Episode 14 of ETCH CAST is a pause at the threshold — a moment to look back before stepping forward.
Philip Gelatt is joined by Will Battersby and Morgan Galen King to reflect on Etch’s first full year as an independent creative studio: what was built, what surprised them, and how the work found its shape.
They discuss released and upcoming projects including First Word on Horror, Art Show with Captain Skinner, and Cassie Workman Is Witchy AF, along with collaboration, creative challenges, momentum, and what comes next.
A year-one checkpoint — and the calm before whatever comes next.
Bad Ideas Only is back. And it’s worse than ever.
Episode 13 of ETCH CAST marks the return of Bad Ideas Only—a live script development challenge where the Etch team brings their worst movie pitches to the table… then dares each other to make them viable.
Hosted by Philip Gelatt and joined by Morgan Galen King, Will Battersby, April Merl, Belle Del Sesto, and Lacey Gilleran, this episode features a panel of creative gremlins armed with cursed concepts pulled from late-night Notes apps, half-remembered dreams, and ideas that should have stayed buried.
What starts as jokes mutates into something more dangerous. Momentum builds. Rules dissolve. Someone inevitably says, “Wait… that could work,” and suddenly it’s too late to turn back.
Brainstorming without brakes.Script development without dignity.Hope with a head injury.
🎧 Listen now and tell us which pitch you’d greenlight.
Philip and Morgan join forces with Skinner to explore the psychology, texture, and cosmic weirdness of monster design — why we fear them, why we love them, and why the creature in the dark always matters.
Composer Peter Scartabello joins the Etch Cast to dig into the mechanics and mysteries of horror scoring. Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King explore Peter’s process—where he begins, how he shapes mood, and why horror thrives on contrast: delicacy beside brutality, silence beside dread. They delve into his influences, his fascination with the strange and the uncanny, and the ways he built the musical architecture of First Word On Horror. Peter discusses the evolution of the score, from early concepts to the moment each author’s episode found its sonic identity. The conversation also touches on The Spine of Night, his work with Yuggoth Records, and the inspirations fueling his latest creations. For artists and horror fans alike, this episode offers a masterclass in how sound becomes story.
Episode 10 sends the Etch Cast crew — Philip Gelatt, Morgan Galen King, and special guest Joe Dwyer — deep into the year’s strangest cinematic discoveries. After months of double features and questionable viewing decisions, they sift through their shared Letterboxd list to reveal the films that stuck with them, delighted them, or left them wondering what exactly they’d just watched. Expect odd gems, unexpected favorites, and movie pairings you never knew you needed.
In this episode, Philip Gelatt, Will Battersby, April Merl, and Belle Del Sesto dive into the movies they probably shouldn’t admit they love — the chaotic comfort watches, the flawed favorites, and the cinematic oddities that refuse to let go.
They explore what makes a true “guilty pleasure,” why horror comfort films hit differently, the blurry line between bad and beloved, and how nostalgia shapes the movies we cling to. The crew also assigns each other new comfort films to watch before the next episode.
Plus: their latest recommendations in What Lurks in Our Queue.
The Etch Cast team launches a brand-new recurring series: Bad Ideas Only — where the worst movie pitches imaginable get a shot at redemption. Fever-dream concepts, cursed Notes App entries, and cinematic chaos all collide as Morgan Galen King, Will Battersby, April Merl, Belle Del Sesto, and Lacey Gilleran attempt the impossible: making bad ideas… actually good.
It’s unhinged.It’s creative madness.It’s filmmaking at its most unfiltered.
Press play and descend into the chaos.
Author Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, Horror Movie, Another) joins Philip Gelatt to talk horror tropes, ambiguity, and why the uncanny is essential to fear. A sharp and entertaining craft conversation — plus a hilarious horror movie recommendation disaster.
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Every film begins with an idea — the flicker before the fire. In this first From Script to Screen installment, Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King sit down with director and producer Will Battersby to talk about how stories are born, shaped, and sometimes haunted. They explore where ideas come from, how tone and theme guide early choices, and what separates a concept from a story worth chasing.
It’s a candid look at the creative process — the chaos, the questions, and the strange persistence of ideas that refuse to die.
Follow @etchfilm on social and get more at etchstudio.substack.com.
Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King, joined by Etch team member Belle Del Sesto, descend into the world of horror video games. They explore why fear feels different when you’re holding the controller, games that scarred them, and why we keep going back for more. Plus: What Lurks in Our Queue.
Follow us on social @etchfilm and get more at etchstudio.substack.com.
Welcome back to the shadows.
In Episode 4 of ETCH CAST, it’s just Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King — two friends, two filmmakers, and one long conversation about the strange, exhausting, and occasionally transcendent act of animating dark fantasy.
This time, Morgan moves from co-host to guest as we trace the decade-long creation of The Spine of Night, unpack the beauty and brutality of rotoscoping, and explore how animation gives horror and fantasy a shared, living language.
In this episode:
The stubborn road to The Spine of Night — and what kept it alive.
Why every hand-drawn frame is a little spell.
How horror and fantasy feed each other when done right.
The toll and joy of living inside a world you’re still drawing.
Plus… a little Rob Zombie.
We close, as always, with What Lurks in Our Queue — the films, books, and oddities inspiring us to keep our own queues strange and overflowing.
💀 Follow us on social media @etchfilm for more episodes, behind-the-scenes looks, and updates from the Etch team.
🎧 Subscribe, rate, and leave a review — it feeds the algorithmic beast.
Editing is where horror takes shape. In this episode of ETCH CAST, hosts Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King sit down with Etch editor April Merl to explore how editing creates rhythm, tension, and atmosphere.
They discuss April’s path into editing, the unique challenges of cutting horror, and why silence and pacing can sometimes be more powerful than screams.
Plus, in our recurring segment What Lurks in Our Queue, we share what we’ve been watching and reading lately — recommendations to keep your own queue eerie and overflowing.
👉 Follow us on socials: @etchfilm
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The Etch team pulls back the curtain on the making of FIRST WORD ON HORROR — from lighting interviews like paintings to turning each author’s story into its own cinematic world. We talk doors that became portals, the challenges of filming Laird Barron, Paul Tremblay, Mariana Enríquez, Elizabeth Hand, and Stephen Graham Jones, and why sometimes a “podcast” has to become a documentary.
Hosted by Philip Gelatt (Love, Death & Robots), Will Battersby (Etch Productions), and Morgan Galen King (The Spine of Night).
If you enjoy the show, leave us a review, follow @etchfilm across social, and subscribe to our Substack at etchstudio.substack.com to watch the full video version and support independent filmmaking.
Stay curious. Stay weird. The shadows are listening.
Meet the minds behind Etch Productions: Philip Gelatt (writer/director, Love, Death & Robots), Will Battersby (producer, President of Production at Etch), and Morgan Galen King (co-director of The Spine of Night). In our premiere, we share the films and books that scarred or inspired us, debate why genre is more toolkit than cage, and confess to childhood obsessions ranging from Gremlins and Stephen King to Maximum Overdrive and even Police Academy 3.
If you enjoyed the episode, leave a review, drop us a comment, and follow us on social media @etchfilm. Subscribe to our Substack at etchstudio.substack.com for more and to help support independent film. The weirder the world, the better the story — help us keep telling them.