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In this episode of Drawn to Darkness, we dive into Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a genre-bending vampire period drama set in 1930s Jim Crow Mississippi. Joined by special guest Makeda Pennycooke, life and anti-racism coach, we unpack a film that is as gorgeous as it is unsettling, layering horror, history, and music. We break down vampire lore, our favorite characters, standout performances (Michael B. Jordan playing twins), the transcendent musical moments, and the symbolism woven throughout, from religion and ancestral knowledge to systems of white supremacy, power, and assimilation.

Content & Spoiler Warning

This episode contains full spoilers for Sinners and our discussion includes reference to violence, gore, and body horror (it’s a vampire movie). Some of the deeper horrors include racism, white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, and child loss. There’s also a snake that gets killed and drool. Really really gross drool.

Palate Cleanser

After all that intensity, Caroline and Makeda’s cure? TikTok’s National Parks content (also dubbed “Only Parks”)

Passages with Amanda Jacobson from Wine & Crime (Twilight season recap)

Recommendations

Films & TV:

• Eight Mile for more from Omar Miller (Cornbread).
• Friday Night Lights and The Wire for early Michael B. Jordan and Raising Dion - lighter Michael B. Jordan content for the kids.
• What We Do in the Shadows - always WWDITS
• Blade, Interview with the Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), Let the Right One In, Abigail, Dracula, Midnight Mass for more vampire picks
• The Haunting of Hill House, Fall of the House of Usher for layered horror storytelling with a director who likes actors and sticks with them.
• Get Out for themes of appropriation and identity.
• Lovecraft Country for horror grounded in racial history.
• Across the Spider-Verse for Hailee Steinfeld fans

Books & Reading:

• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
• A History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• A Discovery of Witches (book series) by Deborah Harkness
• Ted Chiang’s Story of your Life and Others for the melding of time.

Podcasts & Other:

• Reel Conversations with Britt and Bree for black women’s perspectives on Sinners
• The Next Best Picture Podcast Sinners episode for lots of background info.
• Horror Joy podcast episode on Sinners and The Reformatory
• Time Bandits for questioning who writes history

Documentary/True Crime:

• Lost Women of Alaska - produced by Octavia Spencer

Homework:

Goodfellas - a lighter pick with a Chicago Mafia connection

And Start reading The Devil in the White City - another Chicago-based story blending crime and history

And remember, if someone asks to be invited in, say no!

We’ll see you next time—only on Drawn to Darkness.

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for our cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for our music (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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Welcome back to Drawn to Darkness. This week, we are joined by special guest Gillian Pensavalle from True Crime Obsessed to discuss West of Memphis (2012), Amy Berg’s documentary that revisits the case of the West Memphis Three. In 1993, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were murdered and with little evidence and rising panic about satanic rituals, police quickly focused on three local teenagers: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelley. Despite inconsistent confessions, lack of physical evidence, and alibis, all three were convicted, and Echols was sentenced to death. West of Memphis follows the nearly 20-year fight to free and exonerate them. Meanwhile, the real perpetrator remains unidentified.

We unpack wrongful convictions, moral panic, police misconduct, what Damien is like in real life, and the long, exhausting fight for justice. We explore how three teenagers were targeted as “weird kids,” how fear of satanism shaped a narrative with no evidence, and why decades later they may be free from prison, but still aren’t exonerated.

Spoiler + Content Warning

This episode and the documentary include discussion and imagery of the murder of children, child abuse, castration, false confessions, prison abuse, solitary confinement, systemic injustice, wrongful convictions, and satanic panic. We also spoil the documentary.

Palate Cleanser

• True Crime Obsessed – if you like a laugh along with your true crime.
• Spending time with family (as simple as ice cream or Del’s Lemonade)

Recommendations

• Bob Ruff’s Truth & Justice podcast (Season 5)
• Mara Leveritt’s Devil’s Knot (deep dive into courtroom details)
• Wrongful Conviction podcast (featuring interviews with Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin)
• Satan Wants You (documentary about Satanic Panic)
• Sarah Marshall’s podcast You’re Wrong About + The Devil You Know
• Stranger Things (Eddie Munson inspired by Damien Echols)
• Mindhunter (John Douglas appears in the case)
• The Crucible (mass hysteria and scapegoating)
• Stand By Me, The Goonies, It (kids, innocence, and loss)
• The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell for a Medical Examiner who knows what she’s doing.
• The Hurricane with Denzel Washington for more wrongful convictions
• The Craft and The Perks of Being a Wallflower - for the “weird” kids
• Lord of the Rings and listen to Pearl Jam (support the celebrities who championed the West Memphis 3)
• Damien Echols’ books, podcast, and Patreon

Homework

Next episode, we’ll discuss Sinners before shifting gears slightly with:

• Goodfellas
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (it’s a book, so start now!)

And remember, always insist on a lawyer!

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for our cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for our music (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this bonus “Chatroom” episode of Drawn To Darkness, I (Annie) chat with horror author Josiah Furcinitti to discuss his chilling short story Bedguard, featured in the anthology Lies Beyond, a horror anthology exploring death, fear, and the unknown. In Bedguard, Anna is at first only worried about the growing distance between herself and her husband David. But when he starts suffering from terrifying nightmares, seeing mysterious scratches on his body, and falling violently out of bed, Anna realises too late that something unspeakable is targeting them.

Listen to me read Bedguard, then stick around for our conversation on horror tropes (something under the bed, creatures that feed on fear, creepy kids, dolls), our horror origin stories, deeper fears, and our some of our favourite books and movies.

We also discuss the ambiguity of storytelling and what happens to a story when it’s released into the world, and the relationship between anxiety and horror consumption.

Meanwhile, we gush over the media that scared and shaped us, including Revival, It, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, Pet Semetary and Carrie by Stephen King, as well as The X-Files, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Midsommar, Sinners, Candyman, and Peter Jackson’s King Kong. But it’s not all horror. Josiah also loves Parks and Rec.

Where you can find Lies Beyond:

You can find Lies Beyond on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IngramSpark. Follow Josiah on Instagram on @authorjosiahfurcinitti.

Homework for Next Episode

Watch: West of Memphis

Our next episode will feature Gillian Pensavalle from True Crime Obsessed and The Hamilcast to discuss the West Memphis Three, and the ongoing fight for their full exoneration.

Then, back to horror with Sinners, featuring Choctaw vampire hunters and 16 Academy Award nominations!

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for our cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for our music (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this episode, we discuss the National Geographic documentary Sugarcane, which investigates the legacy of St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in Canada. Prompted by the discovery of unmarked graves at former school sites, the film follows members of the Williams Lake First Nation, including Julian Brave Noisecat and his father Ed, as they search for truth about what happened to children forced to attend the school. Through survivor testimony, archival material, and difficult conversations within families and communities, the documentary reveals the profound and ongoing consequences of the residential school system, where Indigenous children were separated from their families in an attempt to erase their culture. While Sugarcane does not shy away from the horrors of the system, including abuse, missing children, and institutional cover-ups, it also highlights resilience, cultural reclamation, and the long process of healing and accountability within Indigenous communities.

Content & Spoiler Warning:

Child sexual abuse, institutional abuse, infanticide, unmarked graves, suicide, cultural erasure, genocide, and systemic racism connected to the residential school system in Canada. We also spoil Sugarcane.

Palate Cleanser

Need something a little lighter?

• Heated Rivalry – surprisingly moving hockey romance Sugarcane transcript
• The Office - or introduce your favourite old sitcom to your kids.

Recommendations:

Podcasts:

• Surviving St. Michael’s (Connie Walker) – Deep investigation into abuse at another residential school.
• Finding Cleo (also Connie Walker) -Explores ripple effects of residential schools through the story of one family.
• Behind the Bastards – Canada’s Darkest Secret: Residential Schools (2020 episode)
• Historica podcast - Residential Schools

Television & Film

• Reservation Dogs – funny and heartwarming series about Indigenous teenagers
• The Lost Women of Highway 20 – Explores cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
• The Last Ice – A National Geographic documentary about Inuit communities and environmental change.
• Newsies for shining a light on people who are being abused
• Rabbit-Proof Fence – about Australia’s Stolen Generations, another example of forced child removal.
• The Sapphires – A lighter film about an Indigenous singing group touring Vietnam during the war.
• Spotlight and The Keepers – More investigations into abuse by the Catholic Church.
• 1923 (Yellowstone spinoff) – Includes a storyline about a young Indigenous woman at a residential school.

Books

• The Only Good Indians and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter – Horror novels by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Broken Girls – A paranormal boarding-school mystery by Simone St. James.
• We Survive the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCat – A blend of memoir, Indigenous history, and storytelling.

Homework for Next Episode

Watch: West of Memphis

Our next episode will feature our first guest, Gillian Pensavalle from True Crime Obsessed and The Hamilcast to discuss the West Memphis Three, and the ongoing fight for their full exoneration.

Then, back to horror with Sinners, featuring Choctaw vampire hunters and 16 Academy Award nominations!

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for our cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for our music (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this episode, we descend into Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2020 bestselling novel set in 1950s Mexico. When glamorous socialite Noemí Taboada receives a disturbing letter from her cousin Catalina, who claims she’s being poisoned in her new husband’s remote mountain mansion, she travels to High Place to investigate. There she finds a crumbling English manor transplanted into the Mexican countryside, steeped in decay, silence, and red flags. Catalina is wasting away under the watchful eye of her sinister husband Virgil, his ancient patriarch Howard, and the sanctimonious housekeeper Florence. The house reeks of rot, the wallpaper pulses, and mushrooms bloom in the foggy graveyard. Mexican Gothic explores inherited trauma, the stain of colonialism, eugenics, and the horror of being reduced to a vessel. We discuss gothic tropes, gaslighting, fetishisation, how we feel about dream sequences and complicity v. victimhood.

Content & Spoiler Warning:

This novel and our episode includes discussion of sexual assault, incest, coercion, eugenics, racism, fetishisation of women of colour, colonial exploitation, gaslighting, medical abuse, cannibalism, body horror (including bile and vomiting), disturbing dream sequences, and reproductive coercion. We also fully spoil Mexican Gothic.

Palate Cleansers

After all that bile, we recommend:

• The new Muppet Show (Disney+) - joyful chaos, nostalgia, and Seth Rogen involvement.
• Encanto – also explores intergenerational trauma and a characters repeats, “Open your eyes.”

Recommendations

• Talking Scared - Interview with Silvia Moreno Garcia (the novels include Certain Dark Things & The Bewitching)
• The Yellow Wallpaper (episode 15) - a big inspiration
• Rebecca - all the gothic tropes
• Rosemary’s Baby - for gaslighting, reproductive horror
• The Shining - isolation and atmosphere of dread
• The Others – sheets over furniture in unused rooms
• The Skeleton Key - no spoilers, just watch it
• Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough – quite a twist
• Venom, Stranger Things, The Last of Us, The Girl with All the Gifts, What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher – fungal and hive mind horror
• Midnight Mass - corrupted communion ritual
• Get Out - fetishisation & bodily appropriation
• The Portrait of Dorian Gray - immortality and decay
• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter- gothic fairytale retellings
• Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre – gothic classics
• Ghostbusters - When someone asks if you’re a god, you say yes.”
• The Crow - “It can’t rain all the time.”
• The Fall of the House of Usher - a creepy crypt
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow &Old Gods of Appalachia (podcast) - mining horror
• Always Mean Girls, Blue, Andor, and Arrested Development

Homework”

Watch: Sugarcane (National Geographic documentary, available on Disney+)

We’ll be examining residential schools, colonisation, cultural erasure, and the lingering trauma of eugenic ideology, continuing our discussion of how history haunts the present.

Until next time: clean your black mould, trust your red flags, and when someone warns you to leave while you still can… take the hint and GTFO.

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for our cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for our music (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this episode of Drawn to Darkness, we pivot back to true crime with Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story, a three-part docuseries about the kidnapping of Steven Stayner and the traumatic ripple effect. We’ll discuss Steven’s story, how he was abducted at age seven while walking home from school and held captive for seven years by Kenneth Parnell. What makes the story even more unsettling is how “normal” his life appeared from the outside. Steven attended school, played sport, and yet could not free himself from his abuser until Parnell kidnapped five-year-old Timmy White. Refusing to let another boy endure what he survived. Steven heroically escaped, saving Timmy and himself. We discuss the psychological barriers that kept him from escaping sooner, the media’s obsession with a “happy ending” and its impact on Steven’s recovery, and the tragic fatal motorcycle accident that ended Steven’s life. Just when you think the story must be over, the Stayner curse delivers one more twist: Steven’s older brother Cary becomes the Yosemite Killer, turning this into a story not only about captivity, but about generational trauma and murder.

Content & Spoiler Warning:

This episode includes discussion of child abduction, pedophilia and child sexual assault, intergenerational trauma, serial murder, and a fatal motorcycle accident. We also spoil Captive Audience and the made-for-TV miniseries I Know My First Name Is Steven.

Palate Cleanser:

After something this bleak, we recommend something more fun: Derry Girls, Caroline’s comfort-watch of choice, Heated Rivalry, and The Mummy, because Evie and Rick are adorable.

Recommendations:

Adolescence - mandatory viewing if you’re raising a boy

Wild Crime -another national park–focused docuseries

Park Predators -for more on crime in wilderness spaces

Murdoch Murders: A Southern Scandal - another cursed-family true crime saga

Six Schizophrenic Brothers - a different kind of family horror

Bloodline and The Perfect Couple - fictional family darkness

My Favorite Murder Episode 30 - their early coverage of this case

Media Pressure (Julie Murray’s podcast) -on family tragedy and public obsession

I Know My First Name Is Steven — the original 1989 miniseries that shaped the family’s story

Untamed with Eric Bana for a Yosemite murder mystery. Also Free Solo and The Dawn Wall for that stunning Yosemite setting.

Stephen King’s The Dead Zone because Parnell is giving Greg Stillson as a Bible salesman.

The 1990s The Stand mini-series, with Corin Nemec as Harold

All Around The Town by Mary Higgins Clark

Weapons because of a scary gas station scene and a child keeping a secret at school

California True Crime, Timesuck, Casefile, and Last Podcast on the Left if you want to know more about these crimes.

Homework:

Next episode, we continue our run of cursed families, but through gothic fiction rather than documentary. Read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for the podcast cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for the opening and closing score (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this episode, we dive into Trainwreck: Poop Cruise, Netflix’s lowbrow, sensational documentary about the 2013 Carnival Triumph disaster, when an engine room fire left more than 4,200 passengers and crew stranded in the Gulf of Mexico with no power, no air conditioning, no refrigeration, and, most importantly, no functioning toilets.

We begin with discussion about losing power during floods, blizzards, hurricanes, and honeymoons gone wrong, but end up discussing human behaviour under extreme stress. As we discuss the "characters", we unpack how quickly civility can erode when basic systems fail, why some people balk at the the red biohazard bags, and how entitlement, privilege, and desperation collide in confined spaces.

We also discuss the heroism and exploitation of cruise ship staff, the cruise industry’s fine print and lack of accountability, the shift from news to spectacle in media coverage, and how this situation never quite tips into Lord of the Flies, but comes disturbingly close. Along the way, we link Poop Cruise to other maritime disasters, cruise ship disappearances, and the deeper horrors lurking beneath the glossy promise of “all-inclusive” leisure.

Content & Spoiler Warning:

Bodily waste, unsanitary conditions, vomiting, public urination, extreme hangovers, fire at sea, societal breakdown, hoarding, cruise ship disasters, corporate negligence, environmental harm, assault risks, disappearances, and capitalism behaving exactly as expected. We also spoil Trainwreck: Poop Cruise and briefly discuss Amy Bradley Is Missing.

Palate Cleanser:

• TikTok trends including a man attempting (and failing) to learn how to Dougie
• Museums pairing classical art with modern film and TV audio
• People doing owl impressions in regional accents (including Moira Rose as an owl)

Recommendations:

• Wine & Crime – “Cruise Ship Disappearances” (Episode 7) for an unsettling overview of nightmares at sea
• Other episodes of Netflix’s Trainwreck, especially Astroworld, Balloon Boy, and Mayor of Mayhem
• Amy Bradley Is Missing (Netflix) – watch with a critical eye
• Titanic and the Titanic: Ship of Dreams podcast for deep dives into hubris at sea
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
• Yellowjackets, FantasticLand, The Platform, Under the Dome, The Mist, and The Shining for enclosed-space psychological breakdowns
• Better Call Saul for class-action lawsuits and legal cynicism
• Sudden Storm, about the Galveston hurricane
• The 30 Rock episode “Double-Edged Sword” for plane-based claustrophobic comedy
• And, always, Andor

Homework:

Next episode, we pivot back into true crime cursed family, with Captive Audience: The Abduction of Steven Stayner, examining his kidnapping and the devastating ripple effects on his family.

Coming up soon:
Start reading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for the podcast cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for the opening and closing score (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).

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In this episode, we tackle Hereditary, Ari Aster’s devastating 2018 debut and one of the films most often credited with launching a new era of “elevated horror.” After the death of her estranged mother, miniature artist Annie Graham struggles to process her complicated grief. When her daughter Charlie dies in a shocking accident, the family fractures under the weight of blame, guilt, and unbearable loss. What begins as a family drama about grief, resentment, and inheritance curdles into something far darker as supernatural events occur and Annie Graham and her family discover that their suffering may have been orchestrated long before the story even begins.

We unpack the film as both a supernatural horror and a deeply human tragedy about motherhood, blame, intergenerational trauma, and the corrosive effects of grief. We discuss Annie’s ambivalence toward motherhood, Peter’s unbearable guilt and trauma, Charlie’s unsettling presence, and the way Ari Aster traps his characters inside a dollhouse world where something is playing with them. Along the way, we explore fate versus agency, cult manipulation, spiritualism and grief exploitation, and why this film hurts as much (or more?) than it scares.

Content & Spoiler Warning:

This episode includes discussion of child death, grief, suicide and suicidal ideation, self-harm, decapitation, anaphylaxis, possession, cults, toxic parent–child relationships, intergenerational trauma, mental illness, body horror, animal death (a dog, shown after the fact), disturbing sound design (including tongue clicking and wet mouth noises), and graphic emotional distress. Also, as usual, we fully spoil Hereditary. Close your eyes around 33 and half minutes. Listener and viewer discretion is advised.

Here’s a link if you want to know more: https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3535054/hereditary-hidden-clues/

Palate Cleanser:

• Heated Rivalry (HBO) - Caroline is obsessed!
• Watching TikToks of people reacting to shows they love

Recommendations:

If Hereditary got under your skin, you might want to explore:

• Other Ari Aster films, especially Midsommar (grief, cults)
• The Sixth Sense (and our Episode 12) for another Toni Collette performance as a mom dealing with the supernatural.
• Rosemary’s Baby which is clearly an inspiration
• The Babadook — motherhood, grief, and a difficult child
• Pet Sematary (book) — Stephen King’s bleakest exploration of parental grief
• The Shining for slow-burn dread
• The Haunting of Hill House for more family trauma wrapped in horror
• Unobscured (Season 2) by Aaron Mahnke, for historical context on spiritualism
• Sleepwalk With Me by Mike Birbiglia, for a funnier take on sleepwalking
• United States of Tara, for more Toni Collette navigating fractured identity
• The Yellow Wallpaper (see our earlier episode), for women, madness, and being trapped inside domestic spaces

Homework for Next Episode:

Watch: Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story

We pivot back to true crime with the story of the Stayner family, another exploration of family trauma, captivity, and the long-term consequences of violence.

But before that watch:
Trainwreck: Poop Cruise (yes, really), followed by reading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for the podcast cover art (Instagram: @nancyazano) and Harry Kidd for the opening and closing score (Instagram: @harryjkidd, Spotify).