Sitting in the Dark

Ultra-Low-Budget Horror: The Battery, Starry Eyes & Hellbender

What does it actually take to make a horror film that matters? Not a studio green light. Not a VFX budget. Not a catering line.This month, Chelsea Stardust curates three films that answer that question on their own uncompromising terms. Jeremy Gardner's The Battery strips the zombie apocalypse down to two former baseball players, a Discman, and a friendship slowly coming apart at the seams. Starry Eyes follows a young actress as the machinery of Hollywood ambition grinds her into something unrecognizable — and possibly exactly what she always wanted to be. And Hellbender, made by a real family in their real backyard, turns the mother-daughter relationship into a folk horror inheritance no one asked for and no one can refuse.Together, these three films share a preoccupation with death and rebirth — not as plot mechanics, but as the thing transformation actually costs. Chelsea, Pete, Kynan, and Tommy dig into what it means to make something from almost nothing, and why the best low-budget horror isn't resourceful so much as honest.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:The Battery - Apple TV | Amazon Starry Eyes - Apple TV Hellbender - Apple TV | AmazonView Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(03:34) - The Battery(28:49) - Starry Eyes(50:01) - Hellbender(01:09:23) - Coming AttractionsSupport The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

BIG MONSTERS

This month on Sitting in the Dark, we go big: big monsters, big fear, and big systems that respond to catastrophe with the confidence of a guy who just Googled “what is monster” on his way into the meeting. Kynan, Chelsea Stardust, Tommy Metz III, and Pete Wright take on three modern giant-creature films—Bong Joon-ho’s The Host (2006), André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter (2010), and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One (in its Minus Color presentation)—and find a weirdly consistent thread across wildly different cultures: when the giant thing shows up, the institutions mostly don’t.The Host kicks things off with tonal whiplash as a feature, not a bug. The film’s mix of grief, comedy, and political bite becomes its own kind of monster, and the conversation circles what Bong is really lampooning, what still lands, and what hits differently on a rewatch. The creature design gets its due too—full daylight, hard to pin down, impossible to “know”—but what lingers is the movie’s sense that people become collateral long before anything with teeth arrives.Troll Hunter shifts the vibe without letting you off the hook. The group gets into the found-footage push-pull—shaky cam, “why are you still filming,” all that—then pretty quickly agrees that Hans, the deadpan troll hunter, is the secret weapon. The film’s charm is how seriously it takes the ridiculous premise: folklore becomes logistics, mythology becomes fieldwork, and the jokes don’t erase the danger. It’s one of those movies that makes you laugh… then reminds you you’d die immediately.Godzilla Minus One brings it home with a version of Godzilla that’s less “spectacle” and more “reckoning.” The group talks about the postwar setting, the human story at the center, why the black-and-white presentation changes the feel of the effects, and how this movie earns its impact through quiet scenes as much as destruction.Across all three films, the episode keeps returning to the same uncomfortable idea: these are blue-collar fights. The people who do anything meaningful aren’t the polished experts. They’re ordinary, exhausted, under-resourced, and improvising. Which might be the scariest part.Next month, Chelsea flips the table for her birthday picks with an ultra low-budget lineup: The Battery (2012), Hellbender (2021), and Starry Eyes (2014).🎬 Featured Films🍿 Tonight's Triple Feature:The Host - Apple TV | Amazon Trollhunter - Apple TV | Amazon Godzilla Minus One - Apple TV | Amazon📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(05:21) - The Host(28:30) - Trollhunter(50:28) - Godzilla Minus One(01:21:27) - Coming AttractionsSupport The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

Overstayed

You know that moment when the room doesn’t change, exactly… but you do? A joke lands a little sideways, a silence settles in, and your brain starts doing that ridiculous math where staying feels safer than leaving—even when every part of you is quietly screaming, “Go.” That’s the engine of this month’s Sitting in the Dark, as Pete Wright sits down with Tommy Metz III, Chelsea Stardust, and Kynan Dias to unpack “Overstayed”: three films built around the fear of the open door you don’t walk through.They start with Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, a dinner party that weaponizes politeness, history, and that stubborn desire to not be the first person to say what everyone’s thinking. From there, they pivot to David Bruckner’s The Night House, where the trap isn’t social pressure—it’s grief, isolation, and a house that seems to rearrange itself into meaning when you’re not looking. And then there’s Damien McCarthy’s Caveat, a movie that takes the idea of being “stuck” and makes it aggressively literal, daring you to decide whether you’re watching realism… or a fable with teeth.Along the way, the conversation keeps circling one question: what is it in us that wants answers more than safety? It’s a theme that feels uncomfortably familiar—and the kind of horror that lingers because it doesn’t ask what you’d do in a haunted house. It asks what you’d do at a party, in a marriage, in a moment where the cost of being wrong feels higher than the cost of staying.Featured FilmsTonight's Triple Feature:1 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd2 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd3 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(02:15) - The Concept(03:09) - The Invitation(29:23) - The Night House(48:49) - Caveat(01:07:49) - Coming AttractionsSupport The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Shows:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next ReelSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Chelsea | Kyle | Kynan | Pete | Tommy Shop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Audible

All Smiles

This month, Sitting in the Dark smiles politely, locks the door, and then asks you to reconsider every coping mechanism you’ve ever trusted. Tommy Metz III is joined by filmmaker Chelsea Stardust and Pete Wright to excavate the uneasy trilogy formed by Smile, Smile 2, and the short-film patient zero, Laura Hasn’t Slept, all courtesy of writer-director Parker Finn—a man who looked at the concept of healing and said, “Yes, but what if absolutely not.”The conversation begins with Laura Hasn’t Slept, a short film so assured it feels like a résumé quietly slid across the table while maintaining unsettling eye contact. Therapy, dreams, and sleep deprivation collide in a space that should feel safe and instead feels like a trapdoor with a co-pay. The group wrestles with the idea that this story may not be a beginning at all, but a closed loop—what it looks like once the monster has already moved in and started redecorating.From there, the episode moves into Smile, a film that takes the metaphor of trauma and strips away subtlety. It’s tired of pretending this is going to end well. Broken promises pile up. Authority figures fail spectacularly. “Safe space” becomes an ironic term at best. The panel digs into the film’s clinical color palette, its fixation on mirrors, and its unrelenting thesis: awareness is not protection, healing is not guaranteed, and sometimes the best you can do is not make things worse for the next person.Then Smile 2 kicks the door off its hinges. By shifting the curse to a global pop star, the sequel swaps quiet dread for public spectacle without sacrificing cruelty. Addiction, celebrity, parasocial obsession, and relentless visibility all become accelerants, pushing the franchise into its most confident—and most punishing—form. Naomi Scott’s Skye Riley is surrounded by people at all times and still utterly alone, a neat trick the film performs while tightening the noose.Across all three entries, the episode circles the same bleak conclusion: these movies aren’t interested in defeating trauma. They’re interested in how efficiently it spreads, how convincingly it blends in, and how easily it convinces you that you’re doing just fine. Smile for the camera.🎬 Featured Films🍿 Tonight's Triple Feature:Laura Hasn’t Slept - Daily Motion | LetterboxdSmile - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdSmile 2 - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(01:31) - All Smiles(04:43) - Laura Hasn't Slept(12:21) - Looking Out the Window(14:17) - SMILE 1(26:37) - Smile 1(27:09) - Smile 2(27:55) - Smile 3(28:15) - Smile 4(28:29) - Smile 5(28:51) - Smile 6(29:03) - Smile 7(41:43) - SMILE 2(51:43) - Smile 8(52:13) - Smile 10(52:33) - Smile 11(58:29) - HS 1(58:47) - HS 2(59:15) - Smile Necklace(59:51) - Smile Mug(01:00:47) - Smile 12(01:01:25) - Smile 13Support The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible

Night of the...

The 1980s were a golden age of VHS horror excess — when night was the time to party, die, or both. This month, Chelsea Stardust takes the hosting reins and brings us a triple feature of midnight mayhem: Night of the Comet (1984), Night of the Creeps (1986), and Night of the Demons (1988). What begins with a Christmas-morning apocalypse of Valley Girls and zombies spirals into brain-slug infestations and ends in a demon-filled funeral-parlor rave that only the most caffeinated teenagers could survive.Pete, Kynan, Tommy, and Chelsea pull each film apart like a possessed VCR — celebrating Comet’s pastel apocalypse and genuinely progressive sister-heroes, Creeps’ mix of alien parasites and B-movie heart, and Demons’ glorious, unhinged chaos.  Expect debates over whether these movies actually knew they were camp, why 1980s “fun horror” felt lighter even when dripping in blood, and how mall culture, frat parties, and Halloween nights all became stages for teenage empowerment and bad decisions.They also crown the best survivor of the trilogy (spoiler: justice for Roger!), nominate the worst audio mix in horror history, and reveal which lipstick trick broke Pete’s brain.  Plus, Tommy announces next month’s pick — the Smile franchise, beginning with the short Laura Hasn’t Slept — proving that even in 2025, we’re still chasing trauma through the dark with a flashlight and a laugh.🎬 Featured Films🍿 Tonight's Triple Feature:Night of the Comet - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdNight of the Creeps - Apple TV | Amazon | LetterboxdNight of the Demons - Apple TV | Amazon | Letterboxd📋 View Our List on Letterboxd(00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark(00:43) - Night of the 80s(03:05) - Night of the Comet(24:19) - Night of the Creeps(39:45) - Night of the Demons(01:00:58) - Coming AttractionsSupport The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Become a member for just $5/month or $55/yearJoin our Discord community of movie loversThe Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts:Cinema Scope: Bridging Genres, Subgenres, and MovementsThe Film BoardMovies We LikeThe Next Reel Film PodcastSitting in the DarkConnect With Us:Main Site: WebMovie Platforms: Letterboxd | FlickchartSocial Media: Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | YouTube | PinterestYour Hosts: Kyle | Kynan | Pete | TommyShop & Stream:Merch Store: Apparel, stickers, mugs & moreWatch Page: Buy/rent films we've discussedOriginals: Source material from our episodesSpecial offers: Letterboxd Pro/Patron discount | Audible