Horror Movies of the 2000s on the Criterion Channel

Summary

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All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode: Horror Movies of the 2000s on the Criterion Channel

Date: October 6, 2025
Guest: Clyde Foley, film curator
Host: Alison Stewart

Overview

On this episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart is joined by friend of the show and horror expert Clyde Foley, who curated a new series on 2000s horror films for the Criterion Channel. The conversation dives deep into what made horror movies of that decade unique, notable trends like the rise of "torture porn" and J-horror remakes, as well as underappreciated gems. Foley and Stewart explore specific films—both famous and obscure—while fielding memorable listener calls about the movies that terrified them most.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Unique Flavor of 2000s Horror

• Transition from the 90s:
  • “[The] story of the 2000s really begins in the late 90s... at the end of the 90s, we have The Blair Witch Project, which is just one of the biggest hits of all time. It was a reminder to studios that horror movies are very profitable and they don't require a lot of money.” (Clyde Foley, 02:00)
  • The decade is shaped by:
    • Rise of home video (DVD boom).
    • Influence of Japanese horror (J-horror) and subsequent American remakes.
  • The challenge in curation: “There's so much happening... and also, to be honest, there's a lot happening that I frankly kind of sidestep because it becomes very graphic and extreme.” (Clyde, 03:29)

Notable 2000s Horror Subgenres

• Torture Porn: The “Saw” franchise, “Hostel” as graphic and divisive.
• J-Horror Remakes: E.g. “The Ring,” with distinct stylistic elements.
• Body Horror and French Extremity: Films like “Trouble Every Day.”
• Found Footage: Closed by “Paranormal Activity,” bookending with “Blair Witch Project” (Foley, 30:17).

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Featured Films and Takeaways

What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000)

• The Hitchcock Effect:
  • “There's a thing that... many major filmmakers do where they make their Hitchcock movie... and this is [Zemeckis’s] Hitchcock movie.” (B, 05:43)
• Unexpected Depth:
  • “First half hour... basically about Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer having a daughter go off to college... joys of middle-aged sex. And then it becomes a thriller.” (B, 07:11)

Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter, 2001)

• Retroactively Appreciated:
  • “I saw when it came out, I didn't really care for it... Years go by... there are real joys in this movie that I was not picking up on. And a lot of them have to do with Ice Cube, who's great in this movie.” (B, 09:13)

The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001)

• Atmospheric, Gothic Excellence:
  • “It’s the kind of classic horror movie setup of... this big, empty, scary house and a woman... under the specter of malevolent forces... very rare, restrained, beautiful camera movements...” (B, 10:30)
• Nicole Kidman’s Performance:
  • “She is the kind of actor who is able to simultaneously broadcast a range of emotions with very subtle nuances.” (B, 11:38)

The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002)

• Listener Jonna from Westchester:
  • “The Ring really just floored me... That sort of urban legend, urban myth thing going for it... really saturated kind of look to it. The boy who played the son, he was great. And then, of course, that main character, the girl... terrifying.” (Jonna, 12:08)
• Visual Style Note:
  • “A lot of movies as of late really do that thing where there's a color push in post where like, all right, this movie is blue. And The Ring did that early on, but... it was all in camera.” (B, 13:16)

Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day (2001)

• French Extremity:
  • “The French were making some of the most graphic and vile horror films that anyone had ever made. And this movie gets lumped in with that, maybe rightly, maybe wrongly... It’s very much about music and it's about bodies... It's a Claire Denis film through and through.” (B, 16:24)
• Graphic nature discussed (but demurred on radio):
  • “There’s some pretty graphic scenes in it.” (A, 17:35)

Listener Favorite: Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

• Caller Isla from Brooklyn:
  • “It's about this boy who's getting bullied and then he befriends this kind of creepy, unusual girl and he suspects that she's a vampire... beautifully filmed and just creepy. Anything with children being somewhat evil... It was very poignant.” (Isla, 18:03)
• Foley on the film:
  • “It’s settled—next year's series is creepy children!” (B, 18:55)

Stuck (Stuart Gordon, 2007)

• Underrated & Unnerving:
  • “A corn-rowed Mena Suvari hits homeless Steven Ray with her car and he's stuck in the windshield... It is sadly and upsettingly based on a true story...” (B, 19:15)

Dahmer (David Jacobson, 2002)

• Jeremy Renner’s breakout:
  • “I think in terms of the films that... they may not know... I would put Dahmer under this... not the sort of sensationalized serial killer film you may expect. In fact, I would describe it more as like a chamber drama... oddly kind of similar to Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s...” (B, 20:40)

The Strangers (Bryan Bertino, 2008)

• Caller Kara from Croton on Hudson:
  • “The scariest horror movie of all time for me is The Strangers... the reason why it was so terrifying is... it's based on real people just getting terrorized by other real people. There's nothing haunting or supernatural about it.” (Kara, 22:07)
• Foley on horror for horror’s sake:
  • “Sometimes movies are allowed to be very lean thrill machines.” (B, 23:04)

May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

• Unconventional Frankenstein:
  • “A woman who is on the spectrum... develops an attraction... while also growing increasingly unhinged... standout performance by the lead actress, Angela Bettis... Anna Faris as her lesbian coworker... hilarious in this movie.” (B, 24:16)

Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000)

• Caller Jackie:
  • “A werewolf thriller about a girl, two sisters, and one of them gets her period and then gets bitten by a werewolf. So it kind of uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty. A really awesome, smart, feminist horror movie.” (Jackie, 25:39)
• Foley's confession:
  • “I know about Gingersnap, and this is where I'm gonna admit this caller's got me. This is a film I've never seen.” (B, 26:19)

The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)

• Cave Dwelling Terror:
  • “A group of women... go spelunking... and they get trapped in this cave system... soon enough, they realize they're not alone... full of cannibals.” (B, 26:42)
• Cinematography and Impact:
  • “If horror is the interplay between light and shadow, this is a pretty tight version of that.” (B, 27:40)

Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007) and [REC] (Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007)

• Caller Ishmael from Harlem:
  • “Paranormal Activity... When I first watched it in high school, I thought it was pretty dumb. But watching it back now... it's so slow and because almost nothing happens until the very end... it cuts against a lot of how, like, horror movies are edited these days.” (Ishmael, 29:09)
• [REC] as Found Footage Standout:
  • “It really, it moves. It's very claustrophobic... TV news crew going into an apartment building... outbreak... flesh eating zombies... Not all found footage movies move. In fact, not all found footage movies work.” (B, 30:17)
• Bookends of the Decade:
  • “If the decade opens with Blair Witch Project... it closes with Paranormal Activity, another massive hit that basically sets the tone of what horror movies end up being for the next 10 years.” (B, 30:57)

Rogue (Greg McLean, 2007)

• Monster Movie Fun:
  • “It's about a man eating giant killer crocodile... stars Radha Mitchell... Sam Worthington from Avatar.” (A, 31:21; B, 31:59)

Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson, 2008)

• Faux-Documentary Hung with Grief:
  • “Another Australian film called Lake Mungo, which is a fake documentary about a family whose daughter recently died and they think that she is maybe haunting them... a very complex, shape-shifting film.” (B, 34:56)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the challenge of curation:

  • “I don't even know if I tell the whole story of 2000s horror as much as this is a guided tour of 2000s horror.” (Clyde, 04:15)

• On John Carpenter’s enduring greatness:

  • “The thing about John Carpenter is that he is just the... a consummate master of genre in that his films don't necessarily try to say deeper things... as much as they are these very lean, well built thrill machines.” (B, 32:56)
  • Recommended Carpenter entry point: “They Live.” (B, 34:07)

• Listener Isla on ‘Let The Right One In’ (18:03):

  • “It was very poignant. Also, the friendship between the boy and the little girl is very powerful, but a lot of stuff that goes down is pretty hair raising.”

• Host Alison Stewart on horror tropes (14:10):

  • “I realize the thing that scares me the most are little scary children.”

• Clyde’s Pop Culture Reference (28:30):

  • “We really should have started the segment by saying, let's all meet up in the year 2000. Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown? To quote Jarvis Cocker.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:00 – Clyde Foley on what makes 2000s horror unique
• 03:29 – The complexity and challenge of curating the decade
• 05:43 – Zemeckis and “What Lies Beneath” as Hitchcockian work
• 09:13 – Reappraising “Ghosts of Mars”
• 10:30 – “The Others” and the gothic revival
• 12:08 – Listener Jonna calls in about “The Ring”
• 16:24 – French Extremity and “Trouble Every Day”
• 18:03 – Isla from Brooklyn recommends “Let the Right One In”
• 20:40 – Subtlety in “Dahmer” with Jeremy Renner
• 22:07 – Kara from Croton raves about “The Strangers”
• 24:16 – The oddness of “May”
• 25:39 – Jackie on “Ginger Snaps” as feminist horror
• 26:42 – “The Descent” as a masterpiece of claustrophobic terror
• 29:09 – Ishmael from Harlem weighs in on “Paranormal Activity”
• 30:17 – The pacing and influence of “[REC]”
• 32:56 – John Carpenter’s legacy in horror
• 34:56 – Lake Mungo: “A very complex, shape-shifting film”

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Final Thoughts

Clyde Foley’s 2000s horror series on the Criterion Channel is not a definitive anthology, but “a guided tour” through a turbulent and experimental decade for the genre. The selections bridge international influences and bold new directions—J-horror, found footage, horror of the real, and subversive body horror—all while balancing beloved classics and neglected masterpieces. Listener calls underscore the personal and emotional impact of these films, affirming Foley’s approach: “Sometimes movies are allowed to be very lean thrill machines.” (B, 23:04)

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For those looking to get in the Halloween spirit or simply revisit the distinctive shivers of 2000s horror, this episode offers a roadmap through cult favorites, critical darlings, and the dark corners of Criterion’s catalog.

Transcript

[A]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Because it's Monday, I wanted to preview some of the conversations that we're gonna be having on the show this week. Tomorrow, actor Bobby Cannavale will be in studio to talk about his role in the Broadway revival of the very funny and searing play. Art director Scott Ellis will join as well. On Wednesday, we'll learn about the explosion of sewing New York City with Christine Frayling, the founder of the New York Sewing Center. And on Thursday, we'll speak with author Nikki Gonzalez about her debut novel, Myra. That's in the future. Now let's get this hour started with some seasonally appropriate movie suggestions. It's October, which means it's officially spooky season. And if you're looking for some scary movies to watch to get in the Halloween spirit, the Criterion Channel has you covered. Friend of the show and curator Clyde Foley has joined us in the past to talk about 80s horror and 90s horror. Now he has curated a series of 2000s horror for the Criterion Channel. The series includes slasher fics to body horror to found footage scares. You can stream it on the Criterion Channel through the month of October. Clyde Foley joins me in studio now to walk us through the list. Hi, Claude.

[B]

Hi, Alison. How are you?

[A]

I'm doing well. Did I call you? Claude? Clyde. Hi, Clyde.

[B]

We'll go with Clyde.

[A]

Listeners, we want to hear from you. What is your favorite horror movie from the 2000s? What do you like about that decade of horror? What we want to hear from you. Our number is 212-433-969-2212, WNYC. Clyde, we talked with you about 80s horror and 90s horror. Now we're talking about the 2000s horror. What makes the 2000s period unique?

[B]

That's a good question. There was a lot going on in the 2000s. And I would say that the story of the 2000s really begins in the late 90s, because at the end of the 90s, we have the Blair Witch Project, which is just one of the biggest hits of all time. It was a reminder to studios that horror movies are very profitable and they don't require a lot of money. So it was at that moment they're like, yeah, okay, we're back. The 90s were rocky 2000s. It's on. But also at the same time, DVD starts happening and that becomes another way. The studio is like, oh, no, no. We can really make a lot of money off of this. And there was, I would say, a coherency to the story of what's going on in the 2000s. And that has to do with the influences that were coming in. Like, J. Horror starts happening in Japan, and that has a huge effect on the movies that are coming out in America. And we have that string of remakes that comes out.

[C]

You told our producer Jordan, who loves horror, that the 2000s, it was a little bit hard to curate. Why was it a little bit hard to curate this era?

[B]

You know what? It's hard to curate because there's so much happening. And also, to be honest, there's a lot happening that I frankly kind of sidestep because it becomes very graphic and extreme. We get the rise of, you know, what's known as the. Like, the torture porn movies. Like, we have the Saw movies. We have Hostel, which I actually, I recently caught up with Hostel. Actually, it's better than I expected. But the point I'm trying to make is that there is a lot going on, and it's virtually impossible to tell the full story. So I think what ended up happening is that this ends up being.

[D]

I.

[B]

Don'T know, almost a more like personal zigzag through the 2000s of movies that I was watching and finding and going, all right, we have these staples that are going to be hits that everyone's gonna enjoy these. And then we have a number of films that I'm finding that I like and aren't as well known. I tried to put in as many of those films as I could. So it was tricky telling the whole story of 2000s horror. And I don't even know if I tell the whole story of 2000s horror as much as this is a guided tour of 2000s horror.

[A]

My guest is Clyde Foley.

[C]

We're talking about the film series he curated for the criterion channel. 2000s horror. We want to hear from you. What is your favorite horror movie of the 2000s? We want your horror recommendations. Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433-933. WNYC. You can call in, you can join Clyde on the air, or you can text to us at that number as well. 2124-339692-22433. WNYC. Okay, we're gonna start with the year 2000. You kick things off with what Lies Beneath from director Robert Zemeckis. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford as a married couple who start to feel they might be haunted. Okay. People are gonna think Zemeckis and they're think Forrest Gump, Back to the Future. He directed those?

[B]

Yes, yes, yes, he did.

[C]

So why do you think his style as a director works well with horror?

[B]

Well, you know, he's always had a horror streak in him. Like in the 90s, for example, he was one of the producers of Tales from the Crypt, the cable horror anthology show. And I think he may have also gotten his start directing TV for Kolchak the Night Stalker, which was sort of like a proto X Files way back in the day. I don't think horror is such a surprise for Zemeckis, partially because he is such a lover of genre in different modes. And also there's a thing that, like many major filmmakers do this where they make their Hitchcock movie, right? Like Scorsese has his Hitchcock movie with Cape Fear. And Brian De Palma has basically built a whole filmography making the Hitchcock movie. And this is his Hitchcock movie. And this is something that I saw when it came out, and I liked it fine when I saw it in the year 2000, and then I rewatched it a few years ago and it kind of blew me away. And I think part of that is the level of craft behind it. But also I think it has to do with the stars themselves.

[C]

Yeah, Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. That is, their chemistry is really important to how the film winds up.

[B]

Well, also, I forgot that the first half hour of this movie was basically about Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer having a daughter go off to college and then they're empty nesters and they're like, all right, we have the house to ourselves. So this is gonna become a film about the joys of middle aged sex. And then it becomes a thriller.

[C]

That one is called what Lies Beneath. The Ghost of Mars is up next. From 2001 is a John Carpenter film. We'll talk about that a little more later. Let's listen to a little bit of the trailer, which includes some really great music, by the way.

[D]

It was supposed to be a routine prisoner transport.

[C]

Williams was arrested on the suspicion of murdering six rail workers. The bodies were hung and decapitated.

[B]

But here, a million miles from home.

[C]

Hello?

[D]

Anybody here?

[B]

Drop your weapon I ain't going back they're about to discover nothing is what it seems.

[C]

Is that Keith David doing the voiceover?

[B]

I'm fairly certain, yes.

[C]

That's amazing. First of all, what's this film about?

[B]

This film is about. Imagine a world where in the future Mars is ruled by a matriarchy. Jason Statham has hair. And it's ostensibly assault on Precinct 13 on Mars.

[A]

Okay, so what does Ice Cube do exactly?

[B]

Ice Cube is the outlaw type figure who is in jail and is assigned to be transported out of there as he's blamed for a massacre that he's not actually responsible for. It's basically a sci fi western horror movie.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

Maximalist filmmaking. There's so much happening in it, I.

[A]

Have to tell you. This one has a 32% on rotten tomatoes, you know.

[B]

Okay, so this is a fair thing to bring up. And I don't know if you want to get into this now or you want to get into this later, but there is. This is a film that I will have to admit to even personally reassessing where this is something that I saw when it came out, I didn't really care for it. Years go by, and I think it's more a comment on the general decline in quality of movies. And also, I don't know, maybe I'm just. My brain is more accepting of these things as I get older, or maybe I'm becoming a slightly stupider person. It could be all these things, but there are real joys in this movie that I was not picking up on. And a lot of them have to do with Ice Cube, who's great in this movie.

[A]

All right, this says, we got a text that says, I really appreciate giving the others its flowers. It's genuinely scary and so atmospheric. It stood apart from a moment that took shape around the early 2000s. The haunted house movie with big stars. Mostly remakes like the Haunting House on a haunted hill, 13 ghosts you have on your list. It stars Nicole Kidman as a single mom taking care of her kids in an English house that just might be haunted. You describe this as a gothic horror movie. How is it Gothic?

[B]

It's Gothic in that it's the kind of classic horror movie setup of we have this big, empty, scary house and a woman who is raising two children under the specter of malevolent forces. And I think one of the reasons this movie stood out when it came out is precisely this gothic element. Because this is the year 2000. And you have to keep in mind that what we're really coming off of is a solid five, six years of slasher movies. And things were about to go more in the gothic mode after this. But this was something that was a little different at the time. And it is very rare, restrained. It has a lot of beautiful camera movements of the classic variety. And I think it stood out for those reasons. And Nicole Kidman is very good in it.

[A]

Yeah, there's a Text here that says.

[C]

The Others features one of Nicole Kidman's best performances, in my humble opinion. What do you like about her performance in the Others?

[B]

That's a good question. I don't know. I think she is the kind of actor who is able to simultaneously broadcast a range of emotions with very subtle nuances.

[C]

Let's take a call. This is from Jonna, who's calling from Westchester. Hi, Jonna. Thanks for calling, all of it. We want to hear about your favorite 2000s horror movie.

[D]

Okay, Allison, and thanks so much. I'm a big fan of your show, and I listen to you all the time.

[C]

Thank you. That's not scary.

[D]

No, it's not. And you're not scary either. But this movie is. The Ring really just floored me. And what I liked about it, I guess, is, you know, I suppose you can't say you like it because it's terrifying, but it really was. You know, it had that sort of urban legend, urban myth thing going for it. And I thought that maybe I'd heard a lot about it beforehand, and I thought, well, it's not going to be much. But I was really impressed. I also thought the filming, the style was quite beautiful. There was a really saturated kind of look to it. The color palette. The boy who played the sun, he was great. And then, of course, that main character, the girl, Samara or whatever her name was terrifying.

[C]

Thank you so much for calling in. Janna, do you have any thoughts about the Ring?

[B]

I saw it opening night, actually, way back when I saw Opening Night, and I was pretty floored by it by then, you know, because I'm trying to think it's after Mulholland Drive by, maybe like a year. I'm gonna guess the ring was like 2002. And so I already love Naomi Watts, and I found it terrifying then. I haven't seen it in 20 years. I'd be curious to rewatch it. With regard to the comment about the color, actually something that I think is worth talking about is that I think a lot of movies as of late really do that thing where there's a color push in post where like, all right, this movie is blue. For whatever reason, this movie is blue. And the Ring did that early on. But it's worth pointing out that it wasn't a color shift that was done in post. It was something that was like, this is all in Canvas Camera.

[A]

It's interesting. I'm looking at your list, and I realize the thing that scares me the most are little scary children. In films, you don't have that many little scary children films in here? Is there a reason for that?

[B]

You know what's funny? I think that's entirely personal and that, like, I just sort of like, those movies don't really do it for me, to be perfectly honest. Like, I don't know. Like, what are you thinking of? What are your favorite little scary.

[A]

Little scary children? You know, like in the Shining.

[B]

Yeah. Well, I think. Great. I've got no beef with the Shining. I don't. I think that maybe this is.

[A]

I feel like this Red Rum, you know, like, that's scary.

[B]

I feel like this is something that really takes hold, like, around the two Children of the Corn. Yeah, sure. But no, really, in, like, the last, like, 20 years, I feel like half the movies that were coming out are movies in which parents are afraid of their children. And it's like, just, let's take it down a notch here. Let's make horror movies about different things. Yeah, you have some children.

[A]

We'll talk about it later. My guest is Clyde Foley. We're talking about films he curated for The Criterion Channel. 2000s. Horror is our subject today, listeners. We want to hear from you. Our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. We'll be right back. You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Clyde Foley. We're talking about film series he curated for the Criterion Channel. We're talking about films made between 2000 and 2009. 2010. That about that period, yeah.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

We want listeners to weigh in from you. We want you to weigh in. What's your favorite horror movies from the 2000s?

[C]

The aughts, shall we say?

[A]

Our number is 212-433-969-2212-4433. WNYC.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Our last from 2001 is Claire Denis. Trouble Every Day, you call it a poetic take on the body horror genre. This movie is crazy.

[B]

Oh, yeah. When was the last time you watch this thing?

[A]

I watched the trailer this morning and it was just like, what is going on?

[B]

I think something that's worth pointing out here is that this was her follow up to beautrevai, which is beautiful and maybe one of the best films ever made and her first huge critical success. And then in 2001, I believe, she shows up at Cannes with this film, and people were surprised that this was not the film they expected of her. This is something that gets lumped in with something that was going on at this Time called the New French Extremity, which is that the French were making some of the most graphic and vile horror films that anyone had ever made. And this movie gets lumped in with that, maybe rightly, maybe wrongly. I definitely think it's different from something like High Tension or Martyrs in that it does the Claire Denis thing. It's very much about music and it's about bodies, and in this case, very bloody, writhing bodies, but bodies nonetheless. It's a clairtony film through and through.

[A]

There's some pretty graphic scenes in it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Should we say that?

[B]

Yeah. Can we say that on the radio?

[D]

We.

[C]

Probably not. Let's move on.

[A]

Let's talk to Eli from Brooklyn on line one. Hi, Eli, thanks for calling, all of it.

[E]

Hello?

[A]

Hi.

[D]

Yeah, hello.

[E]

Oh, yeah, hi. It's actually Aila Isla.

[C]

There you are.

[B]

Hi, Ayla.

[D]

Hi.

[E]

How's it going?

[A]

It's going okay.

[C]

What are you thinking?

[E]

Well, first of all, I'm a huge fan of your show. Thank you so much. It's really great to hear you. And first time calling in. So back in 2008, there was this really great film called Let the Right One In. It was a Swedish film and it's about this boy who's getting bullied and then he befriends this kind of creepy, unusual girl and he suspects that she's a vampire. And I don't want to say much more because I don't want to do any spoilers, but it's beautifully film and just creepy. I don't know anything with children being somewhat evil. It always gives me the creeps. But this one happened to be really. It was very poignant. Also, the friendship between the boy and the little girl is very powerful, but a lot of stuff that goes down is pretty hair raising.

[C]

Isla, thank you so much for calling in another one for creepy children.

[B]

I think it's settled next year's series as creepy children.

[C]

This said, it's worth mentioning that Stuck is a very cool Stuart Gordon movie. He included the very reason people should talk about it and all obvious ones of why studios would suppress it. Yes, no, maybe so.

[B]

I mean, I'm trying to think, like, what is the obvious thing? I mean, it's a tough watch. Stuart Gordon, for context, was the director of Reanimator. So he's very strong right out of the gate. But also he was, pardon me, he's no longer with us. He was a very accomplished theater actor and he also, because of that, I think, underrated in terms of the performances that he gets out of the actors Stuck is a film in which a corn road Mena Suvari hits homeless Steven Ray with her car and he's stuck in the windshield. And instead of helping him, she decides to not do anything about it. So it becomes this film in which this man is trapped in a windshield and has to figure out how he's going to get out. It is sadly and upsettingly based on a true story, but not to the real cases, not what it's like in the film.

[C]

Let's talk about Dahmer, but this is the one starring Jeremy renner. It's from 2002.

[A]

It's one of his earliest film roles. How does he do playing a serial killer?

[B]

He's great. I'm very pro Jeremy Renner, and this was his first big role. And I think in terms of the films that I would try to point people towards that they may not know. I would put Dahmer under this because it came out along the same time as a number of these films based on real life serial killers came out. And they had these covers that looked frankly, cheesy. And so you wouldn't expect a nuanced, complex film with a DVD cover like this. But Dahmer is it, and it is not the sort of sensationalized serial killer film you may expect. In fact, I would describe it more as like a chamber drama between Jeffrey Dahmer and his potential victims talking to each other in this sort of act of seduction. It's oddly kind of similar to Eric Romer's My Night at Mods in that there's like one person just actively trying to seduce another person over the course of the film.

[C]

Let's take another call. This is Kara calling in from Croton on Hudson. Hi, Kara. Thank you so much for making time to call all of it. Let's hear what movie you like to watch.

[B]

Hi, Allison.

[E]

So good to talk to you. First time, Long time. So the scariest horror movie of all time for me is The Strangers from 2008, which starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. And the reason why it was so terrifying is that it's not based on any sort of. It's based on real people just getting terrorized by other real people.

[B]

There's.

[E]

There's nothing haunting or supernatural about it. So I just, just, just for pure fun of terror. It's not very deep, you know, it's not very sophisticated, I don't think. But it's just for that sheer fun of the terror.

[D]

And the masks are amazing.

[C]

Kara, thanks for calling in. What do you make of that of someone who just wants to be terrorized in a film in a very light way, not have any sort of deeper meaning towards it.

[B]

I think that's wonderful. I think that not every horror film has to be deep or even needing. They don't need to say things necessarily. I mean, it's great when they do, it's great when they don't. It's. Sometimes movies are allowed to be very lean thrill machines.

[C]

I don't know this movie, so I'm gonna let you tell me about it. This is a text we got. It says, let the Right One in. It's epic. The final scene is one of the best pieces of cinematography I've ever seen. Love this segment. Waldo calling from Asbury Park. Texting from Asbury Park. Tell me about this movie. Do you know it?

[B]

I mean, this is a movie that I saw when it came out. I remember liking it a lot then. And to be honest, I haven't seen it since then. And also, to be honest, I probably should have gone back and revisited for this because I should have been able to anticipate that everyone go, where's let the Right one in?

[C]

Well, go back and you can call in and tell us about it. Up next on your list, maybe from 2002. It's sort of a Frankensteinish movie. What's the plot?

[B]

The plot is that it is about a woman who is on the spectrum and is lonely and meets a young man played by Jeremy Sisto, and she develops an attraction for him and it doesn't really work out. And it's about her struggles of dealing with that while also just kind of growing increasingly unhinged. You know, this is a movie that I saw when it came out. And I'll be honest here, I wasn't crazy about it then, but I also was 14 and I sort of. I don't think I appreciated the film for what it was doing. And it has a standout performance by the lead actress, Angela Bettis, who also pops up in Toolbox Murders. And I think that one of the things I learned while watching all these films of 2000s horror is that Angela Bettis was one of the stars of 2000s horror. And it also features a very great Anna Faris as her lesbian co worker who keeps hitting on her. And she is so funny in this movie.

[C]

Let's talk to Jackie, who's calling in from Maplewood, New Jersey. Hi, Jackie. Thanks for making the time to call all of it. You're on the air.

[D]

Awesome. Thank you. First of all, I love the show and I think I'm a first time caller, but yeah, my favorite movie from the 2000s horror movie is Gingersnap, and it was in 2000, and it's like a werewolf thriller about a girl, two sisters, and one of them gets her period and then gets bitten by a werewolf. So it's kind of uses like lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty. It was like a really awesome, smart, feminist horror movie and I really love it.

[C]

Thanks for calling in. Do you know about Gingersnap?

[B]

I know about Gingersnap, and this is where I'm gonna admit this caller's got me. This is a film I've never seen. It's been on my radar for many years. I've just never seen it.

[C]

All right, well, let's talk about the Descent. You have seen that and it's a really scary movie. Yeah, especially if you're claustrophobic.

[B]

Did you see this in theaters by chance?

[C]

I didn't see this in theaters and I have to imagine it must have been amazing in theaters.

[B]

Yeah, I saw it.

[C]

Describe it for people first.

[B]

Okay, sure. It is a film directed by a British director named Neil Marshall about a group of women who go spelunking. Is that the right term for it? They go spelunking in a cave system in North Carolina and they get trapped in this cave system. And the movie is already pretty tense and pretty scary at this point. And soon enough they realize that they're not alone in this cave system and that is full of cannibals crawling around in the dark. And so I've only ever really seen this movie in a theater. And I'm curious how it plays at home, but when you watch it in a theater, it plays pretty well. It is. It's, you know, if horror is the interplay between light and shadow, this is a pretty tight version of that.

[C]

Let's listen to a little bit of the trailer of the Descent. Sarah think she saw someone back.

[B]

So what?

[C]

I don't think I saw someone. I saw someone. No, you heard something and you saw what you wanted to see. It's the dark. It plays tricks on people.

[D]

Please, is there anybody there?

[A]

Hello?

[C]

I've been spelunking. That would have scared me.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. That's some pretty creepy things you hear in the background. When you see it on a big screen, do you get to see the image, the images of the creatures, or do you just hear them?

[B]

No, you see them.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

It's one of those things, I don't know, things hiding in the shadow. Pretty effective. Also, it's just occurring to me. I feel like I failed in my services as a radio show guest because it's just occurring to me that we really should have started the segment by saying, let's all meet up in the year 2000. Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown? To quote Jarvis Cocker.

[C]

Very nice. Let's talk to Ishmael. Ishmael from Harlem is on line three, I believe. Hi, Ishmael, thank you so much for calling in.

[F]

Hi, thanks for having me. I just wanted to bring up the 2007 movie Paranormal Activity. It's a silly kind of haunted house movie about a couple that moves into a newlywed couple that moves into a home. And the boyfriend is obsessed with capturing a. An evil spirit that may or may not be in the home. And it's all recorded, I can see that it's recorded through camcorder. So it's found footage. When I first watched it in high school, I thought it was pretty dumb. But it's funny watching it back now almost 20 years later because it's so slow and because almost nothing happens in the movie until the very end. It's kind of off on guard and weird. And it cuts against a lot of how, like, horror movies are edited these days. So it's been an interesting rewatch. And there are now like five of those movies. So if people are looking to get into a marathon this Halloween, it's a good one.

[A]

Ishmael, thank you so much for calling. This brings us to your found footage film on your list, 2007's wreck, as in recording. What makes this a successful found footage.

[B]

Film, what makes it a successful found footage film is that it really, it moves. Actually, it's very claustrophobic. And this is another movie I remember seeing in theaters where it's just one of those things where it has the setup of a TV news crew going into an apartment building and then they get trapped in this apartment building because there is an outbreak of a virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies. And I just remember this thing moves. And not all found footage movies move. In fact, not all found footage movies work. And I'm glad this caller brought up Paranormal Activity because this is also very important to the story of what happens in the 2000s because the decade is effectively bookended by these found footage hits. Like, if the decade opens with Blair Witch Project as a preamble, it closes with Paranormal Activity, another massive hit that basically sets the tone of what horror movies end up being for the next 10 years.

[A]

I want to go to this film because it's an Australian film. It's called. Is it Rogue?

[B]

Rogue? Yeah.

[A]

It's about a man eating giant killer crocodile. Let's listen to the trailer.

[B]

Saltwater crocodile.

[A]

It's probably the most dangerous member of the crocodilian family. So they can swim underwater at up.

[B]

To 20 miles an hour without making.

[D]

A ripple on the surface.

[A]

And they can burst out to attack with incredible speed.

[B]

Don't worry, man, we're perfectly safe on this boat.

[E]

They won't attack anything bigger than they are.

[B]

How big is this boat?

[E]

Big enough.

[A]

How are the special effects in this film?

[B]

It's good. You know, this is a movie that I didn't watch when it came out. I watched it for the first time earlier this year doing the research for this series and I like it a lot. It stars Radha Mitchell, who is also, I think, the other face of 2000's horror. Also Sam Worthington from Avatar. So if anyone needs their Jake Sully fix before Avatar 3 drops, you can go straight to Rogue.

[A]

I wanted to go to the other.

[C]

Series that you curated. It's about John Carpenter, directed by John Carpenter for the Criterion Channel. What makes John Carpenter such a special director of horror? What is he really good at?

[B]

Well, first of all, I can't take credit for this shout out to my colleague Eliza Ma, who is really the programming brains of the Criterion Channel. I'm sorry, can you ask that question while I got distracted?

[C]

Oh, I said, what makes John Carpenter such a great.

[B]

Okay, so here's the thing about John Carpenter is that he's the kind of filmmaker that when you first get into these movies, you see John Carpenter movies and then you can keep going, you can watch other movies and then you go back to the John Carpenter movies and they're as good as they've always been. When we were talking earlier about, you know, what horror movies can do or genre movies can do, what do they have to. What, what are they? I'm tongue tied on this one. The thing about John Carpenter is that he is just the. A consummate master of genre in that his films don't necessarily try to say deeper things or have these deeper messages as much as they are these very lean, well built thrill machines that understand what genres they're working in. And I think surely he's one of the best filmmakers of this kind of.

[C]

What's a selection that you would give to someone who isn't that familiar with John Carpenter, a film that you would want them to watch?

[B]

I think a good entry point within this series would be something like they Live, which is a late 80s John Carpenter film in which rowdy Roddy Piper discovers this vast conspiracy in which the elite are actually aliens and he has to take them on. And this kills comes at a period of his career when after he had troubles with studios and then he went back to smaller, leaner films that he had more control over. And I just think that this is dynamite filmmaking.

[C]

Before we wrap up, is there anything else on your list of films that you curated for October? We got a couple left on the list. Anything else you want to get to before we wrap up?

[B]

That's a great question. You know, one film that I hadn't seen before that I was quite taken with, there's another Australian film called Lake Mungo, which is a fake documentary about a family whose daughter recently died and they think that she is maybe haunting them. Now, the thing about fake documentaries is that these can be some of the worst films you've ever seen for various reasons, and this is not one of them. This is a film by a filmmaker who only made one film. And I think it is a very complex, shape shifting film where you're never quite sure what footing you're on at any point. And I think it's very much worth watching.

[C]

My guest has been Clyde Foley. We were talking about the film series he curated for the criterion channel, 2000s horror and more. Clyde, it is always a pleasure to have you in studio. We really appreciate it.

[B]

Thank you so much for having me. This was very fun.

[G]

This is Ira Flato, host of Science Friday. For over 30 years, the science Friday team has been reporting high quality science and technology news, making science fun for curious people by covering everything from the outer reaches of space to the rapidly changing world of AI to the tiniest microbes in our bodies. Audiences trust our show because they know we're driven by a mission to inform and serve listeners first and first and foremost with important news they won't get anywhere else. And our sponsors benefit from that halo effect. For more information on becoming a sponsor, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.