Xenomania

This week on Xenomania we dive into Ready or Not, a horror-comedy that turns a wedding night into a brutal game of survival.

When Grace marries into a wealthy family, she quickly learns that their traditions are not just strange. They are deadly. What starts as a twisted game of hide and seek spirals into a night of violence, panic, and a family that will do anything to survive their own rules.

We break down why Ready or Not works ...

This week on Xenomania, we dive into the chaotic cult sequel Critters 2: The Main Course — a movie where the tiny alien monsters come back bigger, nastier, and multiplying faster than anyone can stop them.

What starts as a small-town Easter celebration quickly turns into full-blown creature chaos when the Critter eggs begin to hatch. From rolling balls of teeth to exploding alien carnage, Critters 2 pushes the original film’s creat...

Critters (1986) might be the best weird 80s horror-comedy. In this episode of Xenomania, we go back to the original Critters, the cult creature feature that introduced one of the strangest alien infestations in horror.

When a group of small, extremely hungry alien prisoners crash land in rural Kansas, a quiet farming town suddenly finds itself dealing with rolling balls of teeth that eat absolutely everything in their path. The onl...

This week on Xenomania, we dig into the Irish horror-comedy The Boys from County Hell — a vampire movie that starts with a simple road construction job and ends with an ancient bloodsucker waking up under rural Ireland.

When a crew of local workers accidentally disturb an old grave tied to Irish folklore, they unleash something that definitely should have stayed buried. What follows is a mix of brutal vampire horror, dry Irish humo...

Xenomania Episode 62— Scream VI

New city. Same rules. Worse consequences.

This week we head to New York for Scream VI, the franchise’s loudest, meanest entry yet. No small-town nostalgia. No safe houses. Just subways, alleyways, and a Ghostface who feels less interested in games and more interested in making a point.

We talk about the shift in setting and how the city changes the tension. Crowds don’t make you safer. They make you ...

Legacy is a dangerous thing.

This week we revisit Woodsboro for Scream (2022) — the sequel that pretends to be a reboot while quietly sharpening the knife. New cast. Old trauma. Same mask.

We talk about how the film balances nostalgia with new blood, and whether it actually earns that balance. Does bringing back Sidney, Gale, and Dewey feel necessary… or safe? And more importantly, do the new characters stand on their own?

We get i...

This week we finally tackle Baskin.

It starts like a grimy cop movie. Guys in a patrol car. Dumb jokes. A late-night call that feels routine. Then they get sent to an abandoned building, and from there the movie just keeps going down. Literally.

The shift is what makes it work. You’re grounded for just long enough to feel stable, and then that stability disappears. The film stops explaining itself. Scenes stretch. Conversations fee...

RomCom tropes to die for.”

In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns spiral into the sticky, savage chaos of Heart Eyes — a film where the apocalypse isn’t just viral, it’s romantic. We break down why the monsters don’t attack Luna, how this world turns affection into infection, and whether the line between symbiosis and codependence has ever been blurrier.

There’s something unsettlingly sweet about it all: the pastel lighting, the al...

"You opened the door. They walked in."

In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns return to the woods. Not the ones where magic lives, but where people do terrible things for no reason at all. The Strangers: Chapter 1 is not a reboot. It is a quiet escalation. A slower blade. And yes, it is still knocking.

We dive into the bleak domesticity of it all. A cabin. A couple. A car that will not start. And why this film refuses to explain an...

The rage never left.

In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns trek through the ash-crusted mythos of 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, where blood memory and broken faith collide in the ruins of civilization. This isn’t just another infection movie, it’s a story about what survives when survival stops being enough.

We follow Jimmy, a demented cult leader with running out of fingers, and Ian, the doctor who still believes mercy is sacred ....

“Mommy, am I still me?”

In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns descend through the ash-fog of Konami’s most cursed export to talk religious fanaticism, trauma cults, and how Silent Hill (2006) is somehow both aggressively incoherent and artistically iconic.

We discuss why the town feels like a Lovecraftian divorce court, how Radha Mitchell sold genuinely unhinged mom energy, and why pyramid-headed grief demons are always the final ...

Say it once, say it twice, say it five times and get wrecked. In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns stare too long into a rearview mirror of American horror and watch it reflect rot,  gentrified ghosts, legacy trauma, and bees with union grievances. Candyman returns with a paintbrush dipped in blood and ink, and the Xenoboys debate whether this reboot-sequel-refracted-nightmare sticks the landing or gets stuck in its own honey tra...

“I see dead tropes…”

For years, The Sixth Sense has lived in the shadow of its twist.

In this episode of Xenomania, we revisit M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout film with fresh eyes and less nostalgia. Yes, it’s a well-crafted ghost story with moments of genuine pathos, but how well does it hold up under scrutiny?

We unpack the emotional weight of Haley Joel Osment’s performance, the chilly atmosphere, and Shyamalan’s restrained direct...

In this year-end finale of Xenomania, Jon and Ryan slip into their shiniest disco suits and dial into New Year’s Evil (1980)—a sleazy, synth-laced slasher set during a televised NYE countdown. As a killer named “Evil” offs a victim at the stroke of midnight in each U.S. time zone, we discuss the film’s time-locked gimmick, glam-punk aesthetics, sleazy subtext, and its strange place in the slasher canon. We don’t explore the blend o...

In this holiday massacre of an episode, the Xenomania crew unwraps Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022), Joe Begos’s neon-slick splatterfest where a military-grade robotic Santa malfunctions into a relentless killing machine.

Come for the grindhouse aesthetic, stay for the synth soundtrack, practical gore, and surprisingly sharp central performances. We dig into the subtext (is there any?), the style (hell yes), and how the film split...

In this stark, brutal episode of Xenomania, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns set off down the desolate highways of The Long Walk — Francis Lawrence’s harrowing 2025 adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian thriller.

Fifty boys. One rule: never stop walking. Three strikes and the guns come out. No finish line. No mercy. Only one winner gets a wish and riches beyond belief — everyone else just collapses in the dust.

The hosts break down how the f...

In this milestone 50th episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns strap on explosive collars and dive headfirst into Battle Royale (2000)—Kinji Fukasaku’s ultraviolent, emotionally raw, and politically charged cult classic.

They dissect its brutal allegory for youth disillusionment, the ethical rot of authority, and how the film paved the way for modern dystopias like The Hunger Games, Squid Game, and beyond.

What happens when a classroom turn...

In this holiday-slasher episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns trim the tree with terror as they unwrap the controversial cult classic Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

From killer Santas to traumatic orphans, the guys explore how this low-budget bloodbath turned yuletide cheer into a moral panic—and became one of the most infamous seasonal slashers of the ‘80s.

They dive into Catholic guilt, VHS horror boom aesthetics, and why the line “...

In this episode, Jon, Ryan, and Kearns gather around the blood-soaked banquet table to dig into Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving (2023), a pitch-perfect homage to holiday slashers, grindhouse grit, and small-town hysteria.

From Black Friday mayhem to Pilgrim masks and meat thermometers in all the wrong places, they dissect how Roth turns a fake trailer into a full-on feast of gore, gags, and gruesome cheer.

Who lives? Who gets basted? And i...