PODCAST · tv
Sitting in the Dark
by TruStory FM
Sitting in the Dark is a podcast about horror, but not the kind that hides in a single shadow. Each month, hosts Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, Chelsea Stardust, and Pete Wright pick a theme — an idea, a trope, a nightmare that keeps winding back — and explore it through three films that share its DNA. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they’re unexpected, and sometimes they lead you deeper into the maze than you expected to go. One month might bring The Drac Pack, three wildly different takes on cinema’s most famous vampire. Another, a journey through The Bride, the Boy, and the Firetruck, unpacking coded queer horror across decades. We’ve explored maternal terror in Mommy Acts This Way Because She Loves You, broken into the home-invasion subgenre, tiptoed through haunted houses, and stared down both classic monsters and blockbuster franchises. What ties it all together is a love of horror as a labyrinth — a twisting path where every turn reveals somet
Episodes
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The Working Dead
Before the zombie ate anybody, it went to work. It was a Haitian creature—a body without a will, dug up and put on a sugar plantation—and the horror wasn’t that it might come for you… no, not at all. The horror was that you might actually become one. That’s the whole thing.So Pete drags the room...
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Articles of Loathing
Haunted houses get all the attention, but at least a house stays where you put it. This month is about the other kind of haunting. The kind that comes home with you from the sale, the flea market, or just pounds away at your inbox.A videotape, a mirror, and ten audio files sent from an address…
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The Land of the Screams and the Home of De-Praved
Chelsea shows up to the Fourth of July with a "very loose theme" — fireworks and patriotism in horror — and then, somehow, makes it cohere. Blow Out, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Final Destination 3 have nothing to do with each other until you notice they're all doing the same trick:...
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AnimaDEAD!
Kynan takes the curator's chair this month and leads with the question they drilled into him in grad school: why does this have to be animated? Three films answer it three different ways, and every answer turns out to be about the same uncomfortable thing — somebody's body as raw material.Perfect...
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The AI Experience
AI. You may have noticed it's everywhere now — in your phone, your fridge, the suspiciously enthusiastic email your boss "wrote" last Tuesday. And cinema, bless its little reactive heart, has been trying to warn us about this for fifty years. The problem is we keep not listening, partly because…
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Invaders from Within
Tommy steps in as host this month with a triple feature about invaders that don't need to knock. Assassination Nation turns a Salem high school into a digital witch trial when a hacker dumps everyone's private data into the open. Return of the Living Dead lets the contamination loose inside a...
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Ultra-Low-Budget Horror: The Battery, Starry Eyes & Hellbender
What does it actually take to make a horror film that matters? Not a studio green light. Not a VFX budget. Not a catering line.This month, Chelsea Stardust curates three films that answer that question on their own uncompromising terms. Jeremy Gardner's The Battery strips the zombie apocalypse…
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BIG MONSTERS
This month on Sitting in the Dark, we go big: big monsters, big fear, and big systems that respond to catastrophe with the confidence of a guy who just Googled “what is monster” on his way into the meeting. Kynan, Chelsea Stardust, Tommy Metz III, and Pete Wright take on three modern…
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Overstayed
You know that moment when the room doesn’t change, exactly… but you do? A joke lands a little sideways, a silence settles in, and your brain starts doing that ridiculous math where staying feels safer than leaving—even when every part of you is quietly screaming, “Go.” That’s the engine of this...
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All Smiles
This month, Sitting in the Dark smiles politely, locks the door, and then asks you to reconsider every coping mechanism you’ve ever trusted. Tommy Metz III is joined by filmmaker Chelsea Stardust and Pete Wright to excavate the uneasy trilogy formed by Smile, Smile 2, and the short-film patient...
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Night of the...
The 1980s were a golden age of VHS horror excess — when night was the time to party, die, or both. This month, Chelsea Stardust takes the hosting reins and brings us a triple feature of midnight mayhem: Night of the Comet (1984), Night of the Creeps (1986), and Night of the Demons (1988). What...
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Sitting in the Dark... Literally
In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light.” But then, apparently, He got bored and switched it off just to see what would happen. Welcome to Sitting in the Dark, where this month Kynan, Chelsea, Tommy, and Pete explore what happens when filmmakers yank away humanity’s favorite nightlight....
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Death Edging with the Films of Final Destination
Sometimes horror doesn’t need a killer in a mask—it just needs gravity, leaky plumbing, and a loose screw. This week Pete, Tommy, Kynan, and Chelsea dive headlong into the beautifully deranged contraptions of fate in the Final Destination series. We zero in on films one, two, five, and six,...
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The Haunting Power of Belief: Folklore and Spirituality in Asian Horror
Out in the remote villages of South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand, belief isn’t just tradition—it’s infrastructure. In this month’s episode of Sitting in the Dark, guest host Andy Nelson takes Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, and Kynan Dias on a journey into three modern horror films that weaponize...
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Rug Pullers: Topsy-Turvy Horror Twists
Some horror films end with a twist. These films start with a premise, wait until you’ve buckled in, and then swerve into oncoming traffic. Welcome to Rug Pullers, the subgenre where the story you thought you were watching was the bait. This week, Tommy, Pete, Kynan, and guest Chelsea Stardust…
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The Drac Pack
Dracula may never stay dead, but his film incarnations sure evolve—or devolve—across decades. In this episode, Kyle Olson guides Pete Wright, Kynan Dias, and Tommy Metz III through three flavors of Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Dracula 2000, and Dracula Untold.They dig into Coppola’s...
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The Bride, The Boy, and the Firetruck: Coded Queer Horror Cinema
This Pride Month edition of Sitting in the Dark shines a lavender light on the long-standing but often invisible relationship between horror cinema and queer identity. Host Kynan Dias traces horror’s appeal to outsiders—particularly LGBTQ+ viewers—who find coded representation in monsters…
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Mommy Acts This Way Because she Loves You
Pete Wright hosts a brutally personal Mother’s Day episode of Sitting in the Dark, joined by regular co-conspirators Kyle Olson, Kynan Dias, and Tommy Metz III, as they dig into three films that ask a profoundly unsettling question: What if Mom is the monster?We start with Run (2020), a film…
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Location Location Location! Haunted Spaces and the Haunted People Within Them
Welcome, you depraved ghouls and ghost enthusiasts, to another episode of Sitting in the Dark—the podcast where we ask the truly vital horror questions, like, “Is this house cursed by restless spirits, or is it just what happens when unresolved trauma and black mold get into a knife fight?” This...
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Last Woman Standing
For nearly a century, horror films have told us a story—one of terror, of survival, of the inevitable confrontation between innocence and brutality. But there’s one story, in particular, that has evolved in ways both subtle and seismic: the story of the Final Girl.It begins in the shadows, in the...
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Sexy, Sexy Monsters
Welcome to Sitting in the Dark, the podcast that illuminates the shadowy corners of horror cinema. This month, your host, Kynan Dias, and a coven of his most insightful monster aficionados – Pete Wright, Kyle Olson, and Tommy Metz III – go under the sheets into a chillingly erotic realm: the...
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First Frights
What makes a single movie become a phenomenon? What is it about certain films—films that arrive in theaters, scare the daylights out of us, and then stay with us—that transforms them into franchises spanning decades? Why does one horror film birth sequels, spin-offs, reboots, and even TV shows,...
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Okay, BOOOOmer
Tommy, our intrepid host, plunges into the abyss of existential dread this week, dragging Kyle, Kynan, and Pete along for the harrowing ride. They grapple with three films that explore the unnerving realities behind the horrors of being an adult.First up, Vivarium. Imagine, if you will, the...
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The Most Dangerous Game
Richard Connell's 1924 short story, "The Most Dangerous Game," continues to haunt and inspire filmmakers nearly a century later. Its chilling premise of a wealthy sportsman hunting humans for sport has resonated through decades of cinema, influencing countless horror and thriller narratives. Join...
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Short Screams: The Art of Anthology Horror
This week on Sitting in the Dark, the gang tackles the world of horror anthologies. Host Kynan Dias, along with panelists Pete Wright, Kyle Olson, and Tommy Metz III, dissect three iconic films: Creepshow, Tales from the Hood, and Trick ‘r Treat. Buckle up for a spirited discussion on jump…
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Travel Season
Listen, you know that feeling, right? That prickle on the back of your neck when the train rattles through a tunnel, the lights flicker, and for a second, you're utterly alone in the dark? That's where we're going. Deep into the heart of travel horror, where the familiar becomes unsettling, and…
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Scream in a Box!
In this unnerving episode of Sitting in the Dark, host Tommy Metz III and his co-hosts delve into the spine-chilling world of confinement horror. The discussion focuses on three hand-picked films that trap characters in claustrophobic spaces, forcing them to confront their deepest fears. Want to...
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The British Invasion
This month, host Kyle Olson takes listeners on a chilling journey through the British Isles with a trio of alien invasion films. Joined by panelists Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, and Pete Wright, the group explores the 2012 Irish horror-comedy "Grabbers," along with "Attack the Block" and "The...
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Survival Horror
This month, Kynan, Tommy, Kyle and Pete dive deep into the terrifying world of survival horror. They leave no dark corners unexplored, from the creepy confines of Bodega Bay in Hitchcock’s classic The Birds, to the zombie-infested mall of Dawn of the Dead, the monster-filled hive of Resident…
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You Don’t Belong Here
The world is a beautiful place—stunning vistas, the highest mountains, and most expansive rivers. But what happens when we, puny humans, decide to make our pastime of exploring these natural wonders too aggressively? The environment gets aggressive back. This month on Sitting in the Dark, we...
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Lost in Translation: Deciphering the Unknown
Tommy is in the big chair leading us on a journey of discovery that leads… nowhere. That’s right, what do you get when you are forced to reckon the horrors of miscommunication? It’s nothing good… that’s what. The Mothman Prophecies, Dark Skies, and Midsommar are all on deck this week!And, because...
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Wuxia Unleashed: Leon Hunt & Chris Hamm on Martial Arts and Myth • Cinema Scope • Bonus Episode
In this inaugural episode of Cinema Scope, host Andy Nelson is joined by professors Leon Hunt and Chris Hamm to explore the captivating world of wuxia, a Chinese film genre that blends philosophy, action, and legend. They discuss the key elements that define wuxia, such as the chivalrous heroes,...
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Terrors of the Deep
The oceans hold unfathomable mysteries and horrors in their lightless depths. In this episode, Kyle Olson returns to lead the hosts of Sitting in the Dark—Tommy Metz III, Ray DeLancey, and Pete Wright—as they dive deep to confront three tales of terror from beneath the waves.They begin with…
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House on Haunted Hill of Wax • Vincent Price Remakes
Gather round the flickering candlelight, boils and ghouls! In this special episode of Sitting in the Dark, Ray DeLancey welcomes two macabre mavens to the morbid merriment: Pete Wright and Tommy Metz III. Together, these horror hounds aim to dig up the decaying details on two Vincent Price…
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Slay Ride: When Holiday Icons Rampage
What happens when the symbols of our holidays themselves turn against us? What if we find ourselves running not from Frankenstein or Dracula or some other manifestation of desire and technology run amok but we're running from murderous Saint Nick himself? What happens when the things we celebrate...
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Filtered Reality: Found Footage, Screenlife, and the Epistolary Tradition
On this episode of Sitting in the Dark, host Tommy Metz III is joined by Pete Wright and Andy Nelson for an exploration of found footage and epistolary films. As Tommy explains, the goal is to examine how certain horror movies have upheld the literary epistolary tradition on screen through the…
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Silver Screen Shapeshifters: A Study of Werewolves in Cinema
This month, our fine teacher Ray DeLancey and his sidekicks Pete Wright and Tommy Metz III dive headfirst into the hairy world of werewolves in film. They're howling over flicks like The Wolf Man, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Howling, Wolfen, An American Werewolf in London, Wolf, Ginger Snaps,...
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From R'lyeh to Yuggoth: A Journey into Lovecraft's Dread
We gather 'round dim candlelight To delve where sanest avoid sight Into twisted worlds that Lovecraft penned Where cosmic terrors apprehensions rend These truths not meant for mortal brain But like those in Lovecraftian vein Drawn by fascination grim and dire To learn what none should e'er…
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Skinamarinking in the Dark
One of the things we find so interesting about Skinamarink is that it might just be unspoilable. Don’t get me wrong… we try to spoil it, sure. But, just as all films are largely a partnership between viewer and creators, this one is supercharged by your own fear in a way that we find difficult to...
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Possessed! by Lester and Kynan of The Exorcist Minute!
Welcome to another month in the Dark! This time we’re taking on those head-turning, wall-clinging, priest-punching pests, DEMONS and the poor saps they possess! What business do we have doing all this? Well, some, but we level up this month with a few very special guests. Lester Ryan Clark is...
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Buzzed and Confused: How The Fly became a Classic Horror Icon
Hey there, horror fans! We’re back in the basement where we're talking all things The Fly. How did this underdog of a movie become such a success? And seriously, how does a movie about a man turning into a fly work so well on the screen? We're taking a trip back in time to the 1950s when paranoia...
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Terrifying Trespassers: A Cinematic Exploration of Unwanted Company
It's dark. The middle of the night. Wait, did you hear that? The sliding door to the back of your house? That creak in the floorboard? Did the dog just bark, or was that a dream? You're all alone in your home... but are you? This month, Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, and Ray DeLancey come together...
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Tommy’s Terror Trope Tutorials • Book of the Vampyre and Final Girls
Our very own Tommy Metz leads us on a harrowing tale of tropes this month. We start with the Book of the Vampyre as depicted in 1922's "Nosferatu" and beyond, then pose the most important question three men could ask about horror movies: is the Final Girl a feminist icon? Nosferatu Clip #1...
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Frankenstein Lives
Frankenstein is one of our own Ray DeLancey’s favorite classic monsters. And as our resident scholar, he jumps to the front of the class to take Pete Wright and Kyle Olson to school.We start with Edison’s own “Frankenstein,” the first cinematic adaptation from 1910, which you can watch yourself...
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Horror Fans... We meet in the basement
A new series from TruStory FM exploring horror in film across classics and subgenres with Kyle Olson, Tommy Metz, Ray DeLancey, and Pete Wright. This week, we’re just dipping our toes in the darkness with a bit of background on our journey with film horror. Tommy and Ray are experienced…
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Join Us... Sitting in the Dark!
Welcome to Sitting in the Dark, a podcast exploring horror in film across classics and subgenres with Kyle Olson, Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, and Pete Wright.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Sitting in the Dark is a podcast about horror, but not the kind that hides in a single shadow. Each month, hosts Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, Chelsea Stardust, and Pete Wright pick a theme — an idea, a trope, a nightmare that keeps winding back — and explore it through three films that share its DNA. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they’re unexpected, and sometimes they lead you deeper into the maze than you expected to go.
One month might bring The Drac Pack, three wildly different takes on cinema’s most famous vampire. Another, a journey through The Bride, the Boy, and the Firetruck, unpacking coded queer horror across decades. We’ve explored maternal terror in Mommy Acts This Way Because She Loves You, broken into the home-invasion subgenre, tiptoed through haunted houses, and stared down both classic monsters and blockbuster franchises.
What ties it all together is a love of horror as a labyrinth — a twisting path where every turn reveals somet
HOSTED BY
TruStory FM
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Sitting in the Dark have?
Sitting in the Dark currently has 46 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Sitting in the Dark about?
Sitting in the Dark is a podcast about horror, but not the kind that hides in a single shadow. Each month, hosts Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, Chelsea Stardust, and Pete Wright pick a theme — an idea, a trope, a nightmare that keeps winding back — and explore it through three films that share its...
How often does Sitting in the Dark release new episodes?
Sitting in the Dark has 46 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Sitting in the Dark?
You can listen to Sitting in the Dark on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Sitting in the Dark?
Sitting in the Dark is created and hosted by TruStory FM.
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