A lot of folks have been avoiding going to the theater recently, not because of covid, but because of the throat slitting slashers. The gang buys a ticket for the 2020 South American Giallo/Slasher “The Last Matinee,” and let’s just say their wallets weren’t the only thing gouged. Think less “Blood and Black Lace” and more “Blood and Butter Popcorn” as the vibe. Did your hosts spring for the extra large with extra butter? You know they did.
Episode 246 - Slashers 5: Tragedy Girls (2017)
The slashing continues with a film that asks, “What if there was a slasher movie, but the slashers were… girls…” Tragedy Girls is exactly that, and doesn’t even contain the cringy Diablo Codyesque dialogue you might expect of a dark teen film like this. Is it dark satire? Well, that depends on your tolerance to the definition of “satire” I suppose.
Episode 245 - Slashers 4: Cherry Falls (2000)
Sharpen your knives, the boys are back on a slasher kick. This week’s entry, the never theatrically released (back when that meant something) Cherry Falls. Is it a sexually independent youths film with a slasher? Is it a slasher movie where everyone on screen is DTF every other character, including blood relatives? Or is it just a illogical mess? And what’s up with that giraffe tattoo? Listen and find out!
Episode 244 - Classic Monster Metaphors
Monsters. Metaphors. Mishigas? The boys break down the metaphors that classic monsters are supposed to represent, and provide modernized/better examples of them. You’ll never believe what JR thinks the aliens from ‘This Island Earth’ mean!
Episode 243 - Can they make a good Resident Evil movie?
Resident Evil. Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Resident Evil: Extinction. Resident Evil: Afterlife. Resident Evil: Retribution. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Each worse than the one before it, but what if a good Resident Evil movie was made?Resident Evil. Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Resident Evil: Extinction. Resident Evil: Afterlife. Resident Evil: Retribution. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Each worse than the one before it, but what if a good Resident Evil movie was made?
Episode 242 - Horror Roundup, February 2022, Part 2
Sans Mai Tai’s, the boys round up some more horror in another episode. Nightmare Alley, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Hellbound, Antlers, No One Gets Out Alive, and House. That last one is the movie with the scary cat face on the poster, not the zombie hand ringing a doorbell one you remember off the VHS box at the video rental place of your youth.
Episode 241 - Horror Roundup, February 2022, Part 1
The boys are back on their horror nonsense with a roundup of how they spent their winter break. Spoilers, it was by watching American Horror Story Season 9, Midnight Mass, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Squid Games, The Devil Below, and Superdeep. Apparently breaks are the time to watch miniseries…
Episode 240: The Empty Man (2020)
The Empty Man (2020). You definitely didn't see it in theaters, but maybe you've heard about its growing cult status (no pun intended). Come listen as J.R. and Derek discuss both the ironically fraught development and end result of this admirably fascinating yet frustrating smash-up of teen urban legend thriller, Lovecraftian cosmic noir horror, and muddled insanity.
Episode 239 - The Ruins (2008)
Imagine being writer Scott Smith. Come out of nowhere and write "A Simple Plan" and then adapt the screenplay, and everyone loves the movie. Wait 13 years, release your second novel "The Ruins," adapt the screenplay, and critics and audience . . . well, it's no "A Simple Plan." J.R. and Derek discuss The 2008 film "The Ruins," and while finding it not to be a disaster, discuss how it could have been better and how it differs from the novel.
Episode 238 - Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (1982)
J.R. and Derek analyze and cogently explain the surprisingly tight logic behind Halloween III: Season of the Witch's plot . . . nah, we are just playing, this movie is a goofy mess involving Stonehenge power cells, Halloween masks, cyborgs, magic that melts faces and conjures snakes, and a whole bunch of other nonsense. Come divulge with us.
Episode 237 - The Power (2021)
J.R., perhaps inexplicably, has wanted to the The Power (2021) for some time, attracted to the gothic imagery of a nurse holding an oil lamp, stuck in a haunted hospital during a blackout. The duo watch, and get something else… something… well, just come listen!
Episode 236 - Folk Horror 4: Beasts: Baby (1976)
The duo finish up Folk Horror month with a return to the work of Nigel Kneale with his 1976 series "Beasts" and the episode "Baby." Hysterics and bad masks aside, it's solid. Manimal isn’t the only beast in this one baby.
Episode 235 - Folk Horror 3: Without Name (2016)
What's the folk horror movie we cover? Doesn't have a name? Without Name? How will we find it? Do we want to find out, or do we just want to take psychotropic mushrooms and freak out in the woods. Or IS that the whole movie? Find out, as we discuss this lesser-known Irish folk horror film from 2016, which gives us a new appreciation of the Lorax.
Episode 234 - Folk Horror 2: The Stone Tape (1972)
Derek and J.R. cover that rare thing: a horror movie written for adults. What, we cover a GOOD horror movie, you say? Why yes, although they are almost as rare as a ghost recording captured by a stone, they do exist! Shame that the "stone tape theory" to explain ghost hauntings propounded by kooks in the wake of this movie is such goofy nonsense.
Episode 233 - Folk Horror 1: The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
It's the harvest season, and that means folk horror. Just hope you don't harvest DEMONIC EVIL (or is it Satan?) like the townsfolk of our first film, 1971's Blood on Satan's Claw, part of the "unholy trinity" of British folk horror. Quake at the pagan horror, the attempt to smush three separate stories into one, and also at the production teams' quotes about 17 year old actress Linda Hayden, which didn't age too well.
Episode 232 - The Dark Descent, Roundup
Let's be honest, reading classic horror can feel sometimes like eating your literary vegetables. The duo swiftly go through "The Dark Descent," the famous anthology, and give you the skinny on what classic horror stories (many in the public domain and free online) are worth reading. Consider it a public service.
Episode 231 - The Dark Descent, Part 3
The duo discuss two stories dealing with the unknowable and ambiguous. J.R. covers "Seaton's Aunt" by Walter de le Mare, about a mysterious aunt who may or may not be in league with the Devil, a story which H.P. Lovecraft described as containing "a noxious background of malignant vampirism." Derek picks Fritz Lieber's highly influential "Smoke Ghost," about the subconscious anxieties of 1940's America manifesting in . .. well, a ghost made of smoke. Fight ambiguity and indecision by decisively deciding to listen to this episode!
Episode 230 - The Dark Descent, Part 2
The duo discuss two psychological stories from the Dark Descent. J.R. selects "How Love Came to Professor Guildea," about a stone-cold researcher pursued by an idiotic, affectionate ghost, and the experiments undertaken to prove it. Derek goes NYCsploitation and selects "The Roaches," about an overburdened woman and her psychic relationship with NYC's official animal. Also, digressions into space psychosis, Tank Girl, and general angst, as one should expect.
Episode 229 - The Dark Descent, Part 1
The duo return to short fiction with story picks from the "Color of Evil '' section in the influential 1987 anthology "The Dark Descent," which aimed to chart the development of the horror short story. J.R. goes for the offbeat choice of "If Damon Comes" by Charles Grant, where Derek picks the stone-cold classic "The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson.
Episode 228 - Why Are They Still Making Rape-Revenge Films?
Just the feel good genre you want to hear two guys talk about right? The boys ponder why there is anything else left to be said, outside of subversions, about this most distasteful of genres. Not a particular chucklefest.