In this week’s episode of Magical Mystery Media, Adam takes you on a strange journey through pop culture, folklore, and forgotten history – starting with the new film Weapons and ending with the real-life boy who inspired The Exorcist. This episode includes: A brief discussion of Weapons and its…
Magical Mystery Media
STRANGER THINGS & SQUID GAME in NY, Troma memories, INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, SEVERANCE & The Backrooms, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED True Story
From papercraft caveman clubs to shrinking men and viral mysteries unraveled… Adam shares memories of working with Troma Films in 1980s NYC, reflects on The Incredible Shrinking Man, and solves two internet mysteries: the real origin of a famous time-travel ad and the eerie photo that launched the Backrooms…
Magical Mystery Media
DARK WATER & Elisa Lam, PSYCHO & Ed Gein
Some stories are too disturbing – or too fresh – for dramatization. Adam reveals two chilling true stories he chose not to cover in his upcoming Shadow Play series: the disturbing case of Ed Gein, and the mysterious death of Elisa Lam. Plus, an update on the new podcast feed…
Research Journal
Olive Thomas Research Journal
EPISODE COMING SOON Olive Thomas haunts the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York. So they say. This is my favorite Broadway theatre. It is absolutely gorgeous, and Disney did an amazing job of restoring it after taking out a 99-year lease on the place. It’s also one of the most…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 10| A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Deaths, Shadow Men, Sleep Paralysis & Freddy Krueger
What if a dream could kill you? In this chilling episode of Film on the Fringe, Dr. Atom explores Wes Craven’s 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street and the terrifying true stories that inspired it. From the mysterious deaths of Hmong refugees in the 1980s to global folklore…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 9| Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick, and the Search for Reality: Cinema as Gnosis
What does it mean to be human? In this episode of Film on the Fringe, Dr. Atom revisits Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, tracing its unlikely transformation from misunderstood box office underperformer to one of the most philosophically rich films in science fiction history. We begin with personal reflections from the…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 8| The Last of Us and the Evolution of Zombies from Voodoo to Viral
The zombie apocalypse ain’t what it used to be. In this episode of Film on the Fringe, Dr. Atom takes us on an expansive journey through the evolution of the undead—from Haitian voodoo to post-pandemic paranoia. We begin with The Last of Us, where zombies aren’t reanimated corpses but victims…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 7| Jurassic Park, Bone Wars & Creationism: Dinosaurs in Story, Science, and Belief
Show Notes: Could we really bring back dinosaurs? In this episode of Film on the Fringe, Dr. Atom opens the gates to Jurassic Park with a personal story from the set—sharing his time working with Amblin and Universal during the film’s production. From there, the episode investigates the science behind…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 6| Gremlins – From WWII Folklore to Spielberg to Shadow in the Cloud
In this episode of Film on the Fringe, we explore the chaotic legacy of gremlins—not just the mischievous Mogwai of ’80s Amblin fame, but the ancient trickster archetype behind them. We begin with Shadow in the Cloud (2020), a high-flying feminist action-horror that places gremlins back in the skies of…
Film On the Fringe
|Film on the Fringe 5| The Quiet Ones / Creating a Ghost (Philip Experiment) / Derren Brown SEANCE / Global Consciousness Project
The Quiet Ones, the Philip Experiment, and the Power of Belief Join me, Dr. Atom, as we venture into the murky space between psychological manipulation and the supernatural. Today, we’re talking about The Quiet Ones (2014), a Hammer Films horror throwback inspired by one of the strangest real-world experiments ever…