Charlie Bailey (Eric Tabach) hosts the Paranormalcy podcast, struggling to get noticed as a crowded white guy with a podcast space. I can relate. Then, he meets Duncan Slayback (Gabriel Rush), who tells him he can prove that ghosts don’t exist. After all, his fiancee died and has never come back to him. To further prove his point while Charlie is recording him, he shoots himself in the head before claiming that he won’t haunt our protagonist.

Except that Duncan does come back from the dead.

He becomes the show’s co-host, using his ghostly powers to find missing things and get into peoples’ heads. Soon, Charlie succeeds and has the money to support himself and his pregnant girlfriend, Brie (Kaikane). Yet when Duncan starts to ask too much, including getting revenge on the man he claimed killed his fiancee, all as a rival podcast, Jasper (Charlie Saxton) tries to reveal how Charlie can do so many ghostly things.

Maybe Charlie shouldn’t have trusted Duncan. Yet once he’s too deep, well, he’s stuck. He can’t escape the call of doing his show, the rush of getting followers, the need to be part of something. Again, I understand. This hit very close to me. And it’s a really intriguing film in which the lead is unlikeable, yet you want him to grow and get past it until, yet again, it’s too late.

Dean Alioto directed and wrote this film, marking his return to genre films after a long hiatus since creating The McPherson Tape. Featuring cameos from Dave Foley and “Master of Horror” Mick Garris, this movie exceeded my expectations. It has surprising twists and turns that I never saw coming. If you can watch it, I highly recommend you do!

The Last Podcast screens as part of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 17–27. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.