Steven Spielberg's "little" movie about a very big shark kicks off part one of our three part deep dive into Jaws. We get into Peter Benchley's novel, the mechanical shark that refused to cooperate, and why shooting on the real Atlantic nearly ended a young director's career before it started. Two more parts to come.
 
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro00:09:24 Intro: Distribution & Reception00:30:03 Let's Make a Movie: Filmmakers00:51:14 Let's Make a Movie: Cast01:02:32 Let's Make a Movie: Production01:24:03 Losing Light
 
Citations
“’Jaws’ - How Our Greatest Summer Movie Got Made.” Best Movies by Farr. 2026. https://bestmoviesbyfarr.com/seasonal/jaws-how-our-greatest-summer-movie-got-made/.
Court, Andrew. “A Montauk Monster Hunter.” Field Ethos. 1 July 2025. https://fieldethos.com/montauk-monster-hunter/.
McLachlan, Ryan. “The True Story Behind the USS Indianapolis Monologue in ‘Jaws’”. War History Online. 31 August 2023. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/jaws-monologue.html.
Newman, Dean. “Who The Cast of Jaws Could Have Been.” The Daily Jaws. 18 January 2021. https://thedailyjaws.com/blog/2021/1/18/who-the-cast-of-jaws-could-have-been.
Rennie, Daniel. “Revisiting Bruce, The Malfunctioning Animatronic Shark That Made ‘Jaws’ a Horror Classic.” Bold Entrance. 15 July 2020. https://boldentrance.com/remembering-bruce-the-malfunctioning-animatronic-shark-that-made-jaws-a-horror-classic/.
Sackton, Laura. “’Jaws’: Book vs. movie.” Audible. 17 September 2024. https://www.audible.com/blog/article-jaws-book-vs-movie.
Scott, Andy. “The Untold Truth of Jaws.” Looper. 10 October 2017. https://www.looper.com/24598/untold-truth-jaws/.
Vaziri, Todd. “The Myth of the ‘Jaws’ Shooting Stars.” FXRant. 19 February 2026. https://fxrant.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-myth-of-jaws-shooting-star.html?m=1.
 

This week's encore takes a detour: instead of riffing off of Smile 2, we're talking about us. How Open Mic Night of the Living Dead actually got made, why it's audio only, and what a full year and 52 episodes have taught us about making something together. Plus a new song, Float Away. Thank you for spending year one with us - onto year two.
 

This week marks our first sequel: Smile 2. We follow pop star Sky Riley as recovery becomes performance and her own body becomes something for everyone else to manage. Choreography turns predatory, the curse goes public, and we talk about where Smile 3 might take this mythology. Plus two very different songs: one about floating away, one about falling for the wrong pop star.
Citations
Bennett, Adam. “Smile 2: Rodeo FX on the Surrealist Visual Terror of a Horror Hit with Teeth.” LBB Online. 12 March 2024. https://lbbonline.com/news/smile-2-rodeo-fx-on-the-surrealist-visual-terror-of-a-horror-hit-with-teeth.
Edelbaum, Susannah. “’Smile 2’ DP Charlie Sarroff on Lighting a Curse-Afflicted Pop Star in the Big City.” The Credits. 29 October 2024. https://www.motionpictures.org/2024/10/smile-2-dp-charlie-sarroff-on-lighting-a-curse-afflicted-pop-star-in-the-big-city/.
Fraser, Emma. “How ‘Smile 2’ Uses Practical SFX Makeup to Generate Maximum Scares.” Backstage. 17 October 2024. https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/smile-2-makeup-designer-interview-77849/.
Gomez, Shirley. “Lukas Gage’s haunting transformation in ‘Smile 2’: Exclusive clip with FX Artist Jeremy Selenfriend.” Hola!. 2 December 2024. https://www.hola.com/us/entertainment/20241126732504/lukas-gages-transformation-smile-2-behind-the-scenes/.
Hunter, Rob. “30 Things We Learned from Parker Finn’s ‘Smile 2’ Commentary.” Dread Central. 21 February 2025. . https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/522757/30-things-we-learned-from-parker-finns-smile-2-commentary/.
Naahar, Rohan. “’Smile 2’Global Box Office Gives Audiences Something to Grin About.” Collider. 27 October 2024. https://collider.com/smile-2-global-box-office-83-million/.
Taylor, Drew. “How ‘Smile 2’ Writer/Director Parker Finn Returned with a Super-Sized, Super-Successful Horror Sequel.” The Wrap. 25 October 2024. https://www.thewrap.com/smile-2-interview-parker-finn-horror-sequels/.
Tyler, Adrienne. “Smile 2 Fell Short of the Original’s Box Office Expectations But It’s Still a Massive Success.” Screen Rant. 6 December 2024. https://screenrant.com/smile-2-box-office-below-expectations-success-op-ed/.
Wilding, Josh. “Smile 2 Interview: Director Parker Finn on Designing the Entity and Taylor Swift’s Influence (Exclusive).” ComicBookMovie.com. 19 November 2024. https://comicbookmovie.com/horror/smile-2-interview-director-parker-finn-on-designing-the-entity-and-taylor-swifts-influence-exclusive-a214619.
Zilko, Christian. “For Naomi Scott, Playing a Troubled Pop Star in ‘Smile 2’ Meant Alternating Between Joyful Dance Rehearsals and Bloody Hallucinations.” Indie Wire. 26 October 2024. https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/naomi-scott-interview-smile-2-1235060424/.
 
Chapters
0:00:00 Intro0:08:25 Intro: Distribution & Reception00:20:24 Let's Make a Movie: Filmmakers00:29:46 Let's Make a Movie: Cast00:40:23 Let’s Make a Movie: Production00:50:21 Vibe Check: Cinematography01:00:43 Vibe Check: SFX01:06:00 Vibe Check: Music & Sound Design01:15:48 Story Time: Characters01:30:39 Story Time: Murder & Mayhem01:49:47 Story Time: Themes01:57:27 Open Mic02:08:18 Losing Light
 

We've been watching a lot of bad husbands. So we built a rubric. This encore to our Rosemary's Baby deep dive introduces our three-tier taxonomy of bad partners in horror - Trevors, Guys, and Billys - and the films that gave us each one. Plus the demo for our new song based on Rosemary's Baby.
 
Chapters00:00 Intro00:03:28 Tier 1: The Trevor00:08:28 Tier 2: The Guy00:16:46 Tier 3: The Billy00:29:45 Song Demo00:33:39 Losing Light

Rosemary's Baby Part 2: we finish what we started. Rosemary, Guy, and the entire Castavet operation get the deep dive they deserve - coercive control, bodily autonomy, and the Rosemary's Baby curse. Then both original songs, live for the first time, with a split perspectives gimmick.
 
Chapters
00:00 Intro05:24 Story Time: Characters24:18 Story Time: Murder, Mayhem & Myths47:55 Story Time: The Rosemary's Baby Curse52:31 Story Time: Themes1:08:41 Open Mic1:28:04 Losing Light

Rosemary's Baby is one of our all-time favorites, and it's easy to see why. Part 1 covers the film's production history, the real buildings behind the Bramford, the complicated legacy of its director, and the cinematography that turns a dream apartment into something much worse - all without a single special effect. No music this week, too much to cover everything in just one episode!
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro00:06:22 Distribution & Reception00:26:46 Let's Make a Movie: Filmmakers00:50:29 Let's Make a Movie: Cast01:02:39 Let's Make a Movie: Production01:11:46 Vibe Check: Cinematography01:29:14 Vibe Check: SFX01:32:47 Vibe Check: Music & Sound Design
Citations
Booker, M. Keith. “Rosemary’s Baby (1968): Director Roman Polanski”. Comments on Culture. 2026. https://bookerhorror.com/rosemarys-baby-1968-director-roman-polanski/.
Bose, Swapnil Dhruv. “Dissecting the curse of Roman Polanski’s horror classic ‘Rosemary’s Baby’.” Far Out Magazine UK. 24 November 2020. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/roman-polanski-horror-curse-rosemarys-baby/.
Eggert, Brian. “Rosemary’s Baby (1968).” Deep Focus Review. 7 October 2018. https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/rosemarys-baby/.
Johnson, Eleanor. “Guy Horror: ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and Coercive Control.” Public Books. 12 June 2023. https://www.publicbooks.org/guy-horror-rosemarys-baby-coercive-control/.
Juneau, Jen. “Mia Farrow Recalls the Moment Frank Sinatra Served Her Divorce Papers on ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Set.” 8 November 2024. Yahoo! Entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mia-farrow-recalls-moment-frank-162038936.html.
Kirk, Sarah. “Rosemary’s Baby Film Analysis 1968”. Medium. 28 July 2021. https://sarahck36.medium.com/rosemarys-baby-film-analysis-1968-274d742dddb6.
Lyons, Kevin. “Rosemary’s Baby (1968).” The EOFFTV Review. 31 October 2019. https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/rosemarys-baby-1968/.
Nelson, Jillian. “’This is no dream! This is really happening!’: Rosemary’s Baby Horrific Reflections of Female Subjectivity in 1968 and Present-Day America.” Perisphere. 5 October 2025. https://www.perisphere.org/2025/10/05/this-is-no-dream-this-is-really-happening-rosemarys-babys-horrific-reflections-of-female-subjectivity-in-1968-and-present-day-america/.
Ramirez, Jake. “10 Eerie Tales From Behind the Scenes of Rosemary’s Baby.” Listverse. 22 July 2025. https://listverse.com/2025/07/22/10-eerie-tales-from-behind-the-scenes-of-rosemarys-baby/.
Waldron, Abigail. “[Roe]smary v Wade: Bodilyl Autonomy & Choice in ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968).” Horror Press. 1 June 2022. https://horrorpress.com/editorials/1597/roesmary-v-wade-bodily-autonomy-choice-in-rosemarys-baby-1968/.
Williams, David E. “Beyond the Frame: Rosemary’s Baby.” American Cinematographer. 30 March 2017. https://theasc.com/article/beyond-the-frame-rosemarys-baby/.
Williams, Marisa. “Horrors of Domesticity: Rosemary’s Baby.” Digital Literature Review. 14 January 2020. https://blogs.bsu.edu/dlr/2020/01/14/horrors-of-domesticity-rosemarys-baby/.
 

20 deep dives in, we finally settled it - a horror villain draft from every film we've covered. Mrs. Voorhees, the Thing, Pazuzu, the Overlook Hotel, and more are all on the table. We close with Breaking Our Silence, our new song demo based on A Quiet Place.
 
The VillainsGhostface (Scream)Pazuzu (The Exorcist)Deadites (The Evil Dead)Black and White Zombies (Night of the Living Dead )Jerry Dandridge (Fright Night )The Thing (The Thing)Michael Myers (Halloween)The Crawlers (The Descent)Mrs. Voorhees (Friday the 13th)Billy (Black Christmas)Billy Chapman (Silent Night, Deadly Night)Death (Final Destination)Norman Bates (Psycho)Candyman (Candyman)Remmick and his vampires (Sinners)Russ Thorn (The Slumber Party Massacre)The Overlook Hotel (The Shining)Bill Roberts (Intruder)The Monstrosity (Smile)Death Angels (A Quiet Place)
 
00:00 Intro01:24 The Draft: Team Picks15:37 Final Scores & Rankings28:25 Song Demo: Breaking Our Silence

This week we tackled A Quiet Place, and one thing we’re completely sure of is that our family absolutely would not survive. John Krasinski's 2018 PG-13 creature feature is 91 minutes of the most efficient horror storytelling we've covered. We dig into Industrial Light & Magic’s last-minute creature redesign, the cochlear implant debate, and what it means to watch a parent-child horror film when your kids are close to the age of the kids on screen. And as always, we debut our new songs inspired by the film - John’s is a banger and Rachel’s has Disney chords.
Citations
Bishop, J.W. “How John Karsinski Created ‘A Quiet Place’.” Smithsonian Magazine. December 2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/john-krasinski-created-quiet-place-180970716/.
Flaherty, Keely. “Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the Monsters in ‘A Quiet Place’.” BuzzFeed. 11 April 2018.
Kincheloe, Pamela J. “’A Quiet Place’ Falls Into a Tired Trope About Deafness.” HuffPost. 16 April 2018. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-kincheloe-quiet-place-deaf-people_n_5ad10645e4b0edca2cb9acc6.
Krasinski, John. “The Making of A Quiet Place”. Empire. 20 April 2018. https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/making-quiet-place-john-krasinski/.
“Millicent Simmonds on Reprising Her ‘A Quiet Place’ Role.” Casting Frontier. 7 June 2021. https://castingfrontier.com/blog/blog-millicent-simmonds-on-reprising-her-quiet-place-role/.
Nichols, Mackenzie. “’A Quiet Place II’ Star Millicent Simmonds on Casting Hearing Actors as Deaf Characters: ‘It’s Not Fair’.” Variety. 28 May 2021. https://variety.com/2021/film/features/quiet-place-2-millicent-simmons-john-krasinski-1234977160/.
“Tom Wholley ‘11 On Creating Monsters for ‘A Quiet Place’.” Gordon College Alumni Stories. 8 December 2021. https://www.gordon.edu/stories/tom-wholley-11-on-creating-monsters-for-a-quiet-place.
Trapunski, Charles. “Interview: A Quiet Place’s Noah Jupe.” 9 July 2018. Brief Take. https://brieftake.com/interview-a-quiet-place-noah-jupe/.
Van Horn, Shawn. “John Krasinski Completely Changed ‘A Quiet Place’ Monsters at the Last Second.” Collider. 29 May 2024. https://collider.com/john-krasinski-a-quiet-place-monsters/.
Waxler, Caroline. “Episode 8: John Krasinski, ‘A Quiet Place’”. On Writing. 7 December 2018. https://www.wgaeast.org/onwriting/john-krasinski-a-quiet-place/.
Wiese, Jason. “Millicent Simmonds: 5 Cool Things to Know About A Quiet Place Part II Actress.” Cinema Blend. 7 June 2021. https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2568520/millicent-simmonds-cool-things-to-know-about-a-quiet-place-part-ii-actress.
 
Chapters
00:00 Intro 06:26 Intro: Distribution & Reception 21:53 Let's Make a Movie: Filmmakers 33:03 Let's Make a Movie: Cast 40:31 Let's Make a Movie: Production 49:56 Vibe Check: Cinematography 56:39 Vibe Check: SFX 1:04:09 Vibe Check: Music & Sound Design 1:12:53 Story Time: Characters 1:31:30 Story Time: Murder & Mayhem 1:52:20 Story Time: Themes 2:08:41 Open Mic 2:22:14 Losing Light