What does it actually take to make a horror film fail? Not just bore you, but actively betray everything the genre promises?

Two licensed therapists who have spent years analyzing the psychology of fear, dread, and what makes horror work turned their clinical lens on the worst rated horror films of 2025. The result is Titties & Tonic, Terror Talk's annual autopsy of the year's most spectacular horror failures.

Shannon approached it from the data, the worst reviewed horror films of 2025 that she refused to see. Because sometimes the one-star reviews tell you everything you need to know.

This episode covers:

Shannon's worst rated films she didn't see and why the reviews alone damn them:

  • The Monkey
  • Screamboat (with a confession — it got its hooks in eventually)
  • Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare
  • The Fetus
  • And more films that should not exist

Cathy's films she watched so you don't have to:

  • Popeye the Slayer Man
  • Drop
  • I Know What You Did Last Summer
  • Opus

Plus:

  • Shannon and Cathy break down the most common psychological and structural reasons horror films fail — what goes wrong in the writing, the pacing, the character psychology, and the execution of fear
  • One-star reviews read aloud for maximum schadenfreude
  • The clinical framework for why bad horror fails where good horror succeeds

Because understanding what doesn't work is just as revealing as understanding what does. And two therapists with strong opinions and no patience for lazy filmmaking are exactly who you want making that call.

Two licensed therapists, one forensic psychologist, one clinical marriage and family therapist, analyzing the psychology of horror so you know what's worth your time and what isn't.

Until then... sleep safe. 😴

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