If this picture doesn't make you scream and squirt, you'd better see a psychiatrist. Quick. And welcome to Horror Movie Podcast, where we're dead serious about horror movies. This is episode 219, and I am Jay of the Dead, podcasting from Pleasant Grove, Utah. And I am one of the hosts, in fact... a host emeritus of HMP, and I've been given the honor of introducing the illustrious panel of podcasters who are present here with us today for this very special episode.
Hailing from just outside Philadelphia, PA, he is the mastermind behind the DVD Infatuation blog and its official podcast. And he is the host on about 8,000 other podcasts. And I will always be jealous of him because, did you know, his question for the movie Answer Man was actually answered and published and appears in... Roger Ebert's movie yearbook 2004. He is the human encyclopedia of cinema and a national treasure. The amazing but subtle Dave, Dr. Shock Becker. Welcome. Thank you, Jay.
I can tell you're back because I have no idea what to say. Thank you so very much for that awesome introduction on what is going to prove to be a very special... for our movie podcast episode. Yes, sir. Agreed. Thanks for being here, David. Yes, thank you. And next, we have your textbook headline, Florida Man. Sometimes filmmaker and all the time movie memorabilia collector, this misty-eyed, memory-laying lover of nostalgia cinema is the man who brought you forgotten flicks and retro movie geek.
whose annual bash is my october highlight spooky flicks fest and along with dr shock this man is a host on jay the dead's new horror movies we welcome the gill man joel robertson i'm a little concerned jay you want to know why why is that because it's you and me being on this show together In co-hosting capacity, I feel like it's like crossing the streams. I think something may go sideways. Right. Unless we're going to talk about the ending of The Mist again.
We are not going to do that. We could talk about Mother of Tears. Or skin him a rink. If need be. Thumbs off. Let's do it. I wouldn't do that to the audience. It's terrible. All right. Next, this podcaster is not one to be trifled with. So it would behoove you not to trifle, Dave. Coming at you from Charm City. be more the b-town home of the wire where wallace at string he is the intrepid host of phantom galaxy
And it's many interesting episode types and appended shows, such as The Illustrated Fan, Phantom Video, X-Files Roundtables, After Darks, and so forth. This man is a genuine cinephile and student of the cinema. Welcome. Nathan Bartlewell. AJ, thank you so much for that introduction and that wire reference. That's what Baltimore is. Everyone thinks we're the wire. I've been to Baltimore, Nathan, and they're not all wrong.
They're not all wrong. Yeah, your roommate is Bubz. Is that better than, what was it, John Waters? There's two different neighborhoods there. The John Waters part is more where you have like the, we saw a running of the pigs festival last year. So it's a little different than the wire part where it's the running of the cops. Do you wear pig masks?
running of the pig festival no i didn't see that it was just a bun it was more like mad max beyond thunderdome really and all the little pigs run through the gates and square off okay cool well welcome nathan good to have you thank you Next, I'd like to introduce a gentle soul and a gold-hearted human being. He is well known for being a talent manager, world traveler, published writer, and former executive of the entertainment industry.
He is the author of The Sound of Fear and the narrator of its accompanying podcast, Inside the Sound of Fear, a book on tape adventure featuring soundscapes of the beyond. Let's welcome Vicious Victor. hellcat rodriguez thank you sir i really love that introduction and i'm thrilled to be here i can't wait to record with you to keep recording with you guys yes sir and victor the audience doesn't know this but
On your book, I saw that your middle initial was H and I'm like, I got to know what that stands for. In audience, it is Hellcat. So I love that. I love that. All right. This next young man. is wise beyond his years, especially pertaining to motion pictures. While there is no accounting for taste, Yo Man Joel is Exhibit A.
This particular podcaster has an affinity for the classics, films that many people his age haven't even heard of, much less seen, and he has a deep appreciation for film history. Lucky for us, he is a film student. and aspiring filmmaker. And he is the son from the much-loved Father and Son Watch Horror Movies podcast. Welcome, Jackson. Hey, thanks, Jay.
What you call wise beyond his ears, I call not fun at parties. But, you know, it's kind of a glass half full, glass half empty kind of thing. Well, you're in good company then. Thank you so much. That's a great introduction. Couldn't have asked for better. I think I need you to write my, if I ever get so lucky as to win any kind of award, I think I need you to write my acceptance speech. Thanks, my pleasure.
Most people use chat GPT these days. And so that'll give me something to do for work. So thank you. So anyways. All right. I'm not bitter. Shut up. Okay. Last for now, but not least, is the Paul Harvey of podcasting. I say that because his experience and pool of knowledge are very wide if you give him a prompt for example especially if you mention a song or film title
This man probably has an anecdote where he personally interacted or overlapped on some level in some way with that particular artwork or its creators. He is a man-at-arms, man of the people. Manos, The Hands of Fate, and A Man of the Cloth, he is the father component of the aforementioned Father and Son Watch Horror Movies podcast. But most importantly, listeners, I want you all to know this.
He is the reason that Horror Movie Podcast is now back online with its archives of episodes available again. And he has some very exciting news for you. So without further delay. I'll step aside now so he can tell you the rest of the story. Welcome Pastor Matt Rawlings, a.k.a. The VelociPastor. Oh, thank you, Jay. Yeah, I've got a lot of Hollywood stories, but as I tell people, I am the Forrest Gump of Hollywood.
It was not because I was just so charming and witty and could worm my way into any situation. It was because my older brother could, and I just followed him around. So I have to thank my older brother, Brian, who was established for all of those experiences. But it is... Jay, it is so good. It's great for everyone to be here, but it is so good to hear you introduce Horror Movie Podcast again. And I want you to talk about...
you know, how you created H and P because you are, I know you've told me, Oh, there were horror movie podcasters before me. You were on horror movie podcasts before H and P, but to me, you are the pod father. And so. I when I went through a divorce and many years ago, back in 2012, when Jackson and his mom moved away to Virginia.
Jackson and I were messaging almost every day, and one of the things he asked me was, Dad, are there any horror movie podcasts that I can listen to? And I thought, I've never even thought of that. I usually listen to audio books, and so I was like, I don't know. Let me look into it. And this is one of your geniuses, Jay. You have many areas which you excel. But just coming up with the simple name, Horror Movie Podcast.
Because when people Google a horror movie podcast, guess what pops up first? And so you, sir, are a marketing genius. It popped up. It was the first one I checked out. And I listened to several episodes. Jackson was very young at the time. I heard that you were a person of faith. I saw that it wasn't explicit. And sorry, future – any future guest hosts like Raul, no dong talk. And so –
I loved listening to it. I sent it on to Jackson. He fell in love with it. And every other week I get a message from him after he'd listened to H&P. So you mean a lot to me. This podcast means a lot to me. And I'm so glad to hear you do that again. And you're welcome to do it any time because I'm telling you, it's a little dusty in here right now. Wow. Thanks, brother. That means a lot.
Kind of speechless, really. I don't even know what to say to that. Dave and Joel, like I just, I don't even, like it's overwhelming. Honestly, Jay, I think the best thing is for you to say nothing at all. Okay, I won't. That's just because you took that shot at skin of my ring. I'm being very passive aggressive right now. That's what I get. Thank you for pointing that out.
No, with the title, The Domain, okay, so it's funny that you mention that, Matt, because over the years when people would tell me how they found the show, that's exactly how they ended up finding it. And honestly, I started podcasting in 2010. I'm not going to tell you my life story. But in 2011, I had the songwriting podcast. And I was just like, well, I'll just name it what it is.
the songwriting podcast. And that really did pretty well just because of that title. So when it was time, this was my third horror podcast. The first one was the weekly horror movie podcast, but that didn't have the same result. And then the next one was Horror Metropolis, which Dr. Shock crashed that one after 10 episodes. But anyways. It was me, Jay. It was me. It was you at that dorm of the drip blood.
podcast believe that, Dave. Don't worry about it. The Dorm that Dripped Blood. That was the movie that did in. It wasn't Mother of Tears. It was The Dorm that Dripped Blood. I bought that DVD after listening to guys argue with it just so I could find the time at some point to count on my phone.
Who was right, Dave or Jay? Yes. And then they talked about prepping for Christmas break for a long time in that movie. But anyways, so, yeah, when it came time for this. Mother of tears, they should have talked about. When it came time for this third podcast, I thought, well, I really liked the weekly horror movie podcast. And I'm like, I can't use that again. But maybe I should just even make it simpler like the songwriting podcast.
what I ended up doing. But long story short, I won't take all day. The reason I kept quitting shows, and that is true of all of these podcasts, was... I was in a difficult and unhappy marriage, unfortunately, and my wife at the time was not a fan of my podcasting. And so it was kind of the other woman, so to speak. So anyways...
I would get enough heat where I would drop the show and then see if we could make things better. And then it didn't get better. And then I missed my podcasting and I'm like, Why did I drop my show? Because things aren't good anyway. So I might as well have my show at least, you know. And then I'd start a new one and blah, blah, blah. So Horror Movie Podcast came to being because in 2012, I actually... planned this show for like nine months before its release. I remember this.
And I bought the domain really early and just started making all these plans. And I was just waiting to launch it because I wanted to launch it at Halloween time. And so that's why it ended up being October 25th. 2013 and uh it's kind of all history from there but that's kind of the origins of it and i'm really grateful for what a reception it's had so Well, it's had a huge reception, and I remember your last day on HMP when you gave that famous line, you know, Jay of the Dead signing out.
I mean, there were people on Twitter saying that they were crying. Yeah. Well, and me too. Like, honestly, that was terrible. That was, you know, long story short, again, I feel. I feel a little self-conscious talking so much because I know Joel is judging me right now. No. Jay, I was just thinking the good news is you got replaced by someone so much more capable. Absolutely. Yeah. That's so true. It's so true. But, but yeah, in 2019, what happened was I'd been on the show for six years.
that we had been on 166 episodes and um and yeah it was kind of like my last ditch effort I'm like you know what you know she hates these podcasts so I got I let go of a horror movie podcast And movie podcast weekly rather abruptly leaving these guys in the lurch and that I do regret that. But what I don't regret. Go ahead. You had to do what you had to do. I think everyone understands that. Yeah. What my point is.
how much you mean to the movie podcast listeners you just mean a lot yeah thank you and they mean a lot to me too because honest to goodness i didn't i i really didn't know because Cliff Ravenscraft, the podcast answer man, that's the dude that I used to listen to to learn how to podcast, like technically speaking, like I ended up learning from him.
And he used to talk about community and listeners and stuff. And on my first show ever, even after two years, it only had 25 listeners and they never wrote or said anything. And so I'm sure it was.
you know dr shock and uh wolfman josh and dr walking dead you know their help that made it so great and but anyways it was it was to date horror movie podcast is still the most popular or successful at least of any podcast I've been involved with it is still by far the one and I you know it'll always be special to me for that
Well, when we bought, you know, we got bought the domain and then we went back and forth with GoDaddy about that. And then we went and got the RSS feed from Wolfman and the Twitter feed. my wife looked it up and my wife is trying to teach me all this stuff because i know nothing but my wife looked it up uh horror movie podcasts as of last week has almost 2.5 million downloads. That's a lot. So you persevered as long as you personally could, Jay.
And you put together just a great thing. And now it has a huge community. And so I'm glad for it to be back. But let me ask this and throw it open to you, Jay, and you, Dave. Up until, you know, and Joel, I want to throw it open to you as well. Do you have any memories of like favorite memories from HNP that you look back on? I know the slasher episode was how many hours?
Well, that was the one that pops to mind immediately because we had Greg Amortis, who joined us for the 80 Slashers, and we had it planned across two episodes. but then after three hours of recording we had gotten to the end of 1981 so it sort of was like i think we're going to need more than two episodes here
And that's when it became four episodes. And that was sort of a crossing of worlds for me because I was on Land of the Creeps and Horror Movie Podcast for almost the same amount of time. I joined them both in 2013. I'm not an original host of Horror Movie Podcast. You know, I've said that before. I did not join all the way into episode two because I was not one of the originals.
But I actually joined Land of the Creeps, I think, maybe a week or so before I was invited to join HMP. And I've been doing both of them simultaneously all these years. Land of the Creeps a little bit more. I think there are more episodes there at this point. But that Slashers one really stands out for me as one of the very memorable ones. Jay, is it pig-headed horror for you? Yeah, I did enjoy that, and I love that whole thing. But honestly, I think...
Right off the top of my head, my favorite memory was when Dr. Shock and I were on and we happened to cross the Jan Gell DVD and just live on the show, we just kind of went nuts down this rabbit hole. and we both ordered it right there on the spot. And that was just hilarious for me. And Jay, I know you don't drink. I can blame alcohol. I don't know what you can blame.
Too much Coca-Cola in the red can, I guess. That's right. Too much Coke and Dairy Queen, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Well, and the thing is, he was a caveman. For those who don't know Jangel, he is a caveman. And this was like taking place in West Virginia. So I'm like, well, I relate to some of this. So, yeah, it's right up my alley. Cavemen in West Virginia. Do you want me to comment on that?
I practiced law in West Virginia for five years. Uh-oh. I'm still waiting to watch that movie, by the way, Jay. I know. I'm waiting for it, too. Who has it? I'm telling you, Watson. Watson still. It's weird. What was that? Is waiting what you're doing? Okay. Is Watson using it as a coaster? I think you might be, and I think I might be conflating waiting and constipation. I'm not sure. Joe, well, let me say, Joe, you can wait for the movie.
Okay. But I know we have to sign this and get it off to somebody. It's been a while. What was that? Episode two? There's new horror movies or something? And we're up to like episode eight now. Right. Maybe even nine at this point. I know. He'll probably contact the director and have it sent to him by this point. I probably have. And the director's like, yeah, I got a whole garage full of them.
Oh, man. Gilman Joel, what about you? You took over the reins as host for Jay, and you did that for a while. What's your favorite memory of HMP? So I think for full disclosure, I essentially got asked to do that. It very almost as suddenly as Jay left. And I remember going, huh. So you want me to fill in for Jay of the dead? Really? Hmm. Yeah, I don't know about that. So long story short, I had to reach out to Jay because Jay and I in real life, despite our back and forth thinking.
like we have all this contempt because of Skinnamarink. We are actually quite good friends, and I basically wanted to make sure he was okay with me doing that. So there was that right off the bat. But then... It was I honestly was an honor because I was actually a fan of the show like you, Matt. So it was kind of this cool thing where I was a really big fan. I listened to the vast majority of the episodes and and I always find like with podcasts for me.
I actually listen to far fewer of them today than I used to just because I used to have like a commute to work and everything. And as Daryl loves to point out, I don't have that anymore. So I don't get to listen to it as much. But regardless, HMP was one of those that I always listened to. And so getting the opportunity to do that really was an honor. And I was scared crapless. I'll keep this clean. I was scared crapless because, you know, you start thinking.
I hope people aren't going to try to compare because I'm OJ. I'm not him. I know I'm not him. I do want to be him. I'm not him. And then on top of that, then I am thinking, OK, this isn't retro movie geek. So I need to reel this in a little bit. I don't want to be. And so there was all of that. And I basically concluded.
I don't know who amongst my fellow co-hosts here ever watched the classic Three's Company. But if you did, I would say the analogy for this is I'm like the Terry. I'm the Priscilla Barnes. the one who came in to replace suzanne summers chrissy after a few years when when suzanne summers decided she was far far too
big for the waters. Well, according to her, she was fired for asking for the same salary as John Ritter. Okay, or that. Maybe that's what it was. I really have no idea. I'm making stuff up. But I'm just saying, I feel like in this scenario, I am the Terry. I am the one that it's like, I was functional. I was fine. I have no disrespect to Priscilla Barnes. She did an excellent job. But to me, Jay is always going to be the iconic.
You know, that triumvirate of him, Wolfman, and Doc Shock is in my mind. You know, and then, you know, Kyle by default. It was always like, hey, Kyle Bishop. And I remember thinking, it's funny with H&P, I know I had to have heard those first couple episodes, but like for the longest time, before, until I got to know Kyle through the other stuff, I'm like thinking,
I've never heard of Kyle. And the best part is, is that for years, I think the entire time HMP was in Apple Podcasts and everything, it wouldn't show it didn't show me. It showed Kyle. as the host so it was like shows like jay wolf bag doc shock and kyle and then the best part was and honestly god this is like i think it actually
Maybe I'm misreading the room, Dave. You correct me. But I felt like you and Josh felt bad because you thought I would have been bothered when the Joe Bob Briggs thing happens. Yes, when we won the silver ball. And they announced all the hosts that they win. Jay of the Dead, Josh, Dave, and Kyle Bishop. I thought that was hilarious. Well, just to let everybody know, we did feel very bad about that. So, Joel, you made us copies, but you have the original Silver Bolo from Joe Bob.
or do i or did i maybe give it to somebody in amongst us and nobody knows who has the real one Well, we always thought you had the real one, so who knows? Well, here's the thing, because I made it to where they all literally look exactly alike. It was so impressive. That was really nice, by the way. I didn't feel it was... Go ahead. Sorry, Jake. No, I'm sorry. They only sent one, right? And so Joel was kind enough.
to make duplicates of that whole award with the silver bolo and the certificate. Incredible. Honestly, it was my honor to do that. I felt like they only gave one, which I thought was kind of hilarious, especially when you realize, I mean, God bless Joe, Bob, and Darcy, but it was basically this paper certificate.
that probably cost, you know, a buck 50. And, and, and like they, and the silver, the bolo was, they had found some like, cheap bolo on amazon and they literally spray painted it silver or got or got it out of a vending machine oh no no i can i can vouch it was amazon because the amount of stupid amount of time i spent trying to find the exact i mean down to the little dongle things that hung down the pattern on them
I spray painted them. I did the whole nine. P.S. P.S. You guys haven't been to my new bachelor pad yet, but right beside my entry door, when you walk in my front door, Macula can tell you this. I have that certificate and the silver bolo hanging below a pig head. There's a head. Right there. No, no joke. So, but no, I just real quick notes and I'll, and I'll shut up. I just got to say, Joel, that was seriously one of the classiest things ever when you sent that.
And it did make me cry. I'm not going to lie. And number two, Dr. Wogging Dad, Kyle Bishop, yes, he was on the first episode and then a handful of other episodes over the years. At that time in his life, he had just recently been promoted, if I'm not mistaken, to be the chair of his department because he's a college professor.
And he writes books and such. And so he was rarely able to be on the show. And so but now he's like super in love with podcasting. And last thing I'll say is because I had this in my notes to to put on the record today. Because of my abrupt departure, I felt bad because I didn't get a chance, I think, to let the audience know how excited I was for Joel to take over.
When he called me and said, hey, how do you feel about this? I'm like, honest to goodness, I couldn't think of anybody that's more perfect that I would want. to do this more, you know, since I'm not going to be continuing, like you're, you're the guy for the job. So, so Joel, I just have to say that. That's what it came down for, for Wolfman and I, we, we both said, look, we'll ask Joel.
And if he doesn't agree to do it, because we had podcasted with Joel on the Universal Monsters cast. And we said, we'll ask Joel. And if he doesn't do it, then it's going to be a two-man show. We had no backup choice.
well and i want to say i very much appreciate you guys saying that and i hope that all the listeners also get how much i appreciate that i because i'm not gonna lie i was legit scared i i may overthink things from time to time and i was you know you're filling big shoes and i i wanted to make sure people knew i was not remotely trying to replace anybody you know jay was my friend this is not some like you know you know because
I get people get their loyalty and I respect that. Right. So from my point of view, though, I also not only appreciate you guys for saying that and for even thinking of me that way, but also the listeners that would write.
kind emails and comments and reviews and just to have a really cool attitude about me doing that. Because again, I've had shows that I love and that's happened where, you know, somebody you've listened to for years and then suddenly they're gone and they bring in somebody new. And usually,
you can't at the you know this is just and who knows i'm sure i was this for some people unlistenable uh but for but you know you can you get a different it's a different kind of relationship right it's a different kind of experience But you've got to be willing to allow that to happen. And I think for people to do that, I thought that was always really cool. And I was always very, very grateful for that. And real quick, just for me, real quick, memorable episodes with you, Joel.
Black Christmas 2019. What's that? No, not Black Christmas 2019. No. As a matter of fact, I had purged that. Thank you so much for reintroducing that into my psyche. No, it was our decade countdowns. Oh, yeah. Which we did leading up right before my operation in 2019. We had recorded all of those, which I was glad to sort of get them done and out of the way. And before I went under the knife and those were so much fun to do.
And and another very memorable moment was when you read that trolls message about the shark movie frenzy. Oh, my God. Oh, Dave. OK, I have to. This is this is the time I was going to surprise you. OK. This is not a joke. The timing of that, you've been saying that it's so perfect. As I'm building up the mom and pop video shop YouTube channel that I'm going to launch this summer, one of the things I'm going to do is the thrill of the hunt segments.
where jay you'll appreciate this it's the whole like you go to a dollar store you go to goodwill you go to a flea market and it's the thrill of the hut right you're finding stuff yes and i'll talk to all of you separately about the idea of like people contributing their own stuff to this but I digress. So in the midst of doing this, I had to run into the dollar store to get something for one of my kids and they have the big rack and I ended up finding 13.
DVDs out of this... They were all horror, pretty much. I think... There was one that wasn't horror. Oh, it was eight heads and a duffel bag. That was the one that wasn't horror that I got. But 13, I ended up paying like seven bucks. It was like 50 cents. They weren't even a dollar. They're 50 cents each. Frenzy was there.
they had two copies i got them both and as a joke i was going to send it to you for your birthday oh geez well you know what you don't have to bother i bought the damn thing for 19 bucks oh no you what Well, I bought it when we were going to record. I said, I like shark movies. Let me get this. And within 10 minutes, it's not my proudest moment, but it's not my most embarrassing. I paid 50 cents for this thing. I was like, oh, I got to get this for Dave.
We should use it as a giveaway. And P.S. Sorry, P.S. I have not seen that movie, but I own it too because of the dollar store. Oh, Jay. Jay, watch it and you'll be demanding your money back. I don't think it's... I haven't seen Jay and Gell, so I have a feeling that's probably even more troubling. But it's... it is an experience but yes that text message and i even said it to my kids when i bought the dvd today it's like honestly those texts from davis he was like why he was like live
like like live chatting like he was like live texting watching this movie in the comments i was wetting my pants it was so freaking funny because i'd already watched it so i knew what you were like dealing with right that was amazing Yeah, so that was very memorable. Okay, I'm sorry. That's all I'll say about memories. Well, Jackson, what about you? When I introduce you to Horror Movie Podcast, what memories do you have? Any favorite moments that...
Oh, absolutely. I mean, as you said earlier, Horror Movie Podcast was so formative for me. And by the way, I'm wearing a Horror Movie Podcast t-shirt right now. as we're recording it's the the kind of uh twisted metal kind of black metal looking uh logo design but when i first started listening to horror movie podcast i was just so impressed by the the production levels and just the insightfulness of the reviews and the commentary. It was just fun. It was like having a discussion with
some of your friends in earnest. You know what I mean? Not just being like, oh, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool movie. But like, you know, really trying to dissect the movie as art, no matter what it was and talk about it, its flaws, its strengths, whatever. But with just... the best production and the most insightful commentary on any podcast I had listened to to that point. And I do have a lot of really tactile memories of horror movie podcast in the earlier days of me listening.
I remember listening to Winter with Stephen King while walking my dog out in the cold listening to the Winter with Stephen King episodes. And just, you know, that's just I remember listening to horror movie podcast and thinking someday I would like to have something like this because it's just such a. I think just a really awesome outlet to talk about movies and share that with other people who are just as interested and get that community feedback.
And, you know, it definitely inspired us to start the Father and Son Watch Horror Movies podcast. It inspired so many. I mean, it was the jumping off point for, I don't even know if I'm exaggerating here when I say 100 podcasts, you know, that have been springboarded from.
finding horror movie podcasts and being introduced to the horror podcasting community and finding that there were people who would listen to what they had to say about movies and then starting their own podcast. And the same was true with Father and Son. And that may have in turn fully convinced me to go to film school, which is where I am right now. So who's to say where I would be?
uh without horror movie podcast and i you know i loved it when jay hosted uh when joel hosted that introduced me to retro movie geek and that was so fantastic and have had so many great experiences since then But just the community and the connections I've made all because of 4MoviePodcast are just astounding and have become such a positive part of my life, I think, and my development as an artist. And honestly, since I...
started listening so young as a person. Yeah, it was. I remember how excited you were and how it really, you know, Jay and Dave and Wolfman really got you deeper and deeper into film. And also introduced so many podcasts. I know I discovered Land of the Creeps through HMP. I discovered Retro Movie Geek through HMP. And, you know, they're still two of my favorite podcasts.
you know it was it was fantastic so i'll save my favorite memory for last because there's one that involves dave that i absolutely loved but uh victor what about you what when did you come across h and p and do you have any favorite memories from it yes i do um well i moved from los angeles to seattle about 10 years ago and i was really uh not connected up here so I was trying to find groups and things where I could sort of have that familial interest to talk about.
I gravitated towards a horror movie podcast, and I liked what I heard, but by far... The part that has entertained me the most was when you guys did a retrospective of the Halloween movies. Oh, yeah. And, Jay, since you and Dave are both here. There's a scene at the end of Halloween 3 where the main character is trying to get the commercial off the air, and he's like, stop it, stop it, stop it. And really, honestly...
Jay, you were like, why does he keep saying stop it? And, you know, it never occurred to me that that was purely dramatic, you know, that like nobody in real life. Wouldn't say it that way. Or that the FCC would take a phone call from a small town ER doctor. Oh, right. No, I mean, yeah, none of it makes sense. But I mean, I was so into the movie that I just bought it.
And that sort of made a moment, I thought, was really awesome for how I started taking a step back and looking at horror movies from the craft point of view. from the fan point of view and from the critical point of view as well. But I was laughing about that for days. I mean, it was just awesome.
Oh, I've got a similar story that made me crack up. I was actually on a treadmill and almost fell off. Nathan, what about you? When did you discover HNP and do you have any favorite memories? Yeah, it's interesting. A similar situation where about 2015, I kind of discovered horror movie podcast. And it was exactly the way that was mentioned, typed in horror movie podcast. And there it is.
But there was a point I was just kind of getting into podcasts. I had been asked to be on one and I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. But I was also in a job at that point. I had two at that point. They were like. almost infant children when it just been born. And the other one was like a year and a half old. And I was just having a lot of nighttime anxiety. I, you know, couldn't sleep at all. And I went down two avenues, a horror podcast about horror films and actually.
narrative horror podcasts and put me right to sleep. Now, that's not an afflection on that, but it directed my mind somewhere else. And we've talked about how in horror there's a certain element of catharsis. And I think that hearing. And being directed towards these sort of horrible things in these films, I was able to kind of send my mind somewhere else. So it wasn't being preoccupied by these really terrible things I thought were on the horizon.
And it was really wonderful, but I started listening to it on my ride to work and everything else. I have a lot of favorite moments. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where they are because as the episodes are just getting back up, it's hard to type something in and say it was this episode. Jay, I will always remember you did a really awesome deep dive on Cujo.
I love the list. I had left the critic world critiquing movies in about 2013, 2014. It was right before I started listening to the podcast. I actually did it for a little bit after that, but I had left it as a sort of prominent.
uh space because of sort of the the whole arena was getting so toxic i think with criticism and things like that and it was about a year after roger ebert died and i was like i'm just kind of finished with this and getting back into the podcast i recognize that community and that kind of just very simple but deep love for things that was being expressed without a lot of excessive negativity. But what I loved about the Cujo breakdown was that combination of the enthusiasm and the zeal.
mixed with all the things i loved about film criticism itself and the idea that you can do film criticism without being uh negatively critical if you will you know and that's always been my thing find the Take the movie and find the right audience for it. Don't necessarily tear it down. Some movies maybe shouldn't have an audience. But what I loved about Cujo is I think you talking about Cujo was a film that I always appreciated.
But I don't think I'd ever fully connected to it other than that very visceral way. It's visceral while you're watching it, but I never thought a lot about it after the fact. And that changed my perspective on that film in a very kind of profound way. And I would say... I love when you get those big episodes, like something like Puppet Master and watching Dave sort of dematerialize over the course of like Puppet Master films.
I think my favorite part was the same realization I had in like 1992 as a kid excited renting these movies. At one point, Dave just says, they're just clip shows. They become clip shows. Like Soul Man vs. Demonic Toys is just made up of the last two movies.
for the first 40 minutes but that's what I love that there's Puppet Master and there's Cujo and there's discussion about you know classic horror films and things like that from joel from that era i loved that when you guys all went through and you did the different uh decades and that's when i really got involved on the message boards and things like that and i still love the
The story, you're talking about seeing the ring in the theater and being in a theater while the ring was going. And I had a situation where I got locked in because I forgot my wallet. it was not a great it wasn't a great experience at the moment it was definitely some high adrenaline but i did make it through and the godzilla episode when you brought your kids on to review
I think King of the Monsters, I really appreciated that you did that, and that was really cool. Yeah, and I will tell you that, you know, I said how I discovered it, and I fell in love with it automatically. Back then, I was a, before COVID,
was a confirmed gym rat who, when I went through my divorce, started working out twice a day and was in the best shape of my life in my forties. And so I would listen to podcasts, started listening to podcasts while I was working out and was horror movie podcast was the main one. I would get excited when a new one would drop. And I was on the treadmill, and I'm running at like 7, 7.5 miles an hour for 30 minutes. And you guys were talking about Rob Zombie's Halloween 2.
And I can't remember who the guest was, but the guest was not happy that you guys did not love Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. I remember that, Matt. I actually remember that episode, too. Yeah. So I'm on the treadmill. And this guy goes, you make me want to rip my face off. And without a beat, Dave, Dr. Shockbecker goes, well, don't let us stop you.
That was a little bit contentious. That got a little bit contentious. A little bit. Remember the white horse? That was the sticking point. Well, he kept saying, it's something new. It's something new. You've got to give him credit for trying something new. I wanted to say, well, what if I make a King Kong movie where instead he climbs a building, he puts on a tutu and dances on the Brooklyn Bridge? That's new. Hey, are they going to love me?
I laughed so hard for so long after that. And I literally had to throw my feet up on the edges of the treadmill or I was going to be injured. I like that. It's new. At some point the Black Plague was new. COVID was new, right? It was a novel virus. Yeah, lots of new things happened. Too soon, Joel. That's why I went to the Black Pledge. It's been three years. Oh, man, it has been three years. I know. Any other memories you guys want to share before we jump into how this came to be?
And what's going to happen next and so forth. I mean, other than memories, one thing that's really cool now is now that you've posted all the old episodes, I'm going back and listening to some of them like from years and years ago. And I have no memory of them.
I have no memory of saying the things I said. It's just very cool to go back and listen to yourself. I don't always agree with myself now, but it's just cool to go back and listen as a listener now and say, wow, I don't even remember this discussion. I'm glad you're seeing the error of your ways, Dave. What's that? I'm glad you're seeing the error of your ways. I did for everything except our talk about Dorm the Trip blood.
Listeners, the funny thing is I've talked to Jay. I've met Dave. They love each other, but their last words in hospice when they're 105, maybe. He's wrong about the dorm that dripped blood. Real quick, just one last thing on memory. I spent...
uh, a good bit of time, of course, editing horror movie podcasts. And, uh, and a couple of the times, like my memories stem from editing the episodes. Like for example, One of the most special episodes to me is when we were doing the Halloween coverage, because by the way...
And side note, when I first, you know, like decided, okay, we're going to do a horror movie podcast. And it was like nine months in advance. The reason I was waiting until the next October is because I wanted to do that Halloween show. But anyways. Greg Amortis was our guest, and I remember sitting at a park at a picnic table and editing that episode, and it was the fall, so it was kind of chilly, and my kids were playing on the playground.
And I will always remember that. And anytime I drive by that park where that picnic table is, I think of that episode and I think of Greg Amortis and how fun it was hearing him talk about Halloween 2, I believe it was. And then another...
park another picnic table editing while my kids are on the playground i remember dave reviewing uh street trash like that street trash episode oh yeah and um yeah and those are just fond it's just really random and it just sticks in my mind but but it's like part of the i don't know
Part of what the show was to me was editing it, yes. Getting to meet you all in 2017 was a very big experience for me in Utah when we had the meetup. Because I wasn't, you know, I got to meet... my two co-hosts from hmp but i also got to meet joel yeah who was part of the network at that point and i'm really glad you brought that update because honestly that whole experience was so freaking cool because i got to meet you and
wolfman and jay obviously and just it was just and then obviously a lot of the listeners that came yes i know i'm gonna forget somebody as i'm going through this whole thing but you know i mean it's just so many cool people that you know we we had either
talked to via podcasting or had communicated with. And it was, it was such an awesome experience. And I've honestly wanted us to do something like that again at some point somewhere. I would too. That, that would, that would be amazing. Yeah. And you know, I wish I could have been there.
I remember if memory serves, didn't you guys go see a screening of Friday the 13th on the big screen? Yes. There is audio out there that exists of that, but where it is, God only knows. Yeah, and I will say that I remember I was sitting next to Dark Mark.
and and we ended up going i think we did we end up it was they were showing one in four right dave and i think i uh because my kids were still fairly young at that point and you know i left my my wife back at the airbnb with them so i was like okay i could at least watch one i know we came in late to seeing one yeah it was late and i remember this other so it was uh
some point towards the end of that movie and i think it's when uh spoiler alert for friday the 13th mrs vorhees is is is doing her you know killer mommy, killer, that whole thing. Right. And people were laughing. Some people were around us. That's kind of a hipster thing to do. Hipsters go in there and they'll laugh at like the old horror movies and things like that. I remember we like looked at each other and I was like, oh.
Hell no. You weren't happy. You were not happy at all. I was so mad. I am proud that Jackson will be 20 years old in June, and he does not do that. He appreciates a good 80s slasher, don't you, Jackson? Absolutely. That is cinema to me. There you go. And the one thing before I move on to transition, the next thing about how this came to be, how H&P now lives again, is that you used to, Jay.
host a contest all the time about who would have the best movie watching experience. Like, you know, would you watch cabin in the woods and a cabin in the woods or something like that? The dead serious horror challenge. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, sir. Well, back right before COVID, I won a lottery. I used to have to pay money. And I took a tour of Camp Nobibosco in New Jersey. And I met Tom Savini and Adrian King.
And several others, Henry Manfredini. And then at night, I watched Friday the 13th on the beach where they shot the final fight scene between Betsy Palmer and Adrian Cake. Now, would I have won that, Jay? Yeah, that is impressive. Wait, I watched crawl with my family as Hurricane Ian, I believe was the last major one, as ripping through Florida. We still had power. Does that have any?
No, that makes you sick, Joel. Yeah, it's messed up. Good luck paying for all your children's therapy one day. Jay, you had... for me would be the most terrifying one. And I was thinking about it before I went in for my operation, before you went in for your open heart surgery, what was that one you watched the movie?
where Hayden Christensen is not really knocked out while they're operating on it? Yeah, he's awake during... He can feel the pain. He's awake for the whole operation. He scared the hell out of me years later when I had my operation. I'm sitting there going, oh, I can't do this. Yeah, that was pretty... That was pretty tough. There was part of me that regretted doing that because that was really unpleasant to go into surgery after that.
One of the things I love to do is visit locations. I've been to many. Jackson's been with me to a couple. We went to, because it's very close to us, just like a little over an hour away. We went to where they shot Strangers Pray of Night in Kentucky. We went to the cemetery where they shot Night of the Living Dead. And we went, we've been, I've been several times. Jackson's been several times. He doesn't remember the first time because he was about two years old.
But we've been to the Monroeville Mall where they shot Dawn of the Dead as well. That would be a great place for a meetup. We should all meet up in Monroeville. Well, and every once in a while, Dave, Tom Savini hosts a screening of Dawn of the Dead at the Monroeville Mall. Oh, wow. Perfect. That would be awesome. I remember when we went to the Dawn of the Dead mall, you know, of course I wanted to recreate. We found what we think the elevator was that that zombie fly boy comes out of, you know.
And so I come up the elevator. And I'm in full zombie pose. I'm doing the zombie pose and the walk and the face and the elevator opens. My dad's filming and there's an old lady standing in front of me. And I felt very bad that I was, you know, she's just waiting. She had no idea. Here comes this long-haired teenage freak pretending to be a zombie coming out of this JCPenney elevator. Wouldn't it have been great if she paused and she goes, Flyboy?
That would have been awesome. Oh, man. Well, folks, let me tell you how this all came to be. It was Gilman Joel was nice enough to contact me and Dave, and we're on a Voxer chain together, and we talk often. And one of the things that Joel mentioned was that he owned the domain rights to HMP. They were going to expire. And so I went and I tried to buy it. There were some hiccups with GoDaddy, but eventually I got all of the...
kind of surrounding domain names, horrormovie.net, horrormovie.org, and horrormoviepodcast.net is where I think you want to go. But horrormoviepodcast.com, I bought and then GoDaddy sold it. two days later to an overseas gambling site so i know and i threatened to sue him but that didn't go anywhere but um but then wolfman was good enough to give me the rss feed
And the Twitter stuff, so I could get the past episodes up. And I've got the Twitter, which has almost 10,000 followers, so I can get that out and all that other kind of stuff. H&P lives and it lives because it means so much to me. And I won't be on every episode. I'll be on when I can. I've got a full time job trying to help my wife. She's got three.
two different organizations and a full-time job, and I'm doing a PhD in theological studies, theological and philosophical studies. But I started thinking when I got it. And I got the RSS feed and everything. I thought, okay, I need to think about this. I need to think this through. And so I put together a plan. And so I put together a couple of rules. And I know horror movie lovers don't love rules.
I feel a little bit like how many people remember the old TV variety show in living color? Oh yeah. Remember it. I own seasons of it. Yeah. It's funny to call it the old variety show, though. It's not the show that comes to mind when you say that. At this point, Nathan, it qualifies for retro movie geek. It absolutely does. Sketch comedy. Yeah, we said variety show. I was picturing like the gone.
Heehaw. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Originally, Saturday Night Live was a variety show. Did you know that? They would have like three musical guests, two monologues, a video, and like two skits. It was probably funnier than it is now. Well, yes. The only part I watch now on SNL is Weekend Update. Other than that, I ignored. But I bought SNL. Okay, I gave it a plan together.
Here's the deal. I said, I want to get it back to every other week. I want to get that back. That's one. Two, I don't want it to be explicit. To use Jay's words, you can use, and I think these were exact words, Jay, you can use little cusses. No F bombs or any of that kind of stuff. It sounds like a new horror movie about evil kids. Little cuss. There you go, Jackson. Go shoot that short film on it.
I said, because I want people. One of the reasons father and son took off much, much further than I ever thought it would was I thought there'd be like five people listening to it in the first month. We were like. 25,000 downloads. How did that happen? And so, but one of the reasons, and all the Patreons have said this, so many of the Patreons, like the great Amy Swan and others, is like, oh, we love that there's a horror movie podcast.
that I can listen to in the car with my kids. And so, and I could do that with H&P. I was happy to recommend H&P to Jackson. He was young at the time. And so that's number two. And so number three. is that any of the past hosts, people who are on this call, Jay, Dave, Joel, anytime they want to be on, they can be on. i don't care what the subject is i don't care and i don't care it's like i will post schedules i will text j
If Jay's like, well, I can only be on for 15 minutes, but I want to talk about this. Well, Jay, again, is the podfather. If he wants to be on for 15 minutes, he's got it. If he wants to be on for two hours, he's got it. He is on whenever he wants to be. So are you, Dave. So are you, Joel. That's a rule. And the reason I brought up In Living Color is with these rules is there's a skit from In Living Color.
where Jim Carrey is playing Ted Turner back during the controversy when Ted Turner was colorizing movies. Oh, yeah. And Jim Carrey, as Ted Turner says, I've received all these complaints about colorizing Casablanca and this. He said... And I hear you, but do you know what I have that you don't? A bill of sale. So these are the rules. And so the other rules are Jackson can be on whatever he can. And Jackson's busy. He's a full-time student.
He's got a band. He's shooting films. He's trying to get, you know, work, you know, in theater and so forth. And and also probably most importantly, he has a girlfriend. So, you know, but whenever he can be on, he's. going to be on and so i said these are rules and this is this is what's going to happen and if you don't want to be on with that fine if you want to be on great
And I got some other wise advice for some people that I'll talk about later. But that's the kind of plan I put together every other week. You know, the guest host can always be on. It can't be explicit. You can do little cusses. Yeah, Dave. Sorry. Oh, you're saying that now, Jay, because you know I... Oh, never mind. You know I...
Hey, look, until I learn editing, Dave, I'm paying a professional editor right now. So cut me some slack. Yeah, don't worry about it. Matt, I'll just say get the beeps ready. Well, can I get a clarification on just one other thing about your rules? Yeah. So you said.
Jay wants to come on any time. If Dave wants to come on any time, I want to come on any time. Jay, you expressed, he said, whether it's 15 minutes or two hours. I assume that also plays to Dave. I probably should assume I'm more on the 15 minute mark, right? It depends on your mood, Joel, to be honest. Okay. I may have to have my wife message your wife and we'll see where you're at. Okay. Yeah.
But no, no, no, no, no, no. All three are you welcome on at any time. But, you know, the other thing was I sat down and I thought I said, OK, how are we going to do this? Because when I look back on it, obviously. The personalities are the personalities. Jay just strikes me as one of the nicest guys in the world. He's got a silky smooth voice somehow coming from Wheeling, West Virginia. I don't know how that happened.
because that is not how most people in Wheeling sound. I've been there. Wheeling is the kind of place where if a tornado hit, You know, they'd interview a woman in a muumuu with curlers in her hair and she'd be like, I thought I was going to be kilt or even worse. Touche. It's true. It's true. And Gilman has just got this frenetic energy and all this knowledge. And Dave, as we have said, he's forgotten more about movies than most people will ever learn.
including film professors, and trust me, Dave, because I've been in film classes. But I start thinking, I said, okay, but you can't replicate the personalities. What about the background? And so, Jay, you were a professional film critic. Nathan Barterball. it was a professional film critic wolfman worked in the industry now i worked in the industry for a few years but vicious victor hellcat rodriguez he worked in it and still works in it the person who couldn't be on the call tonight
And his excuse was, I got little kids, I'm on a family trip, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, is definitely, you know, kind of the rising horror historian in podcasting. And that's Trey Whetstone from Screaming Through the Ages. Yeah. And so I said, if I can get these three guys together, and then Jax and I, and you guys will jump on whatever, and we've got an entire community of guest hosts, it could be an awesome podcast. And so that's my thinking.
And that's where we're going. Love it. I thought it was excellent, excellent. When you mentioned that to us, I thought, wow, that's great. I think this is in awesome hands. And so, you know, on top of that, here's what I want to do. Like one of the new co-hosts can't be here tonight. And I know because I've been in contact with people we know and respect. I won't out them, but who have messaged me and said, as soon as you announce a new co-host, people are going to be butthurt.
I get that. But you're all going to be there. We've already got, you know, a great community that will be guest hosts whenever they can be on who do great podcasts themselves. They're great. podcasts out there and and they will be on whenever i can fit them on but to get to know and i feel a little strange saying to get to know two of your new two of the three new co-hosts of horror movie podcasts because
The community knows them so well already. I don't know anybody who doesn't know Nathan Bartleball and Victor, but Victor. Could you, because I know Joel's got to be gone here in the next few minutes, and we will at some point do an episode where we all run down our top 10. If you want to hear what my top 10 is or Jackson's top 10 is, you can go back to listen to the 100,000. episode of Father and Son because we covered it there, as did Joel, as did Dave. Joel, I know you
made a comment on Jay of the Dead's new horror movie podcast that yours has already changed. That's okay. Victor, could you share with the listeners your top three horror movies? Yes. Yes, sir. I'd be happy to. Well, so we'll do 10, 9, 8, or top 3. Let's do, for time's sake, before Joel has to jump off, let's do top 3 for now. And then we will do another episode, an anniversary episode, where we do our top 10.
All time. Sure. Okay. Well, for my third favorite horror movie of all time, I have The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. Everything's already been said about this, but... yeah basically Kubrick threw away a lot of the important details of Stephen King's excellent haunted house novel but he made space for What I would say is unparalleled visual storytelling, including the incredible Steadicam work by John Alcott and the whole movie.
is hypnotic it puts the viewer on edge you got chairs that appear and disappear lights that are on and then off there's occasional humor that breaks up the mounting dread which lands a little awkwardly these days but All of that contributes to the overall creepiness. And I really, really love that movie more every time I see it. And number two. I agree.
Although, don't ask Raul from Headlong Into Monsters. He doesn't think it's a great film. And I had to seek therapy for that. But go ahead, number two. Yeah, I know. I was recently on his show. um but uh yeah number two the thing um so this is obviously it's john carpenter's the thing from 1982 i know there's a bunch of things out there
I know that, again, everything's already been said about this, but I'll just tell you a little bit about my personal experience watching The Thing in the movie theater. Now, first of all... It's without question that this movie totally holds up today. You can watch it and it still looks fantastic. Now, it came out in the summer of 1982. uh now my parents house in los angeles i was still living with them at that point had no air conditioning um this
movie played at the recently renovated crest movie theater in West Los Angeles, which was walking distance from my house. So when the heat wave hit. I went to see a matinee of the thing and I loved it so much. I stayed until dark. I saw it like three times back to back. Wow. Nice. And stayed cool watching some dudes in the Antarctic. Fight an alien. Love that movie. Yeah. And my number one movie, Jay, you already know this, but the Texas Chainsaw Massacre from 1974. Yes. Yeah.
There are three events in my young life that I would say prepared me for a lifetime of horror movie appreciation. These things surprised and terrified me enough to shock me, but still compelled me to revisit that adrenaline rush. And the first thing was I remember I was staying with some family friends in Hong Kong and they had an art book of Goya, the Spanish painter. Right. And that painting of Saturn devouring his son was shocking for an eight-year-old to lay eyes on, which I was at the time.
But man, I had to keep looking at that. That was pretty intense. Then, and I wish Trey were here because I know he has an experience with this too, but the commercial. for Suspiria in 1977 with the skull woman brushing her hair. Really creeped me out. Yeah, followed next year later by that famous commercial for Magic starring Anthony Hopkins, which was a lot of kindertrauma as well. But in any case, the third.
experience for me was going to see texas chainsaw massacre in a revival theater it's called the new art theater in west la right around the corner from my parents house and i remember clearly this was the first time i didn't trust the director to show me things I could handle, like after a certain point in the movie. It's pretty intense. You know, the heat and the performances are unique because the actors were genuinely uncomfortable.
And the way it's shot, the soundtrack is probably the most grating noises you can imagine. uh it's made it's made to put you off balance and uh and then the visuals are so intense that i was like i should probably leave like it's probably better for me to leave than to say watch the rest of this but
Whenever a moment like that would occur in the film, it was always far enough into the film where I was like, maybe I'll see the rest. There's not much left. There's only 20 minutes. And then there's only 10 minutes. And so finally finished it. Me and my buddy Brian, who I saw it with, we were like, we both confided in each other afterwards. I didn't really want to keep seeing that movie.
And then I was like, yeah, me too. So we had kind of this weird PTSD from watching it. It's a very mild form of PTSD. But kind of like, you know, people that have gone into battle together, Brian and I became really good friends. after that because we had something survived between us and uh well we had to keep finding other horror movies so we could get that rush and um that's how my love of horror movies really started
So yeah, Toby Hooper, one of the masters. So that's my number one movie. That is absolutely awesome. That is awesome. Yeah. Nathan, what about you? Your top three. Top three. This is the tip of the iceberg here, but I'll go for it. And they've been moving around while you've been talking. But number three for me is going to be Steven Spielberg's Jaws.
I had an experience with this where my mother went into labor with my sister and left us with grandparents, and they turned this movie on, and I was like four. Oh, wow. that way i know it's tv version obviously but still you know jaws is essentially pg most of the tension and everything that happens could still be played on television and i remember being like obviously utterly terrified
by those sequences where the shark is attacking the beach and even the false alarms. It just really put me on edge. But what... resonated with me through the years is what spielberg does with that film in the sense and you look at a lot of his films particularly his earlier work where the moment of
wonder and the moment of terror are sort of intertwined together and that's the disruptor that comes in you can see this in duel you can even see in close encounters the disruptor is going to come into your life it may tear it to pieces but if you can possibly survive that It may have woken you up enough that your life might be better after the fact. But in Jaws, you've got that where Brody and those three guys together on that boat. It's almost like an Ernest Hemingway hunt the...
hunt the force of nature moment. But for me, this idea that in horror, the most awe-inspiring moment of that film for me is the barrel bobbing on top of the water. And this visual identifier that here's the horror. uh is everything below the water we don't need to see the shark it's embodied in that barrel it's the tip of the iceberg it's the small piece of of the divine that we can see in that moment and it just is it's it's a mundane thing it's a barrel on the water
And yet the whole force of that shark is embodied in that barrel. I thought that was so amazing. And then everything else about that film is still terrifying and poignant and thrilling to this day. It's a near-perfect movie, and I haven't been in the ocean since I've seen it, and I'm not kidding. I don't blame you. My number two is The Shining.
But Victor talked about it so much that I'm going to tell you what my number four was and cheat because that's what I do. Number four for me was Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, the newest movie on my list. But for me, this movie, one of the things, you know, if you're asking me, what do I fear the most? There's a couple of things. One would be my family being taken away from me in some forceful, destructive act. The other one would be losing my mind, losing.
my ability to discern whether what I'm seeing and feeling and hearing is real or not. And Mulholland Drive is like a deep dive into that from so many different facets and so many different directions. And Lynch is a guy that I love his work. He's one of my favorite directors. But sometimes he can get lost in the tipsy, turvy, weird intersections into nostalgia and into sanity and insanity.
In Mulholland Drive, he weaves it together in such a way that I don't need to understand everything that's happening if I can understand the feelings of those main characters. And there are sequences in that film that feel like a dream, but also feel like...
exactly what it might feel like to lose control of your mind and you're not steering your own vehicle anymore. In fact, one of my reoccurring nightmares is to be in the backseat of a car and I can't... I can't direct it where I want it to go and it's careening somewhere else because someone's in the so control issues obviously Mulholland Drive is all about that but there's this wonderful mystery to me though
It's psychologically terrifying. It makes me anxious to watch it, and I love it for that. The scene in the theater, what's the singer's name singing that Roy Orbison song? Like a, like a, uh, I guess a Spanish version of that Roy Orbison song crying. Yeah. So the, the silencio. Yeah. They come in. Yes. Silencio. And you have, um, uh, well, Naomi Watts and who was the other? Laura Herring.
Laura Herring sitting there and they just start to cry and they're getting close to each other and they just lose it. That is to me, I mean, I was mesmerized by that scene. It's one of the closest scenes to me that feels like a dream. Like maybe I fell asleep in the theater and I'm just dreaming the sequence and Lynch didn't film it at all. Yeah. And we will definitely on HEP have to do a David Lynch episode because. I've got stories and I love his work, even when it doesn't quite work.
uh and i'm not a huge fan of dune but when it even when it doesn't quite work it's still there are parts of it that are absolutely fascinating yes absolutely so you watch your number one my number one this this might be a little surprising it is night of the hunter charles lawton's uh only directing credit uh on the surface of this
You could look at it as maybe more of a crime or a noir film. The neat thing about Night of the Hunter that follows this, he's a criminal and he's a pastor, maybe, at the same time. But he's tracking down this. And in doing so, he's tracking down these two young children. And he first tracks down their mother. And then from there, it becomes a sort of chase scene. It's really a southern gothic story. Robert Mitchum is amazing in this role.
I'm sure many people have seen that image of the pastor with the love and hate tattooed on his knuckles. But the way that plays out in the film. That ruined my planned finger tattoos, by the way.
Or you could just lean into it, Matt. You could lean right into it. You could be the Night of the Hunter pastor and see how that works. But... uh you could just you know children at the start of every one of your sermons but the reason this feels so much like a horror film to me is you know roger eber was the person who said the movie's not about
It's not what the movie's about, it's how it's about it. And Night of the Hunter is almost done psychologically from the children's perspective. And visually that seeps out. There's a scene where they're fleeing him, they're fleeing Mitchum, and they're on the river.
and you see in the foreground there are toads and and turtles and and you can hear the sounds of the night and and rabbits along the bank and everything looks giant and huge even though it's just a perspective shot and the children are uncertainly stuck in this sort of dark morass which is the river they're sailing down and Mitchum is shot almost like Frankenstein's monster in scenes he's looming above the children his shadow like Dracula is constantly above them
It is filmed like a horror film from their perspective. And the big elements of good versus evil, to me, it's just a totally enchanting movie. I love, and that's why I love The Shining and Mahalan Drive and Jaws. Movies have put me into this very specific world that I can find nowhere else. They're almost explicitly cinematic. And that's what I feel about Night of the Hunter. And in horror, that goes back to at least the cabinet of Dr. Caligari, right?
Yeah, and Nosferatu. Yes, absolutely. Night of the Hunter has, for me, one of the most chilling images. I'll just say it's in a car, but not on the road.
another scene that sequence that's so unforgettable i want to say it was was lillian gish she was in this right yes she played the older woman who's sort of watching over the kids and she knows he's out there so she's sitting on a porch with a shotgun if he's the rock he's the hard place yeah he he's lurking and then they start they start singing a a a religious hymn and they're singing it together while he's out there and she's on the porch they start singing it together
yes and the way that film wraps up that child's perspective he's been fear this this scene this uh presence of fear for so long he's been seen that way by the children and when gist shows up
It's like he meets his match. And that's the thing we love. Like, I love in horror, right? Like, I don't want fish in a barrel. I want the moment where the good and the evil come head to head. And then you see what's really under the evil in terms of Mitchum and when he's defrocked, in a sense. And you see what he really... is to everyone else it's it's fascinating yeah it really is and and matt if you want to get your tattoo you can always just say it was radio raheem who inspired you
I can't pull off that. Matt's going to get Corey and Michael tattooed on it. I have guys. I have tattoos on my left and right fist. Did you know that? No. On my left fist, I have what's written as me. And on my right fist is Mo. And when you're done with me, you ain't gonna want no Mo. There's a...
a gesture with it too. I mean, the fists, it didn't work as well. This is a clean podcast. This is a clean podcast. I'm not going to say what I was going to, the joke I was going to throw out your way regarding your, your hands tattooed on them. Well, we're going to wrap up here. Yo, man, I know you've got a hard out. Yes, I do. What would you like to say to the listeners and to the new co-hosts? Well, first off, I...
I want to say to the new co-hosts, all of you, this is awesome. I think it's fantastic that you are going to keep the legacy of this podcast that Jay and Wolfman and Doc worked so hard on for so many years and that I had the... privilege of taking part in for my short stint in the co-host chair and to the listeners out there for
you know, always wanting to know what was happening and wanting to know where, you know, when's it coming back? And I mean, I remember seeing comments like that and I always felt bad because like, I don't know. Oh, I wish I knew. You know about as much as that? I don't know. So the fact that it's here and the fact that, you know, people love it so much and it means so much to everybody, I think is awesome. So I think...
you guys and Matt ultimately for stepping up and wanting to keep it going, man. I think it's awesome. So kudos to you. Thank you, sir. So Jay, you've also got a heart out here in a little bit. Um, any final words, any, uh, Words to the new hosts and any words to the listeners. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. And thanks, by the way, for this opportunity. I seriously, it meant a lot to me.
Pastor Matt, when you reached out about this and Dave told me about it, it's very exciting. And just to see that people... still care about this show and love it. And that means a lot. And for us, I can't speak for... uh kyle dave and joel but i mean to to me it feels like um it feels like this will always be you know a part of me and i and i want to i genuinely want to come back and visit like
And do they take you up on your offer for the guest hosting spot and come back and just hang out? Well, the 10th anniversary is in October, so you better schedule that. For sure. I'll be here for that. But yeah, so I mean, that's amazing. And plus, I think it would be really exciting to podcast more with these guys because I haven't had a chance to...
talk with you folks a whole lot. So that's good. And the other thing is I feel like with the new show, it's kind of, it's exciting to me because I'm so glad that... this is still going horror movie podcast is still going. And I, I feel like, um, Jay of the dead's new horror movies is kind of the next evolution, at least for us who were on this show.
A great show. Well, thanks. And I like how it's almost like you get a new generation, you get new blood, but it's still the same concept, same audience. And I think that's really fun. I really appreciate that you guys are doing that. And it's neat for me. It's special to me to still get the podcast with these guys that I've... worked with for so long so I just want to say thank you to the audience as well I mean the listeners who have been so patient
over the years with things. And one last thing on this HMP 2.0 kind of idea is that if you guys ever end up selling t-shirts, again, I just wanted to promise the listeners, I want to assure everyone I will have nothing to do with that because the last t-shirt selling, I was the worst t-shirt salesman in a total disaster. And everybody hated me. So, like, I won't have anything.
to do with that. But anyways, last thing for these new co-hosts, I, so everybody, people know who've been listening to my podcasting. People know that I, I dabble in the martial arts and most recently I've studied jujitsu. And it was like the classic traditional Japanese jujitsu. And it was just anyways, blah, blah, blah. But down the road from that dojo, there was an MMA studio.
And these dudes, like, I don't know, the world changed somehow overnight and they raised the bar and it was like, even though I've studied jujitsu. I do not want to tangle with these MMA people because they're monsters, right? Like that just, they do a whole different, they like to be punched in the face. So anyways.
Jay, real quick, do they know that you have a purple belt? They're not intimidated whatsoever by my purple belt. Do they know you went so far as to jump off a garage, a parking garage? And almost died? No, no. I don't know that. But they should. Everybody should. But the thing is, I guess what I'm trying to say is, as I have heard... As I have heard Nathan and Victor and Trey and father and son, man, and I'm not pandering here, I have been just genuinely so impressed with...
with you guys and, and how thoughtful your film criticism is. And I'm like, boy, I, I mean, these are like, this is the next level. That's what I was talking about. The next evolution, like the next generation. And so. I just hope to be able like when I come and visit that I don't like drag down the place too much. But anyway, thank you for having me here. And I love you all. We love you, Jay. Jay, the cousin Eddie.
a poor movie yes exactly i guarantee jay's days in west virginia there's there's a picture of him out there wearing nothing but overalls picking on a banshee You know it. Got his best Whitland knife. You can see that in Wheeling, West Virginia, too. Like I said, I've been there. Dave, what about you? What would you like to say to the to the listeners who listen to you on H&P for so long every other week and to the new co-hosts? Well, first off, I just want to say with.
You know, we were talking about memories and some of my favorite memories are just sitting down, getting ready to record HMP, just waiting for it to start because I look forward to it every... two weeks every sometimes we would do it every two and a half whatever it was i would always look forward to sitting down and just talking movies um from that start that went from the start all the way to the very end it was just so very special to me
to do that. I get that same feeling with land of the creeps also where you just, I'm looking forward to it all day to sit down and discuss these films, um, with, with good friends. And, uh, I loved it. I loved. every single i don't remember every single recording i said i don't remember every single show but i do remember loving doing it every single time
And a big part of that were my co-host, Jay. You and I go back and forth all the time, but I love you like a brother. I truly do. And it's a little bit overwhelming for me because... I love and we're going to get to this in a minute about new HMP because I have nothing but love and respect for that. But just knowing where HMP was.
And sort of what happened to it at the end there was a little heartbreaking for me. So, Matt, that's one of the reasons I sort of reached out to you and or actually it was Joel who reached out to you. But I was like, oh, yeah, let's let's let's do this. But.
um just to wrap this this first part up um to my uh esteemed co-hosts who like i said just meant the world to me to the incomparable jay of the dead to the wonderful wolfman who who we didn't talk a lot about here but wolfman was the one who who got us like the shutter sponsorship um he was the one who was really putting a lot of that forward um Thank you so much to him. Thank you so much to the amazing Hillman Joel, who podcast with you. It's been a distinct pleasure. Damn it! I know, I know.
It was hard for me to keep it in when Jay did his intro. I get it. Just give me a minute. It has been a distinct honor to podcast with you fine gentlemen. And I look forward to doing it in another week on Jay the Dad's new horror movie. To the listeners, what can I say? Every time you reached out to us and you said how much the show meant to you,
It really was just three friends sitting around talking about movies. We didn't always know how many people were out there and how we were affecting people and how much they liked the show. And every time someone would reach out to me, and Jackson said it, a lot of shows, I mean, there were people who contacted me saying, oh, I started my own. One was Poppin' the Scary.
which is a podcast out there. He contacted me and says, I want to have you on the show. Listening to you on HMP inspired me to start my own show. And I've heard that from a lot of different people. It just, you know, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming. When we had the meetup, people coming up to me and saying, oh, Jay, I don't remember who the woman was who was at the birthday party.
I remember you said she almost got you in some trouble at one point with your wife. I can't remember who she was. You remember who I'm talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about, but I wish I did. Sorry. She was just showing so much love to us. And I think it made you a little nervous. um but she said to me every time i hear dave dr shock becker from just outside philadelphia pa oh i can't tell you what that means to me
And every time I would hear that, it's just like, wow, it's just sort of overwhelming. So everyone out there who's ever reached out, who's ever started a podcast, thank you so much for you also made HMP such a special experience. And finally.
to matt rawlings to jackson to first thank you so much for bringing this show back because let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen anyone who's going to get butthurt about the new direction or whatever HMP was dead it was not coming back it is because of Matt Rawlings that it is coming back keep that in the back of your mind you were not going to get
an old HMP episode or the way it had been. This is HMP 2.0. And with the three hosts that he picked here, Nathan, Trey, Victor. Victor, I thought you did such a great job. on that headlong into monsters with ro and ashley i really love listening to that episode nathan and trey i just finished your top films of 1991. And it's because of you I picked up both Highway to Hell and Hikiro the Goblin. Yes. Is that the Highway to Hell with Gilbert Gottfried?
It is indeed. Gilbert Gottfried is Hitler. Yeah, that's the one. But I love listening to all three of these gentlemen and they have amazing insight and you are going to love it just as much.
I will be back on HMP. It means too much for me not to, but I'll be honest, it's probably going to be a little bit of time. I'm going to give it a little bit of time because I really can't wait to hear the direction and I get to be a listener. I just can't listen to podcasts that I'm on. I get to be a listener.
I will be back. I just don't know when it'll be, but you will hear me back on this podcast. So it's sort of ending a streak for me. I've been on a lot of the shows, not all of them since number two. I did miss a few along the way, but I've had a pretty good run. I'm looking forward to what new HMP is going to become. So I'm going to borrow a little bit from Jay here. This is Dave, Dr. Shock Becker, from just outside Philadelphia, PA, signing off.
Okay, Jay of the Dead here and I want to thank Pastor Matt for handing me the reins for a sec because this recording you're about to hear was done like two days after the show that you're presently listening to because I needed to catch up with... The man himself, Dr. Walking Dead, that is, Dr. Kyle Bishop. So, welcome, Kyle. Hey, everybody. So, Kyle, you know, some people might not even know this story.
And even among the conversation that was happening during this episode, there were still a lot of question marks about you. So you're kind of a man of mystery. And I figured we could clear some of that up real quick. Oh, I'm an open book, Jay. I know. I love that about you. And down in your town, you're not allowed in certain restaurants because of that. Oh, it's true. But anyways, so the way that I met Kyle, it was through...
I had a good friend that was a student of his once. This man's name was Grant Adams. And Grant Adams, I knew him because we were missionaries together. We served a mission for our church. And when Grant found out that I was in the podcasting and especially horror movies, he's like, wait a second. I got a guy you have to talk to. He was my professor.
And he's a literal zombie expert. That's what he said. And I'm like, a literal zombie expert? And he's like, yeah, he got his PhD in like zombie film or something. That's what he said. And so he connected us. And I mean, this is one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me because I have a great new friend and an incredible podcasting co-host. But do you remember all that, Kyle? Oh, just vaguely. It seems like it was so long ago.
Yeah, I remember. I do remember Grant. I remember talking a lot about zombies to students who weren't studying zombies. Yes. And then I remember you reaching out. And I was so flattered. I was like, oh my gosh, somebody in the podcasting world cares. It was such a... Such a great moment. It was. And what was so fun about it is, of course, you're an official host of a horror movie podcast. Kyle was there. Maybe people don't remember this. Kyle was there for episode one.
which is a really in-depth episode, and it's one of my favorite ones to hear. Kyle, do you remember being on episode one, by the way, of Horror Movie Podcast? What did we talk about? It was kind of establishing all of our... our various thoughts about the genre or top 10 and all that stuff. It was me, you and Wolfman Josh. And then Dr. Shock didn't join the show until episode two. Oh yeah. My memory's terrible. I mostly remember.
I'm being in my basement for these multi-hour best-of episodes. Yes, yes. Where we would talk about like 1976. right for hours uh and i remember being a little shy about it because everybody had so much to say and so much knowledge and I just kind of was quiet a lot. And then I'd occasionally try to figure out, how do I say something without interrupting?
Yeah, it took me a little bit of time to get my sea legs, as it were, because everybody we've worked with in the podcasting world is just top notch. And I remember especially just always being in awe of Dave Becker. Oh, yeah. How does this guy remember all this? I know. Well, and the funny thing is, is you were thrown into the deep end of the pool because at that time when we first started talking, we were part of the...
Not a horror movie podcast, but the previous shows were part of the Horror Palace Network under Bill Shetty. And you were invited onto a couple of those big special episodes. And then you were a guest on my... second podcast, Horror Metropolis. And that was one of my favorite episodes because we covered Eatin' Alive, the crocodile movie, and Open Water 2, Adrift. And I absolutely love that episode.
Oh, yeah. My gosh, my memory is so shoddy. I need to go back and re-listen to these because I do remember now that you mention it. Yeah, I totally remember. Yes. And forgive me for this, Kyle. I'll have to depend on your shoddy memory. But I know that, and I tried to explain this to the folks, and I apologize if I got it wrong. During the run of Horror Movie Podcast,
Even though you're an official host, you weren't able to be on a ton of episodes. You were in a handful of them, I would say. And wasn't that because you were just becoming the chair of your department? I mean, you had a lot going on at the college there, right? Yeah, it was just kind of a crazy time because I just finished my PhD and I was turning that into my first book and I was getting on full-time tenure track and getting ready for tenure. And then I was...
Oh, man. I was chair, and then I was asked to make the faculty center, and then I became the honors director. Wow. And so I was always just really kind of busy. I could just jump in now and then. But I so remember we had this raggedy couch in the basement and I didn't have any tech. So I just remember using my iPad. and earbuds and i remember my quality was never as good as everybody else's and i just i have those kind of strong memories but i i couldn't stay up uh
I just remember there were a lot of times when the recording would be like till 2 a.m. or something. Yes. And I couldn't do it. I'd have to cut out early or I'd miss out. But I did. Yeah, I remember popping in. He's quite a bit. I mean, we had a big hiatus between now and new horror movies. Yeah. But I remember back then.
Semi-regular participation, at least in my standards. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you popped in. And in fact, that's what's fun about it. If I, you know, this all came about and was surprising. And I used to look at the website and be able to see like the show notes. stuff and I have all the episodes in an archive.
But unfortunately, I do not have an archive of all the show notes that were written out. But your contributions are always good. So even though you felt like your audio quality was not up there, your content is always good. And we've always counted on that and loved to have your contributions because one of my favorite things about podcasting with Dr. Bishop here is he approaches the cinema. From a very intellectual and academic way. And I love that. And I've always...
Well, I have wanted to endeavor. I've attempted to try to do that stuff myself, but I'm no Kyle Bishop by any means. And so... That's been fun for me to kind of learn from you and listen to you. And a lot of the ways that I feel about horror, like my beliefs about horror, like, for example, we always quote this. You can tell if it's a real horror movie if a kid or the dog dies. But anyways, I get a lot of stuff from you.
And anyway, I appreciate that about you. Yeah, that's when I became most famous for that claim. With all the zombie stuff, the thing that gets quoted the most is watch the dog. Yes. Watch out for that dog. I know. Well, and the thing is, and maybe in case the listeners, I think there are probably going to be listeners here, this HMP 2.0.
Getting to know all of us, I mean, there will be brand new people. But, you know, Kyle has published a couple of books and several papers. And he was also in a documentary. It was a document of the dead or doc of the. dead doc of the dead yeah and i love that i actually own it and he's one of the talking head experts in that so yeah that's filmed in the same basement oh was it where i podcasted Oh, that's amazing. That excites me to hear that. Yeah, so Doc of the Dead. And then...
Yeah, your book's American Zombie Gothic and How Zombies Conquered Popular Culture. So, Kyle, what I want to know and what Matt's been asking is, do you have any favorite memories or anything you'd like to share about... horror movie podcast or your your time with it well it was mostly just i learned so much you know i would uh it was kind of the fly on the wall in in a way
Because like I said, I really remember the marathon top 10 list episodes when we were working through the decades. And I just remember everybody was talking about movies I'd never heard of. And so I would always be becoming aware of other types of films. And when I look back on it now, because my training, my graduate training was, yeah, I did a lot of zombie movies and I knew some of the mainstream horror movies.
But I think what the casual horror viewer would call deep cuts, which you guys are sometimes, you know, your most favorite films or series. And, you know, I think that was when I learned who Argento was. It's like, who? It's Italian horror and about these different slasher films that I'd never heard of, different slashers I'd never heard of. And so I remember just learning a ton. But then I also remember...
We were talking about 1982, and I felt vindicated that year because 82, of course, has both poltergeist and the thing. Yes. And those two are in my top five. Sometimes they move a little, but they're always in my top five. And so then I felt like accepted by the group. Oh, yeah. I said, oh, yeah, you're right. Sweet.
Well, I'll tell you that, and this will make people laugh, I think, who've been listening for a long time. Even Bill Shetty, even Bill Shetty was a fan of yours. Even he approved of Dr. Walking Dead. And so, you know. That can't be said of everyone. So, I mean, you were in that way. But anyways, this has been so much fun. And I think I can pass this along. Pastor Matt and the crew there. So you got Jackson, Nathan Bartleball, Trey Wetzel.
And then the Hellcat himself, Vicious Victor, you know, they have extended very kind and welcoming invitations for us to appear on a... horror movie podcast. And so I know you're still a busy man, Kyle, but I think that extends to you as well. I'm sure it does as one of the official hosts. And they said we can come in.
talk anytime about whatever we want for as little as we want or as long as we want. So I just wanted to make sure I pass that along to you. That's awesome. That's such a great team. The pastor is assembled over there. Absolutely. The Veloci pastor himself. Yes. That's right. I'm looking forward to see what they do because I had no idea when you.
kind of invited me in because i'd done a few guest spots uh i'd done i'd been on return to zombie 7 and just a couple things here and there mostly because of you and your contacts But I didn't realize how influential horror movie podcast. I just stop and think. Yeah, I know all the titles. It's all of yours. But this idea of there being really.
easily found and very searchable and how horror movie podcast because of that such great name how many people found it and it really wasn't until i listened to the land of the creeps 300th episode where I swear two out of three callers would say, this is how I got into it. This is how I found things. This is how I came. Because, yeah, people would just type in horror movie podcast and boom. And so having this back in the world. I think is a really great thing. I agree, sir.
Well, thank you. I just I think I can say this on behalf of the listeners and our host panel here during this recording. We are all very grateful that you've been a part of this with us and especially for your contributions. I really feel like you have. have raised the bar for us. And I know you, at least for me, you drove me to like work harder. And so, um, anyways, I just wanted to tell you that and just want to tell you, thank you, Kyle, for, for being along on HMP.
That's very kind. I look forward to listening to the new episodes. Welcome to Tubi Roulette, where the movies are never... what you might expect. My name is Bill Van Vagel, a podcaster you might have heard on Land of the Creeps and Phantom Galaxy. And I am very pleased that Pastor Matt has invited me to do short segments every episode about one of the things that I really love the channel, Tubi.
Tubi is a website and channel for your television that is free of charge and has a wealth of movies, some good, some bad, some all over the place. And that's what I love about it. The amount of movies they have are great, and you're never quite sure what you're going to find, but it's always worth the adventure. As our good friend Lemmy once said, sometimes...
The chase is better than the catch. So what I plan to be doing on future HMP episodes is reviewing a random movie that I select off of Tubi. Generally horror, but it might veer off from time to time. And I'm going to give you what you call Tubi Roulette. Literally what that is, is I will type in a keyword into Tubi.
the search function and watch one of the movies that comes out tubi is a channel that has a lot of older movies a lot of european movies a lot of cult movies a lot of independent cinema a lot of low budget And it's a really great channel if you ever want to see or watch some of the new movies that are coming out from directors that are under the radar or the back catalog of a director that you want to try to catch up on.
Tubi's a good place to check out. So what did I get to you guys and girls this time? Well, for my first one, I found a movie, literally, I can't remember the exact word I typed in. I think I typed in fear. And a movie came up called Bram Stoker's Shadow Builder from 1998. Now the fact that this movie is linked to Bram Stoker got me quite interested. It was directed by Jamie Dixon.
who hasn't done any movies other than I have heard of, a couple TV movies, I believe, but he did do the visual effects on many, many films, including True Lies, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Prometheus. There are a couple actors in here of note. Michael Rooker, who you might know from Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Walking Dead and Slither. There is Leslie Hope, who was in...
Talk Radio, Men at Work, and multiple episodes of 24, Andrew Jackson, who was in SEED, Universal Soldier 2, who knew there was Universal Soldier 2, by the way, and Tony Todd. who has more movies than i can list off the top of my head so i jumped into this one i'm gonna try to do movies that i go into blind
Or I haven't seen for quite a while, so it's almost like I'm re-watching them. So that's what I came into Shadow Builder with. Now the fact that it was linked to Bram Stoker made me think, oh, maybe it's kind of like the Coppola film. Or some of the great stories that... were from his works that have been adapted into movies. So I really didn't know. Other than I saw the poster, it was colorful. I had a mosaic with a demon in the background and a church and angelic.
slash demon poster. And I thought, okay, let's check it out. The IMDB description is, a demon is summoned to take the soul of a young boy who has the potential to become a saint. By doing this, he will open a doorway to hell and destroy the world. I mean, if that isn't going to hook you, who knows what will.
So I first want to start off and say that this movie, I am Canadian. I'm just east of Toronto and anything Canadian usually has a connection with me. When I picked this movie, I had no idea. I literally just went by the title.
This one was shot in Paris, Ontario, not Paris, France, Paris, Ontario, which was actually not that far from where my grandmother lived in kind of south central Ontario. Makes no bearing on my influence of the... rating i will give this film so the movie opens with michael rooker walking in on a naked man and woman unconscious on a cot there's a religious ceremony going up above him and there's the burning of a boy's picture
and a sudden shootout. We don't know who Rooker is, as we later find out he's working for the church. Turns out that the ceremony was to summon a demon. And Rooker is a priest who's out to quell the evil threats under the guidance of the Catholic church hierarchy. One of the downfalls to this film is they don't give you much in the way of backstory. So you don't know.
What level is this coming from Rome? Is this coming from the American consulate? Is this coming from the local priests? We're not quite sure, but some people are entrusting him. to save the soul of this boy that the picture was burned of there's a demon that comes to earth and he causes havoc and kills and he's trying to get the soul of the boy Again, we're not quite sure why. One of the downfalls. Some gaps are left.
There's a lot of CGI and some of it is fairly decent for 1998. I mean, when you're thinking about CGI, you're thinking about either really well done or sci-fi level. And when you're considering this movie is going on 25 years old, it's actually not too bad. But it does become bothersome because it's relied on quite heavily. The local police department is investigating strange events.
deaths and disturbances in the local cemetery. And this is a smaller town that hasn't seen much in the way of murders or deaths in the last 25, 30 years or whenever it is that they have the timeframe for. they're not sure what's going on. So there's a police procedural element going on. Now this film definitely has that 90s feel. You know that feel of the movies from the mid to late 90s and you can identify it right away?
This has this one in spades. So the demon turns out to be shadows who crumble in the light. So what he's trying to do is he's trying to take the souls of as many people as possible along the way to try to build up strength to get to the boy. But when they're exposed to light... they crumble. So anything from a flashlight to a broken window to a Polaroid camera with a flash will have them crumble. And so they're after a boy called Chris who received a stigmata during his baptism.
And people in the Catholic Church who received this stigmata, according to the doctrine, their souls were born pure, without sin. and they're supposed to show signs of greatness, possible sainthood. So in the Catholic Church, they're revered, and obviously the devil wants to have other plans for them. And so Rooker and the Church want to save him.
The demons cause havoc with kills and they're looking for the child with Rooker leaving to save and protect the boy. It's a classic good versus evil with a religious angle to it. I know a lot of people like the religious angle to certain movies. This one has it in spades. So there's a nice role by Tony Todd as an off-the-grid Rasta man.
I know you can almost tell that he's just having a blast doing this. It's not a large role. He only shows up here and there and towards the end a little bit more. But he looks interesting considering the man is almost always bald. He's got some dreads. It might be worth watching for that. The main demon has a deep voice. I find it a little bit on the annoying side. And his description and visualization is strongly used with CGI, which I find a little bit annoying.
And it leads to an inevitable final confrontation between Rooker and the demon for the boy, both his soul and his physical body. And of course, it takes place in a Catholic church, like any good film does of this ilk. Okay. So there's a decent performance by Kevin Zegars as the boy, Chris. and Tony Todd. Rucker, I think, does his best with the work that's given him. The script is not exactly, you know, going to be nominated for an Oscar. So he kind of was a little bit staid, a little bit wooden.
But it is what it is. Rooker, you either get the high end or the low end, and this one's kind of in the middle. The film doesn't bring a lot original to the table. The ending and the finale are fairly predictable. The characters, especially the demon, are not overly interesting, but there is a decent production value. And if you like the familiarity of a good versus evil story, or if you like the religious element to it, the...
demons and the angels and those kind of trying to intercede in between, you might get something out of this film. But don't expect a Bram Stoker Dracula film. I give this a 5.5 out of 10. I think IMDB gives it a 4.8 out of 10. I'm slightly more generous. Maybe that's just me. But it's not exactly a top-end film. This would be a good film to have on on a rainy, sunny afternoon.
A rainy, sunny afternoon. Is there such a thing? I guess there is. It could be rainy and sunny. But on a rainy afternoon, while you're folding laundry, or if you're getting dinner ready, or you're just watching your son or daughter...
work on their homework or something this would be an okay movie to have on in the background okay if you're a completist in bram stoker and in interpretations you might want to watch this or if you've kind of got the religious and the good versus evil tinge go for it Otherwise, you can avoid it. Although, you know, I've seen worse. And this is the beauty of Tubi.
You never know what you're going to get. You can get some good, you can get some bad, you can get some mixed bag. And that's what this film is. An absolute mixed bag. So... I hope everybody enjoys this segment. If you ever have any suggestions or comments please send them to Matt or send it to the Facebook group.
I am more than willing to look it up. The only thing I will caution you is Tubi in the U.S. isn't the same as Tubi in Canada. So sometimes somebody will say something's on Tubi and I don't necessarily get it. So just make sure that I have availability to it, but otherwise I'm totally open to watching anything on the channel. As I am well known for watching anything and everything. that comes my way. So I hope everybody has a great afternoon, enjoys themselves and has some fun.
Now I'm very excited to introduce our third co-host of HMP 2.0 moving forward, Trey Whetstone. Trey, so happy to have you on the line here. And happy you could make it to, you know, phone in a segment for this passing of the torch episode. I know that this podcast means a lot to you and that. You are so talented and will bring so much to the thing. So we're excited to get to know you. I guess I just want to ask up top, how did you discover HMP? Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for having me, Jax.
Sorry to miss the introductory episode with the handoff, but I'm glad to be here and talk to you about HMP. So yeah, as far as when I discovered HMP, I think it was around 2016 or 2017. I was... listening to a more of a corporate horror podcast, one that was ran by a company. And they actually ended their show, I think, in the fall of 2016. So what did I do? I went into a search engine and typed, you know, best horror movie podcast. And I think I tried a few, but...
Horror Movie Podcast was one of the ones I came across, and that's Jay's brilliant naming of that show. But that's really how I stumbled across HMP, and then I went through all of their back catalog from there and was a listener ever since. I think that's a lot of our stories. I know that me and my dad certainly had that sort of same experience of looking up horror movie podcasts. And then what do you know? That's a genius SEO idea.
Yeah, that is. And what a world it's propelled us into, right? I mean, it's just going from being, for me at least, kind of a fringe on the outsider of horror fandom to kind of... finding this new family of sorts online with the horror community and HMP facilitating that. That's been really such a blessing. Yeah, absolutely.
discovered HMP and gotten that community a little bit, which is probably where I had met you and, uh, your dad at. And then you, um, was lucky enough to get on father and son. And then that was what really kicked me off to say, Hey, maybe I want to do this myself. So. It's absolutely all connected.
Okay, well, I've got some questions for you, and it might be hard to choose, but I'm going to have to ask you, do you have a favorite episode or moment from HMP that stuck with you? I know that there have been lots of favorites. thrown out by people anticipating the return. But I just want to know from you what your favorite episodes or moments from HMP were in the past.
Yeah, I think one of the things that really got me into it was that set of slasher episodes. But I'm sure a lot of people have said that when they covered those Greg Mortis. I'll tell you a couple that really stand out with me are the I think it was like an eight hour long episode.
Go figure Jay puts out an eight hour episode, but it was that one where they had ended up got in, they got on some kind of a rabbit hole and him and Dave were ended up talking about Jan Gell and, uh, ordered those movies and did reviews on them. So that was. Definitely one that I always remember. As far as like the recurring ones that I liked, I always liked, especially, and I wasn't as, you know, entrenched as I am now as far as like catching up with new stuff. But I loved when they did those.
like near November when they would do those, like here are 20, you know, 2021 new horror movie releases, reviews of those. And they just did a huge chunk before the end of the year. And I always loved pulling stuff off of those as well. Yeah, because of just the diversity of tastes from the three hosts of HMP, you always got...
introduced to something that you hadn't heard of before on those year-end top 10 lists. I think that's been true for a lot of us and introduced us to so many great, and I'm sure made us more a fan of certain sub-genres that we may be. uh, wouldn't have been before, but, and then the slasher.
The slasher episode, of course. I mean, that's a classic. I know Winter with Stephen King is a classic too. Yeah, I didn't want to necessarily get deep into that one because I feel like everyone loves that slasher. And I think that introduced a lot of people to Land of the Creeps too, which is... awesome and it was certainly was for me but yeah I just loved the I think horror movie podcast what it did really was help me to
get out of like certain sub-genres like you were saying. I'm not just watching the same things anymore. I'm giving other things a try. Something like Green Room, which Prior to listening to that podcast, I probably would have never tried and ended up loving. Or something like The Wailing, which kind of got me.
deeper into Korean horror than I used to be. It was kind of, kind of set me on that path listening to their review of the whaling because I think I had watched some Korean films before, but, um, that was really a first. I remember that one. Yeah, that's awesome. exciting that now years down the line, you're doing your international horror polls. I mean, our first episode you were on, I think, or one of the first on Father and Son was our international horror episode.
Yeah. So that's just awesome that avenue was open for you. Yeah, I always kind of got into the Italian stuff, but it was just- seeing all these other countries that have that. And yeah, you're right, absolutely. I did that international horror episode and I couldn't have imagined doing that years before. Okay, well, this is a biggie I've got to ask you now.
And you can answer in any way you want to. I know people have structured their list differently, but I'm just going to ask you now for your top three favorite horror movies. And I want to open the floor up to you to kind of qualify that maybe. Yeah, so I've gone back and forth on this, Jackson, because I pretty much have had the same three.
for close to a decade now. And, you know, my top five maybe changes a little bit, but my top three is pretty consistent. But I got to say, and I got to apologize to Greg Amortis if you're listening to this. Halloween used to be my favorite of all time, and I think much like you with Creature from the Black Lagoon, it's kind of been teetering on falling out of my top three. I think the thing with that is just...
I've seen it so many times. Maybe I've seen it too many times. Maybe I've just watched it over and over and I don't know what it is. But for some reason, Halloween's just fallen a little bit with me over the last couple of years. I think I'm still going to keep it in my top three though. And I would go number three is Halloween from 1978. And I think it's still a classic and still one of my first horror movies that I think I ever watched.
And it's one of those where I can't remember the first time I watched it, but I know I watched it a long time ago. And then number two for me would be An American Werewolf in London from 81, I believe. And that's a classic for me. I love the comedy that's mixed in to the...
with the horror and stuff. And there's actual really scary moments in this movie, but there's so many great like dark comedy moments as well. And I've always liked that. You know, I'm not always the biggest horror comedy fan, but I think when it's done right like this, it really works. And of course, also have to put that at a number two for Jenny Augeter as well. And David Knott, and I love those two in that movie. And my number one Jackson, I would say is Suspiria.
And you know what I'm a big fan I am of like International and Argento. I think I did. I did an Argento episode with you guys as well for Deep Red. And Suspiria has just been one that I, it's weird how I stumbled on this. You've got some time for me to get into how I actually stumbled into Suspiria. But I remember, I don't know if you've ever, these are.
This was probably a little before your time, Jax, and I think in the early aughts, Bravo would put out these lists of, you know, top 100 most horrifying or scariest movie moments of all time. One of them was the Suspiria trailer, and it's got – they're singing the poem about like roses are red, violets are blue, and it's got that Suspiria theme in the background. And you slowly see –
a girl brushing her hair, and as the head turns around, it's a skull. And then they proceed to play, that's from the trailer, the US trailer. And then as they go on, they proceed to play the scene with the glass near the beginning of the film. And that always like terrified me. So when I started going and getting really into horror movies and doing my watches and stuff, I was like, I got to check out the Suspiria movie because it just always stuck with me. And that was really.
The first time I got into Argento the first time I got into Italian film and I was kind of hooked from the beginning so Suspiria I think needs to be my number one It's one that I can watch over and over again and just not get tired of it at all Well, that is one of your new co-hosts on Horror Movie Podcast, Trey Whetstone, the horror historian from Screaming Through the Ages.
And I'm sure you'll be looking forward to many, many, many more episodes with Trey bantering with Vicious Victor and with Nathan Bartobal. Me, the Velocipastor, as Jay has dubbed me. And of course, I guess that makes Jackson the son of Velocipastor. Without further ado, back to the show. You'll be hearing more about...
The future of HNP, there will be some folks who will have some recorded segments. I'm not going to tell you who, but one of them will be Terror on Tubi. I'm sure you can't guess who that is. And we'll have a regular recorded episode segment. We'll stick in somewhere in the episode. I'm sorry, Trey couldn't be here while we're. record with him later and hopefully if we can't put him into this episode we'll get him on the next episode but um
I will put everything in the show notes. I think you guys know where everyone can find you, but just in case, let's go around the horn with any last thoughts and plugs. Jackson, let's start with you. When I talk about plugs, you had better mention your album. Okay, yeah. Your new album. Yes, this has been... Well, first of all, let me just say, this has been an incredibly...
Just surreal episode for me to be listening to because I'm essentially listening to the podcast right now while we're recording. And it's really surreal. I mean... I know I played it all so cool, Jay, but when you were on our podcast years ago now for what is now a Lost episode,
Yeah, your dad erased it because I was... Not at all. I'm just kidding. My wife edited it back then. Maybe she did. But I'm not getting involved in that. Sorry to interrupt, Jackson. I'll just say, if you guys ever... want to talk dissent again let me know we'll redo it and put it back but anyway go ahead okay go ahead sorry jackson but
I was so nervous to record that episode. I remember sitting in my dad's living room and being nervous because I was about to be on a podcast with Jay of the Dead from Horror Movie Podcast. Isn't that scary? Over the years, just listening to more content from you and now talking to you, it's just like you are just the nicest and most welcoming person. And even though you have such a talent for production.
and for hosting. And by the way, as an audio editor, people don't understand how difficult that is and how taxing it is and how many hours you spend. If you have a one-hour podcast, you're going to be editing that for three hours at least, putting that time in. And it's just so impressive, the quality of work that he's turned out over the years.
But recording that Descent episode, I remember, was surreal for me and still surreal now. And Dave, I mean, when we had you on the podcast for the first time, it was the same thing, but even more so meeting you for the first time when we did... We went to the Joe Bob's Drive-In Jamboree. Just surreal for me. You can imagine just across state lines and listening to you.
uh, for, for all those years and then finally getting to meet you and have such, such an amazing time at that event. Um, it was, it was just amazing. It was great. And the time I, I had just as much fun at the diner.
yeah when we were sitting there and just talking and the waitress kept looking saying one of these people gonna leave yeah yeah that was that was incredible and And just interacting, I know Nathan, being on Phantom Galaxy is always amazing, whether we're talking about Ice Pirates or Dark Star, to my dad's chagrin. It happens more than you'd expect. Don't get them started on James Cameron. We won't talk about Avatar, but don't get them started.
James Cameron can eat a fart. Okay, well, we've got him going now. Just being on Phantom Galaxy is always amazing. Oh my gosh, Victor. I remember being blown away by the talent from everything that you produce. I bought your book and I listened to it along with the... produced audio with it thank you and it's just it's just an amazing experience all the way through and such talent coming from everything you do and every time i would hear you call into a podcast
It was just a real treat because it was just like I was being transported to that high house. You know what I mean? It's like you're in a different dimension there. And just to hear insight from you is always incredible. So, and then, yeah, yeah. And of course, Trey, who I'm so sad couldn't be on this episode, but I'm looking forward to hearing what he does with Horror Movie Podcast 2.0.
Just an amazing podcast host. He does Screaming Through the Ages solo so often and just keeps you engaged for hours. I don't know how he does it. an incredible amount of talent coming from him. So I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody does with, with HMP 2.0 and I'm so excited to guest on it in the future. Oh man. Um, I'm still kind of teary eyed from, from Dave, but, uh, yeah um victor any last thoughts and you can throw in jackson you didn't throw in your plug for your new album
oh right uh well i've got my new album for my band is uh the album's cruciality the band is anosmic check it out everywhere you listen to music same places you listen to all these great podcasts um but uh yeah check it out Seven songs, right? Is that what you have out now? Eight songs. Eight songs. Yes, which it seems like not a lot, but like I was talking about when I was addressing Jay, audio editing, man.
It takes forever. And Jackson has a demo for the new theme song that he's going to be tweaking, and so that'll be coming. Cool. All right. Yeah.
So, Victor, any last thoughts? Where can they find you? Where can they find your book? All that kind of stuff. Anything you have coming up? Yeah. Yeah, I've got a couple of things submitted for... possible publication anthologies and such but uh usually don't like to talk about those things until they uh at least say it's being printed um because things happen to anthologies you know yeah
The last thing I published, I think, was Savage Realms number four. Oh, and this is something I've been wanting to say for years now. I'll link to it in the HMP show notes. There you go. But yeah, I have a composer client. You can check out her work in Dragon Age Absolution on Netflix. right now. And yeah, I love to talk about films. Please don't hesitate if you're listening to the show and you want to engage with me about something that has to do with horror films.
Just message me at Dime Store Caesar on Twitter or Instagram, and I will be more than happy to hear from you. But yeah. I can't wait to see what we can do on this show. Absolutely. And yes. We've linked in the show notes. Also, everyone else's podcast will also be. And we're still tweaking the website. My wife and one of her employees is still tweaking with it. The comment section will come back as well.
So people can interact there. Just have some patience. It will get there. Nathan, do we have time left for you to promote all the different podcasts that you do? It's only one podcast now. It's all been synergizing. Notice that March kind of took a month off to...
All of the content that everybody has loved will still be happening. It's just going to happen in segments now as opposed to full episodes. The Russian nesting doll Phantom Galaxy was getting... more and more elaborate until you know i don't think there'll be anything in the last in the last doll so all the segments illustrated fan of phantom video and everything uh half of which dave dave is on
And the other half, Victor's on. And then Trey's probably on most of it as well. You can hear everyone and Matt and Jackson. And Jason, we did an episode about Dark City with you. I'd love to have you back. and hit another really cool, wild soundtrack movie. You can find us at phantomgalaxy at podbean.com and pretty much anywhere that the podcatchers are. I'm on Twitter at phantomgalaxy, but I do have another handle that I'll be sort of configuring for.
horror movie podcast and let me just say a moment and Matt thank you so much for the opportunity Jason and Dave and Joel thank you for the kind words and the opportunity to do this this is The podcast not only ignited my desire to do a podcast and ultimately reignited my interest in being part of the film journalism and film criticism world again after being sort of.
I moved off from it. It was really because of the passion and the camaraderie. The whole reason I want to do this is just sit in the pub and have a chat with people, like-minded people, love things. That's what I want to bring to the show. I think that's... i'm so excited uh victor and trey are some of my most favorite people to talk film with and horror film especially and i cannot wait i love the enthusiasm of the fans uh
And having been one for so while, it's just an honor to be able to do this. So thank you so much. And I think I'm pretty, like Victor, I'm excited to see what we can do and all the people we get to work with and talk with on our road there. Absolutely. And Dave, before you go, can you name all the podcasts you're on? I think I could do it pretty quickly. Yes, since Nathan made it a little bit easier. I consolidated.
Yeah, exactly. Of course, Jay the Dead's new horror movies, where I get to do a very fun segment where I look at the macabre history of Hollywood and of movies. I'm really enjoying putting those things together. And it's teaching me things about Hollywood's history as well. And just everything over there, getting into getting into debates where we're going back and forth at it, just like we did on HMP.
Except now there's like eight of us all screaming at each other instead of just three of us. And it's always a blast. And of course, Land of the Creeps with the amazing Greg Amortis, the incomparable Bill Van Vagel. uh the the wonderful pearl um it's like family there just as much and every time we get together i i love it the the those two hmp and land of the creeps have been like just big parts of my life
And we'll continue to be. We'll continue to be. And Land of the Creeps, I love them. I love all of my co-hosts on that show. I just met Greg Amortis last week in Atlantic City for the New Jersey Horror Con. And we had a great time. And Pearl also. And also Ian Urza and Tony Kanopka were there. It was just a blast. And of course, as Nathan was saying, we have, I guess, segments now.
The Illustrated fan and Phantom Video. Phantom Video is one that I really have so much fun. When we sat down and we talked about the new movies coming out.
for the for the for that month uh i guess it was october that was so much fun just sitting it was like going down memory lane of all these movies that we had all seen and just had all remembered and and of course as nathan was saying the great trey whetstone is on that as well and it's so much fun talking uh with with them an illustrated fan also um i'm pretty sure we have did i i think we recorded one for halloween but i don't think it was a christmas no it was christmas
Our next one is going to be psychologically damaging children's animated films. I think we're still preparing ourselves. Yes, we are. Well, I think Karen's going to join us for that, and I think she's working herself up to watch Plague Dogs.
is what she's doing um but and then of course dvd infatuation podcast which is on jay's considering the cinema and jay produces it for me and and he's the one who's he's the reason it exists because he's the one who pushed me to do it and he's the one who puts it out there And we just had a new one come out. I don't know if the if I'll just say the newest one at the time of this recording was the top 10 fantasy movies with Karen Wagner.
Which was so much fun. And thank you so much, Jay, for doing that for me. Also, I was resistant for many years to do that. I was just like, no, I don't think so. I'm not a solo host. But I thank you so much for pushing me because it's also been very special. And as I said, I cannot wait to hear what new HMP comes. I love listening to everybody, everybody on this show.
I listened to all of their shows. And Victor, you're one of my favorite calls. You are probably my favorite caller on LOTC when you talk about the high house in the mist. Yes. I absolutely love that. He and the unknown caller. He and the unknown caller, yes. Without Greg Bench singing and Vicious Victor calling in, it's not an LOTC episode. We need six messages from Greg, three of them singing.
The unknown caller calling in. We need Victor in the high house. Oh, and now Anthony R. with his six shots. Getting alcohol poisoning. Yeah, exactly right. So but and thank you so much, Matt, for for doing this and for putting for having this this sort of we call it the handing of the baton. It's it's been special. And thank you so much. Thank you.
And so for me, Father and Son Watch Horror will continue. Jax and I will continue to record. A little easier when it's just the two of us and maybe one guest host to coordinate. So we'll continue. We're getting ready to... record an episode here soon on christine on its anniversary so it's 40th anniversary of christine but are you kidding me wow yeah i know i know 40th yeah 1983 so yeah um but last but not least
Jay of the dead, I'm sure everyone knows where you're at, but go ahead and shout it out. And then, sir, would you do us the honor of closing us out? Thank you. It would be my pleasure. Ever since 2019, I have a little horror show that could. It's called HorrorMovieWeekly.com. That's the Midnight Bowling of Horror Podcasts. I'm on there with Mr. Watson.
And if the HMP crew, I'm sure they know Mr. Watson because he, you know, he was the listener over there. But this guy is a, he is a dynamo for real. And then got projectile varmint who I also met through. I met her through the HMP comments. And then Chani Dreadful, who just returned again as our hostess. So there's four of us over there. Oh, great. Wow, that's awesome. And it's really fun. It's just a one-hour-long show.
We review new stuff. So, horrormovieweekly.com. And then, of course, as Dave said, Jay of the Dead's new horror movies, which I look at, like, as I view it as kind of my next...
my next phase for me and my podcasting life after HMP. And I feel like these are really... sister shows but it's I refer to it amazing podcast thank you it to me it's the berserk baboon of horror podcasting we have nine we have nine horror hosts It's me, Jay the Dad, Dr. Shock, Gilman Joel, Mr. Watson, Dr. Walking Dead, who, by the way, he has a little solo cast that comes out.
under that flagship there. It's Dead Man Still Walking. And then Greg Amortis is on there, Macula, Ron Martin, and Dave Z. And we just have an absolute blast. Hope you'll check us out and... We're going to be an hour for each host. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a variety now like of different different kinds of shows and stuff. But yeah, our main shows are pretty long. But.
But yeah, we're going to be over there. We're going to be promoting the new HMP as well and just kicking it back and forth between these two shows because I'd love to introduce the audiences to each other if there is. you know, anyone that's not crossed over already. So, but just want to thank, thank all our good friends who have been here with us tonight. I want to thank
Pastor Matt, especially for giving me this nice opportunity to just be here and kind of just celebrate and share memories with our friends. And thank you for resurrecting this. So that's going to be it here for episode 219. And we thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again very soon for Horror Movie Podcast, where we're dead serious about horror movies.