The Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast

The Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast is an umbrella feed, and the recent episodes here all come from one show under it: More Deadly. At the top of each review episode, the show reads its mission aloud and never softens it. More Deadly reviews horror movies directed exclusively by women, and its thesis is that the female of the species is more deadly than the male. The same phrase also serves as the cold open, repeated line after line. The show is just as plain about who it includes. It calls itself trans-inclusive, celebrating the work of cis and trans women along with non-binary filmmakers who are comfortable in a space that centres women's work. The recent review titles show how wide the picks run, with ‘D.O.A.’ (1988) next to ‘Sweetness’, ‘The Bride’ and ‘Pretty Lethal’. A second strand, More Deadly: The Director’s Cut, swaps the review for conversation with women-identified directors. Guests named in those titles include Grace Glowicki of ‘Dead Lover’, and Donna Davies and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas of ‘1000 Women in Horror’. In one cold open the pair wonder whether they count as women in horror themselves, and settle on somewhere out on the edges, since they don't make anything. Rachel introduces herself as co-host, and in these episodes she is the one who brings Ariel in. The introductions are a small ritual of their own. In the ‘Pretty Lethal’ teaser Ariel is a prima ballerina, for ‘Sweetness’ she is the sweetest of the sweets and a precious little candy corn, and in The Director’s Cut she is a number one woman in horror. When the ‘D.O.A.’ introduction comes up empty, the save is an off-the-cuff 'alive on arrival'. After that the conversation wanders freely, to dog-sitting, to cutting back to two cups of coffee, and to an admitted lack of rhythm. Horror memories run through all of it. The teaser for ‘The Bride’ becomes a round of favourite Frankensteins: a soft spot for the camp of Bride of Frankenstein, affection for James Whale, Boris Karloff as the face that comes to mind first, Penny Dreadful's version, and Tom Noonan in Monster Squad. Another conversation describes full-body chills at a live stage version of Paranormal Activity, with a theory that the collective gasp of a room works a bit like a magic show. One practical note: the entries on this feed are previews. Each one closes by pointing to the full episode on the free More Deadly feed, or ad-free through the Zombie Grrlz Patreon, whose patrons also have a Discord.