Halloweenies: A Horror Franchise Podcast

Halloweenies takes the concept of a movie review podcast and narrows the focus to horror franchises, covering them one film at a time in chronological order. Co-hosts Justin Gerber, Dan Caffrey, McKenzie Gerber, Rachel Reeves, and Michael Roffman bring a genuine film criticism lens to movies that often get dismissed as disposable slashers. The podcast started with the Halloween franchise (hence the name) and has since worked through A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, and Alien. The current season covers the Universal Monsters. New episodes drop weekly and tend to run long, often pushing past two hours. That length is not padding. The hosts dig into production histories, box office performance, cultural context, and thematic analysis with the enthusiasm of people who clearly grew up loving these movies. The conversation style is relaxed and occasionally funny, but the analysis is substantive enough that you will notice things in familiar films you had never considered before. With 314 episodes and a 4.4 rating from over 1,000 reviews, Halloweenies has built a dedicated following among horror fans who want more than surface-level takes. The chronological franchise approach creates natural arcs as the hosts track how series evolve (and often decline) over decades. Watching a beloved franchise gradually lose its way is a specific kind of horror that this show captures well. The most recent episode covered The House of the Devil (2009), showing the hosts are willing to branch beyond strict franchise coverage when a film fits thematically. If you have ever wanted to understand why horror sequels exist and what they tell us about the audiences that keep watching them, Halloweenies is your show.