Grave Tone: Horror Podcast

Our Beware Boiúna review is here, and this giant snake movie does not care who it eats. Spoiler-free first, full spoilers after Gary's warning.Meaghan and Arthur review Beware Boiúna, the new creature feature from director Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn, Silent Night, Deadly Night), shot on location in the Amazon rainforest near Leticia, Colombia. A team of doctors on a medical mission heads upriver, an illegal gold mining operation is tearing up the jungle, and the Boiúna (the colossal river serpent of Amazonian folklore) wants every last one of them gone.Beware Boiúna Review: Spoiler-Free First ImpressionsMike P. Nelson's Amazon creature feature was shot on location near Leticia, Colombia, and it shows: sweaty, gritty and fully immersive.A stacked cast: Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Kiana Madeira (Fear Street trilogy), Logan Marshall-Green (Upgrade), plus Juan Pablo Shuk, Will Close and Jackson Bews.Meaghan's tagline keeps it simple: stay out of the jungle.The Boiúna: Amazonian Folklore Meets Giant Snake HorrorThe Boiúna is the giant river serpent of Amazonian folklore, here roughly titanoboa-sized and grounded in that legend.An illegal gold mining operation sets the stakes, and the snake plays more like nature restoring balance than a monster looking for lunch.Real-world context: Indigenous communities are confronting illegal miners destroying the rainforest.Practical Effects, Stunts and a Brutal Location ShootThe snake is digital, but the explosions, the collapsing structures, and a character getting flung into the air were done for real.From our interview: a flash flood wiped out a set and forced a reshoot that Mike P. Nelson now prefers.Huge credit to the stunt team, and to Kiana Madeira for that mud pit.Why This Giant Snake Movie Beats the Creature Feature StigmaNot silly snake fodder in the Anaconda mold; we're measuring it against Jaws and Jurassic Park.The snake hunts in the water, in the jungle, and in a machinery yard, by day and at night. No safe rock like in The Devil's Mouth.A midway twist (spoiler section) flips the movie in a direction we did not expect.Scare Factor and Final ScoresScare factor: Fun and Wild. Scare level: Solid Scares.Meaghan gives it 7.5 digs; Arthur gives it 8.Best seen in a theater with friends on a weekend.Mike P. Nelson's Next Move: SawMike P. Nelson is directing the next Saw film after reviving Wrong Turn and Silent Night, Deadly Night.Coming up on Grave Tone: Whalefall (October 16) and more Shudder drops. Follow us & Subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Beware Boiúna director Mike P. Nelson is back on Grave Tone, and this time he brought stories from the Amazon. Floods, a jungle blessing, a poison dart frog on set, and a giant snake that does not care who you are.We sat down with Mike P. Nelson ahead of Beware Boiúna hitting theatres October 2 to talk about how this giant snake movie actually got made. He almost turned it down (giant snake movies come with baggage, and he knew it). What changed his mind was finding the link between Titanoboa, the real prehistoric snake discovered in Colombia, and the Boiúna of Amazonian folklore. Add a structure borrowed from William Friedkin's Sorcerer and a lot of respect for how Alien, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Tremors hold back their monsters, and you get a creature feature built on dread instead of camp.How Beware Boiúna Became a Giant Snake Movie Worth MakingProducers Robert Kulzer and Jeremy Bolt, with Tony Giglio, wanted a giant snake story. Mike P. Nelson almost passed because of the stigma the subgenre carries.What won him over: tying Titanoboa, the real prehistoric snake found in Colombia, to the Boiúna of Amazonian folklore.Why William Friedkin's Sorcerer was his main comp (one movie at the start, a different movie by the end).Shooting a Horror Movie in the Colombian AmazonAsking permission to film near Leticia, then a blessing ceremony (chicha included) where a healer told Mike to be "the father of your team."Heavy rain floods the location of the opening gold mining siege, so the whole sequence gets shot from the other side.Mike's favorite days: shooting aboard the Hermes, moving down the Amazon River with the cast.A poison dart frog lands on a chair right across from Kiana Madeira. The snake wrangler handled it.Practical Effects Behind the VFX SnakeA stunt performer was yanked 40 feet into the air with foliage blasting out, all in camera.Real TNT brings down the lumber camp structure while the leads run down the ramp.Mike's rule: if there is a VFX snake in the movie, something real has to go along with it.The Cast of Beware BoiúnaKiana Madeira as Lena: soft-spoken between takes, fully switched on in the mud and the viscera.Logan Marshall-Green pushing buttons during the bar scene with Jessica Rothe, then checking in on her after the cut.Why Mike lets his actors play: if a moment surprises him, it will surprise the audience too.Protector or Predator: Boiúna, Folklore and Gold MiningIs Boiúna the jungle's guardian or just a hungry snake? Mike wants you arguing about it after the credits.The opening illegal gold mining siege reflects a real fight Indigenous communities in the Amazon are in right now.The viral poster campaign that fed internet animals like Moo Deng and Jimothy to Boiúna.Monster Matchups and Fill in the BlankBoiúna vs. Shardik from Stephen King's The Dark Tower, a matchup Mike first chewed on with Eric Vespe on The Kingcast.Boiúna vs. the original King Kong (1933), the movie Mike grew up on.Mike's rule for the genre: every creature feature needs a character who doesn't deserve to die. Follow us & Subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The IT 1990 miniseries is the reason Janine of Graeae Horror spent more than a decade unable to look at Tim Curry. She snuck downstairs at six, caught Pennywise taking Georgie through the banister, and the nightmares followed her home from school for years.Childhood Trauma is back, and this might be the most traumatic entry in the series so far (that is saying something). Janine joins Arthur and Meaghan to revisit the 1990 ABC adaptation of Stephen King's IT, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, and to explain how one TV movie turned into a real phobia, a mid-screening exit from Burke & Hare and, eventually, a Pennywise tattoo. We go through the Losers Club casting, from Jonathan Brandis and Emily Perkins to John Ritter, Seth Green, Annette O'Toole and Tim Reid, and we have strong feelings about Bill Denbrough's ponytail (it is not okay).How the IT 1990 Miniseries Created a Real Tim Curry PhobiaJanine was six when she snuck downstairs during the miniseries premiere and caught Pennywise taking Georgie; recurring nightmares of Pennywise waiting outside the local sweet shop lasted for years.The fear spread to everything Tim Curry touched: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legend, Muppet Treasure Island, and a mid-screening exit from Burke & Hare.A forced VHS rewatch in her late teens, IT (2017) in a theatre with a dozen friends, and a Pennywise tattoo later, she is fine. Mostly.Casting the Losers Club: IT 1990 Kids vs AdultsJonathan Brandis carries young Bill Denbrough's grief; Richard Thomas's ponytail does not survive the rewatch.Emily Perkins (Ginger Snaps) and Annette O'Toole (Smallville) give Beverly Marsh the most emotional weight, and the miniseries gives Bev's marriage far more time than IT Chapter Two does.John Ritter is a better Ben Hanscom than we remembered, Seth Green has had the same face since 1990, and Adam Faraizl plays Eddie Kaspbrak as the kid everyone wants to protect.Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid, Marlon Taylor) and Stan Uris (Richard Masur, Ben Heller) still get overlooked, in every version.IT Miniseries vs IT 2017 and IT Chapter TwoThe miniseries jumps between timelines like the book; Andy Muschietti's films split kids and adults, which made the story easier for a new generation to get into.Kicking the spider to death vs. bullying Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise into nothing: two endings, both a little funny.Mike Hanlon's lore is the backbone of IT: Welcome to Derry, and the Black Spot fire makes a lot more sense with that in mind.What the Miniseries Cut from Stephen King's ITNo Ritual of Chüd, no turtle, and very little cosmic mythology (think Terry Pratchett's Discworld, but horror).The spider loses its eggs, and graphic content gets trimmed for ABC network standards.A 30-year time jump instead of the 27-year cycle, plus a ponytail moment that might be a quiet nod to the book scene nobody wants adapted.Practical Effects and Tim Curry's PennywiseThe skeletal hand grabbing Ben in the Barrens, the I Was a Teenage Werewolf transformation, and the exploding library balloons still look great.Tim Curry's accent slipping when the mask drops is one of the scariest choices in the whole adaptation.Henry Bowers and the Cycle of ViolencePennywise shows up every few decades; Henry Bowers is there every day after school.An abusive father, zero outlets, and a monster happy to use him as its Renfield.Check out : Graeae HorrorCheck out her horror movie festival: Shared Sight Film Festival Follow us & Subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Resident Evil 2026 review, and the short version is that Zach Cregger cracked the video game movie. Arthur and Meaghan sat down right after seeing Resident Evil in theatres, and this is one of those episodes where the two of us do not land in the same place at all. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier taking a package up to Raccoon City General Hospital on a night that goes very wrong. That is basically the whole premise, and it works. No Leon, no Jill, no legacy characters, just an everyman with a handgun and a delivery to finish. We get into why going off-script inside the Resident Evil universe might be the smarter move after seven previous films, what the practical creature design actually accomplishes, and whether the humour helps or dilutes the horror.Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Reboot and the Off-Script GambleCregger wrote Resident Evil as an original story with Shay Hatten and dropped it inside the game universe instead of remaking a game. No Leon, no Jill, no legacy roster.Eight films in, we argue a tangential character at the eve of the Raccoon City outbreak beats another straight reboot. That is the question of the episode.Meaghan rewatched the 2002 original before this and still found it badly explained, which is a big part of why this one works for her at all.Cregger's Barbarian and Weapons DNA is all over the tone, especially the way the jokes land in the middle of the gore.Austin Abrams Carries the Whole MovieAbrams plays Bryan, a medical courier, and he is on screen for nearly every minute. Arthur's take: without him, there is nothing here.Meaghan's point about the everyman quality is the best argument in the episode. No celebrity sheen, just a guy having the worst night of his life.The wet socks moment. The grumbling to himself. A lot of the humour in this film is one actor alone in a room.Sara Paxton, Cregger's wife, voices Michelle on the phone, continuing her cameo streak from Barbarian and Weapons.Creature Design, Practical Gore and the Rooftop DropThe infected are not tame Resident Evil zombies. They fuse, grow limbs, puke acid, and the final design is the best of the lot.The rooftop drop sequence was done practically with weighted blood bags on cranes, and one of them landed inches from Austin Abrams.The sewer creature is a Whopper-style bruiser, or as Meaghan put it, the fat vampire from Blade.Meaghan's comparison point for the creature's movement: the alpaca creature in Color Out of Space.Video Game DNA: Save Rooms, Padlocks and Weapon UpgradesThe typewriter room got an audible cheer in our theatre. If you have played the games, you know why. If you have not, we explain it.Weapon progression from handgun to hunting rifle to Uzi is straight out of a game loop.The padlock running gag is the tagline: don't lose your keys. Shooting the lock does not work because the game says find the key.The settings work like levels. Hospital, road, farmhouse, Raccoon City, then the hospital building.Scores, Scare Rating and What Is NextScare factor: Fun and Wild. Scare level: Solid Scares. Arthur: 8.5 Digs. Meaghan: 6.5 Digs.Meaghan's criticism is fair and worth hearing: it is a great time with very little under the surface.Coming soon: our Mike P. Nelson interview for Beware Boiuna, in theatres October 2. Follow us & Subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hope (2026) movie review: Na Hong-jin spent ten years away and came back with a creature feature that is not a creature feature at all. Arthur and Meaghan review Hope, the Korean sci-fi horror epic that premiered at Cannes, opened in South Korea in July, and finally hit North American theatres on September 9 through Neon.The setup is small. A remote fishing village called Hope Harbor, a police chief who is in way over his head, a dead cow that a bear did not kill. Then the thing in the mountains walks through a concrete wall in broad daylight, and the movie gets very, very big. This Hope movie review covers what works (creature design you can actually see, a setting that feels lived in, characters who make smart decisions and bring grenade launchers), and what does not (a middle section that lags, ten straight minutes of toilet humour, and a lore drop saved for the last twenty minutes).Hope (2026) Movie Review: Na Hong-jin's Creature Feature SwingNa Hong-jin's first film since The Wailing opens small and gets enormous, and the scale jump is the whole experience.Both hosts land on a six out of ten. Good movie, real problems, no hedging about either.The middle section lags and the toilet humour runs about ten minutes past funny.Creature Design and Practical Effects in HopeThe creatures show up in broad daylight, in slow motion, in full view. No one-tenth-of-a-second monster nonsense here.Each alien is designed differently, and the close-up work holds up even when the chase CG does not.Arthur's number one pick of the episode, and the reason the first reveal lands so hard.Hope Harbor: Setting, Scale, and the DMZA shabby little fishing village near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, full of elderly residents and no backup coming.Meaghan's favourite element: storefronts that feel real, forests that feel enormous, overhead shots worth the ticket.Communications are cut, and reinforcements are off fighting wildfires, which is how a small town becomes a sealed box.The Alien Reveal and the Lore DropWhat looks like a Korean folklore sea monster turns out to be something else entirely.Four aliens, four designs, a language built from a Mongolian dialect and actually spoken by the actors.The lore arrives in the final stretch and answers maybe half of what you want answered.Casting Fassbender, Vikander, Russell, and BrittonMichael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander perform through motion capture as Ma'veyyo and J'aur.Taylor Russell plays Ai'dovor, and Cameron Britton plays Va'migere. Britton is the Mindhunter and Umbrella Academy guy.Hwang Jung-min carries the human half as a police chief who is scared, hesitant, and completely out of his depth.Hope Ending Explained and Sequel TalkThe ending opens more doors than it closes, and the hosts argue two different readings of why the aliens are here.Na Hong-jin has a sequel script written. Nothing is greenlit.Closing question of the episode: is Asian cinema the only place keeping action movies interesting? Follow us & Subscribe:SpotifyApple PodcastTikTokInstagramThreadsGrave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.