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PODCAST

Zombie Strains

John Corey, Andy Rau, Bradley Dumont

Zombies rule the world of horror cinema--fast zombies, slow zombies, voodoo zombies, and so many other strains. How did zombies evolve into the monsters we know and love today? Join John and Andy as they shamble through zombie film history, one movie at a time.

tv & film film history

All Episodes

80:27

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/10/29

A Criterion Collection film? Fantastic editing, camerawork, and direction? Are we sure Carnival of Souls is in the right podcast? After narrowly surviving a car accident, Mary uproots her life to become a church organist in Utah... but death isn't quite done with her. Her mind begins to unravel, and soon she cannot tell reality from her escalating nightmares. Join John, Andy, and Producer Brad as they scramble to declutter the Zombie Strains lab and break out the fine china for a true rarity: a

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70:57

Tales of Terror (1962)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/10/22

What happens when film's most legendary B-horror director turns his unsubtle eye to the zombie genre? You get Tales of Terror, one of many Roger Corman films loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe stories. This anthology film (written by the iconic horror and scifi writer Richard Matheson) is packed with three separate creepy stories, and one of them features a gruesome strain of zombie that doesn't easily fit into our zombie categories! Join John, Andy, and Producer Brad as they dissect their

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67:28

Santo vs The Zombies (1961)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/10/15

When zombies are after you, only the world's greatest hero can save you. And who is that? It's El Santo, elite luchador and Mexican cultural phenomenon! After a professor vanishes and a sinister masked man unleashes a horde of zombies on a local orphanage, the police know that only the legendary luchador Santo can save the city. John, Andy, and Producer Brad watch in awe as Santo takes on the undead both within and outside the wrestling ring--and they wrestle with a few of their preconceived

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75:27

The Curse of the Doll People (1961)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/10/08

What's scarier than a zombie trying to kill you? A zombie teaming up with possessed dolls to kill you! In the Mexican zombie flick The Curse of the Doll People (Muñecos infernales), foolish adventurers steal a voodoo idol and face a fate is worse than death--unless the courageous Karina (Elvira Quintana) can stop a sinister voodoo master, his zombie assistant, and his horde of murderous dolls. Andy, John, and Producer Brad head to Mexico to investigate the many questions this film raises, such

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84:31

Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/10/01

This week, our bold Zombie Strains investigators chart a course for rural England, where the sinister Dr. Blood (Keiron Moore) is harvesting the still-beating hearts of his victims to empower his insane medical "research." Join John, Andy, and Producer Brad as they brave the dangers of the Cornish Tin Mines, meet scream-queen legend Hazel Court, face their most gnarly zombie yet... and unravel the mystery Doctor Blood's Coffin.Show Notes:Still of blood donor poster seen in Doctor

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47:04

Weapons (2025)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/09/27

Everybody's talking about Weapons, an unsettling 2025 horror film about a community in shock after a classroom of grade-school children vanishes overnight. Always on the hunt for modern films with connections to their favorite horror genre, John and Andy take a road trip to American suburbia to investigate for themselves. Don't tell Producer Brad that they recorded this without him. Please note that this is a spoiler-heavy discussion of Weapons.

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86:50

The Dead One (1961)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/09/24

Our first color zombie films is also a throwback to the 1930s! Newlyweds John and Linda (John McKay and Linda Ormond) inherit an old plantation outside of New Orleans, only to discover that their bitter cousin Monica (Monica Davis) has angry, zombie-related plans for them. Will Monica's voodoo magic spell a gruesome end to their honeymoon bliss? John, Andy, and Producer Brad venture into the swamps to find out--and to learn why this is the first zombie movie to be set in New Orleans.Show

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71:42

Teenage Zombies (1959)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/09/17

We've been dreading their appearance ever since we started watching 1950s zombie films, and they're finally here: teenagers! That's right, 1959's Teenage Zombies is not only our first zombie film starring teenagers, but it's also a clear forerunner of the modern teenage-slasher flick. Can this crew of plucky '50s teens foil a foreign plot to turn the entire population of the U.S. into mindless, docile zombies? And more importantly, can Teenage Zombies make Plan 9 from Outer

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89:40

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/09/10

Plan 9 is often called the worst movie ever made. But could there be a zombie gem buried beneath the hilariously bad sets, abysmal acting, and tortured script? John, Andy, and Producer Brad venture into this legendary fiasco and come face to face with a sexy vampire, a gigantic Swedish wrestler, Bela Lugosi’s last performance, arrogant space aliens, and of course the infamous Plan 9 itself.Show Notes:Plan 9 From Outer Space Movie PosterMovie Posters by Tom Jung, here and here.New York Times 1993

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82:15

Invisible Invaders (1959)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/09/03

The Zombie Strains crew have hit the motherlode of zombie firsts! Invisible Invaders brings together all kinds of famous and familiar zombie tropes in one film: a zombie-created apocalypse, heroes taking refuge in a science bunker, convincing zombie make-up, and a truly compelling tough moral choice.The story follows a sequence that will be familiar to any fan of modern zombie movies, as a small group of survivors hunkers down in a shelter to figure out how to stop a global zombie menace (that was

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82:50

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/08/27

Jonathan Drake suffers under an ancient curse! His cruel colonial forbears massacred a South American tribe, and the immortal zombie survivors will not rest until Jonathan is dead. And by dead, we mean injected with an ancient poison, decapitated, and his head shrunken in the lab of the scenery-chewing villain Dr. Emil Zurich (Henry Daniell). Will Jonathan, his daughter Allison, and Lt. Rowan stop the zombies before the curse strikes again? Join John, Andy, and Brad as they encounter two unique

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84:54

Womaneater (1958)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/08/20

Sally (Vera Day) is living day to day, just trying to get by. But things take a turn for the sinister when she crosses paths with mad scientist Dr. Moran (George Coulouris). Dr. Moran has plans for the women in his life—plans that involve feeding them to a carnivorous Amazonian plant in order to steal their life essence, extract a serum from the devil tree, and use that serum to bring the dead back to life! Will he succeed? Will Sally agree to marry a jerk she just met the previous day? Does the

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88:10

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/08/13

Some treasures are best left undisturbed—especially when they're guarded by ancient curses. But if the treasure hunters in Zombies of Mora Tau were smart, we wouldn't get a horde of underwater zombies, a band of backstabbing scoundrels, the world's toughest grandma, and the legendary Allison Hayes (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) as a scheming femme fatale. Don your deep sea diving suit and join John, Andy, and Producer Brad off the coast of Africa, where we discover a horror film that

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63:08

Voodoo Island (1957)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/08/06

Who could possibly survive an expedition to “the weird jungle of cobra plants that feed on women... and rip men apart”? Boris Karloff plays a skeptical scientist who journeys into the heart of darkness alongside a brooding '50s adventurer, a shifty gangster, a plucky assistant, and a zombie. Grab your pith helmet and machete and join John, Andy, and Producer Brad as they brave the unknown terrors of Voodoo Island.Show Notes:US Theatrical Release Date: February, 1957Voodoo Island movie posterAFI

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79:25

Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/07/30

Creature with the Atom Brain takes the science of zombie film to a whole new level. This movie is packed with exciting zombie firsts: atomic-powered zombies, rampaging zombie hoards (finally!), a city put under martial law to contain the zombie threat, and very cheap zombie make-up. Andy, John, and Producer Brad have their hands full sorting through all the zombie goodness on this sci-fi horror B movie.Show Notes: Mommie Dearest boardroom scene with S. John Launer (Captain Dave Harris in Creature

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73:26

The Revived Monster (1953)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/07/23

The Zombie Strains crew stumbles across an unexpected delight in 1953’s El Monstruo Resucitado (The Revived Monster), the first Mexican zombie film! Set in Czechoslovakia and dripping with atmosphere, this film tells the story of a resourceful journalist (Miroslava) who finds herself tangled up in the hopes and hatreds of a hideously deformed mad scientist with a chip on his shoulder, a brain-transference device in his basement, and a fresh corpse ready to be revived as a murderous zombie. The

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67:31

Scared Stiff

Zombie Strains ·

2025/07/16

The Zombie Strains crew comes up against Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in this remake of the delightful The Ghost Breakers (1940). George Marshal directed both the original and this 1950s update. The team was eager to explore the new horrors Marshall would concoct this time around, but we were unprepared for the terror of... Jerry Lewis’s performance. "Scared Stiff" may feature the least impressive zombie we've seen yet, but the Zombie Strains crew found a few gems--including the possible

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75:52

Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952)

Zombie Strains ·

2025/07/09

The Zombie Strains team is in for some serious culture shock as they burst into the 1950s. Voodoo masters? mesmerism? mad scientists? All gone! Instead we find aliens, atom bombs, and rocket ships. This is going to take some serious experimentation in the Zombie Strains lab to figure out what is going on in this crazy decade.Release date: July, 1952Movie posterList of 1952 movies1952 Academy AwardsCorrespondence between JRR Tolkien and relatives of Zombies of the Stratosphere cast member Wilson

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49:43

28 Years Later and Last of Us Season 2

Zombie Strains ·

2025/07/02

While Producer Brad is away on special assignment, John and Andy continue to break the rules by talking about zombie movies out of order. In this episode we talk about the biggest zombie events of 2025 - The Last of Us Season 2 (SPOILERS!) and 28 Years Later (NO spoilers). Plus, Andy reports on his participation in an actual voodoo ceremony

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51:24

The 1950s: Rockets, Red Scares, and Rock &Roll

Zombie Strains ·

2025/06/25

Season 2 of Zombie Strains is almost upon us. In this special episode, John and Andy dissect the terrors and anxieties of the 1950s in the Zombie Strains lab. Our goal is to predict how the next wave of zombie movies will exploit the hidden fears of this most paranoid of decades. Join us as we brace for a brand new decade of horror!

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44 results

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