A little Indian boys traveling in Devon. One said he'd stay right there and there were seven.

The 1920s and 1930s became known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Many authors, such as Nicholas Blake, Cristiana Brand, Edmund Crispin and of course Agatha Christie, were achieving huge success with their who-done-it mysteries, usually involving characters gathering in a large old house and one or more of them not making it through the night.

It wasn't long before many of these stories began getting film adaptations. In 1939, Elliot Nugent directed a horror comedy based on both the play by John Willard and a silent movie from 1927 called The Cat and the Canary.

About a group of relatives gathering in a gothic house in the Louisiana Bayou with a murderous killer known as The Cat, prowling for his next victim.

A few years later, Renee Claire directed an Agatha Christie adaptation called and then there were none.

Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks, one chopping something half, then there were six.

Which involved a group of strangers being invited to a house on an isolated island who were picked off one by one by a mysterious killer.

Both films went on to be hugely influential in both the who-done-it genre and the horror genre and solidified this idea that the big old dark house is the perfect setting for a series of grizzly murders.

This instrument, which you saw me remove from the back of the third victim, means only one thing, murder.

Join me as we continue exploring the evolution of home invasion and we discuss two murder mystery classics, The Cat and the Canary and then there were none.

Welcome back to the evolution of horror. My name is Mike Munster as ever I am your host. In this podcast we explore and dissect the history and the evolution of the horror genre one sub-jummer at a time.

We are currently in the middle of our ninth series exploring the evolution of home invasion movies and this is part three.

As that intro suggested this week we are going to be exploring the world of murder mysteries and who-done-its and we're going to be talking about The Cat and the Canary from 1939 followed by and then there were none from 1945.

Both of these discussions will be spoilerific. Don't spoil it for yourself. They're both murder mysteries. You've got to check these films out before you listen to out discussion.

So joining me to discuss these two bangers. It's a long time friend of the pod. She is a film critic, a broadcaster, journalist and she's my wife and she's right here in the living room. Brianna Dylan. Hello. Hello, Michael Munster.

Well, this is nice because we're going to talk about home invasion movies. This is what I've been talking about with everyone so far this series. Me and you share a home.

We share this fear together of something happening. What do you think of home invasion movies generally? Are these movies that you would gravitate towards?

Well, put it this way. When you told me that you were doing a home invasion series I immediately had a nightmare like a couple of nights later about a home invasion before we'd even started watching any of the films.

It's just from the mere miniature. It's my worst subgenre, I would say, because of the reality of it. I mean, you're going to get this all the way through. I don't think many people are genuinely terrified of zombies or vampires.

But home invasion is something that I have always been really frightened of. And it's one of those subgenres that if you're watching Home Alone at night, which is often the way if you're watching something late on TV or something.

For a second, I thought you were watching Home Alone at night. But yes, sorry.

That is also a home invasion. Are you covering Home Alone? I am. Oh, yes. Of course you're doing it with Rob. Amazing.

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