The M3 Bearcast from Male Media Mind
The M3 Bearcast from Male Media Mind
Horror's Overdue Time w/ Mark
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M3 Bearcast EP 92: Horror's Overdue Time w/ Mark o Estes
In this compelling episode of the M3 Bearcast, host Malcolm Travers sits down with horror specialist and podcaster Mark Estes (host of Midnight Social Distortion) to discuss a historic moment in cinema. Recorded just as the supernatural horror film Sinners shattered records with 16 Academy Award nominations, the duo dives deep into the shifting landscape of genre filmmaking.
They explore the "scary" reality of modern horror—from the industry's elitist tendency to label complex films as "elevated horror" to the groundbreaking production deal Ryan Coogler struck for Sinners. Malcolm and Mark break down why horror has historically been snubbed by the Academy and why this film's technical ambition and unapologetic Blackness might finally "beat the rap."
Key Discussion Points:
- The Sinners Phenomenon: Breaking down the 16 Oscar nominations and the film's innovative use of IMAX aspect ratios and practical effects.
- The Black Horror Renaissance: How films like Get Out resurfaced the genre and the influence of scholars like Tananarive Due and Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman.
- Fan Culture & Intellectual Property: A critical look at how "fandom" and rigid expectations regarding existing IPs (like Marvel or Stranger Things) can stifle original creativity.
- Looking Ahead to 2026: Sneak peeks at upcoming projects, including the Crystal Lake series, the Buffy revival, and highly anticipated books from NK Jemisin and Johnny Compton.
"Horror doesn't have to be schlocky. We have horror scholars... Sinners is bringing attention and saying that horror can be moving, philosophical, and technically groundbreaking." — Mark Estes
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M3 Bearcast EP 92 Horror's Overdue Time
M3 Bearcast EP 92 Horror's Overdue Time
Speaker 3: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the M three Bear Cast. My name is Malcolm Travers. Male Media Mind is a grassroots organization dedicated to uplifting and unifying our community through dialogue, insight, creativity, and knowledge. And on this podcast, I bring up issues around communication, relationships, spirituality, mental health and self-development that I bring up on my live streams.
Every Wednesday at 7:00 PM Eastern on YouTube. And this time I actually have a conversation with a guest who's a podcaster himself. He talks a lot about horror, specifically Black Horror on Midnight Social Distortion. He has actually been a former host on some of the M three shows as well, and we talk about Sinners and the Academy Awards.
At this point in the conversation centers had just received 16 Academy Award nominations and. A lot of conversation was had about the reasons why horror [00:01:00] doesn't do well at the Academy Awards, and we just talk about the modern landscape of online discussions, genre and criticism from ips intellectual.
We talk about the way that criticism circulates online, especially with. Intellectual properties that people are expecting certain results from their,
we talk about intellectual, we talk about the way that movies and television that are derived from intellectual properties tend to be stifled by online communities who have. Very strict expectations about what they're going to get when they consume media nowadays, and it was a very interesting conversation and I wanted to publish it before the Academy Awards aired this weekend.
I hope you enjoy it. Here I bring you Mark Estes.
Malcolm: I wanted to give you a chance to record a topic of your own, or maybe we can just turn the conversation in another direction. I had an idea for you. I, it is a completely unrelated idea.
We could talk about just the landscape of horror currently because, you are a huge horror fan. I'm curious as to what you think the landscape of horror is right now. I was gonna use the news of the Oscars nominations. It is what January 24th?
Mark: Yes.
Malcolm: And, sinners just got 16 nominations.
Mark: Yes.
Malcolm: It broke the record for nominations of any movie, and it just happens to be a horror movie. Which a lot of people are just like, horror movies don't win Oscars. Yeah. I think y'all [00:02:00] might be wrong this time. I'm just gonna say that.
Mark: The, so, but to answer your question about the horror landscape right now,
Malcolm: yeah,
Mark: it's scary.
And let me explain that. Because the hard community, let's just say, I'm not gonna say the gatekeepers, but let's just say the big wigs, the people who do, the blogs that you know, like bloody Disgusting and Dread Central and publications like FGO and Ru Mor Magazine, Hora Hound, and all this stuff, they're championing anything that brings horror to the forefront.
Hard to the mainstream media, and I don't like, I don't like using the term mainstream media. I'm gonna say mainstream audiences because we've always been considered, our fans have been considered like the crazies of the film community because there a lot of heels that certain people would die on, and they'd be like, oh, it makes, filmmaking or [00:03:00] film watching or the, the joy of being a cile, it sours it.
For some people, and I'm not speaking for everybody, but I just know that there is like this snooty nature when it comes to horror and sometimes certain people in the film industry, whether they are. Loggers, whether they are producers, studio heads or something like that, the studio heads Now, on the other hand, they don't care about they all, all they're looking at is the end game, the money, is it making money?
We can make another one 'cause of the fans want,
Malcolm: right?
Mark: But I feel that with Centers sinners, the, the reason why I say the landscape is scary is because sinners did what get out, launch. And the reason why I'm using Get Out because again, for those who don't know Malcolm probably would say this in the intro, I don't know, but I trying to toot my own horn, but I specialize in black horror, especially this black, gay [00:04:00] participation in horror in general, but some of the.
People who follow like the, the, the pioneers like RA do who is a black hard writer. She's a black hard professor as well. Her, her and her husband, Steven Barnes. Then you have Kametra Brooks, not, not Kametra, but Kenitra Brooks and Dr. Robert, Robert, excuse me. Dr. Robert r means Coleman who gave us the, the textbook on Black Horror.
That's, that's called horror No War. Reason why I'm saying all this is because like I said, get out, launch this whole, it not launched, but it resurfaced the black horror sub genre. And we've got a lot of, more people behind the scenes, behind the studio, behind the, excuse me, production companies.
To produce black horror. This is Ryan Kugler's first foray into horror period. And the, I I'm getting to the point, y'all. I really am. I'm what I'm trying, I'm trying to set up these pieces to explain that the horror community, the right people in the horror community are happy about these nominations.
Because the last thing that was considered [00:05:00] horror that actually won big in the best, best picture category was Silence of the Lambs. But you know, the film people would tell you, oh, that's a psychological thriller. That's the, that's akin to saying that hereditary is elevated horror. You know what I'm saying?
People, a lot of horror heads hate that term elevated horror because it's saying that, and it's saying without saying no, it's saying without, actually, it's saying that horror. Itself is subpar, and for something to get like a visceral reaction from a non horror fan, like somebody who doesn't go see horror movies like that, probably enjoy the hell out of hereditary or even sin.
And it just, that's what they try to call it. Elevated hard because it el it.
Malcolm: I was gonna
Mark: Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Malcolm: I was gonna point out a few things about it that, I've been kind of getting into it with Greg about centers and I said, 'cause he would go into the idea that, yo, the, the Academy doesn't award horror and it doesn't award black [00:06:00] films.
And I said, the things, the reason behind that is racism and
Mark: Right.
Malcolm: We can just be honest about that and the, the sort of elitism, but. At the end of the day, I think the reason why it doesn't get the votes is because people have not seen the movie. Like these old white people have not seen that movie.
Sinners got mass appeal, like it was widely seen. It was also technically ambitious.
In ways that any sort of film nerd would appreciate. The way that it was filmed in both the widest and tallest aspect ratios at the same time
On IMAX literally broke ground. Like I, I think it was the first movie in its ever to be filmed in that particular way.
He also paid homage to classic filmmaking techniques and shied away from. Digital effects in, in favor of [00:07:00] practical, effects for even, their eyes glowing, were done with contact lenses instead of, animation. I think those sorts of things appeal to classic film nerds. I think it just does.
Mark: Yeah.
Malcolm: Then the, the aspect of music being very central to the themes of the movie, it was almost like a faux musical in a sense. A full on musical, but yeah, a few large musical pieces in it. Also fucking, the Academy loves that shit. They really do.
Mark: They, they do not love horror and that is why I feel that.
It's scary because we are banking on this movie to win something, but it'll be great for it to take home best picture and best director and original screenplay. I know a lot of people tend to look at like the best actor and best, supporting actor actresses and stuff like that.
Malcolm: Yeah.
Mark: But I feel like with this [00:08:00] particular cast and what Brian Coler and Proximity Media set out to do, they did something that a few storied and revered white directors was not able to do.
And that's where the scary part comes in at. It's because going into the award season sentence was the movie that everybody was talking about, and then out of nowhere, here we go with Marty Supreme. Now I've kind of tried to veer myself out of the conversation because no matter what you tell me, no matter what you saw last year.
What I saw, I knew when I saw sin that there was not gonna be a damn thing that's gonna come two feet close to being, being in the top being my number one movie of the year. So when, yeah. So when Marty Supreme comes out and it's like all these, people talking about how great it is and that it's the movie of the year.
And I was like, I thought that one day one thing after another was gonna be the movie that was going to be, like right [00:09:00] up there with sinners because, they're the ones that, had all the, accolades of the year. And I'm like, this movie Martin Supreme just came out of nowhere and just okay.
But I think it's kinda what this guy said on Instagram. He says it's the Timothy Show Chala MA effect where a lot of people are just trying to make this movie win because Hollywood. Is doing this pussyfooting thing with sins. I don't know if or not. But Ryan Coogler had a D for this movie to get made.
Ryan Coler made a deal that shook Hollywood to its core. And the deal was that after 25 years, not only does he get all the money up front for this movie, but after 25 years, the rights and everything concern the sentence reversed back to him.
So nobody, everybody was, I remember when all the articles came out this is this is unheard of, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
That Tarantino, [00:10:00] I think had a similar, a somewhat same deal. Nobody blinked
Malcolm: it on. Yeah. With the, was it Hollywood movie? I can't remember. What's the
Mark: Once upon a time in Hollywood,
Malcolm: once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he got the same deal for that movie.
Mark: But nobody blink to eye. But the fact that not only but here, just to wrap it up with what I was saying about the state of, of horror and h and all that, right now horror fans are excited, they're happy that this movie is doing, is that it?
Let's just say that it's the right people are happy. That it is doing is bringing attention.
Malcolm: Right.
Mark: Cause of spin to horror and saying that horror doesn't have to be, it's not always locky. You can, we have horror scholars and stuff like that. We can take something like, you might think of hell, I'm just gonna say something like Halloween that people might sit there and look at as the current audiences and people who are not deep into horror might look at that as oh, it's the Boogie Man, or the Knife and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then we go into the aspects of how the, the reason why Halloween is so effective to not just the horror fan, but to the average movie goer in the time, se we, we, you, you, if you want to look for that, you can find it.
And that type of discourse with something like Sinners, it, let's just say like this, A lot of people had a lot of stuff to say. Some of it might not have been from knowledge standpoint, but more along the lines of this is to how I feel and do, do, do. And people, let's just say there's a lot of [00:11:00] people who are not film critics and a lot of people who are not film or horror, fans who took the story of sinners and got a lot out of it.
And a lot that they saw a lot of the white horror fans or white people do not like. This is where all the, this is where the scariest, because you got a lot of people who are making it known that they will sit there and rather anything outside of Ryan Cougar winning an Oscar for this movie that was so unapologetically black.
That's where the fear comes in at because horror, horror, the horror community as a whole is yeah, they'll sit there and say something about, oh Amy Madison was nominated for weapons as I, Gladys, and that's a great thing. Horror is really sitting there doing this. I'm like, yeah, but you got sinners that did record breaking numbers and brought people to the theater.
For the original horror film that has no that no ip, because up until this point, everything that Ryan [00:12:00] Cougar had put out was either based on some true story or it was an IP that was pre, this is his first original work.
Malcolm: Yeah, I was gonna say, I think there's a lot of behind the scenes work that was done on this movie that it would be a shame if he didn't win Best Director to me.
Mark: Right.
Malcolm: It's almost like a shoe. It is I don't know, to me it feels like a shoe in, but but yeah, there's a lot of headwinds against that. Like you were saying, the, the fact that people don't like horror, but I think a lot of times when I was having these conversations, I said, there are reasons why people don't like horror.
It's not just like a. A natural aversion to it. I think for one, I think it's just sometimes what people don't watch, right?
Some people just don't like being scared, right? They don't watch horror because they don't want to be afraid. They don't wanna be up at night and anxious and whatever.
That's just a thing. It's a preference. And I think there's a thing to that. I knew a lot of people who, when I recommended them, go see sinners were the same ideas. I was like, I don't like horror. I don't wanna see. I didn't see any va. I was, like I said, just close your eyes around the stuff that you don't wanna see.
I promise you'll still enjoy the movie. 'Cause this, [00:13:00] there are only a few shots of some violence. I think the majority of the, the, the plot of the movie you can enjoy. And there's very few times like thinking about it. I showed it to my mom and she can't, she can't deal with any kind of harm.
The only time she freaked out was the scene in which, I forget. Where, what's his name? Stack? It was a stack who was turned. He was locked in the room.
Mark: Yeah.
Malcolm: And he stuck the knife through the door. My mom jumped.
Mark: Oh.
Malcolm: That was literally the only jump scare that she had. I think maybe one time when, you know, but I'm just saying she really hates anything scary.
I tried to get her to watch him, him and him and hers on Netflix.
Mark: Is it scary?
Malcolm: It's not.
Mark: Oh,
Malcolm: that's what I'm saying. Like it's not even that scary. It's a murder mystery.
Mark: Oh, I'm gonna say
Malcolm: she watches.
Mark: Okay.
Malcolm: She watches murder mysteries all the time. It's just a murder mystery. But it has scary music at the beginning too.
I'm not watching this. Oh, okay. She hates scary 100%. And she watched sin. So the point I'm getting at is I think Centers is going to [00:14:00] beat the rap on. The horror genre being disowned in award seasons because it's not that scary. It's not gonna make the people who hate horror for being scary to not watch it.
Like they will watch it. They will. They will love it. Like it is beautiful. It is moving. It's philosophical, it's sad. It's emotional,
it's not great music. It's like a great film.
Mark: It's a great film and I feel like,
Malcolm: I just don't, I don't see it. I understand the apprehension, but since we're recording, I'm saying right here, I don't think it's gonna, I think it's gonna be the winner of the Oscar season.
It's not gonna get all 16 of them, but I guarantee you it's going to be in the running for the most wins. Of the night,
Mark: I pray, because I think that when it comes to the Oscars, those are the side about the peers, like other actors [00:15:00] and directors. And when I tell you there's been so many people who have championed this movie as far as the first weekend it came out, you had, when the Variety wrote the funky Ass article, Ben Steeler, actually stood up and said something then, then you got people like Christopher Nolan and I forgot the other director that recently sat with Ryan Coler.
They love this movie. 'Cause the movie, 'cause I feel like the reason why like story and, popular directors are, now, renowned directors like Steven Spielberg and mark Scorsese and people like that are championing this movie because it's like, this is a win for guys like us where we're not.
Hold into a studio head or a slate to get something out. We can produce our, we, we we're coming back, Africa know everybody was talking about superhero fatigue and all this IP taking up, the box office and everything, where something like the Godfather would probably like flounder right now in the box at the box office because, but it's like, again, for [00:16:00] somebody black to do that
Malcolm: Yeah.
Mark: And not just do that, but do that at such a young age in their career. It's a lot of jealousy behind it. So with the Yeah, I can
Malcolm: see
Mark: that too. Yeah. That's what I'm kind of hoping with the Oscars.
'cause Golden Globes, if I'm not mistaken, that is. I think critics take place in debt like voting the debt, I should know
Malcolm: this. Yeah. I kind let go of the Golden Globes. 'cause at one point they had a scandal of people just paying for the awards. Yeah. I was like, I'm I'm okay with that.
Mark: Yeah.
Malcolm: The, the Oscars have, the main issue that they have is that a lot of former actors and directors are still a part of
Mark: Right.
Malcolm: Your body. A lot of people who are up there in age basically make the decision. So we're talking about people who made movies back in the seventies and eighties, like who have, maybe fallen off or whatever are the main people making these decisions. But you're right, there are certain headwinds that popular directors and and popular directors and filmmakers get to decide for, what is popular? They, they get to make the trends, so to speak.
Lemme see, let me get this real quick.
[00:17:00] Yeah. So, yeah, it's I'm, I'm here for it. I don't know. But what else was beyond centers? 'Cause Sinners is literally the only movie I saw in theaters this year or last year. Nailed. I don't, I don't really go to the movies. I went, I loved it so much, I went back and saw it again. So I did see it twice.
But, yeah, but
there's
Mark: glad you experienced that in theaters though. I'm really glad you did.
Malcolm: Yeah, I wish I'd gotten a chance to see it in imax, but you know,
Mark: oh, the
Malcolm: theater experience was good though.
Mark: I saw it. Bad boy at imax. Yeah. I took off the entire weekend to see it in imax. I saw it Thursday evening and I saw it again that Friday morning.
Both times the iMac screenings were crowded and this came out in April, so
It be crowded down here in Memphis that early in the afternoon, I went to go see. It was wild. And I being that it was gonna be something special.
Malcolm: Yeah, it was. I mean, it was, it was really something,
Mark: yeah.
Malcolm: Talking about,
Mark: but I feel that the state of horror as a whole last year had some very big bangers, like weapons, was another one that I was not [00:18:00] expecting.
Malcolm: Yeah.
Mark: To like so much. But when I tell you something like sinners it is like it set the stage last year because I mean, before that you hit a, the movie called Hard Eyes, which was about the Valentine's Day slash It was a, it was aro, it was a rom comedy. Oh, horror rom-com is what I'm trying to say.
So, it had the rom-com, tropes with slasher elements to it, and that was a great start for last year. I think something came out between that and centers that I cannot remember that I did see, but once I saw centers I was like. Made an odds beat in your favor for wherever wants to replace this damn movie.
'cause you're not gonna do it. You're not gonna do it. Even the Marvel movies that came out last year were, like I said, I enjoyed that. I say bad, excuse me, thunderbolts and Fantastic four. I also enjoyed Superman. I enjoyed even the found Destination bloodlines, but I knew that nobody was going to touch centers.
Horror hit a good year last year. Not just in the mainstream [00:19:00] aspect of it, but in the independent and streaming ar arena for horror. There was a lot of the if you haven't seen Good Boy yet, that was a good one that came out last year. Oh yeah. Hell, I'm surprised that the Dog of Good Boy wasn't nominated for an award because I
Malcolm: saw that it did get some for other awards.
Mark: I've been an Academy Award because Oh,
Malcolm: academy Award? Okay. Yeah. I never seen
Mark: a dog.
Malcolm: Is it even possible for them to get an Academy Award?
Mark: I don't know, but I just dunno know when it, it did win an award against, I think it was Michael B. Jordan, somebody else. And as much as I love Michael B.
Jordan as Stack and spoke and sin Andy the Dogg really did they thing. I'm just saying because I've never seen a dog. I mean, I fell for the dog the entire movie because I was like, yo, your owner ain't shit. You know what I'm saying? Because weird shit is going on and you are just,
Malcolm: I'm pretty sure got a viewer choice award.
I do remember the dog.
Mark: Yeah. So we had some great stories. It all goes down to some of the studios have to be willing to let directors take those big swings [00:20:00] and let them do their thing because even though Water Brothers. They said that was like a biding war for sinners when it came out. And that's how Warner Brothers wanted because they were okay with, his Ryan Kugler's demands where he said he just wanted to, the move was all about protecting, your, your it's about ownership and how ownership Yeah.
Agency and stuff like that. And so
Malcolm: ain't nothing wrong. It's like Warner Brothers is up for sale by Netflix now.
Mark: Yeah. Which is wild. I mean, it's
Malcolm: wild as fuck.
Mark: So, that, that's another thing about Hollywood that's scary. Everything is set stone, you know what I'm saying? And now you got Netflix, what the fuck you need Warner Brothers for?
You know what I'm saying? And then on top of that, you got the whole thing about theatrical releases. So I would say horror was the main draw last year. You had, fantastic four and or rather the MC. Version of the Fantastic Four. You had Superman, you had hell, wicked For Good.
There was other movie that came out last year that was bringing in a lot of money, but a lot of this stuff was, IP related. It was all IP related. And [00:21:00] then you got something like Centers and Hollywood is like, it's like confused. They're trying to figure out like, how the fuck did this make it, not only did it make it, but it was a black man that made it, you know what I'm saying?
So,
Malcolm: yeah. I think it's, it's interesting because like, when other people from other cultures do it, I think it's, acceptable. I think the, well let's, let's, let's say if they were Indian or Chinese or Korean or something, telling stories about Korean people, it's okay. For whatever reason, white people get very upset when we make movies just about us.
It's like, where do white people. Aren't they? Yeah. What's going on? Like we're a group of people. Y'all, y'all excluded us. We are a group of people. We, we can have our own stories. It's okay. Y'all, y'all got plenty of stories. It'd be all right.
Mark: I don't if you remember that interview that Tony Morrison had with the white female journalist and the white female journalist was like,
Malcolm: aren't there more white characters in books?
Mark: She's pretty much, she, she said something like that. So, when are you gonna start writing for white characters? Because you, and then Tony Morrison, I don't think you realize how racist that question was because she said, she said, it's the sad part about it. You don't, you don't realize the racism behind that question is just [00:22:00] the fact that, I write stories for, for the people like white, white.
How, how did she say it?
Malcolm: Hmm, I
Mark: can't remember.
She pretty much said. The world's not centered around the white person like me bringing in this white person goes to this ex ex. She's pretty much saying that me trying to write, write for a white person goes back to centering everything around whiteness.
You know what I'm saying? And
So, but that's the thing, like even though centers, you had a lot of hot takes about, people like Remic and the two, I think her name, whoever the two people he sied, that was Cook Lan. But they were saying people took from centers, like this is what happened when you invite white people to the cookout, they, they, they came or they can't be part of
Malcolm: Yeah,
Mark: because
Malcolm: it's true though.
Like Mary was the reason why they got in, right? She went out there oh, I,
Mark: I fought, I fought for Mary though. 'cause let me explain something about Mary, because a lot of people just tried to sit there. It's funny because. I don't know how often you're on threads, Malcolm. The finished discourse on threads was fucking phenomenal.
It should have been a [00:23:00] class on it because this is where different people from different backgrounds came with their ideas about what the story was trying to say. And I said Some of the discourse was amazing. Some of it was just like bad takes.
Malcolm: Yeah.
Mark: But you had a lot of people who should have known better and they could, they kept saying they could consider Mary being like the white girl and she's the one who brought 'em down.
And I say there's a lot of things that a lot of people are now re, they're now realizing let see, Senator has almost been out for a month. And when it got to HBO Max and on home video stuff, a lot of people went back and looked at it and just looked at it over and over again. Instead of going again, their one vein, one vein for your buck and not going back and just having all these feelings about it.
Their thought processes have changed, especially when it comes to Mary because they didn't realize that, back in the day, and Mary had to sat there and went to marry her white husband and she popped out a black baby. He'd have thought that, oh, either you just fucked some black dude, or you're black yourself.
Either way, her and that baby would've been fucked. So she knew that she was [00:24:00] fucked. So she used her quote unquote passing ability to try to help them out. But no matter, I always tell people that's the number one aspect about Mary is that yes, she was the first one to go. But you gotta think about it. I look at it, the standpoint of this is a inversion of the black person, the first person to go.
'cause you think about it, Mary, even though she's white passing, she's white in the eyes of, other people. She was the right to go. Especially somebody like Haley Stanfield. You just probably set that thought that, oh, she'd probably made it towards the end at least because she's Haley Stanfield. No, she was the first person to go.
As you realize, the first people to get turned into vampires in the movie were all white.
Malcolm: That's
Mark: true.
White passing and she's,
Malcolm: yeah, technically black, but also white passing. I mean, the idea that she is, the reason why everyone got killed is accurate, first of all. Oh, but does it, is because she's the one who went out there to this.
She was the only person who would've gone out there to talk to them, right?
Mark: A lot of people had a issue with a lot of [00:25:00] the Stranger Things, five ending and the final as a whole, they had a issue.
But it's just, I feel like I tell people all the time, a lot of TV shows that we hold up, a lot of movies that we hold up that have been like, have all these accolades, that have these special releases or celebrations, anniversaries and stuff like that. Today's audiences would kill all of that.
Malcolm: Right.
Mark: I feel that with the ac with the advent of social media and just the rapid fire nature that, people can get information so damn quickly.
Yeah. And then you got the situation of hype. This is something that's very bad and hard right now, and it's also bad with just pop culture in general. Especially when it comes to something like, MCU related movies or superhero movies or anything that is based on some sort of geek ip. If you don't bring or live up, if you don't bring what people are expecting or live up to their preconceived expectations, then it is not, it's gonna be like, people can be disappointed.
They're gonna be like, oh, this was a flop. This didn't do it, this didn't do it [00:26:00] for me. Because, and I feel like there was a lot of the issue behind, like the latest Marvel movies and the, the Stranger Things five finale. Even some parts of Welcome to Dairy. People want certain things to happen their way, and when it doesn't happen their way, they tend to just dismiss the entire experience as being moot.
Malcolm: Right.
Mark: And that is killing a lot of, a lot of good things is on tv. That's why I'm saying like a lot of stuff that we were raised up with that we sit there and hold up to like high standards would not have made it, those monster of the week episodes of Buffy or even something like the X-Files.
I feel like if they didn't get to the point immediately that it like, 'cause back then we just had just us experiencing it without any type of influence.
Malcolm: That's true. Yeah.
Mark: Now it's just like everybody gotta talk about it and the more people talk about something, they tend to change somebody's perspective of it and then they're like, okay, you know what?
When you bring it up like that, I don't like it. But you,
Malcolm: I thought about that. I was listening to an interview, I think it was the, the woman [00:27:00] who did the Voice for Rogue in X-Men.
Mark: Yes, I know you talking about.
Malcolm: And she was just talking about the difference between X-Men nine, seven and X-Men for that very same thing is when we were doing the original X-Men, there was no internet. This was a whole different experience, hearing people talking about your performance as you're doing it,
and yeah, like that is like from the nineties to now. She is phenomenal by the way, obviously. Oh, oh, yeah.
She's amazing. But it's can you say, Hey, sugar?
I love it. I love it. I just, it gives me tingles, just hearing it, you know what I'm saying? Like I,
Mark: yeah. I mean, and she sounds the same too. That's the amazing part. It's just, so when she delivered that line I can't feel you. It was like, oh
Malcolm: yeah, I know, right? She's so good. Oh my gosh, she's so good.
Mark: So fucking good. But yeah, people like that, it is just, people tend to fandom ruin stuff, and this always goes back to. The topic at hand when it comes to horror in general, horror fans can run something on the ground, but then when we asked for some type of originality, [00:28:00] we tend to shit on it. Like I remember there was so many people trying to damnest to be loud when sinners came out, oh, this is just a remake of the from Dust of Dawn and this is just a black version from Dust of Dawn and or when weapons came out, this shit don't make any goddamn sense and da.
It is just like y'all can't. But then,
Malcolm: oh God,
Mark: who are, where's terrifying four. It is
Malcolm: I haven't seen weapons yet, but I, you gotta get Devon on. Y'all need to talk about it. He hated rap so much. He hated it. So
Mark: I know I had sit there, his as on Facebook. I said
I was like this, but this the problem why we don't, this is why we getting like the umpteenth rendition of a certain horror movie.
Malcolm: Mm.
Mark: Because y'all want familiarity, but you don't want originality. And that's why I say it's scary in these horror streets when it comes to like centers and stuff like weapons.
Because even though this shit is doing gangbusters, I feel that something's gonna happen where there's gonna be [00:29:00] some sort of backlash. And they're gonna probably be like, this because you got to look at the people who are owned by these like variety and THR and all these people.
They're owned by a certain, group of people who do not care for this type of success of black horror, especially from like black filmmakers and stuff like that. So
Malcolm: yeah, I, I can, I can see that, but I think there are, I think there are a lot of champions for it too.
But I think we're gonna probably wrap this up in a little bit, but I want to get your perspective on some things that are coming out books, movies, television.
Are there any announcements that have been made? It could be horror or anything really that you are looking forward to in 2026?
Mark: TV show wise, that's, if it, there's two things. One is the crystal Lake Show. That is supposed to be the prequel to the Friday 13th franchise. I've been waiting for that since they announced it.
Malcolm: Sure.
Mark: Also the Buffy revival show. I'm looking forward to that. I'm gonna be, I'm going to be, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be, if y'all think y'all tired of hearing me talk about Buffy now y'all gonna be suff. I'm gonna be insufferable when this show comes out. I'm just gonna let y'all know that right now.
Y'all might just gonna put my ass on mute, but
Malcolm: are they gonna bring [00:30:00] Spike back? Are they doing
Mark: I doubt it. I don't know. I'm just gonna leave it at that. I'm gonna say I don't know. But spike
Malcolm: is always like controversial, right? Like he was just
Mark: Yeah, some
Malcolm: people loved him. Some people hated him. Like
Mark: Yeah, but it's like now James Marchers, they could put just a little bit of makeup on him.
Not saying that he's old, but I'm just saying all they gotta do is de age him just a tad bit. And he'll still be able to do Spike. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, he can, but movie wise
Malcolm: technology, we have the technology we can do it.
Mark: Yeah. Movie wise. And I'm sitting here probably knowing the movie that I want, I can't wait to see this.
Scream Sevens next month, but it's other Oh yeah. Other movies and stuff that I'm looking forward to. But to try to narrow down on one, I, I, I will not be able to help you on that. But book wise Johnny Compton has a new book that drops either next month or sometime later this year. I am about to get ready to start reading on his first short story collection, which I'm showing right here is called Midnight somewhere.
Malcolm: Okay.
Mark: So I'm gonna get ready to start reading [00:31:00] on that. Hopefully Jordan Peel's new movie comes out this year. Okay. I know they, they supposed to come out during this Christmas though, but I don't know, with Avengers Doomsday being out, everybody might run away from that. The Tempo date. So
Malcolm: they already got Dune three also coming out that same weekend?
Mark: No, the games.
Malcolm: No. Dune.
Mark: Oh, dune. I thought you said Dune as in DOOM. I'm like,
Malcolm: no, like the people are calling it Doomsday.
Mark: Oh, oh. They go try
Malcolm: Do three and Doomsday are coming out the same weekend?
Mark: Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah,
Malcolm: it's already crowded. Doom three is gonna be huge too, so I, ah,
Mark: that's when the movies, I have not jumped on yet.
Malcolm: I have not seen a single frame of it. I,
Mark: yeah,
Malcolm: actually no, I did see an hour of doing one. It put me to sleep. It really did. So
Mark: I, that's one of the reasons why I'm not seen it. But book wise there's tons of books coming out this year, but you know me. You talked about the the black queer history.
What's it called? I forget.
Malcolm: Oh, like history of the United States.
Mark: Yeah. I need that book and
Malcolm: Oh yeah, I'm starting I didn't start it 'cause I, I found [00:32:00] a interesting little book. I, I did it instead. 'cause I've been trying to read more fiction, like Right. I'm actually much more of a nonfiction reader.
Mark: Right.
Malcolm: So when I read three books at a time, I try to make it two fiction, one nonfiction. And I couldn't do a, a queer history of the United States 'cause I had needed another novel so I could finish something else. You know what I'm saying? So I read a little book called A Short Stay in Hell. It's exactly what it is.
It's just about a guy who goes to hell and it's, it, it I finished it in two hours as an audio book. Really short, but really thought provoking. Very, very good. And, I mean, I just love the title and the concept and it's, it's like I, I was a good Christian. It's yo wrong religion. Zoro Astor is the one true God.
And you were not a Zoria Asan. I'm sorry. So, and it was like, one of these demons, it's oh, it's oh, you think you're gonna be in hell forever? We don't do that here. You can get outta hell eventually, but here we go. It's just so stupid. It's it's very like, administrative demon.[00:33:00]
Mark: Sounds like it. It'll be kind of crazy. You go, you go to the, you have all, you see all these file, like you file cabinets and doors. Are we really doing this right now? Are we really doing this?
Malcolm: Welcome to hell.
Mark: Exactly. Video games, I'm gonna tell you right now
Malcolm: two
Mark: games one being the Halloween.
I can't wait.
Malcolm: Oh, that's coming out this year?
Mark: Yeah, in October. I wanna say October 7th or eighth or something like that. Okay. But, but then GT six hit?
Malcolm: Yeah.
Mark: Look, I, I'm just making sure I'm, I'm gonna put the days in a month in advance, but I sit there, get actual, because I don't wanna put the days in and they, they, they postpone it again.
Would I tell you I need a whole entire week off of that?
Malcolm: You probably need to get you a PlayStation portal so you can play.
Mark: I do.
Malcolm: Oh, you have one? Okay.
Mark: I do. He, he came outside after discovering porn on the internet for the first time. Yeah, I'm gonna come outside, face could be all shaggy and I'm gonna have a damn, one crack head froze, but you know, you gotta see the hairline, but you still got hair on your head and stuff.
Malcolm: Oh
Mark: God. I look at all crazy and shit. The world still spinning like shit because I've got to [00:34:00] deal with anything going on in the GT world to sit there and deal with what's going on right now here in America. What about you?
Malcolm: I don't pay attention to much, but like I said, I got hooked on the GK Jimmerson's.
Is that her name, G?
Mark: No, NK Jimerson.
Malcolm: Nk. NK Jimerson. Yes. So I'm on the second book, the oiss Gate of the oiss or whatever it is. I don't remember. OS
Mark: Gate. Yep.
Malcolm: Oiss Gate. And so the first book had me crying I was literally shocked. I was just sitting there I mean, I, 'cause I was so excited at the end of the book, like I was, oh, okay, they're coming to the final confrontation, whatever.
And I didn't expect it to go well, but I didn't expect it to go that bad.
Mark: Hold
Malcolm: on, bitch. Then you start the next book and it gets worse. That it gets
Mark: better. I'm glad you discovered NK Jemison.
Malcolm: Oh my God.
Mark: Because the thing is I started reading their book and the different narratives, it was easy to follow.
But then I think I got sidetracked. [00:35:00] But I'm gonna tell you
Malcolm: what's, what's interesting is I, the way I think the, the tenses and the way that she tells in those three different narratives, it kind of is symbolic of the idea of a broken earth. Like the idea of, it is deliberately confusing and that is sometimes upsetting.
But I understand why she did it, because that's kind of the theme of the entire book is that everyone is confused as to what is really going on. And nobody really knows what's going on about the earth and the the origins and how things actually work. Everybody's telling secrets and lies and stuff.
And so, I may be like a third of the way through the second book and you're learning more and more about how this world works, but also how deceived everyone is. And so she carries that on to the reader themselves. I don't wanna spoil any of it. So 'cause it is a, a process of discovery.
Mark: Hmm.
Malcolm: That both you as the reader and the characters go on [00:36:00] together,
Mark: okay.
Malcolm: And I, it is fucking brilliant.
Speaker 3: And that'll do it for this episode of the M three Bear Cast. I hope you will consider becoming a patron. Go to patreon.com/mail MediaMind, uh, for $5 a month. You'll get access to our after shows, our telegram groups, our book club, as well as many other goodies. If you go to mail media mind live.com, you can find links to all of our social accounts where you can subscribe on YouTube, turn on notifications, and you can watch us live as we record.
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