Saturday Night Freak Show

Michaela was cool with the big-screen version of DC Comics classic anti-hero Jonah Hex (2010) until he started talking to dead people and rode off into steampunk territory! Hex is a bounty hunter seeking revenge on the evil Confederate colonel who burned down his life, and Megan Fox is the feisty prostitute that he must save before the end of the movie. Listen as we talk supernatural steampunk Westerns, rock out to Mastodon, and mention Wild Wild West more than once on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly finds out flesh is weak but metal is forever when she becomes a robot cyborg after watching Virus (1999), a haunted ship/Alien clone, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland as sailors who make the unwise move of investigating a derelict Russian science vessel with a killer alien robot on board! Listen to tales of yelling 'yar!' at cats, ommetaphobia, find out which mainframe is THE mainframe and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean couldn't get enough of Spookies (1986) the first time we covered it on our show, so he warps time and space so we can do it again (a Freak Show first)! It's true we watched Spookies before...on December 19th, 2015, to be exact...but Holly and Michaela weren't on the show then and missed out on this cinematic landmark. Listen as we talk farting muckmen, spider women, a menagerie of monsters and the terrible twisted history of Spookies on this week's exciting episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin geeks out over Hammer Films' single wolfman movie The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), which finds future superstar and tabloid hellraiser Oliver Reed making baptismal fonts boil and howlin' at the moon as a young lad cursed with lycanthropy from birth. Listen as we do a super nerd deep dive on Britain's Hammer Films, fire stunts gone awry, monster makeup and more, all on this week's exciting episode!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela beings to question everything about the world she's living in after watching Serenity (2019). You might wonder how this alleged "sexy noir" thriller qualifies as a Freak Show candidate but we can only tell you it does, a bizarre trainwreck of a movie with an A-list cast that runs right off the rails of both sanity and good taste before it's over. Listen as we ponder the metaphysical sciences, and concepts of free will, in our attempt to sort it all out on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly discovers aliens have turned a small seaside town into a fast food human buffet in Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (1987), a virtuoso splatstick comedy from the director/writer/cinematographer/editor/makeup effects/star. Listen as we get recall experiences with DIY filmmaking, nearly barf thinking about aliens drinking barf, and get closer to mastering the technical hurdles of social distancing, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean ventures into the rainforest and comes back as a big, scaly monster in The Relic (1997). Said creature gets shipped back to Chicago's Field Museum where it decapitates 25 people and is hunted down by the bulk of the metropolitan police force while scientists try to decode its genome, ad nauseum. Listen as we question the wisdom of shooting an entire movie without lighting, wonder about the nutritional value of the hypothalamus, and find out about the St. Lawrence Seaway, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin forgets one of life's most valuable lessons: never stop at a backwoods Tourist Trap (1979)! Friendly proprietor Chuck Connors shows off a wax effigy of his wife to young travelers in his off-road "museum" while his telekinetic brother runs around in a creepy mask, encasing beautiful women in plaster. On this episode you'll hear about mannequin orgies, hearts bursting in fright, random nose-blowings and more on this weeks exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela has a premonition of bad things to come after watching Final Destination 3 (2006), aka the one with the rollercoaster. Mary Elizabeth Winstead suffers survivors guilt after her friends are killed and then tries to save the rest from the machinations of Death itself. Listen as we explore death by tanning bed, the therapy of yelling at bears, Choose Your Own Adventure DVDs, and the legacy of the entire Final Destination series on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly is lured in by the promise of watching Donald Pleasance, Jack Palance and Martin Landau together in a slasher movie with Alone in the Dark (1982). During a citywide blackout, a quartet of psychos escape from a mental hospital and lay siege to the home of their therapist. Listen as we contemplate bizarre dream sequences, punks against nuclear power, and Jack Palance's lung capacity on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean wonders if 10 years may have softened the pain of witnessing 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Once upon a time, Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes set about to remake every sacred horror movie classic, this time casting Oscar-nominee Jackie Earl Haley as pederast child killer-turned-dream demon Fred Krueger. Listen as we heap scorn at the feet of creatively bankrupt Hollywood money men and ultimately drown in a pit of despair on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin says you'll "buy a bag, go home in a box" of Popcorn (1991), a slasher film set in a movie theater where lovingly-crafted throwbacks to William Castle-style 50's "gimmick" movies play on screen during an all-night horror movie marathon. Listen as we recount uncomfortable 4D movie theater experiences, explore death by mosquito proboscis, and encounter the terror of crusty corpuscles on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela couldn't wait for Sean to get around to showing us his brand new Blu-ray of Tammy and the T-Rex: The Gore Cut (1994), a new version of a video store staple which reinstates a bunch of bloody sequences into formerly "family-friendly" sci-fi comedy. Denise Richards stars as a cheerleader who's jock boyfriend (pre-Fast and the Furious Paul Walker) is killed by bullies and his brain transplanted into an animatronic T-Rex. Listen as we marvel at girl-robot romance, mad scientists, testicular standoffs, and the blistering sexuality of Richards' climactic striptease on this week's exciting episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly says she'd take a job babysitting a haunted doll after watching The Boy (2016). Lauren Cohan, from TV's The Walking Dead, stars as an American nanny who relocates to a spooky English manor house to watch over an eccentric couple's "son," who turns out to be a porcelain doll. Strange occurrences ensue. Listen as we discuss reverse hauntings, giant British billiard tables, and test our tolerance for domestic disturbances on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Greetings, boils and ghouls! Sean tries to resist temptation, survive the night and save the world with Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995)! The popular 90's HBO TV series gets a big-screen upgrade as seven unlucky souls find themselves in an apocalyptic last stand between scruffy paladin William Sadler and a demonic cowboy (Billy Zane) with a coterie of demons in tow. Listen as we discuss the enduring appeal of The Crypt-Keeper, ask 'what ever happened to Billy Zane?', and the value of saving cooking grease, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin supposes Dario Argento is the godfather of the slasher film after watching Deep Red (aka Profundo Rosso aka The Hatchet Murders, 1975). An English pianist in Rome witnesses a murder and must discover who the black gloved killer is before he becomes the next victim. Listen as we compare the Italian giallo to the American slasher, find direct correlations between Deep Red and Halloween, and explore the strange beauty of giallo titles as we play another round of Giallo Shots on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela supposes that every celebrity's worst nightmare is The Fanatic (2019), in which a movie star-obsessed fan named "Moose" (John Travolta) suffers a series of humiliations at the hands of his screen idol (Devon Sawa), setting the feeble-minded fellow off on a quest to be acknowledged by his hero, at any cost. Listen as we chat about the directorial prowess of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, self-absorbed movie stars, lunatic fans, questionable acting choices and more, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We wrap up Listener's Choice month with our most requested title: Creepshow (1982), as George Romero and Stephen King team up to pay homage to EC's horror comics of the 1950s. Prepare yourself for five jolting tales of terror, featuring ghouls, monsters, creepy crawlies and revenge from beyond the grave, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listener's Choice month continues as we move on to our 2nd most requested movie, Sleepaway Camp (1983). Honestly, it's strange we haven't already covered this (although we did watch the sequel, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers). Odd duck Angela and her cousin Ricky spend a summer weekend at Camp Arawak where, almost immediately, people begin dying one by one. What beef does the slasher hold against this wholesome, cheerful bunch of boys and girls? Listen as we talk about required reading in the horror genre, gender confusion, 80's fashions, and the importance of a strong ending on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're watching movies you voted for this month, and coming in at #3 is John Carpenter's The Fog (1980). The seaside hamlet of Antonio Bay is haunted by a 100 year old curse as a supernatural fog descends, bringing with it the ghosts of angry shipwrecked sailors! Listen as we tremble in awe at the power of Tom Atkins' un-mustached upper lip, our fear of being turned inside out, pirate ghost stories, and atmosphere so pungent you can smell it, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.