trauma | the m0vie blog

422. Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here) (#228)

Posted on June 7, 2025 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guest Ingrid Machado, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Walter Salles’ Ainda Estou Aqui.

In 1970s Brazil, the Paiva family lives a charmed and tranquil existence. As the country around them slips into dictatorship, the family has managed to hold on to something close to normality. However, that peaceful life is suddenly and brutally shattered as the outside world comes crashing in.

At time of recording, it was ranked 228th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: "I'm Still Here", Andrew Quinn, brazil, cultural relevance, emotional depth, Fernanda Torres, imdb, ingird machado, Ingrid Machado, memory, military dictatorship, Movie, podcast, political issues, relevance, social commentary, The 250, trauma, Walter Salles | Leave a comment »

358. Halloween II (2009) – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest Doctor Bernice Murphy, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, Rob Zombie’s Halloween II.

A year after Michael Myers’ brutal rampage through Haddenfield, the survivors are still trying to put the pieces back together. Laurie Strode is haunted by nightmares of the attack, while Doctor Samuel Loomis’ book tour brings him back to town just as a lone figure stalks through the darkness. Michael Myers has returned to Haddenfield, and is tearing at wounds that have not had a chance to heal.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: audience, brutality, dimension, genre, grace duffy, halloween, halloween ii, horror, imdb, jason coyle, joey keogh, michael myers, podcast, rob zombie, slasher, the weinsteins, trauma, violence | Leave a comment »

354. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on November 18, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest Scott Mendelson, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, Steve Miner’s Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later.

Two decades after the horrific Halloween night in which Michael Myers returned to Haddenfield, Laurie Strode finds herself desperately trying to put her life back together under an assumed name at an elite private school. Raising her son, Laurie is still haunted by the trauma of that night twenty years ago, unaware that a Shape is lumbering through the darkness directly towards her.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: clever, continuity, halloween, halloween h20, horror, Jamie Lee Curtis, joey keogh, John Carpenter, meta, pop culture, scott mendelson, Scream, self-aware, slasher, steve miner, trauma | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Flash” as a Movie About the Horror of “The Flash”…

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With The Flash releasing this weekend, it seemed like as good an opportunity to talk about the themes of the movie, and how those ideas exist in direct opposition to its central purpose.

Thematically, The Flash is a story about how the idea of a “reset” is fundamentally pointless. It is a tale about how individuals are often the sum total of their life experiences, including the traumatic ones, and that any attempt to erase those traumas would be to erase the person that they created. However, this is very much at odds with what the film functionally is. It is an opportunity for Warner Bros. to shift around their established continuity and intellectual property, to reset characters and to recast actors. In short, The Flash is a movie about its own monstrosity.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: continuity, film, intellectual property, metaphor, Movie, production, reboot, reference, reset, the flash, theme, trauma | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Scream 2” as the Perfect Slasher Sequel…

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist last week. With the film’s 25th anniversary approaching and Halloween coming up, it seemed like a good time to talk about Scream 2, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven’s underrated slasher sequel.

Scream 2 is in many ways the perfect sequel to a smash success like the original Scream, despite its rushed and troubled production. Scream 2 is a movie that manages to both double-down on what made Scream so compelling, while also honing in on the emotional heart of the story being told. It’s the rare sequel that manages to heighten an already heightened premise, without ever losing sight of the characters within the story. It’s clever, it’s funny, but it’s also very sharply observed.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academic, escapist, film criticism, halloween, horror, in the frame, meta, Scream, Scream 2, self-aware, slasher, tragedy, trauma, wes craven | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is a Film with Two Authors…

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, we took a look at a specific film: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s a Marvel Studios production from director Sam Raimi, and it manages to strike an interesting balance between those two creative poles. The film is very obviously of a piece with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it is also undeniably a Sam Raimi movie. As a result, it is an interesting case study when it comes to talking about the idea of authorship within movies – in particular the idea that films can have multiple authors, and what makes Raimi so suited to working with Marvel Studios.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: auteurship, coen brothers, directors, doctor strange, doctor strange in the multiverse of madess, evil dead, horror, identity, Raimi, sam raimi, trauma | Leave a comment »

284. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (#—)

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Luke Dunne, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The master of the mystic arts, Doctor Stephen Strange, is attending the wedding of his ex-girlfriend Christine Palmer when New York is attacked by a strange creature chasing a young refugee named America Chavez. Strange finds himself drawn into a chase across the vast and infinite multiverse, questioning the nature of the reality in which he has found himself.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: auteurism, brand, cameos, comic books, doctor strange, doctor strange in the multiverse of madness, identity, imdb, luke dunne, marvel, Marvel Studios, memory, podcast, qanon, reality, sam raimi, The 250, trauma | Leave a comment »

268. Incendies (#110)

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies.

Following the death of their mother Nawal, twins Jeanne and Simon find themselves dealing with dark family secrets bubbling to the surface. Nawal’s will includes two instructions for her children, to find both their father and their long-lost sibling. While Simon dismisses this last request as another manipulation from an emotionally-distant mother, Jeanne embarks on an epic journey to trace her family’s history and perhaps change its future.

At time of recording, it was ranked 110th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 9/11, Denis Villeneuve, ending, epic, family, film, greek, Incendies, Middle East, Movies, plot holes, podcast, Quebec, The 250, tragedy, trauma, twist, violence, war, war on terror | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Candyman” is About Art About Trauma…

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the film and the larger franchise.

Much has been written in recent years about the recent explosion of African American horror, and the relationship between that horror and the very real trauma experienced by that community. What’s particularly interesting about Candyman is that the movie is very much engaged with that debate. In an era where so many movies and television shows purport to be “about trauma”, Candyman is explicitly a movie about art about horror, and the thorny questions that stem from that relationship.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: appropriation, candyman, community, gentrification, horror, in the frame, memory, nia dacosta, racism, secrets, the escapist, trauma, violence | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Guardians of the Galaxy” as the MCU’s Best Exploration of Loss…

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist yesterday. With all the talk about how so much of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe is about “loss”, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is not a machine that is designed to deal with concepts like loss head on. After all, most of its major departures were down to contract negotiations rather than narrative priorities. Characters are often resurrected, and losses are often temporary. This is what makes Guardians of the Galaxy so compelling. Director James Gunn understands that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a space into which the audience and characters escape to avoid dealing with loss, even if it haunts them still.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.