This week on Friday Night Frightfest, we are heading back to Haddonfield, Illinois, to examine two wildly different approaches to continuing slasher royalty! Few horror icons have had their timelines rewritten, rebooted, and retconned as often as Michael Myers. We are pairing the notorious early-2000s reality-TV experiment Halloween: Resurrection (2002) with the blockbuster, timeline-cleansing direct sequel Halloween (2018). Grab your coveralls and mind the kitchen knives—it's time to see how the Shape adapted to two very different eras.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Directed by Rick Rosenthal, Halloween: Resurrection embraced the dawn of the internet age and early-2000s reality television. The story follows a group of college students who win a contest to spend the night livestreaming from Michael Myers' abandoned childhood home for an online show hosted by an ambitious producer (Busta Rhymes). Equipped with head-mounted webcams, the participants think it’s all a staged publicity stunt—until the real Shape returns home to clear out the trespassers. Campy, fast-paced, and wildly characteristic of its era, it stands as a fascination capsule of early-2000s slasher tropes.
Halloween (2018)
Sixteen years later, director David Gordon Green and Blumhouse took a radically different approach by wiping the slate clean—ignoring every sequel after John Carpenter’s 1978 original. The film picks up forty years after that fateful Halloween night, with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) living as a heavily armed, traumatized recluse who has spent decades preparing for Michael’s inevitable escape from a maximum-security institution. When his prison transport crashes, Laurie must protect her daughter (Judy Greer) and granddaughter (Andi Matichak) in a fierce, multi-generational battle for survival. Brutal, grounded, and emotionally charged, it re-established Michael Myers as an unfeeling force of nature.
Join us as we contrast these two radically different chapters in the Myers mythos!
Spoilers start around 6:02.
25 Sept 2026
Hell House LLC - Origins: The Carmichael Manor and Lineage
This week on Friday Night Frightfest, we are diving headfirst back into the terrifying universe of writer-director Stephen Cognetti! The Hell House LLC series has quietly evolved from a sleeper found-footage hit into one of the most intricate modern horror mythologies. Today, we are analyzing how the franchise reinvented itself by exploring two connected chapters: the atmospheric standalone prequel Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023) and the epic lore-capping sequel Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025). Keep a close eye on the static—and whatever you do, don't look directly at the clown mannequins.
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)
Shifting the nightmare away from the Abaddon Hotel, Origins takes us to a remote estate in upstate New York with a dark history of its own. A pair of internet sleuths and a family member set up camp at the Carmichael Manor to investigate the mysterious unsolved deaths of a family back in the late 1980s. As they dig into old tapes and unearthed records, they quickly realize that the haunting inside the manor is tied directly to the origins of the sinister cult behind Abaddon. Utilizing brilliant spatial tension, eerie security camera feeds, and those deeply unsettling clown mannequins that seem to move when no one is looking, The Carmichael Manor proved that the franchise could deliver pure, skin-crawling scares outside its original setting.
Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025)
Building on the lore established in Carmichael Manor, Lineage brought the series full circle for an ambitious, multi-generational finale. The story centers on a survivor haunted by recurring nightmares and strange visions, who finds herself drawn back to the town of Abaddon to unravel the ultimate mystery of the cult's influence. Connecting the dots between the original Abaddon Hotel tragedy, the Carmichael family lineage, and the supernatural forces at play, the film expands the scale of the universe while keeping the raw, claustrophobic found-footage style fans love. Filled with chilling lingering shots, dark corridors, and shocking lore reveals, it serves as a terrifying, fitting culmination of the entire saga.
Join us as we break down the evolution of the Hell House universe! We’ll discuss how Stephen Cognetti uses silence and static camera angles to build dread, comparing the isolated mystery of The Carmichael Manor with the sweeping narrative payoff of Lineage.
Spoilers start around 9:20.
11 Sept 2026
Hokum and Caveat
This week on Friday Night Frightfest, we are diving into the deeply unsettling, atmosphere-soaked mind of Irish horror auteur Damian McCarthy! McCarthy has quickly become one of the most exciting voices in modern horror. We are pairing his claustrophobic feature debut Caveat (2020) with his haunting folk-horror feature Hokum (2026). Keep your lights on—things are about to get deeply unnerving.
Caveat (2020)
Written and directed by McCarthy, Caveat is a masterclass in slow-burn, spatial dread. The story follows Isaac (Jonathan French), a man struggling with memory loss who accepts a strangely specific job: house-sit for a troubled young woman in an isolated, decaying home. The catch? Unexplained security measures strictly limit where he can walk inside the house. As Isaac explores his surroundings and stumbles across a series of unsettling oddities—including a eerie, drum-playing toy rabbit—he begins to realize that his host, and the house itself, are hiding sinister secrets. It’s a lean, inventive thriller that weaponizes physical restriction to build overwhelming tension.
Hokum (2026)
Stepping into a broader setting while keeping that signature eerie atmosphere, McCarthy’s Hokum shifts the terror to a quiet Irish countryside steeped in local legend. The film follows a skeptical American investigator (Adam Scott) who travels to a remote village to look into longstanding regional superstitions and dark local lore. What begins as an effort to separate fact from fiction quickly spirals as the town's unsettling atmosphere closes in on him. Atmospheric, paranoid, and layered with quiet dread, Hokum explores how thin the line really is between harmless myth and genuine terror.
Join us as we break down Damian McCarthy’s distinct brand of storytelling!
Spoilers start around 5:50.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.8 / 5
4 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
87
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
68
Contact Friday Night Frightfest
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about Friday Night Frightfest
Who hosts Friday Night Frightfest?
hosts of Friday Night Frightfest host the show. Published by GeekProfs.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes bi-weekly, based on its RSS feed.
Does Friday Night Frightfest take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
Host of Friday Night Frightfest?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
