Was Dean Koontz inspired to write 1989’s ‘Midnight’ based on ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’? Does getting a goat testicle transplant increase vitality? Does Doctor Moreau deliver as good a dialogue on pleasure and pain as Pinhead? Does an Ox wave its tail when happy? Does Derek know any Green Day songs? All these questions, and more, in our coverage of the middle part of The Island of Doctor Moreau. No answers though.
Episode 315 - Moreauvember: The Island of Doctor Moreau, Part 2
Moreauvember continues with the gang’s review of the first third of H.G. Wells’ ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’. Everyone focuses on the plight of the Beast Folk, but nobody dives into the sad life of Montgomery, who just wants to tell the sad story about how he got roped into this whole animal transformation business and nobody wants to hear it. Don’t worry though, we do.
Episode 314 - Moreauvember: The Island of Doctor Moreau, Part 1
Fun fact: In the space of four years H.G. Wells wrote ‘The Time Machine’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’, and ‘The War of the Worlds’. Is there a greater four year grand slam than that? Tune in, Moreauvember begins now. Don’t forget your beast folk.
Episode 313 - Perfect Blue (1997)
Have we ever covered an animated film before? I honestly can’t even remember after all these episodes. Anyhow, the gang watches 1997’s ‘Perfect Blue’, a.k.a., the movie you’ve probably seen shots copied from in most Darren Aronofsky films, the most comprehensive version of a Giallo, or, the anime you could use as a measure of the quality of the art to show your grandmother if her only conservative view was that she did not like anime and absolutely nothing else about sex or violence.
Episode 312 - The Last Broadcast (1998)
While certainly not an Armageddon/Deep Impact situation, 1998’s ‘The Last Broadcast’ is often lumped in, unfairly, as the mirror to The Blair Witch Project. This is much to its loss as it is certainly no Blair Witch, but also because it has a completely different flavor of “found footage” in its inclusion of cable access shows, MIRC logs, and true crime talking heads. That’s right folks, MIRC logs, we’re heading back to the mid-90’s!
Episode 311 - Body at Brighton Rock (2019)
On the one hand we have JR missing the twist of 2019’s ‘Body at Brighton Rock’ so hard that it would be like not realizing Bruce Willis was dead after watching The 6th Sense, and on the other we have Derek confusing the production story of Predator (the script for which was originally titled ‘Hunter’) with the 2003 film ‘The Hunted’. We both lose. Not to be outdone, you also lose. We don’t even warn you about the Natural Park Zone of Death, major failure.
Episode 310 - Unwelcome (2022)
Are you looking for a film about little monsters laying siege to an Irish manor with all the “fun” of Straw Dogs but none of the humor of Gremlins? 2022’s ‘Unwelcome’ might just be the film for you! Worst case scenario you get a 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon crossover between The MCU, Game of Thrones, and Star Trek…
Episode 309 - Soft & Quiet (2022)
2022’s ‘Soft & Quiet’ may have hit theaters in exactly the way that its name implied, but that makes sense when its entire plot is best experienced knowing nothing about it ahead of time. It does introduce cinema’s third most provocative pie (American Pie, #1, The Help, #2) so don’t go in hungry. If you learn nothing from the marketing of ‘A Ghost Story’, you got to play up the pie to get the people in seats.
Episode 308 - Watcher (2022)
Not to be confused with the 2022 TV series, the 2000 James Spader/Keanu Reeves film, nor the 1987 psychic dog vs. monster dog novel by Dean Koontz, no, this is the 2022 film about Maika Monroe being followed by a malicious force, but not the 2014 film about Maika Monroe being followed by a malicious force. Makes sense? Plus, more stories from JR’s childhood that explain why he is like he is!
Episode 307 - Children and Evil Holes 3: The Orphanage (2007)
The boys wrap up children and evil holes month with a film that barely qualifies for having an evil hole, 2007’s ‘The Orphanage’. Not to be confused with ‘The Devil’s Backbone’, this was the other movie about a Spanish orphanage that came out in the mid-2000s and had involvement from Guillermo del Toro in an odd Antz/Bug’s Life, Dante’s Peak/Volcano, Deep Impact/Armageddon symmetry. It also stars the adopted child of Pennywise and the Babadook, if you’re up on that whole thing.
Episode 306 - Children and Evil Holes 2: The Pit (1981)
While mysterious holes are the #1 cause of evil children, #2 is mysterious pits, especially if they’re full of monsters. 1981’s horror-comedy ‘The Pit’ gives you the trifecta of troglodytes, evil teddy bears, and snotty Canadian children who can’t even be mean right. If you’re not sold already, as an added bonus there’s plenty of ‘The Littlest Hobo’ talk as well.
Episode 305 - Children and Evil Holes 1: There's Something Wrong With The Children (2023)
Did you know that mysterious holes are the #1 cause of children turning evil? Doesn’t matter if it was made by changelings, other Fae, aliens, bug monsters, or evil spirits, you have a kid, keep them clear of all mysterious holes. If only the adults in 2022’s ‘There’s Something Wrong With The Children’ had listened to Derek and JR’s parenting advice they might have learned a thing or two…
Episode 304 - Kevin WilliamsON 4: Sick (2022)
The Kevin Williamson series train reaches the end of the line with his newest film, the COVID horror movie ‘Sick’. Global pandemic not scary or personal enough? Throw in a little of that slasher magic to bring in on home for you. And of course a very special shout out to Aarman Touré as uncredited guy with pizza.
Episode 303 - Kevin Williamson 3: Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)
Another poster of just teenager’s faces without any information about the film? Must be another 90’s Kevin Williamson film! 1999’s ‘Killing Mrs. Tingle’, er, I mean ‘Teaching Mrs. Tingle’, because maybe in the immediate aftermath of Columbine a movie names after killing a teacher was not the way to go and changing it to be more “educational” was “better”. Good thing that was the last school shooting America ever had and now we can refer to it by its original name…
Episode 302 - Kevin Williamson 2: The Faculty (1998)
The boys continue their Kevin Williamson retrospective (and movie posters only highlighting the faces of its actors with no implication as to what the film is about) with 1998’s ‘The Faculty’. Does all that meta horror dialogue work as well when you replace it with meta sci-fi dialogue? Take a bump of caffeine pills and tune in to find out.
Episode 301 - Kevin Williamson 1: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
The boys dive into the oeuvre of writer Kevin Williamson, well, his non-Scream, non-TV, non-werewolf related oeuvre that is. 1997’s ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, is exactly what you’d expect from a 90’s teen slasher, and the behind-the-scenes-at-Miramax grossness is also about what you’d expect. I guess the killer dressing in the vein of fishing Ernest P. Worrell was a new twist though…
Episode 300 - Pride Month 3: The Serpent and The Rainbow (1988)
The boys wrap up Pride Month with the film that inspired the Godsmack song ‘Voodoo’, Wes Craven’s 1988 Bill Pullman horror vehicle, ‘The Serpent and The Rainbow’. Where exactly does it fall on the voodoo cultural insensitivity spectrum between ‘Live and Let Die’ and ‘Weekend at Bernie’s 2’? You’ll just have to listen to our 300th episode spectacular to find out.
Episode 299 - Pride Month 2: Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)
If you thought that ‘Mandy’ moved too fast for you, the boys cover another Panos Cosmatos film that might be more your speed. Despite what you may have heard, ‘Beyond the Black Rainbow’ is not a sequel to last week’s ‘Black Rainbow’, and is probably closer in tone to ‘Reading Rainbow’. Indeed, you watch this one under the right circumstances (recommended) and those butterflies will truly be flying twice as high, but don’t take a look at the mad doctor’s book in this…
Episode 298 - Pride Month 1: Black Rainbow (1989)
The boys begin Pride Month with the under seen 1989 Rosanna Arquette film ‘Black Rainbow’. Also, instead of patting yourself on the back and thinking you’re doing good because you acknowledged something rainbowey this month, maybe actually go help some disenfranchised people? To apply this to the film, be a Tom Hulce, not a Jason Robards.
Episode 297 - No Longer Live from New York, April 2023, it's a Roundup! Part 3
A stuffed animal, a Ghostface, a Dracula, Panama! In the final roundup of this NYC visit (which could not be contained to just one physical location) the boys talk 2019's 'Benny Loves You', 'Scream 6' and the franchise as a whole, and Nic Cage's return to not straight to streaming films in 'Renfield'. Opinions vary.