Aughtsterion

Sick Girl (2006)

Aughts junkies! Sam and Jordan are back for season 2 of your absolute favorite podcast about the intersection of horror movies and pop culture around the turn of the new millennium. You've been in the dark, but they are now shining a light upon you with the help of writer and director and friend of the show, Vivienne Vaughn, who is bringing Lucky McKee's "Sick Girl" episode of the Masters of Horror anthology series for a much closer look. It's just a take on that classic story of girl meets girl, girl receives strange superbug in the mail, girl gets impregnated by superbug, and chaos ensues. It's gay. It's weird. It's pure Lucky McKee, and even though it's not a feature film, Sam and Jordan are breaking form for a TV special on this most special occasion of season 2's debut. Welcome back, everyone!

 

Produced by: Jordan

Music by: Sam

Bonus Episode — My Super Psycho Sweet 16 (2009)

Surprise, Aughts addicts! Season 1 might be over, but Jordan and Sam have some celebrating to do for his birthday. And in true Sam fashion, he wanted to spend it talking all about horror and celebrity culture of the 2000s. In this bonus installment of your favorite podcast, your co-hosts go long on the bioluminescence of Chris Zylka, the meaning of the word scene, and even on the insidious beta nerd best friend boy archetype that has marred so much of pop culture since his ignominious rise in the late 1990s. AFI is singing "Miss Murder" and all the actors are on roller skates. Enjoy this exploration of the no-one's-seen-it millennium era classic that was spun off of a craven piece MTV IP. Does it get more aughts than that?!

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

Season 1 Superlatives

As the Oscars announces its short lists and high profile bodies like the Golden Globes and the SAGs reveal their nominees, awards season is in full swing, which is why Jordan and Sam have come together for an honors event of their own. After a season of pop culture deep dives and singing the praises of under-appreciated aughts starlets, your co-hosts will now honor the very best that this first slate of episodes has to offer. Who will take home the honor of Best Actor? Which movie will rise above the rest as Best Picture? Who will win Best Best Friend and what was the season's single Best Line Delivery? Sam and Jordan will answer all that in more, with no Very Sad Mystery left unconsidered. 

And as ever: It's important.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

After getting us all through election season, Aughtsterion is concluding its first season with an elite level guest. Filmmaker April Wolfe joins Jordan and Sam to discuss Sam Raimi's odd man out of millennium horror with 2009's Drag Me To Hell. This one is a classic of the era by virtue of feeling completely out of place within it, but turns out that not only is this charmingly kitschy story of a demonic curse a little marvel of daylight horror with excellent performances from Alison Lohman and company, it's also... a passing story that's partly about the ills of capitalism. Listen to find out how Sam ties Miley Cyrus to the whole thing, and to hear April describe why Raimi is an eminently American filmmaker.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

Valentine (2001)

This episode of Aughtsterion may not have Sam, but it does have guest host Kalyn Corrigan and plenty of discussion about Denise Richards. And that's not just because she's an icon; it's because she's an icon in the 2001 slasher Valentine. Riding ride up against the bifurcated zone in Millennium Horror that was split apart by the events of 9/11, Valentine is a last remnant of the Tank Top Terror era's softer fare — a final bubblegum ensemble piece born of Kevin Williamson's supreme reign over the genre. Though not heralded with the classics like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer, Valentine is a gem, a murder movie that's both super entertaining (with a super-charged in her swagger Denise Richards) and an amazing little window into how pop culture would change in the wake of a massive attack within its borders. Horror is life and life is horror.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

The Quiet (2005)

For a wildly unpredictable new year, Sam and Jordan have a wildly unpredictable Aughtsterion coming at you thanks to Jamie Babbit's 2005 meditation on Very Sad Mysteries: The Quiet. This episode is really one for the books you guys, because it finds your co-hosts lobbying for The Quiet as the definitive 2000s anti-erotic thriller while providing you with a huge insider tip for how to get cast in a Sam Wineman feature film. Elisha Cuthbert is saying fuck your girl next door fantasies. Katy Mixon is giving a tour de force mean girl performance. Edie Falco is a tragic "prescript-a-holic", and taken all together, Babbit is leading this ensemble through a blistering commentary on the tropes of patriarchal Lolita lust in genre. If you wrote this movie off before then wake your ass up. It's time to correct the record.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

The Roommate (2011)

In the first episode of 2021, Sam and Jordan have something to teach you, and that something is: You were completely wrong about 2011's The Roommate, starring two true Aughts Princesses in Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester. Plenty of people dismissed the movie as yet another lesser Single White Female upon its release. But what if it's actually... an improvement on that classic forbearer? As always, your co-hosts will make the passionate case for why this movie deserves your time and respect, in addition to laying out why The Roommate is in fact the spiritual end of what we know as 2000s pop culture. Put on your cinnamon lip gloss and get ready to fall in love in the club bathroom. We've got a date with a psychosexual co-living thriller.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

It's time for Aughtsterion to go full gay by celebrating both musicals and Paris Hilton with Repo! The Genetic Opera. In this episode, Jordan is joined by theater kid BJ Colangelo (with Sam cheering us on from the ether) to talk about this most ostentatious 2000s time capsule, and make the case for the Oscar is should have won. Get ready to body roll to "Zydrate Anatomy" while you come around to understanding why you were wrong about Paris all those years ago. 

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

Silent Night (2012)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, Aughtsterion family! Although the spirit of the season feels a little bit lacking in 2020, Jordan and Sam simply couldn't let the advent calendar go empty without one more chapter of winter wonderland content for you. This time, your co-hosts immerse themselves in the weird and wild world of Silent Night, the 2012 remake of trash Christmas classic Silent Night, Deadly Night. And Sam is taking a BIG SWING on the true meaning of this late era Aughsterion entry. Jordan gets red pilled and Jamie King gets her flowers as we wrap the pod in tinsel and dress it in a too-short sexy Santa dress one more time this year.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman

The Craft (1996)

It's time, sleepover horror fans; it's time to go back to the 90s. As Sam and Jordan have established, the arc of Aughtsterion is not limited to the '00 to '10 run of the 2000s proper. Instead, it starts in the year of our lord (Wes Craven) and his landmark movie Scream, which was 1996, the very same year when Neve Campbell took us by storm twice in a pair of teen horror classics. The other of which was: The Craft. To break down this goth touchstone, your co-hosts are joined by a very special guest, Jemma Moore, who you might know from starring in The Host, aka one of 2020's best horror movies. She's done her research on witches, while Sam and Jordan have done their research on Hot Topic. Beware the weirdos, mister, because they're right here.

 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Sam Wineman