Main Navigation

Primal Screen

Primal Screen

Directed by Rodney Ascher

Why are we simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the things that scare us the most? In this special presentation, acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (ROOM 237, THE NIGHTMARE) explores the pop culture that left dark impressions on us as children. Starting from the immortal ventriloquist dummy of MAGIC, Ascher asks real people to look back at pop-culture artifacts that traumatized them in their youth and describe the effect they had on their lives. A singular hybrid of documentary and horror, stare into the Primal Screen.

In this Shudder Original, acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher explores the pop culture that left dark impressions on us as children.

Cast: Gregory Burkart, Daniel Ferranti, Gary Holland

Member Reviews

interesting watch!

kimforest
2 weeks ago

Fun👍

Horrorkrazy55
1 month ago

super fun and educational!👹

Seafurn
1 month ago

This was excellent! I really enjoyed this documentary! I wish that SHUDDER had more docs like this. Although, this one was a bit too short-- I mean, only 27 minutes on the topic? Maybe if this was going to be a miniseries, but a standalone? This should've been 90 minutes. Other than that, I would love to see more of this sorta thing on SHUDDER in the future.

JaredXIII
1 month ago

This was fun, I like documentary and behind the scenes shows of all things horror or phobia related. At 27 mins long it felt short. And Honestly this could have been a series with multiple episodes and seasons (There's so much to fear in the world and beyond). But for the time I did have i enjoyed it especially when the trailer for the movie Magic was on and the kids Dad was like "There it is again" with the dummy going "We're dead" I laughed so hard.

Mai.K
3 months ago