Sean takes a look back at a movie that terrified him as a sensitive 15-year-old: the Corey Haim vehicle Watchers (1988). Based on a novel by Dean R. Koontz, Watchers is the story of a super-intelligent, genetically engineered dog who has a psychic link with another, more beastly creature. When both of them escape from a government research facility, they somehow end up putting 80's teen heartthrob Corey Haim and his family in danger. Listen as we give props to the genius of Michael Ironside, hav...
Jun 11, 2016•1 hr 13 min
Travis takes us back to the height of ninja popularity in American pop-culture with Ninja III: The Domination (1984), in which an aerobics instructor (Lucinda Dickey) - who moonlights as a telephone repairman - becomes possessed by the spirit of an evil ninja and starts hunting down the cops who killed him. Join us for full-on ninja-skills dissection of an absolutely insane 80's gem, plus we try to determine where movie nudity has disappeared to when we answer listener mail! Hosted on Acast. See...
Jun 04, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Colin proves you don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre with Pieces (1982), a camp-classic splatter opus. A child hacks his mother to death after she catches him assembling a naughty jigsaw puzzle; forty years later, a black-gloved serial killer starts carving up coeds at a Boston university with a chainsaw. Could they be related? Is the killer trying to assemble a human jigsaw puzzle? You'll howl with delight at both the movie and our episode as we try to recreate classic Pieces line...
May 28, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Sean takes us ringside for the cleavage vs cleavers experience that is Sorority House Massacre II (1990), not to be confused with Slumber Party Massacre II, although this is a sequel to Slumber Party Massacre. Got that? Nubile sorority girls buy a former murder house - in the hope of transforming it into their new sorority house - and then inexplicably summon the killer's spirit with a Ouija board, and are murdered one by one. Come back with us to the age of the boobs and blood slasher formula a...
May 21, 2016•1 hr 8 min
Travis takes a trip back to the filmic heyday of New York's 42nd Street with his pick of Basket Case (1982), in which a man and his murderous, deformed Siamese twin stalk and kill the doctors responsible for separating them. Listen as we revisit the infamous days of grindhouse theaters, reminisce about renting horror movies on VHS tape, read viewer mail, and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 14, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Colin tries to find the science behind the spooks in Quatermass and the Pit (1967). In this Hammer Films production, work on a London tube extension uncovers a 5 million year old object which may not be of this earth. Intrepid scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to investigate once ghosts and hobgoblins start being seen by nearby residents. Do aliens, the origin of man, and an apocalyptic battle for London eventually figure into the plot? You betcha! Find out more on this week's exciting e...
May 07, 2016•1 hr 7 min
Travis wants to be Pinhead's right hand man in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), the third of nine (nine!) movies (currently) in the series following Clive Barker's groundbreaking 1987 original. Here, a TV news reporter is tasked with sending Pinhead, newly released upon the earth, back to hell. Listen to what we're going to end up referring to as The Hellraiser Episode, as we discuss the entire series of movies, the story on which they're based, and touch a bit on Barker's latest novel, The...
Apr 30, 2016•1 hr 23 min
Colin dons his black gloves and indulges his obsession with Italian gialli and Dario Argento's Tenebre (1982). An American writer in Italy begins receiving threatening messages from a serial killer who murders his victims according to methods described in the author's books. Listen as we deep dive into the stylish horror subgenre of "giallo" films, looking back at their beginnings in lurid paperbacks, to the production boom of the 1970's, and through Argento's career defining works. Plus, we pla...
Apr 23, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Sean looks in a mirror and summons the Candyman (1992), director Bernard Rose's adaptation of Clive Barker's "The Forbidden". Relocating the action from an London slum to Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, the movie tells the story of a graduate student, researching urban myths, who finds more than she bargained for when she conjures a specter known as the Candyman. Listen as we talk about the psychological horror movies of the 90's, consider if Candyman is actually Pinhead (Hellraiser), a...
Apr 16, 2016•1 hr 23 min
Travis finds himself lost In the Mouth of Madness (1994), John Carpenter's apocalyptic homage to H.P. Lovecraft. Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neil) is hired to find missing horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) but finds his grip on reality slipping as the twisted reality of Cane's works begin to threaten reality as we know it. Listen as we lose our minds discussing the stories of Lovecraft, Carpenter's "Apocalypse trilogy", religion, the responsibility that comes with being a ho...
Apr 09, 2016•1 hr 23 min
Colin takes us into dark fairy-tale territory with the cult film Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973). Also known as Lemora: Lady Dracula and The Legendary Curse of Lemora, the film follows virginal, Prohibition-era choir girl, Lila Lee (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), into the grim world of a lecherous lady vampire who has designs on initiating her into the world of the undead. Listen as we break down the film: it's themes, it's literary influences, and it's budgetary shortfalls on this...
Apr 02, 2016•1 hr 22 min
Sean celebrates the 20th anniversary of Scream by watching... Scream 2 (1997). In what should be known as Scream: The College Years, poor Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) takes the entire small town of Woodsboro with her to university, where a Ghostface-masked copycat killer tries to outdo the murderers of the first film. Listen as we celebrate the legacy of director Wes Craven, examine the Scream franchise and subsequent MTV series, and well as the impact of the franchise on horror films and the...
Mar 26, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Travis takes us back to high school with Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), an in-name-only sequel to the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis slasher, in which the ghost of vengeful, murdered prom queen Mary Lou Maloney returns to Hamilton High to for bloody revenge. Listen as we look back at this colorful mashup between Carrie and A Nightmare on Elm Street, reminisce about USA's Up All Night TV show, and decide not only to show it, but Freak Show it, on this week's exciting episode. Hosted on Acast. See a...
Mar 19, 2016•1 hr 11 min
Colin takes us on a paranormal investigation into The Legend of Hell House (1973), in which a group of psychics and scientists (featuring Roddy McDowall and Pamela Franklin) venture into the "Mount Everest of Haunted Houses" in hopes of proving, conclusively, whether or not there is life after death. Of course, they get more than they bargained for when the restless spirits of the house begin to stir. Listen as we invite an actual paranormal investigator to join us and talk about ghostly phenome...
Mar 12, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Sean dons the red, white and blue with Captain America (1990), the first attempt to bring Marvel's comic book character to the big screen. Imbued with super powers in a secret WWII experiment, Steve Rogers (Matt Salinger) teams up with the daughter of his one-time love to track down the villainous Red Skull (Scott Paulin), and stop a villainous plan to take over the United States. Listen as we talk about the career of director Albert (Mean Guns) Pyun, the downfall of Cannon Films, and inevitably...
Mar 05, 2016•1 hr 15 min
Travis takes us on a spiritual journey with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984), a Japanese fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic future. A princess has to stop an aggressive neighboring kingdom from using a powerful weapon to eradicate a toxic jungle of giant insects. Listen as our good intentions snowball into absolute confusion, chaos and incoherence as we try to decipher this acclaimed film, directed by acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki, on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. Se...
Feb 27, 2016•1 hr 14 min
Jenny gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle with her pick of Triangle (2009), which finds Melissa (Alias, 30 Days of Night) George experiencing what we refer to as the "Groundhog Day effect" (only with much bloodier consequences) while aboard an adrift ocean liner. This podcast is marked S for SPOILERS as we dive deep into the temporal mechanics of writer/director Christopher Smith's ocean-set mind bender. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 20, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Colin uses his black belt to combat black magic as he summons The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) on this week's show. Genre stalwart Peter Cushing travels to China to aid villagers under siege from the titular undead plague; he's assisted by 7 kung fu-wielding brothers (and their 1 sister) in this bizarre co-production between Britain's Hammer Films and the Chinese Shaw Brothers studios. Does Count Dracula show up? You betcha (the movie was released as 7 Brothers Meet Dracula in the U.S....
Feb 13, 2016•1 hr 20 min
Brent swims us out to The Beach (2000), as Leonardo DiCaprio discovers a paradise on a tropical island off the coast of Thailand, then discovers that the only threat to perfection is man himself. Listen as we talk entitled youth, shark attacks, hippie communes, mercy killings, forbidden romance, and bear witness to Travis' tirade against "liberals" on this week's exciting show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 06, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Sean was having a good day until every machine on the planet went into Maximum Overdrive (1986), horror author Stephen King's first (and only) directorial effort. Earth passes through the tail of a rogue comet which imbues all machines with sentient life. Their first order of business: exterminate mankind! A bunch of murderous semi trucks converge on the Dixie Boy truck stop and only Emilio Estevez and a band of dim-witted rednecks stand between us and oblivion! Listen as we try to name-drop as ...
Jan 30, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Travis becomes the night with a look at Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), a big screen edition of the Batman: The Animated Series TV show, which finds Batman (Kevin Conroy) dealing with the appearance of a new costumed vigilante in Gotham, and battling conflicting emotions stirred up by the re-appearance of the girl who got away, Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delaney). Listen as we track the evolution of the Dark Knight character through comics, TV and movies all the way to his latest incarnation in ...
Jan 23, 2016•1 hr 26 min
Jenny celebrates her birthday with a re-visitation of the childhood staple The Princess Bride (1987), a sweet-natured spoof of fairy tales directed by Rob (Misery, A Few Good Men) Reiner. Is one of the most beloved movies of all time beloved by the Internet Radio Superstars of the Saturday Night Freak Show? You'll have to listen to find out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 16, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Colin tries to make sense of Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives (2013), in which Ryan Gosling stars as a psychologically damaged drug smuggler, living in Bangkok, who plows a path of revenge after his brother is killed. Things get complicated with the arrival of his monster of a mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a seemingly supernatural policeman. Listen as we analyze the meaning of symbolism and metaphor in the film, and discuss cinema as art on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Aca...
Jan 09, 2016•1 hr 18 min
Brent explores the neurotic world of Woody Allen with Celebrity (1998), in which Kenneth Branagh does an spot on Allen impersonation as a celebrity journalist going through a divorce, and the gamut of sexual encounters he stumbles into while searching for meaning in life, while his wife (Judy Davis) suffers a a series of meltdowns in search of the same. Join us as we talk infidelity, celebrity, writing and relationship drama on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
Jan 02, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Sean celebrates Santa's arrival with the holiday classic Black Christmas (1974) - one of the first "slasher" movies - a Canadian import which arrived 4 years before Halloween (1978). A group of girls get murdered one-by-one, by a demented psycho named "Billy" who makes obscene phone calls to their sorority house on Christmas Eve. Director Bob Clark is also responsible for the Yuletide favorite, A Christmas Story (1983). Listen as we toss back some holiday cheer and sit under the tree to discover...
Dec 26, 2015•1 hr 18 min
Travis digs up the forgotten horror flick Spookies (1986), which finds a group of 30-something teenagers choosing an old mansion in which to party, and ultimately end up summoning a bunch of monsters who kill them off one-by-one. Listen as we discover the thrills of farting muck-men, shriveled sorcerers, spider-women, Gremlin-like demons, zombies and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 19, 2015•1 hr 23 min
Jenny relives her childhood fascination with Macaulay Culkin's screaming fits and proclivities towards violent mayhem in Home Alone (1990). In the film, the pint-sized terror scalds, stabs, shatters, and mangles a couple of bumbling, ne'er-do-well burglars who mistakenly target his home for their Christmastime plundering. Listen as we try to sort through the rich, multi-layered meanings of this oft overlooked, feel-good holiday classic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...
Dec 12, 2015•1 hr 24 min
Colin says "long live the new flesh!" and unleashes David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) signal upon unsuspecting minds in this week's episode. James Woods stars as a fringe-TV programmer whose reality begins to unravel after he becomes obsessed with pirate transmissions of a torture reality show. Pull up a chair and listen as we talk prophetic visions, insidious political agendas, and discuss the best course of action when you grow (and then feed videotapes to) a lower abdominal slit. All on th...
Dec 05, 2015•1 hr 24 min
Brent concludes a year celebrating Back to the Future and time-travel movies with Back to the Future Part III (1990), which sees Marty and Doc transported to 1885, where they run afoul of 'Mad Dog' Tannen, a disabled DeLorean, and an unexpected love affair, in this sweet-natured conclusion to the classic fantasy trilogy. Gather 'round as we discover why Brent loves this movie (and why Travis hates it) on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 28, 2015•1 hr 33 min
Sean comes back for a second course of furry extraterrestrial troublemakers with Critters 2 (1988), which finds more of the small creatures hatching and causing havoc in a small town, while series holdovers Scott Grimes and town-drunk-turned-alien-bountyhunter Charlie (Don Opper) try to stop them. Listen in as we talk about monster movies, the perils of sequels, the career of director Mick Garris, and the soothing effect of giant boobies, on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See aca...
Nov 21, 2015•1 hr 25 min
