybrid DE/LIVER and the postapocalyptic Drone Delivery Despair. – Neil Bolt
Safe Room is a horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday (and Horror Bytes episodes on Thursday) on iTunes/Apple, Sticher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Linktree for additional streaming services.
Feel free to follow the show and hosts on Twitter:
After winding down June with discussions of our vey first William Castle film Homicidal (listen) and queer director Roland Emmerich’s summer tentpole Independence Day (listen), we’re heading back to 1981 to check out Joe Dante‘s seminal werewolf film The Howling.
The Howling sees television journalist Karen White (Dee Wallace) attend a psychiatric retreat with her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) after being attacked and traumatized by local serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). It isn’t long before Karen realizes that the retreat is actually a secret cult of werewolves, and they’ve already got their sights set on Bill.
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 394: The Howling (1981)
Make note of that smiley face sticker and snag that conveniently-placed jar of acid because we’re talking Joe Dante’s stealth werewolf classic The Howling (1981)!
Join us as we discuss the film’s deviations from its source material before doing a deep dive into this very tongue-in-cheek, self-aware horror film. It honestly feels like a precursor to Scream, in many ways!
Plus: Roger Corman (again!) those incredible special effects, differentiating “color movies” from “movies in color,” and why queer icon Elisabeth Brooks has us going “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”
Cross out The Howling!
Coming Up Next: We’re tackling our very first Ken Russell film with a look at his controversial 1984 erotic thriller Crimes of Passion!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 508 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 Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (aka Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch), and the conclusion of our coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat on the Requel Tier.