With the short break from our originally planned episodes for the start of 2025 still ongoing, Steven & Sean have taken the opportunity to indulge in a little passion-project of theirs!

Italian horror fans are in for a treat as we delve into the four early films of Michele Soavi. Starting with the Joe D'Amato produced 'StageFright' (1987), then the Dario Argento co-scripted and produced 'The Church' (1989) and 'The Sect' (1991) and finally, the self-produced 'Cemetery Man', or 'Dellamorte Dellamore' (1994).

We thoroughly enjoyed deep-diving these, frankly crazy, movies and so we will definitely revisiting the topic of Italian Horror and Exploitation films again in the near future, with another director taking the spotlight.

Enjoy!

In a very last minute change to our December episode, Steven and Sean wrap up 2024 in cinema to discuss the highs and lows of the year including new movies, legacy re-releases and stand-out physical media releases of the year.

Still pumped from our summer series in which we covered the major subgenres of science fiction in cinema, Steven, Benjamin and Sean have decided to revisit the topic in this bonus episode! We'll each be picking a film that we believe exemplifies the traits of all the subgenres we discussed previously: Time Travel, Science Out of Control/Machine Over Man, Dystopia/Utopia, Post Apocalypse, Alien Contact/Alien Invasion, Cyber/Steam/Bio Punk, and Space Opera, and explain why we think each is a shining example! Amazingly, we resisted mentioning Star Trek... OK, maybe once... but only briefly!

Expect to hear our thoughts on the wonders of Planet of the Apes (1968), Serenity (2005), Timecrimes, or Los cronocrímenes (2007), Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990-1991), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and many more!

We’re back for Part 2 of our Halloween Hellraiser Special! On this episode, Steven, Benjamin and Sean unpack the remaining movies in the Hellraiser series, including Rick Bota’s Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), Hellraiser: Deader (2005) and Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), followed by Victor Garcia’s Hellraiser: Revelations (2011), Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s Hellraiser: Judgement, and finally David Bruckner’s reboot, Hellraiser (2022) before we each give our rankings to the series’ entries.

So, strap in and enjoy! Hopefully, your suffering won’t be legendary, even in hell!

Happy Halloween!

Continuing with our usual horror franchise "Halloween Special" format, this year Sean has picked the long running Hellraiser series for us to have a good old yarn over, across two episodes! Starting with the original 1987 movie based on The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and directed by the man himself, the film series has developed over the years into all manor of miss-fires and return to forms alike! In part one we're discussing Hellraiser (1987), Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) and Hellraiser V: Inferno (2000) and seeing which are hit or miss for the three of us! Enjoy! x

We're back for part 2 of our Kathryn Bigelow theatrical retrospective! Things get a little heated on this episode with divided opinions between Steven, Benjamin and Sean as we discuss a more drama-focused and historically themed selection of movies from our beloved Bigelow, including; The Weight of Water (2000), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Detroit (2017).

It's Steven's choice for our latest director deep-dive and this time he has picked Kathryn Bigelow!

With numerous accolades to her name, a filmography that runs the gamut from iconic cult horror to Oscar winning war drama, and one of the finest action directors of a generation, Bigelow has long been a high ranking filmmaker for the three of us at Film Utopia.

We have split her 10 theatrical releases neatly across two episodes starting here with part one, covering; The Loveless (1981), Near Dark (1987), Blue Steel (1990), Point Break (1991) and Strange Days (1995). Join us as we explore this eclectic mix of movies, many of which have significant nostalgia appeal to the three of us. Enjoy!

Steven, Benjamin and Sean conclude their look at science fiction subgenres with an examination of the bizarre fascination with placing the noun ‘punk’ after various technological descriptors to create a subgenre within a subgenre for seemingly no other reason than superficial aesthetics. While Sean and Benjamin can barely contain their disdain for this labelling trend, Steven valiantly attempts to keep things on track as we talk our way through the subgenre in cinema, including Johnny Mnemonic (1995), The Matrix (1999), Mortal Engines (2018), Treasure Planet (2002), eXistenZ (1999), The City of Lost Children (1995), Upgrade (2018), Blade Runner (1982) and many more. Fun fact; Star Trek doesn’t get mentioned for the first and only time in this entire series!