Saturday Night Freak Show

Travis goes to bat for Superman III (1983), in which someone thought it would be a good idea to put Richard Pryor and Superman together for the Man of Steel's third big screen showdown. In this sequel, Superman faces off against a gifted computer hacker, an evil tycoon, and - wouldn't you know it - a Super Computer that may be able to destroy the Son of Krypton once and for all! Listen as we talk creepy cyborg transformations, that day that Superman became a jerk, and more on on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin dares to go back in the water for Jaws 3-D (1983), and finds that the third dimension is terror! Florida's SeaWorld is about to open an new underwater attraction when a giant, 35-foot great white shark swims in through an open sea gate and terrorizes the visitors on opening day. Dennis Quaid, as the son of Amity police Chief Brody, runs around trying to save the guests and his relationship with perky whale expert Bess Armstrong. Listen as we relive the brief 80's 3D movie craze, compare the Jaws shark to Friday the 13th's Jason, and get our eyeballs gouged out by amazing 3D in this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean summons Ghoulies II (1988) and they nearly get him in the end...again! This sequel adventure finds the diminutive Gremlins/Critters ripoffs (from Charles Band's Empire Pictures) hiding out in a travelling carnival's spook house, where they wreak all sorts of havoc, mischief and murder until a plucky carny, his drunken uncle, a leggy harem dancer, and a profit-conscious businessman, get wise and try to send them back to Hell with ancient carny magic. Listen in as we gab about the entire Ghoulies series (so you don't have to!) on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis once again transforms into a Japanese superhero character in Guyver: Dark Hero (1994). Having defeated the evil monster Zoanoids, our hero Sean Barker (Metal Gear Solid's David Hayter) takes his psychic space armor and travels to a cave in Utah, where an archaeological dig may unearth answers about the Guyver Unit's mysterious origins. Will he find love? Will he uncover another insidious Zoanoid plot? Will he fight like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger? You can find out to listening to this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin conjures up the 1982 fantasy film Sorceress, a campy flick from the post-Conan, 80's fantasy movie craze. An evil sorcerer searches for his twin girls (Playboy's Leigh and Lynnette Harris), warrior women who were raised as boys, and who now team up with a barbarian, a satyr, and a dwarf, to stop him from conjuring an evil deity to enslave the world. Listen as we name drop as many 80's fantasy films as we can while pointing out the bad acting, bad dubbing, and altogether hysterical awfulness of a movie that has to be seen to be believed, on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly tries to find "The Glow" of Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon (1985), Motown's first (and only) motion picture production. A kung-fu movie by way of MTV music videos, this blacksploitation flick centers on a martial arts student, Bruce Leroy (Taimak), who seeks to become master of his discipline, which can only be achieved by defeating both the Sho'Nuff - the Shogun of Harlem - and a slimy corporate type who threatens a pretty TV VJ (Vanity). Nothing could have prepared us for the explosive, laser-enhanced final battle! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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, have a lengthy aside about the merits of the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra, and figure out how you can make a monster movie without having a monster in your movie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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-readings, marvel at completely random kung-fu, and behold the majesty of Pieces - it's exactly what you think it is! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 as we try to sort out Sorority House Massacre II on this week's show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 Scarlet Gospels, which retires the character of Pinhead. All of this and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 play the "Is it Fake or is it Giallo" title guessing game! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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), and disagree on the meaning of the movie's ending. That's all this week on the exciting Saturday Night Freak Show podcast! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 horror story teller, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 slasher genre, on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 phenomena, great haunted house movies, British horror and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.