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