The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Tim and Jen welcome show mascot Bitter Karella to talk about George Romero’s melancholy 1976 vampire masterpiece, Martin.
Read a 2020 interview with lead actor John Amplas, in which he reminisces about Romero and working on Martin.
Some exciting news that broke the day we recorded this episode— the 3-hour black-and-white director’s cut of Martin has been found!
Jen and Tim discover two Arkansas originals: The Town That Dreaded Sundown from 1976, and indie film pioneer Charles B. Pierce!
Hear the entire episode over at our Patreon!
Amanda Squitiero, daughter of Charles B. Pierce, corrects some misconceptions about him in this fine article from Filmmaker magazine.
Tim and Jen confront the most infamous mondo film of all time, Faces of Death! Hear the entire episode over at our Patreon!
Faces of Death may be viewed in its entirety on Tubi.
Echoing Jen’s experience in high school auto safety, two students were traumatized after their math teacher showed the film in class in 1985:
“The people at the table,” says Forget today, “beat this monkey over the head with a hammer until it died. Then they cut the top of its head off and ate its brains.” As an animal-lover, she found the film deeply disturbing and asked to leave. Mr Schwartz said no and when Feese also tried to go, he forced her to sit down, grabbing her chair and spinning it aggressively towards the screen.
via The Guardian
Schwarz was disciplined, but with only a 15-day suspension without pay.
For more upsetting reenacted violence, check out our episode on Farewell Uncle Tom! OR if ambiguously fake snuff is more your speed, try our episode on Trent Reznor’s Broken movie!
Jen and Tim catch up on a definitive Nicolas Cage performance in the cult film and meme template Vampire’s Kiss!
Read the evidence that Vampire’s Kiss writer Joseph Minion plagiarized much of After Hours at Andrew Hearst’s blog.
Tim and Jen struggle to make sense of one of the most persistent cultural artifacts of 9/11, Loose Change, as well as the lasting damage done by the Bush administration.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
View every edit of Loose Change (except the 2015 edition) at archive.org.
Watch Screw Loose Change, an exhaustive response to the second edition of Loose Change, at YouTube.
For more cogent commentary on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East, listen to our episode with special guest Felix Biederman on Valley of the Wolves: Iraq.
Jen and Tim revisit the greatest unfairly-cancelled single-season sci-fi western TV series of all time: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.! If you thought we were going to say “Firefly” you have obviously never listened to our show before. Also Jen is finally able to air her feelings about Dixie for a mass audience. Spicy!
Check DVDTalk for information on the complete series on home media.
Whether you lived through it or not, you can peruse the 1993-94 prime-time television lineup for yourself.
For more cult TV, try our episode on Hammer House of Horror!
Tim and Jen welcome a special guest to discuss a fan edit of a beloved horror classic, The Wicker Man: The Summerisle Cut! Listen for yourself and decide if you want to leave angry comments on archive.org!
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
View the Summerisle Cut at the Internet Archive.
Visit the Wicker Man site mentioned by our guest, which describes all of the different cuts of the film in detail.
For more great British horror, try our episode on the BBC’s controversial Ghostwatch!
Jen and Tim agree and disagree on an also-ran Nicolas Roeg movie, Eureka! Jen really gets the bit between her teeth in this one and Tim demonstrates almost saintly patience while she babbles.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
Watch a short documentary on the inspiration for Jack McCann, the gold millionaire Sir Harry Oakes.
Buy Charlotte Gray’s very engaging bio of Harry Oakes, Murdered Midas, on Alibris.
For more British filmmaking, listen to our episode on The Firm and its 2009 reboot!
Cool World is not cool. Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) returns to commiserate with Tim and Jen about a very bad animated feature. Turns out this movie did significant psychological damage to young Tim.
Watch Emma’s Full Metal Alchemist video!
Compare and contrast: this interview with Ralph Bakshi, and this one with writer Michael Grais. Bakshi claims malfeasance from producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. (to the point of violence). Grais calls Bakshi a liar, essentially. What’s the real story? Who knows?
The Tex Avery doc Tim alluded to is called Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons.
Bakshi puts in this pissing stuff, and toilet stuff. I didn’t like that sex attitude in it very much. It’s like real repressed horniness; he’s kind of letting it out compulsively.
R. Crumb on Ralph Bakshi and the Fritz the Cat feature film
If we haven’t dissuaded you, you can watch Ralph Bakshi’s most recent animated work, The Last Days of Coney Island, on YouTube.
For more animated shite, listen to our episode on Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure!
What if Black Panther had been the pilot for a TV show, but when they went to series they took out Wakanda and most of the black people? You’d have M.A.N.T.I.S.! HYST superfan mugrimm joins Tim and Jen to talk about what was lost when the Sam Raimi/Sam Hamm/Rob Tapert pilot became a politically toothless show with white sidekicks.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
The documentary Jen couldn’t remember the name of is Call Me Lucky, and it was directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It’s an account of the life of satirist and activist Barry Crimmins.
Want to hear about a more inept superhero telefilm? Why not listen to our episode about Captain America with MST3k and Rifftrax alum Bill Corbett?