306: Quatermass and the Pit

Release Date: 02/09/2025

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re raging. While this virus plays a part, we’re more angry about the sequels to 28 Days Later. The first follow-up, in particular, is enough to make you chew someone’s face off. Happily, the original film still has as much bite as ever. Now if only we could convince it to let go of our leg. Main Topic: 28 Days Later Following last episode’s look at , we’re delving into a classic of the genre. Sure, the folks behind 28 Days Later have said that it’s not a zombie film, but we’re ignoring that. This has all the hallmarks of a zombie...

321: Zombies, with Maverick Haenze

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

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320: The Broadsword, with Andy Goodman

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re checking the vents. They’re long overdue a service, but that doesn’t mean they should be talking about eating people’s kidneys. Maybe we could dismiss it as a load of hot air, but they don’t even provide that most days. We would ask the building supervisor to sort them out, but he’s either been eaten by the vents or tumbled through the alien portal in the basement. That portal is a safety hazard, and if it did swallow him that’s his own fault for not slapping some Polyfilla in there sooner. The cosmic nightmares of living at the Broadsword Hotel are bad...

319: Roll Your Own Mythos, with Andy Goodman

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re hunting for the biggest cigarette paper known to man. Well, ideally known to the gods too. If we’re going to fit an entire pantheon inside, this thing needs to be truly cyclopean, and maybe even non-Euclidean. An extra dimension or two wouldn’t hurt either. And we haven’t even started working out how to light up the damn thing! Main Topic: Roll Your Own Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos didn’t really start out as a cohesive entity. It has become increasingly codified by generations of fans, starting with August Derleth, but this can be an impediment to creativity....

318: Metafiction and Horror, with Eleanor Hingley

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

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317: Small Town Horror, with Eleanor Hingley

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re keeping to ourselves. You really can’t be too careful. The outside world is full of dangerous ideas and strange people. Some of them don’t even play Call of Cthulhu. Sure, they might find our ways odd too, especially if they hear the singing in our early episodes. Still, the real small town horror is always other people. Main Topic: Small Town Horror This is a local episode for local people. We explore small town settings and why they work so well for horror. Isolated, insular communities are a mainstay of horror, usually populated by sinister locals who shun...

316: Art and the Cthulhu Mythos, with Kailas Elmer

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re pushing boundaries. Good taste has never come easily to us, but it’s downright impossible when talking about art that might inspire Call of Cthulhu games. From performance artists who mutilate themselves in inventive ways to photographers who raid the local morgue looking for models, it’s hard for horror writers like us to make this stuff any nastier. But still we try. Main Topic: Art and the Cthulhu Mythos This episode is the conclusion of our two-part look into the relationship between Lovecraft and art. , we looked at the artistic influences that...

315: Lovecraft and Art, with Kailas Elmer

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

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314: Analogue Horror, with Holly Buteau

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

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313: Horror in Space, with Holly Buteau

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

We’re back and we’re and we’re answering the call of the void. Really, it’s about the scariest call you can receive, regardless of what Cthulhu may tell you. The yawning darkness of infinity shouldn’t be as tempting as it is. For all our talk about horror in space, maybe the real horror was inside us the whole time. Main Topic: Horror in Space This episode heads into the cold and the dark, exploring just what it is that makes space so scary. We talk about some of the real challenges and dangers posed by space travel and how they can amplify horror, then move on to inspirational...

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We’re back and we’re digging up the past. Some of this excavation is purely physical, burrowing into the clay under London in search of the usual skulls and spaceships. The rest, however, is more atavistic in nature, uncovering the strange, alien memories buried within our minds. On reflection, we probably shouldn’t have used pickaxes for both jobs.

Main Topic: Quatermass and the Pit

This episode is our long-overdue exploration of the strange world of Professor Bernard Quatermass, and especially the 1967 film adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit. While we’ve mentioned Nigel Kneale on the podcast before, discussing his TV drama The Stone Tape and horror series Beasts, we’ve never really delved into his most famous creation.

While Quatermass and the Pit is our main focus, we begin with a brief summary of the professor’s other appearances. As we mention, the Quatermass TV serials and films were a huge cultural phenomenon in the UK in the 1950s, shaping British science fiction media for generations. This fame did not travel beyond our borders, however, meaning the films have never had more than a cult following in the USA. Consider this episode our small part in trying to rectify this!

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to have YouTuber, podcaster and author Seth Skorkowsky join us for this episode. Most of our listeners will know Seth from his ENnie-Award winning YouTube channel, as well as the Modern Mythos podcast, which he hosts with Jon Hook.

Seth is also the author of many fine books, spanning urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, and horror. His main focus right now is his ongoing video diary for the Traveller campaign, Secrets of the Ancients.

You can hear Seth’s previous appearances with the Good Friends here:

Main Topic: Quatermass and the Pit

Our Guest Host

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