A Steve Cote production
Look Beyond the Screen.
Every movie has a story. Sometimes the real story is even stranger than the movie. Alex Sloane brings the cinematic eye, Jack Sterling opens the case files — and together they look beyond the screen at the true crime, history, mysteries, and extraordinary people behind the films you love. A sister show to Strange Skies and Strange Crimes.
Hear the trailer Show trailer · 2:18
Horror, sci-fi, crime, thriller, western, noir — every genre is welcome, as long as the film is based on a weird and true story. Film first, then the real story behind it, told with real sources and nothing invented.
Stephen King stayed in Room 217 of the Stanley Hotel in 1974 — and The Shining was born there. But this episode is one no one else can make: Steve Cote investigated the Stanley himself, in his paranormal investigator days. He stood in those rooms. Something happened there.
The most famous horror film ever made — and the real hotel behind it.
Launch episode — coming soon.
A horror film made for $750,000 took in over $400 million — and director Curry Barker got the idea watching a Simpsons Halloween episode about a monkey's paw. That joke traces back to W. W. Jacobs' 1902 story — the same story Jack retells in our After Dark Classics series. One cursed paw, four generations of storytellers.
Jacobs → King → The Simpsons → Barker. The lineage of a curse.
Coming soon.
In 1949, a 14-year-old boy in Maryland — known only as Roland Doe — went through a series of exorcisms that became William Peter Blatty's novel, and then the most terrifying film ever made. A paranormal investigator's take on a real exorcism case, plus the film's own "curse" lore: the deaths on set, the Pazuzu statue, the fire.
What really happened to Roland Doe?
Coming soon.
Travis Walton vanished for five days after a UFO encounter in the Arizona woods — witnessed by six coworkers, all of whom passed polygraph tests. Horror, sci-fi, and a genuine UFO case in one film. The abduction nobody could explain away.
Five days gone. Six witnesses. No explanation that holds.
Coming soon.
For nearly a decade, the Perron family lived with something in their farmhouse in Harrisville — the case that made Ed and Lorraine Warren famous. An ex-paranormal investigator looks at the real case, the Warrens' methods, and where Hollywood took over from history.
What did the Perrons really live through — and what did the film invent?
Coming soon.
The Zodiac Killer was never caught. David Fincher spent years obsessing over the case files to make the most accurate true-crime film ever shot — down to the exact shade of paint on a door. A director's obsession meets a killer who vanished.
The case that broke the investigators — and nearly broke the director.
Coming soon.What this show is
Strange Movies is about much more than horror and science fiction. It explores the fascinating real-world stories behind cinema: true crime, history, mysteries, the paranormal, extraordinary people, cultural moments, unexplained phenomena, controversial productions — the events and ideas that inspired unforgettable films. Every movie has a story. Sometimes the real story is even stranger than the movie.
And this show has an edge no one else can claim: its producer investigated the real places. Steve Cote stood inside the Stanley Hotel — the hotel behind The Shining — during his years as a paranormal investigator. When Strange Movies talks about the real story, it comes from someone who was there.
"Sometimes the movie is only half the story."
Made for the cinema lovers, with the Strange touch.
From the same studio
Strange Movies is the third show from Steve Cote Productions.
UFOs, the paranormal, and the unexplained — short episodes on the cases and the declassified record, with Jack Sterling After Dark on Friday nights.
Visit strangeskiespodcast.com ↗Unsolved cases from around the world — disappearances nobody can explain, deaths where the official story falls apart, and the strange details in between.
Visit strangecrimes.com ↗Alex brings the cinematic eye. Jack opens the case files. Steve built the studio they live in.
Strange Movies · the cinematic perspective
"Every film is a window into the world that made it. I just open the curtains a little wider."
Alex is the cinema lover — the films, the filmmakers, the performances, the cultural context, the themes, and what movies reveal about the world that made them. Think of her as the show's sociologist of cinema: curious, sharp, and always asking what a film says about the moment it came from.
Strange Movies · the investigation
"The movie ends. The case file doesn't."
Jack is the investigator — original accounts, real locations, archives, eyewitness testimony, case files, and the stories that deserve a closer look. Slow, low, and unhurried, like a man who's in no rush because the truth isn't going anywhere. On Friday nights he hosts Strange Skies After Dark.
The producer · Behind the console
"Alex and Jack got the AI treatment — so I joined them."
Creator & producer, ex-paranormal investigator. He's the one at the console putting it all together — LA cap on, coffee nearby. He investigated the Stanley Hotel, the real place behind The Shining, and that firsthand experience is what sets this show apart. He also produces Strange Skies and Strange Crimes. Follow along at Instagram @stevecote1974.
How the show is made: Alex Sloane and Jack Sterling are AI-voiced hosts. Steve Cote is the real person behind Strange Movies — he creates and produces every episode.
Know a movie with a stranger-than-fiction true story behind it — or a film whose real history deserves a closer look? Our contact details are coming soon. In the meantime, you can reach Steve through the Strange Skies show.
Strange Movies is coming soon to Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow Steve on social to hear the moment the first episode drops.