Saturday Night Freak Show

Sean hangs ten with Snake Plissken in John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996). Having successfully rescued the President from the New York City Maximum Security Penitentiary, the United States' most notorious outlaw is captured and forced once again to go on a mission into hostile territory, this time the post-apocalyptic landscape of the Island of Los Angeles, cut off from the mainland by an earthquake. Listen as we do much jaw jabbing about both of Carpenter's Snake Plissken adventures and discover tasty Rap Snacks, all on this weeks exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin disturbs the hallowed resting place of the bloodthirsty Templar knights in Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972). Vacationers Bette, Virginia and Roger do the same, waking the cloaked, moldy ghosts, who search out their victims by sound (being blind, after all - their eyes pecked out by crows) to feast upon blood, in order to prolong their un-dead existence. Listen as we throw some facts your way about Spain's contributions to 70's Euro Horror cinema, discuss the architectural merits of a mannequin-filled murder hallway, and confront the era's unflinching attitudes toward cinematic rape on this week's show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela chases werewolves back to the aughts with the 2005 time capsule called Cursed, from director Wes Craven. After being attacked by a werewolf on Mulholland Drive, a brother and sister start to realize not only that they've acquired strange powers, but that the creature continues to stalk them and their friends all over Hollywood and Los Angeles. Listen as we re-evaluate this pairing of the writer and director of the Scream movie series while we test Holly's encyclopedic knowledge of the pop culture of the decade, probe Sean's aversion to movie werewolves, and tell tales of meeting Milo Ventimiglia and Shannon Elizabet on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly invites moody Goth-girl Angela to our party and all hell breaks loose in Night of the Demons (1988)! When a group of high-schoolers meet at an abandoned funeral home for a Halloween party (never a good idea), they unwittingly unleash a demonic entity that takes possession of them one by one. Listen as we revisit this 80's cult classic and talk scream queens, demon possession, and bizarro interpretive dance, while Holly works out her childhood trauma - caused by this movie - all on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean swings into action with the face-swapping superhero Darkman (1990)! Before Marvel would turn him loose on Spider-Man, director Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi came up with his own cinematic superhero story, that of brilliant scientist Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson), who is transformed into a vengeful, bandage-wrapped creature after a band of thugs torches his lab. Listen as we connect dots between the superhero movies of the pre-Marvel Cinematic Era, examine the parallel careers of both Rami and Tim Burton, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin hears a whisper in his ghost and thinks he might be being brainjacked by a viewing of 1995's sci-fi anime Ghost in the Shell, about a female cyborg supersoldier who comes to question her life, the universe, and everything when she's tasked with hunting down an international cybercriminal known as The Puppetmaster. Join us for a very loose episode - recorded after our original show is eaten by audio gremlins - in which we try to explore the film's narrative concepts, anime culture and the ScarJo remake, through a haze of alcohol and beer nuts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela grows tired of mainstream movies and treads carefully into Rubber (2010) a flick about a killer tire that wakes up in the desert one day and subsequently rolls around, murdering everyone that crosses its path using it's psychokinetic mind powers - with the exception of a pretty French girl who's on vacation. Listen as we dive deep into the subgenre of movie surrealism, go over the fine print of the contract between filmmaker and audience, and bemoan the lack of inspired product placement on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly wants to know how the three seashells work when Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go head-to-head in Demolition Man (1993)! When cryogenically frozen super criminal Simon Phoenix (Snipes) escapes into the Utopian San Angeles of 2032, the hapless authorities thaw out framed cop John Spartan (Stallone) to hunt him down in this satiric sci-fi actioner from producer Joel ("I never met a building I didn't want to blow up") Silver. Listen as we answer the mystery of the three seashells and lose our minds when Wesley Snipes likes our Instagram post on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The luck of the Irish runs out on Sean when he encounters a Leprechaun (1993)! Jennifer Aniston makes her movie debut as a spoiled city girl who moves to a country house with a captive leprechaun (Warwick Davis) in the basement. The tiny terror soon escapes and begins killing everyone who stands between him and his stolen gold. Listen as we contemplate the existence of seven(!) entries in the Leprechaun movie series, discuss the diminishing effects of 90's nostalgia, and come up with our own scenarios for a Leprechaun remake, all on this week's exciting episode!! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin comes to believe he's the Kwisatz Haderach as we take on David Lynch's much-maligned science fiction epic Dune (1984). Two feudal houses war over the production of a spice, mined from only one planet in the galaxy - the desert world Arrakis - where 400 foot sandworms roam the landscape and where the prophecy of a coming messiah promises freedom from a corrupt empire. Listen as we try to untangle Hollywood's ongoing attempts to bring Herbert's novel to the screen, through versions by Alexandro Jodorosky, David Lynch, John Harrison and Denis Villeneuve on this weeks exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela falls in love with a cute killer monkey in George A. Romero's Monkey Shines (1988). After an accident leaves him crippled from the neck down, Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) is recruited by his mad scientist best pal (John Pankow) to try out a super-smart helper monkey who caters to his every wish, and begins helping a bit too much whenever Allan gets mad at someone. Listen as we continue to document the best animal performers in Hollywood, speculate as to what parts of the story might have been left on the cutting room floor, and discuss Romero's varied film career on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly loses her heart to the holiday slasher My Bloody Valentine (1981). The town of Valentine Bluffs hasn't celebrated Valentine's Day in 20 years, not since miner Harry Warden killed all those people after the cave-in. Now, the residents of this coal-mining town just want to cut loose...but a masked killer appears and starts taking out hearts one by one. Listen as we examine a curious couple of years in film history that spawned dozens of stalk-and-slash masked killer movies, show our love for film-themed end credit ballads, and try out our best Canadian accents on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean detects signals from deep space, which leads to The Arrival (1996). Charlie Sheen (aka Carlos Estevez) stars as a radio telescope operator who uncovers an alien conspiracy while trying to uncover the source of a series of intergalactic signals he's detected, one of which seems to be originating on Earth, in South America. Ron Silver also stars in this first feature film from writer/director David Twohy, who later created Pitch Black and A Perfect Getaway. Listen as we spend an hour wondering how Charlie Sheen became a movie star, relive the 90's fascination with alien abduction stories, and trace the lineage of Jonesy the Movie Star Scorpion, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin loads up the van and rides into a world of heavy metal gods and monsters with Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (1987), as legendary (but mostly unheard of) rock showman Jon-Mikl Thor (of the 70's band Thor) takes his band, their horny girlfriends, and assorted groupies to a Canadian farmhouse to record a new album, unaware that the place is overrun by tiny, one-eyed demon puppets. Listen as we marvel at the demon-fighting power of 80's heavy metal, marvel at the storied career of Jon Mikl Thor, and determine the best way to survive a bad movie, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We move into a house on Terror Tract (2000), a horror anthology about a highly-motivated realtor (the late John Ritter) who spins three tales to his clients as they look at a trio of houses with sordid histories. Listen as we marvel at the scenario which pits Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston against an evil Capuchin monkey; reminisce about staying up all night to catch movies on the USA Network; and the untold family stories of Hollywood's best animal performers on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly worships at the feet of Clive Barker's resurrected, pagan god-monster Rawhead Rex (1986)! When a farmer digs up a pre-Christian era pillar in his field he unleashes the titular beast, which goes on a murderous rampage across the Irish countryside, while a visiting American author finds himself caught up in the violent shenanigans. Listen as we talk about the effectiveness of estrogen lasers against hyper-masculine monster deities, the horrors of being peed on by a 8ft tall pagan god, and the early filmic career of Clive Barker on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean brings Dead Heat (1988) back from the dead so he can kill it again! While tracking a gang of undead robbers, Detective Roger Mortiss (Treat Williams) winds up one of the living dead himself! With only 12 hours left to "live" before he decomposes, the zombie cop helps his loud-mouthed partner Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) try to solve his murder, in this zany buddy-cop/sci-fi hybrid. Listen as we talk about things like zombie ducks, exploding zombies, and a late career appearance by horror legend Vincent Price, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We close out the year with a show devoted to the new movies we saw in 2016, and each of us undertake the arduous task of choosing only 5 champions to be considered the Best of the Year. And then, for good measure, we single out The Worst Movie We've Seen This Year, in our late-night, after show, Saturday Night Side Show episode! We hope you enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin abuses the traditions of Christmas and gets a visit from Krampus (2015). A dysfunctional family receives punishment for their lack of Christmas spirit in the form of a supernatural siege of demonic toys, dark elves, sinister snowmen, and the appearance of the anti-Claus himself. Director Michael Dougherty stakes out territory for another holiday horror movie, following his debut feature, Trick r' Treat. Listen as we dive into the origins of Krampus, his sudden popularity, and Christmas horror movies in general on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly is startled to discover that Santa Claus is actually the son of Satan in Santa's Slay (2005), a horror-comedy starring WWE's Bill Goldberg as rampaging demon, recently released from 1000 years of jolly servitude, on account of losing a bet with an angel. Unleashed upon the small town of Hell, MI, St. Nick murders everyone on his naughty list while a pair of love-struck teens and an old man try to stop him. Listen as we talk about the true origins of Santa and his evolution from gift-giving cherub to cinematic slasher on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.