Kino Royale

Join Film Lady for a working retreat at the Crawford house in Vermont, where the coffee is strong, the husband is grieving (but hot), and the bestselling author upstairs hasn't moved or spoken in months. Supposedly. From Colleen Hoover's sensational 2018 thriller to the 2026 big-screen adaptation, Film Lady pulls up an ergonomic chair at Verity's desk and reads the one manuscript that should have stayed in the drawer. Darkness ahead. You’ve been warned!Content warning: violence, death, suffocation, strangulation, child death, car accident, serious injury, child abuse & endangerment, a parent intending harm to their children, attempts to self-induce miscarriage, pregnancy, sex scenes, infidelity, obsession, possessiveness, psychological manipulation, emotional abuse, grief, mental illness, gaslighting, deception, unreliable narration, strong language.Spoiler warning: detailed discussion and analysis of the book & movie! All the twists revealed!Cold Open & Warm Close: p.61-62 & p.304 respectively from the novel: Verity by Colleen Hoover | GoodreadsPod rec: Read Rant ReviewMadwoman in the attic bookMentioned: Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover | GoodreadsAssociations: Housemaid (2025)Rebecca, Jane Eyre, other gothic novels & their various screen adaptations50 Shades of Grey (2015)Gone Girl (2014)Titane (2021)Paranormal Activity (2007)Music - Free Music Archive - CC BY License:Alex Morgan - Dark Suspense Thriller UnderscoreAlex Morgan - Scary Soundscape for Suspense PodcastsTommaso Motteran - Horror Chase Music - Dark Orchestral SuspenseTRAMOS - Suspense Theme - TRAMOS.mp3Find me: @filmladyroyal on Letterboxd, Bluesky & InstagramEmail: [email protected] eps & more on website: kinoroyale.netLast chance to vote for November theme - on socials, email or under ep on Spotify (ep 22) Acknowledgement of CountryI would like to acknowledge that I live, work, and learn on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. 

Join Film Lady for a quiet night at the Bates Motel, where there are twelve cabins, twelve vacancies, and one devoted son who simply adores his mother. From Robert Bloch's pulpy 1959 novel to Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece, Film Lady takes a long, hot shower in the story that made the whole world afraid of bathrooms. A boy's best friend is his mother, after all. Content warning: murder, blood, human remains, mental illness (stigmatizing portrayal), voyeurism, parental abuse, matricide, alcoholism (novel), dated attitudes toward gender identity.Spoiler warning: detailed discussion and analysis of the book & movie!Mentioned: Ace of Base – The Sign LyricsCold Open: p. 129 from Robert Bloch’s novel, PsychoPsycho on Goodreads: Psycho #1 - Robert BlochMadwoman in the attic bookWhat Went Wrong podcast, search an episode on Psycho: What Went Wrong PodcastSybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber | GoodreadsAssociations: Mother and Son (TV Series 1984–1994) - IMDbThe Night of the Hunter (1955) Les Diaboliques (1955)The Haunting of Hill House TV show (2018)Music - Free Music Archive - CC BY License:Water Sark - Half CrazyGagmesharkoff - Wild and Crazy KidsDamiano Baldoni - I'm CrAZySquire Tuck - Jumping Madly (Going Crazy Too)Find me: @filmladyroyal on Letterboxd, Bluesky & Instagram.Email: [email protected] eps & more on website: kinoroyale.netDon’t forget to vote for November theme - on socials or under the previous ep on Spotify (ep 22) Question to listeners: Offered $2m, who would you rather spend a night in a motel room: Patrick Bateman, Winnifred Notty or Norman Bates? And why?Equipment:JBL Quantum Stream Studio | Quad pattern premium USB microphone for streaming, recording and gamingAudacity - recording & editing by FLAcknowledgement of CountryI would like to acknowledge that I live, work, and learn on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today.

Join Film Lady in befriending one accomplished, dignified governess, Winnifred Notty (pronounced ‘Naughty’ or ‘Nutty’ depending on the context). Dear Reader, if you have only one book to read this year - this is it. Victorian Psycho (2025) by Virginia Feito is Film Lady’s new fave novel!Content warning: Graphic violence and gore, including murder, dismemberment and bodily mutilation, Depictions of infant and adolescent slaughter. Psychological abuse and manipulation, Sexual content, Misogyny, sexism and classism (satire-driven), Unreliable narration and hallucination-like sequences, Body horror and disgust imagery.Spoiler warning: detailed discussion and analysis of the book! All the twists revealed!Watch trailer YT: Victorian Psycho | Official Trailer | Bleecker StreetAuthor website with diff covers: Victorian Psycho — virginia feitoCold open: Ava Max – Sweet but Psycho LyricsVic Psych on goodreads: Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito | GoodreadsMadwoman in the attic bookTop 100 books ABC: Radio National's Top 100 BooksAssociations: Classic Female Gothics: Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Wuthering HeightsAmerican PsychoThe Handmaid's TaleHandmaiden (2016)Christmas Carol by Charles DickensThe Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan PoeCarrie by Stephen King (Margaret White in particular)Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis CarrollPod mentioned:Lady Killers: a Feminist Rage Podcast, ep on Victorian PsychoMusic - Free Music Archive - CC BY License:Geoff Harvey - Purple Planet Music - The Victorian MansionKevin MacLeod - Camille Saint-Saëns_ Danse Macabre - Light Dance: CC BY LicenseKevin MacLeod - Lift Motif: CC BY LicenseKevin MacLeod - Mourning SongSoularflair - THE MOURNING AFTER (classical, strings, emotive)Alex Morgan - Phonk House Hybrid With Classical SampleKevin MacLeod - SchmetterlingKevin MacLeod - Camille Saint-Saëns_ Danse Macabre - Sad Part: CC BY LicenseGeoff Harvey - Purple Planet Music - Classical PasturesFind me: @filmladyroyal on Letterboxd, Bluesky & Instagram.Email: [email protected] eps & more on website: kinoroyale.netDon’t forget to vote for November theme - on socials or under the previous ep on Spotify (ep 22) Equipment:JBL Quantum Stream Studio | Quad pattern premium USB microphone for streaming, recording and gamingAudacity - recording & editing by FLNext ep #26: Psycho (1960) movie by Hitchcock + eponymous novel by Robert Bloch (1959)Acknowledgement of CountryI would like to acknowledge that I live, work, and learn on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. 

‘I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?’ How does Pat Bateman appear on the big screen compared to the original novel? Join Film Lady in analysing the horror-comedy adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel - a 2000 movie by Mary Harron, American Psycho.Content Warning: like all of my eps, this is an explicit episode which is targeted at adults. It is labelled accordingly on your pod platforms with *E* symbol. Please go through the triggers below before jumping in! Also, this ep is also full of spoilers for the movie.Trigger Warning for the movie & this ep: graphic violence/gore, sexual content, nudity, disturbing/psychological content, violence against women, animal cruelty, drug use, body horror.Cold open: Huey Lewis & The News – Hip To Be Square LyricsWarm close: Genesis – In Too Deep LyricsAmerican Psycho (film) - WikipediaMovies:Requiem for a Dream (2000)Music - Free Music Archive - CC BY License:Alex Morgan - Funny Background Music With Playful Major TuneAlex Morgan - Funny Quirky Comedy Short StingLobo Loco - Funny Twitching (ID 2333)ROZKOL - Funny LookerPierce Murphy - This Dream I HadJosh Woodward - Crazy Glue (Instrumental Version)Find me: @filmladyroyal on Letterboxd, Bluesky & Instagram.Email: [email protected] eps & more on website: kinoroyale.netHelp me decide on the November theme - cast your vote on socials or in the Spotify poll under episode #22. Voting closes October 6th, 2026. Equipment:JBL Quantum Stream Studio | Quad pattern premium USB microphone for streaming, recording and gamingAudacity - recording & editing by FLPrevious ep - #23: American Psycho, 1991 novelNext ep - #25 (bookclub): Victorian Psycho, 2026 novel Acknowledgement of CountryI would like to acknowledge that I live, work, and learn on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. 

Would you like to have lunch at Dorsia with a fine young man named Patrick Bateman and learn about his business of mergers & aqua sessions? Join Film Lady in exploring one of the darkest, most controversial novels of all time - a 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis’s - American Psycho.Content Warning: like all of my eps, this is an explicit episode which is targeted at adults. It is labelled accordingly on your pod platforms with *E* symbol. Please go through the triggers below before jumping in!This ep is also full of spoilers for the novel.Trigger Warning for the novel & this ep: graphic violence, sexual violence (SA & others), animal cruelty, necrophilia and cannibalism, misogyny, child harm, torture and gore, substance abuse, homophobic and racist language, body horror.Cold open: The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist LyricsI meant DSM not DCM, soz: Psychiatry.org - DSMWarm close: Nelly – Just a Dream LyricsPicador edition of my bookI keep calling Bateman Batman? Some kind of Freudian slip hehehe… Bruce Wayne is played, btw, also by Christian Bale in the movies :)Associations: Ab Fab - Patty Stone YTDexterClockwork OrangeWolf of Wall StreetMad MenLit mentioned:Lost Lambs by Madeleine Cash: Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash | GoodreadsAldous Huxley's Brave New WorldPod mentioned:The Book ClubSources:Keeping Up With The Penguins, "American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis"Dan McNeil, "American Psycho" — The McNeil VariationsLiterariness, "Analysis of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho"Panova, O. Yu., "American underground spirit: Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground and 20th century USA literature," Izvestiya Saratov University (2021) — DOAJ linkBaltimore Sun review, "'American Psycho' is not merely gruesome, it's also dull" (1991)Music - Free Music Archive - CC License:Andrew R Codeman - Crazy BotBlank & Kytt - Come Get SomeBlank & Kytt - Thursday & Snow (Reprise)Cullah - Ooh Baby You Drive Me Crazy BluesDamiano Baldoni - I'm CrAZyGeoff Harvey - Purple Planet Music - Crazy TownHoliznaRAPS - My Family Thinks I'm CrazyJosh Woodward - Crazy Glue (Instrumental Version)Mise Darling - It's Crazy!Ondrosik - CrazyPaweł Spychała - Crazy parrot.mp3Find me: @filmladyroyal on Letterboxd, Bluesky & Instagram.Email: [email protected] eps & more on website: kinoroyale.netDon’t forget to vote for November theme - on socials or under the previous ep on Spotify (ep 22) Equipment:JBL Quantum Stream Studio | Quad pattern premium USB microphone for streaming, recording and gamingAudacity - recording & editing by FLNext ep: American Psycho the 2001 movie!Acknowledgement of CountryI would like to acknowledge that I live, work, and learn on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Darkinjung peoples. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today.