Faculty of Horror · Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West

Episode 143. Rage: Apt Pupil (1998) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

September 27, 2025·1 hr 31 min·5 clips

Stephen King’s line about Todd’s “American self-confidence” links Apt Pupil to U.S. history and denial.

1. Faculty of Horror Episode 143 centers on Apt Pupil and We Need to Talk About Kevin as horror texts about masculinity, patriarchy, and school. 2. Alex West and Andrea Subasati host the episode, and their perspective matters because they connect horror analysis to feminism, online backlash, and classroom learning. 3. The episode asks what happens when boys are taught violence, entitlement, and power through schools, media, and family culture. 4. The hosts name Richard V. Reeves’s 2022 book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters and What to Do About It. 5. They cite a profile on Reeves and quote his line that “women’s lives have been recast and men’s lives have not.” 6. They also mention the gender gap in bachelor’s degrees since 1972 and note that men make less money, adjusted for inflation, than they did in the 1980s. 7. Alex references Charlie Kirk saying that a man in this country who does not vote for Donald Trump is “not a man.” 8. Andrea responds to the pressure men face around approaching women after #MeToo and argues that some fear is warranted in vulnerable spaces like gyms and streets. 9. The conversation returns to Apt Pupil, with Todd Bowden blackmailing Kurt Dusander for detailed stories about wartime atrocities. 10. They compare the 1998 film with Stephen King’s novella, noting that the novella is set in 1974 and gives Todd a longer, more overtly violent trajectory. 11. Alex says the novella’s ending is “the scariest thing I’ve ever read,” while Andrea says the film’s ending felt weaker to her than the book’s ending. 12. They discuss Bryan Singer’s alleged conduct on set and the unsettling context of a film about corruption made by a director facing serious allegations involving young men. 13. The hosts talk through a locker-room scene, Todd’s false sexual-assault accusation against Mr. French, and the way the film weaponizes fear around accusation. 14. Alex and Andrea compare the pigeon-and-basketball scene in the film with the cat scene in the story, reading both as images of casual cruelty and power. 15. They also discuss the sexual and queer undertones in Todd’s fixation on violence and secrecy, especially in the novella. 16. A long section links Apt Pupil to American history, including Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Korea, Vietnam, Indigenous genocide, and the New Yorker article “How American Racism Influenced Hitler.” 17. The hosts work in a lot of jokes, profanity, and back-and-forth interruptions, which makes the episode sound loose rather than lecture-like. 18. Their style shifts between personal anecdote, close reading, and political commentary, with frequent side comments about schools, censorship, and current events. 19. Best for listeners who want horror analysis tied to masculinity and history. 20. Skip if you want light film chat without politics or pedagogy.

As heard by us

A careful, uneasy episode about school, memory, and the politics that gather around both.

Faculty of Horror treats school, learning, and young men in public space as a starting point, then keeps turning back to the ethics of teaching the Holocaust, classroom memory, present-day anti-Semitism, and the strain around Israel and Palestine.

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Why you'd press play

If you want horror criticism that moves from classroom memory to Holocaust-teaching ethics, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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