Every year around this time, we like to take a look at just what's frightening us in the present moment. This year, we start with our present take on a past horror classic, Ridley Scott's Alien, which has its 40th anniversary this year.

Plus: Ari Aster's Hereditary follow-up, Midsommar, is set at a pagan retreat in rural Sweden. As such, it's seen as a bit of a reinvigoration of the folk horror genre, which includes classics like The Wicker Man and more contemporary titles like The VVitch.

Note: Today's show utterly spoils both Alien and The Wicker Man. We use audio from the final scene of The Wicker Man and the very last lines of Alien. Now, The Wicker Man came out in 1973, and Alien came out in 1979. 1973 and 1979 are 46 and 40 years ago. It's on you at this point.

GUESTS:

• Kyle Anderson - Senior editor and film critic for Nerdist
• Carmen Baskauf - Produces Where We Live on WNPR
• Betsy Kaplan - The Colin McEnroe Show's senior producer
• Roger Luckhurst - Professor in modern and contemporary literature at Birkbeck, University of London; the author of BFI Film Classics: Alien
• Carlos Mejia - WNPR's digital producer
• Coach Catie Talarski - Senior director, Connecticut Public Radio
• Chion Wolf - Our technical producer and announcer

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Colin McEnroe contributed to this show.

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