Episode 22: BJ Colangelo Stirs Up a ‘Teenage Cocktail’

12:41 PM CDT on August 19, 2020

Teenage Cocktail Nichole Bloom Fabianne Therese — Netflix

Here at Certified Forgotten, we've been known to cast a pretty wide net when it comes to the definition of horror. Not all films that deal with dread or terror fit neatly into the horror carousel on a Netflix page. Sometimes, some of the movies that hit the hardest are the ones that sidestep most genre conventions entirely.

One such film is John Carchietta's Teenage Cocktail, a 2016 thriller that explores what happens when a pair of high school lovers cross paths with a possessive fan who demonstrates the worst elements of toxic masculinity. For those who live their lives even semi-publically online, Teenage Cocktail is a far more frightening and realistic outcome than any number of movies about killers in the woods.

In this new episode of Certified Forgotten, the Matts are joined by writer BJ Colangelo to discuss the ways in which Teenage Cocktail both subverts and uplifts the coming-of-age formula. The team also discusses how Teenage Cocktail avoids some of the more common mistakes with lesbian love stories.

You can rent Teenage Cocktail on Amazon or Apple TV. Check out the rest of our podcast episodes on our Podcasts page.

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Matthew Monagle

Matthew is a Philadelphia-based film critic and the co-founder of Certified Forgotten. You can find his writing at publications like Inverse, Polygon, IGN, and more. When not writing about horror movies, he can often be found obsessing over horror comics or roleplaying games.