And now, a little something to make your skin crawl! For the third entry of spooky season, Simon and Curtis discuss the period piece body horror THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025) with special guest Dr Sean Travers. They chat about its connections to THE SUBSTANCE (2024) and GRAFTED (2024), literal and metaphorical parasites, the monstrosity of the transformed body, the pressures of patriarchal expectation, the horrors of indifference, and academic publishing. After the discussion, they also talk about what they watched recently (and what they want to watch for spooky season).
Stay tuned next week for a supergroup discussion of WEAPONS (2025)!
WHAT WE WATCHED THIS WEEK
Curtis: The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre (Philip Fracassi Novel)
Simon: Black Phone 2
Sean: Monster: The Ed Gein Story (Netflix Miniseries); Good Boy (2025 Leonberg Film); It Chapter One; It Chapter Two
WHAT WE WANT TO WATCH
Curtis: Black Phone 2; Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
Sean: Black Phone 2; Welcome to Derry (TV Series); The Long Walk
TIME STAMPS
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:56 THE UGLY STEPSISTER Discussion
00:27:15 What We Watched This Week/What We Want to Watch
00:36:21 Our Scores for THE UGLY STEPSISTER
00:37:45 Coming Up Next!
CREDITS AND PLUGS
Intro: "Blomserdansen" by Vilde Tuv (THE UGLY STEPSISTER OST)
Outro: "Dunkelheit" by Burzum
Follow John on Letterboxd—@johnnycakes91
For a list of films covered at Genre Gems: https://letterboxd.com/johnnycakes91/list/genre-gems-2025-festival-lineup/
Curtis: https://www.the-back-row.com/ - check out 'Runstedler's DVD Pick of the Month'
https://curtisrunstedler.ca/
Dr Curtis Reads: https://www.youtube.com/@curtisrunstedler
Check out Dr Sean Travers's monograph (Trauma in American Popular Culture and Cult Texts, 1980-2020) here:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13287-2
