The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Jen and Tim are doing misogyny again! They DO NOT support women…filmmakers who make bloodless, smarmy takes on rape-revenge flicks. Kind of like Promising Young Woman!
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Abel Ferrara talked with Rotten Tomatoes a while back about the superior Ms. 45 when it made the rounds of revival houses.
And of course, don’t miss our gleeful takedown of another helping of plastic feminism: listen to our episode on The Love Witch.
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Jen and Tim do a deep dive into the canned pumpkin pie filling that is Shudder’s Ghoul Log! Are we serious with this shit? You tell us! However, all of the usual outlets appear to trick-or-treat it with the same gravitas afforded to, say, the latest Terrifier installment. To wit:
Comicbook.com anticipates the Night of the Ghoul Log:
“While some fans might be disappointed that this year hasn’t embraced a specific horror property, it still marks a great way to capture the atmosphere of Halloween night.” – Patrick Cavanaugh
All Hallows Geek covers Tippett Studios’s Mad God edition of the Ghoul Log
SlashFilm on the Trick ‘r Treat-themed edition:
“It’s charming, but it’s also a bit distracting. If you want the Ghoul Log to serve as background filler – as I do – this isn’t the way to go, as the constant interruptions will pull you away from whatever it is you’re doing.” – Chris Evangelista
If you want more of spooky, narratively inert movies about menacing plant life, check out our free episode on Friedkin’s The Guardian!
Tim and Jen bring back one of horror’s heaviest (lol) hitters to talk about a movie William Friedkin couldn’t be bothered to mention after he made it, The Guardian!
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Tim’s quip about Q’s on Wilshire refers to a 2000 incident in which screenwriter and director Eric Red plowed his Jeep into a crowded bar following a fender bender, killing two people, then attempted to slit his own throat with a piece of glass. The linked LA Weekly article draws some tenuous conclusions between Red’s work and the bloody mess at Q’s, but as of 2023 he appears to have stayed out of trouble and written several novels.
KCRW memorializes Deirdre O’ Donaghue’s incredibly influential playlists with its Bent By Nature podcast.
The ballerina clown of Venice remains in situ, where it has been since 1989. Presumably, it makes the CVS underneath it easy to find for out-of-towners.
Do you love Tim and Bitter Karella, but have had enough of Jen? Hear the former two discuss a beloved childhood favorite in our Ernest Goes to Camp episode!
Jen is pleasantly surprised when Tim suggests a horror movie that’s actually pretty good: the eerie anthology with a twist, Ghost Stories (2017). Also, Tim gives an impromptu lecture on the deeper meaning of American zombie movies. (He also seizes an opportunity to wedge in his love for League of Gentlemen. C’mon, that was 20 years ago!)
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Read an interview with Ghost Stories co-writer Derren Brown about his new stage show. He also confesses that he used to be a cape guy (“a bit intense, and a bit socially maladroit,” according to the article). No surprise there! He also has a YouTube channel if you would like to see him hypnotize people into giving him their wallets.
Need another spooky fix? Try our free episode on another slept-on horror anthology 50 States of Fright!
Tim and Jen look at Peter Jackson’s transition from splatter king to mainstream whizbang effects filmmaker, The Frighteners.
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Check out part one of The Frighteners blooper reel! Part two may be viewed here. Damn, that’s a lot of blooperin’, Doc!
In 2018, Germain Lussier wrote a positive reappraisal of the film for Gizmodo.
Lussier does not appear to be alone in liking the film, since a recent post from MSN claims that Universal intends to remake The Frighteners. Maybe we’ll get that franchise after all!
If you can’t get enough of movies that are ‘spiritually’ about Ghostbusters, check out our review of Return of the Ghostbusters.
Jen and Tim get mad enough to talk about All Hallow’s Eve and Terrifier (the first one) for almost two hours!
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Jen really punted when she said that scary clowns go back to John Wayne Gacy— according to Smithsonian Magazine, clowns have been creepy (and annoying) for centuries!
This Bloom County strip from the story arc Jen mentioned illustrates the one-time societal loathing directed at mimes pretty well.
Tim was also inaccurate: Men, Women, and Chainsaws is 30 years old. Here’s a recap. This and the recommended Offensive Films is on the Internet Archive (however long that is still around).
For that previous mime discussion, listen to our Eat and Run episode with special guest Bitter Karella!
Jen and Tim try to say something nice about a pay cable attempt at Lovecraftian horror/comedy, Cast a Deadly Spell. Also, Jen tries and fails to remember the time she massively insulted Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid out of nowhere.
Jen is so dumb she forgot to mention who directed Witch Hunt, the sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell: Paul fucking Schrader. Will we watch it? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tim confused Peter Scolari of Bosom Buddies with Mark Linn-Baker in Perfect Strangers, or maybe he was thinking of Bronson Pinchot. Does it matter?
Jerry Smith over at Certified Forgotten makes a fan’s case for the movie, so we’ll include it as a concession to an imaginary genre podcast Fairness Doctrine.
Finally, for more throwback horror, try our episode on the first Kolchak telefilm, The Night Stalker!
Tim is too cool to talk about a nerdy British kid’s coming of age story, so Jen and special guest @bitterkarella step in to talk about cult BBC teleplay Penda’s Fen.
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BFI did indeed release Penda’s Fen on blu-ray in 2016, but it’s also available on YouTube!
The 2010 post that originally turned Jen on to the film may be found at John Coulthart’s excellent art blog, Feuilleton. At the time of writing, Penda’s Fen was almost impossible to see, as a home video release was far in the future.
As for Penda’s Fen, whenever a TV executive tries to argue that television hasn’t dumbed down I’d offer this work as Exhibit A for the prosecution. Rudkin and Clarke’s film was screened at 9.35 in the evening on the nation’s main TV channel, BBC 1, at a time when there were only three channels to choose from. A primetime audience of many millions watched this visceral and unapologetically intelligent drama; show me where this happens today. – John Coulthart
Jen mangled the words to the Bonzo Dog Band’s “Sport” a little bit (“Sport, sport, masculine sport / equips a young man for society”), but you get the idea.
Also, be sure to listen to our discussion of the Alan Clarke-directed The Firm, along with its inferior remake.
Jen and Tim welcome @bitterkarella to talk about a tWisTeD comic book movie, the Spawn before Spawn, Faust: Love of the Damned!
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Read an interview with director Brian Yuzna to learn more about Fantastic Factory, the production company that brought you that titty inflation scene. He also talks about The Guyver!
If you found yourself confused by our reference to ”Two Wet Bears,“ you can watch it on YouTube. It’s an attempt to pass off a pencil test as a finished animated short, and features almost every year at Jerry Beck’s Worst Cartoons Ever panel at Comic-Con. (Also listen to our episode with Jerry about the Monkees’ sole feature, Head!)
This is the Sara Matthews Bitter Karella was talking about, by the way. Apparently she was uncredited in Repossessed, in spite of her memorable appearance. For shame!
Too much of a pussy for this xXxtreme anti-hero? Why not enjoy our episode with tons more pussy, Cats on Park Avenue!
Jen and Tim talk about a truly weird musical fantasia from the mind of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss— The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
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So much of this episode wouldn’t exist without the superlative work of Seuss biographer Brian Jay Jones. His book Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisl and the Making of an American Imagination highlights Geisl’s creativity and enduring legacy in popular literature. Jones talked in depth about the life of Dr. Seuss on the Our American Stories podcast (listen to our show first though lol).
The charming animated short Gerald McBoing-Boing may be viewed on YouTube.
Jen mentioned the Australian child murderer (and worse) Mr. Cruel— see the legitimately terrifying police sketch of the suspect at Wikipedia, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
And yes, we highly recommend that calendar Rifftrax short we mentioned, whether you like to laugh, or if you’re just genuinely confused about how to use a calendar!