Rather than bore listeners with the details of their miraculous escape, Bennett and Jim share their end-of-season reflections and rankings of the entire first season of Showtime's Masters of Horror. Created by Mick Garris, Masters of Horror was a two-season series on Showtime that challenged genre legends to create an hour-long horror film. Follow along as Bennett and Jim are forced to spend no more than 20 minutes discussing each episode from the first season of the series or face a room full o...
Oct 29, 2024•28 min
Split Picks is back to venture into dream worlds and nightmares from one of the modern master of horror's great franchises. Well, Split Picks aimed to record an episode every month this year. But things got busy, OK? So Jim Hickcox is once again in the host throne to field Split Picks' first international call. Terry Chiu (Open Doom Crescendo and Mangoshake director), and Mark Hanson of the Bay Street Video Podcast call in from Canada. Together, Split Picks heads into the Further to talk about t...
Oct 28, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Imprint scared Showtime’s censors enough to pull it from the release schedule. Even our seasoned podcasters have to admit it’s pretty grim. Takashi Miike is back to his old tricks with Imprint. It’s got gore, grotesqueries, and all sorts of torture. Bennett and Jim also found it far more atmospheric than your average Season 1 episode. As with last year’s look at Miike on Split Picks, our hosts admire Miike’s craft while occasionally wincing at some of his more excessive decisions. Imprint has pl...
Oct 28, 2024•22 min
It’s an undead orgy on this fun yet frivolous episode which sees John McNaughton fill in for George Romero in the director’s chair. The penultimate episode of Season 1 finds 'Masters of Horror' looking more like “Goosebumps for adults” than ever. Its title character finds himself confronting horrible truths about the ways love and lust can endure after death. Bennett and Jim wonder what the Haeckel estate must think of this strange tale, ask which periods Jon Polito could realistically live in, ...
Oct 28, 2024•22 min
"Pick Me Up" isn’t just a great episode of TV, it’s an underrated gem that Bennett and Jim both recommend highly to all genre fans. Michael Moriarty delivers a performance for the ages in Larry Cohen’s final directorial effort, the high-concept thrill ride, 'Pick Me Up.' Moriarty is one of two roving killers who menace a bus full of passengers before trailing our final girl (The Waterboy’s Fairuza Balk). One killer’s a trucker who picks up passengers before dispatching them. The other’s a drifte...
Oct 25, 2024•22 min
An unusually sweet episode of Masters of Horror with two eccentric central performances wows your hosts. Don’t let all the goop, slime, and creepy critters fool you, Lucky McKee’s 'Sick Girl' is remarkably tender for an episode of 'Masters of Horror.' Angela Bettis returns from Mckee’s 'May' (2001) in a superficially similar story of an eccentric loner searching for love. Here, she’s an entomologist whose field of study tends to send partners packing. Bettis affects cartoon voices throughout. So...
Oct 22, 2024•22 min
The podcast enters a stretch of top-notch episodes with William Malone’s visually distinct and genuinely creepy installment. Throughout the season, the boys have made plenty of jokes at the expense of directors like William Malone. “Really, he’s a master of horror?” Like feardotcom and House on Haunted Hill, The Fair Haired Child proves that William Malone definitely deserves that distinction. With strange flashbacks and an occult mystery plot, the episode has some of the most arresting images a...
Oct 22, 2024•22 min
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em! The boys are lighting up and taking a drag on the latest episode as they discuss John Carpenter’s first contribution to Masters of Horror. If you’ve seen one episode of Masters of Horror, it’s probably this entry from the master himself, John Carpenter. It’s often regarded as the best and the presence of Udo Kier in the cast goes a long way in helping establish its atmosphere. Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard episode of the show. Your hosts discuss the dangers of depic...
Oct 20, 2024•22 min
John Landis’ horny horror-comedy indulges many of the series’ worst impulses with its tale of a seductive cryptid. Max Landis earned his first screenwriting credit with his father’s entry in Masters of Horror’s first season. It’s an auteurist effort in the worst sense, blending plenty of misogyny into its tonal soup. Bennett offers a hot take for the ages about the genre mashups and the boys weigh the merits of Landis’ careers in both horror and comedy. Put on your hunting vests and check it out...
Oct 17, 2024•22 min
One of the most acclaimed Masters of Horror installments, Joe Dante’s political satire takes Jim and Bennett back to the 2004 election Jim and Bennett are reporting for duty on the latest (pod)Casters of Horror to discuss Joe Dante’s acclaimed entry in Masters of Horror’s first season. Slain servicemen rise from the grave in Homecoming to cast their ballots against an unnamed (and poorly imitated) George W. Bush. Your hosts discuss Small Soldiers, their memories of Bush-era America, and much mor...
Oct 17, 2024•22 min
Series maestro Mick Garris tries his hand at writing and directing in this series lowlight. Bennett and Jim don’t break from consensus here Gangs of New York’s Henry Thomas appears in Mick Garris’ high-concept romance as a food scientist with a psychic connection to a mysterious woman. With an abysmal soundtrack and a “you’re probably wondering how I got here” framing device, Chocolate doesn’t offer much to recommend. Jim and Bennett try their best to see the best in Chocolate. If nothing else, ...
Oct 13, 2024•22 min
Yowza! Put the kids to bed before you check out the latest (pod)Casters of Horror. Dario Argento keeps it spooky and sexy in his underrated installment Steven Weber (Dracula: Dead and Loving It) gets in way over his head during Dario Argento’s Jenifer. After saving a young girl's life, he finds she has a unique appetite that puts everyone around her in danger. With queasy sexuality and relentless momentum, the giallo master proves that his mid-aughts are just as interesting as any period in his ...
Oct 12, 2024•21 min
Tobe Hooper has done it again. On the latest (Pod)Casters of Horror, Bennett and Jim argue that Dance of the Dead is a late-career triumph. Masters of Horror doesn’t have the best reputation and perhaps no episode has attracted more derision than Tobe Hooper’s post-apocalyptic Dance of the Dead. Among the most nü-metal pieces of media ever created, Dance of the Dead follows a post-nuclear war town with drugged-up teenagers looking for thrills. Featuring Robert Englund as a twisted night club emc...
Oct 12, 2024•22 min
It’s not Stuart Gordon’s best Lovecraft adaptation, but Masters of Horror’s sophomore efforts gives your favorite sophomoric podcasters plenty to discuss. It’s time for a trip to ye olde Rhode Island on the latest (Pod)Casters of Horror as Bennett and Jim discuss the first of Stuart Gordon’s episodes, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House. Walter (Ezra Godden) begins having horrible dreams of a witch and a rat-faced man. Give it a listen to hear Bennett’s thoughts on th...
Oct 07, 2024•22 min
Bennett and Jim tackle Don Coscarelli’s series premiere, a trip through familiar genre territory The first episode of Masters of Horror reflects the predicament Bennett and Jim find themselves in. Bree Turner stars as a woman who takes an ill-fated trip down the titular pass. She encounters a backwoods murderer whose whole shtick is a touch too familiar. Don Coscarelli directed the first four 'Phantasm' films, 'Bubba Ho-Tep,' and 'John Dies at the End,' among others. With only 20 minutes on the ...
Oct 05, 2024•22 min
Bennett Glace and Jim Hickcox are podcasting for their lives this Halloween season by talking through every episode of Season 1 of Showtime’s 'Masters of Horror.' Jim and Bennett made a near-fatal mistake when they took a drive down a winding mountain pass. The pair barely survived an accident and they may soon wish they hadn’t. Jigsaw himself has a challenge for them: record podcast episodes for each episode in 'Masters of Horror' Season 1. The catch? They can’t talk for more than 20 minutes or...
Oct 05, 2024•11 min
Split Picks finds the holiday spirit with a look at two episodes from the BBC's A Ghost Story For Christmas tradition. No one would actually take something from a grave with an ominous warning written on it and then proceed to put said item in their mouth, right? Split Picks is back to give a definitive answer: no. But as author M.R. James and the BBC would have you believe, there is at least one person who would risk it all in the name of disbelieving superstition. Though ghosts and Christmas t...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Snow Lietta's special creepy Christmas podcast continues with Roberta Findlay's 1988 cult favorite 'Prime Evil.' Catholic satanists? Undercover nuns? A female director in the '80s?! Siblings Jason Michelitch & Snow Lietta discuss Roberta Findlay’s Prime Evil (1988) in this creepy Christmas podcast.
Dec 20, 2023•48 min
To ring in the holidays, Snow Lietta hosts a special new series on Christmas horror films. Up first is a look at two contemporary films about demon Santas. An old-world Santa emerging from an ancient mountain grave. An Americanized Krampus summoned by lost hope. Who will win in this Christmas monster match-up? Snow Lietta is joined by filmmaker and Cinesthesia host Jim Hickcox to discuss 'Krampus' (2015) and 'Rare Exports' (2010) in this creepy Christmas podcast. Season’s Bleedings! With Adam Sc...
Dec 16, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Tripping through the witching hour, stumbling out of the pre-dawn aura, Jim and Jason wandered into the yard at Split Tooth headquarters. Chocolate smeared across their faces, staring into the middle distance, they started talking. And they wouldn't stop. They said something about aging and death, desire and pain. And Cronenberg. They chewed through our landline and they sealed our cell phones inside rotting pumpkins. Please, call animal control. Tell them it's Cinesthesia. They'll know what to ...
Oct 31, 2023•1 hr 7 min
To close out the series on Japanese Horror, Spit Picks looks at a director known for testing the limits of violence on film.Takashi Miike is best known for three things: He is prolific, versatile, and is no stranger to using extreme gore. With 115 directorial credits listed on his IMDb page (at time of publishing), he has made films in just about every genre imaginable. But from blood-soaked epics like Ichi The Killer and 13 Assassins to a glut of Yakuza films, and even a death-centric musical c...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 38 min
Split Picks looks at an absolute masterwork of horror and a later haunted romance from Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Split Picks continues its special October series on Japanese Horror with a look at two films from Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After a string of seemingly unrelated murders with undeniable similarities, Detective Takabe begins to link the odd details of the killings together. It leads him to Mamiya, a man who claims to have no memory, no idea who he is, or even what he looks like. He speaks almost exclu...
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 32 min
What happens when a US studio remakes a Japanese film with the original director still behind the camera? After an extended talk about Takashi Shimizu's 2002 breakout film, Ju-On: The Grudge, the Split Picks crew — Bennett Glace, Jim Hickcox, Frankie Vanaria and host Craig Wright — picks up with The Grudge franchise making its way to the US. After the US remake of Ringu (as The Ring) became a global sensation, The Grudge was tapped as the next film up and confirmed that J-horror was ready for pr...
Oct 07, 2023•1 hr 26 min
For this year's Split Picks horror series, we look at some of the finest horror films and director's that Japan has to offer. Each year for October Horror, Split Picks takes a virtual field trip to a different country to find some of the best horror films and directors from around the world. In 2021 we started at home and looked at what we determined to be the Mt. Rushmore of American horror with Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero. Last year we put on our black gloves ...
Oct 01, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Ahead of Things We Like’s premiere, director Adi Jahic joins Split Picks to discuss his debut feature and an underseen classic from a beloved character actor. Writer-director Adi Jahic spoke with Split Tooth back in February about his excellent debut film,Things We Like, which he also edited and features him on screen in a crucial second act role. Early in the conversation, Jahic noted that he’s rarely inspired by films in the traditional sense, never watching anything while at work on a project...
May 08, 2023•54 min
What's a classic horror movie without an inferior remake or two? After discussing Bob Clark's immortal Black Christmas (1974), Bennett Glace, Jim Hickcox, and Snow Lietta join Craig to talk through both the 2006 and 2019 remakes/adaptations. Whereas Glen Morgan's 2006 version elevates the story's most gruesome elements to unnecessary extremes, Sophia Takal's 2019 adaptation approaches the source material as a vehicle for a political message intended for a younger audience. Both films were hinder...
Dec 24, 2022•1 hr 50 min
Split Picks gets into the yuletide spirit with an episode devoted to Bob Clark's holiday horror classic 'Black Christmas.' One of the finest horror films America has ever produced (and not just in Canada!), Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) was his first timeless holiday classic. Released during the same year as Deathdream, his Vietnam-era reimagining of The Monkey's Paw, Black Christmas capped off his early run of horror films before journeying into more family friendly holiday favorites (A Ch...
Dec 20, 2022•57 min
Jim and Jason slept for nine months so that they could stay up all night getting born again in a baptism of blood... a Bay of Blood, that is, along with Baron Blood, Blood and Black Lace, and more. That's right, the boys got Bava'd! All month, Split Tooth has brought you podcasts about the greats of Italian horror, and they saved the best for last. Come wander through the kick-lighted mist-world of the originator, Mario Bava — the Godfather of Giallo, the Svengali of Slashers, the Big Kahuna of ...
Oct 28, 2022•2 hr 10 min
Split Picks' Italian horror series wraps up with a classic Martino giallo and a controversial cannibal film. The finale of Split Picks' Italian horror series has arrived, and it closes out with one of our favorite horror directors: Sergio Martino. Martino is another jack-of-all-trades who has worked across genres and in various roles behind the scenes. But his greatest imprint will always be for his stunning work in horror, and his gialli rank among the best of the genre. Jim Hickcox brings his ...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Split Picks chose to focus on Italian horror directors for this year's October Horror series mainly because of their penchant for convincing practical gore effects. That's where Lucio Fulci comes in. Known as the "Godfather of Gore," Fulci's films relish every drop of blood, pierced eyeball and regurgitated organ. Fulci is best known for his films Zombie, The Beyond, and the Gates of Hell trilogy — City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, The House By The Cemetery. His work extends across decades an...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 23 min
