Today’s episode dives into the films that don’t just scare us. They diagnose us. From Hitchcock’s Vertigo to Neil Marshall’s The Descent, from the camp of Arachnophobia to the existential dread of Faces of Death, we’re tracing how horror cinema has weaponized phobias across decades. These aren’t monsters lurking in shadows. They’re fears named, classified, and given cinematic form: arachnophobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, atelophobia, thanatophobia, and more. By turning pathological fear into narrative, filmmakers force us to confront how phobias reshape identity, perception, and survival. What happens when fear isn’t an intruder, but a way of life?

FILMS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Vertigo (1958), Arachnophobia (1990), The Descent (2005), The Woman in the Window (2021), 12 Feet Deep (2017), Atelophobia (2015), Stephen King's IT (1990), IT (2017), IT Chapter 2 (2019), Faces of Death (1978), Faces of Death II (1981), Faces of Death III (1985), Faces of Death IV (1990), Phobias (2021)

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Music:

Twisting, Half Mystery, Exit The Premises

By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/