Welcome to Swayze September! As a transition episodes we’re still looking at some sports movies. First up, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze hit the ice and other players in YOUNGBLOOD. Then, we check out the Made-For-TV movie THE DEADLIEST SEASON about violence in hockey starring a young Meryl Streep.
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Sports month finally ends as we talk about two tragic real-life tales. First up, the Olympics get serious after some hostage deaths in MUNICH. Then, we head to the Foxcatcher camp as a weird guy creates his own Olympic wrestling team in FOXCATCHER.
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This episode is all sports-based slashers. First up, gymnasts are killed off one by one with a javelin in FATAL GAMES. Then, some snowboarders run afoul of an evil skier in SHREDDER.
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This week, we’re looking at two movies that sort of involve kids’ tv show hosts and the dark side they don’t tell you about. First up, someone steals our bike, and we follow along on a cross-country trip in PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Then, it’s an all-out war in the realm of children’s TV with DEATH TO SMOOCHY.
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We’re celebrating Clancy Brown with two of his genre films. First up, there can be only one as the Kurgin tries to stay immortal in HIGHLANDER. Then he tries to teach his stepson some manners and that sometimes Dead Is Better in PET SEMATARY 2.
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Time to head to Japan as we tackle two films dealing with outsiders trying to deal justice in an unfamiliar land. First up Michael Douglas tries to be a badass in BLACK RAIN. Then Christopher Lambert picks the wrong woman to pick up at a bar in THE HUNTED.
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Our path on the Dracula and Frankenstein road continues as we look at the Andy Warhol sponsored films BLOOD FOR DRACULA and FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN. Then we talk about SHE-HULK, Bryan’s trip to the drive-in, and end on a spoilery review of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT.
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It’s Nazi Zombie Week on the show! First up Noah gets really mad at OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES. Then we head over for some naked swimming in ZOMBIE LAKE. After that, we talk about MEN, CHIP ‘N DALE’S RESCUE RANGERS, and COUNT DRACULA.
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Since we’re still in quarantine we decided to do a double feature of people hiding in other people’s houses. First up we question everyone’s age in BAD RONALD. Then Gary Busey gets very Gary Busey in HIDER IN THE HOUSE. We also talk about THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER, WOLFMAN’S GOT NARDS (again), and wrap up with FALCOLN AND THE WINTER SOLDIER.
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1) Without Warning (1980)
I discovered this movie a few years back, having seen it billed as the inspiration for Predator, and even starring Kevin Peter Hall (the Predator hisself) as the troublemaking alien. And damned if I didn’t end up liking it better than Predator in some ways, which is not a knock against Predator, either. What I love about Without Warning is the smaller scale everything’s done on, from a little mountain town instead of a jungle, to the mostly-useless teenagers and dumbass
locals instead of a bunch of military badasses, to the tighter, chillier feel of a low-budget horror film instead of a big-ass blockbuster. Lo-fi intimacy goes a long way for me.
Without Warning makes good use of what it does have, to the sparing use of the alien to letting the two actual stars in the cast (Martin Landau and Jack Palance) chew the hell out of as much
scenery as they logically can before the whole affair winds down. The alien design itself is fairly standard, and nothing we hadn’t already seen on countless sci-fi shows and movies in decades
past, so director Greydon Clark kept its onscreen appearances to a minimum, but used them effectively. The first time you actually see the predatory alien, it’s kind of jolting. Plus, the thing looks damned cool and pretty imposing in the moonlight.
Even if the rest of the movie didn’t work, it’d worth it for Martin Landau and Jack Palance’s performances, both of whom put in more effort than you’d think was necessary for a low-budget sci-fi horror film. Jack Palance screaming, “ALLLLLIIIIIIIEEEEENNNNN!” toward the end is simultaneously goofy as hell and total badass. Oh, it’s also got David Caruso in it, but in 1980, nobody gave a shit about David Caruso, so he ends up alien-bait pretty quick. Predator took all the stuff from Without Warning that worked, did it on a much grander scale, and it’s a hell of a movie…but I love the scrappy little monster that Without Warning is. So much so that not an October goes by that I don’t watch it and hoist a glass to Jack Palance’s final,
ferocious charge.
2) Night of the Seagulls (1976)
The final, and best put-together, installment of Italian director Amando de Ossorio’s criminally-overlooked series starring the Blind Dead! A doctor and his wife arrive in a strange little coastal
town, where the doctor is taking up his post as the village medic, and as often happened in the 70’s, eeeeeevil is afoot! This time it’s in the shambling form of the undead Knights Templar.
Those rascally Knights are taking away seven young maiden sacrifices over the course of seven nights, and naturally, the good doctor befriends one of the maidens and tries to save her from a
grisly fate of being bled to death, dismembered, and fed to crabs, all in the (un)name of some Lovecraftian aquarian master.
The Blind Dead series wasn’t known for its inventiveness of story. Hell no. But Amando de Ossorio was a master of creating atmosphere, and the Blind Dead series is loaded with slow, creepy foreboding like few others, and he somehow makes the blind, sluggish knights a credible threat, with their grasping skeletal hands, leathery, ape-like faces, and teeth ready to chomp down on anybody they get hold of. The Knights can even still swing their swords! I know, I know, it sounds kinda ridiculous–and it is, I grant you–but like the other Blind Dead films, Night of the Seagulls is greater than the sum of its parts. There’s a reason British doom metal legends Cathedral wrote four songs about the Blind Dead, and it’s not because these were big-budget epics. Something about the Blind Dead movies just works.
I chose Night of the Seagulls because it’s the most polished and refined of the bunch, and is the least trashy of the series with the overall best story. It’s a good introduction to the Blind Dead series and an oft-overlooked gem that’s well worth checking out this Halloween. Trust me…blind and slow-moving or not, the Knights Templar are not to be screwed with.
3) Matango (1963)
A surprisingly bleak film from director Ishirō Honda (responsible for a little-known film called Godzilla) about a group of castaways stranded on a deserted island and slowly being mutated by the local mushrooms. Well, they’re low on food and gotta eat something, right? With 1960’s Japanese movies, particularly Toho and Honda, I’ve gotten used to brighter, more colorful adventures, but Matango is dark in both atmosphere and themes, with a sense of hopelessness
hanging over the proceedings from the get-go.
With Matango, Honda does everything with an even, measured hand, taking his time in building the story and applying the pressure to our castaways gradually, letting them be slowly crushed by their situation, one by one. After all, being stuck on a mysterious island with no viable source of food except for some bad-news mushrooms isn’t gonna make for happy times, and Honda’s approach is most definitely not Gilligan’s Island, but at the same time, it never gets so heavy-handed that it’s annoying. Honda just mostly lets people be people, watching them as they slowly lose their optimism and trappings of civilization until, finally, they just give in to the inevitable and literally lose their humanity.
The makeup effects are notable, too, as instead of going for something over-the-top (as you’d expect for a 60’s movie about mutating mushrooms), the makeup instead is reminiscent of radiation burns and growths, and is unsettling more than gruesome Not to mention realistic-looking enough that Matango caught some hell in Japan for depicting injuries too uncomfortably close to that of atom bomb survivors. Honda uses these moments sparingly, and to great effect.
The guy was good at what he did. Matango is more of a psychological horror story with bits of sci-fi mixed in than it is a
conventional monster movie, and is mostly quiet and brooding in its character, and would be a good one for a rainy night with all the lights off.
4) First Man Into Space (1959)
An oft-overlooked classic from the Space Age, this little independent, British-made (but taking place in America) film looks at what might happen if a human being were to venture beyond the safe confines of our world…and the terrible price they might pay for such hubris. This was two years before Yuri Gagarin actually became the first man into space, so at the time, this was plausible enough. Cosmic rays or some shit, right?
Well, whatever the reason, Lt. Dan Prescott flies a high-altitude rocket into the fringes of outer space, going against orders, because he’s all fired-up to be the first man into space…he’s a rebel who plays by his own rules! Then he flies through a cloud of an unknown substance. Then he nose-dives. Then he ejects. Plane crashes, Prescott’s nowhere to be found. Then a monster starts roaming the countryside, tearing up blood banks and drinking cow-blood! Vampire from space!
Naw, man. Space is filled with unknown horrors humanity didn’t know shit about in 1959, and Dan Prescott ran smack-dab into them, coming home a monster. And a pretty gruesome-looking son of a gun for a late 50’s indie movie, too. The final scenes are grim as hell, with an edge you didn’t often see from this era.
This is another one of those films where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and something about this particular little sci-fi horror film just really sucks me in, and I love it, even as I know damned well it’s no masterpiece. There’s something charmingly innocent about this bloody little Space Age tale of what could happen when humans reach space, and I never tire of it.
5) The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
So…old 60’s/70’s kids show turned into a horror movie, yeah? I was excited for this from the moment I saw the previews, and when I finally got to see it, I was not disappointed. Because this isn’t the kind of movie you go into with high expectations–you go in expecting something bloody and ridiculous, and that’s precisely what it is. The Banana Splits Movie has absolutely no illusions about itself and what it’s there for, and this is meant to be watched with a drink in hand as you hoot and holler your way through the carnage.
The story, which revolves around the robotic Banana Splits going on a rampage around the studio after being cancelled after 50 years because they weren’t current enough (or something), is light and serves its purpose without getting fancy. It does a pretty decent job of putting all the pieces in place so these lovable scamps from yesteryear can mangle the shit out of some studio staff and some lucky VIPs who got to stay after the final show to meet the Banana Splits. We all know the main attraction of this film was seeing the Splits go berserk, and the film gives us plenty of that, going for gruesome laughs as the cast is neatly whittled down by the butt-hurt
robots. We’ve seen this story before, sure, but never with the Banana Splits doing the killing.
The killings themselves are predictably gory and comical, and there’s something perversely satisfying about seeing these mostly-forgotten-but-still-beloved-in-some-quarters Saturday morning characters ripping the shit out of studio folk and overzealous fans. This is the kind of movie you would’ve half-assed wrote a script for with your friends while staying up way too late on a Friday night back in junior high. I wager that the Banana Splits Movie team still can’t believe they got away with this.
In this era of reboots and retreads, I applaud the Banana Splits Movie, as instead of trying to update an old formula for the modern era, it just says “fuck it, let’s go nuts.” And as one reviewer noted, it’s not like anybody else had a better idea.
I’m the product of a small-town Illinois upbringing that neatly coincided with the rise of cable, meaning my earliest media memories are a delightful deluge of old movies from the 50’s through the 70’s being played nonstop on TBS and USA. They had to fill the hours somehow, dammit! To this day, I’m left with a love of old movies great and horrible, and an appreciation of the absurdities of decades past colors almost everything I do, including my own writing, which mostly consists of semi-cartoonish, over-the-top, and profanity-laden tales of skull-smashing vampire action and adventure. I still reside in Canton with my lovely and infinitely-patient, where I go for long bike rides, obsess over Godzilla, still watch old movies, and get the dog all hyped up before bed.
Here’s a few of the things I’ve written…
Unholy War: The Gathering Storm
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012HVGTLS
Unholy War: Rage & Redemption
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014CCUJE8
Not Of This Earth (inspired by The First Man Into Space, no less.)
https://www.amazon.com/This-Earth-Evolution-Night-Book-ebook/dp/B077MF3HT8
Today’s recommends come from one of my favorite Ozplotation directors Brian Trenchard-Smith! I was very excited to get a list from him to be part of this fun exercise for the month of October. Let’s see what he recommends for your October viewing pleasure.
1. The Haunting (1963)
Dr. Markway, doing research to prove the existence of ghosts, investigates Hill House, a large, eerie mansion with a lurid history of violent death and insanity. With him are the skeptical young Luke, who stands to inherit the house, the mysterious and clairvoyant Theodora and the insecure Eleanor, whose psychic abilities make her feel somehow attuned to whatever spirits inhabit the old mansion. As time goes by it becomes obvious that they have gotten more than they bargained for as the ghostly presence in the house manifests itself in horrific and deadly ways.
2. Let The Right One In (2008)
Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, dreams of revenge. He falls in love with Eli, a peculiar girl. She can’t stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people’s blood to live he’s faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982.
3. The Entity (1982)
Carla Moran awakens one night to find herself being beaten and raped by an unseen presence. Terrified of what’s happening to her, and shunned by friends and family who think she’s lost her mind, she seeks help from parapsychologists. The researchers soon discover that evil spiritual force has been drawn to Carla and is responsible for the violent attacks. The question now, however, is how do they stop it? Based on a supposedly true story.
4. Cabin In The Woods (2011)
Five teenagers head off for a weekend at a secluded cabin in the woods. They arrive to find they are quite isolated with no means of communicating with the outside world. When the cellar door flings itself open, they of course go down to investigate. They find an odd assortment of relics and curios, but when one of the women, Dana, reads from a book, she awakens a family of deadly zombie killers. However, there’s far more going on than meets the eye.
5. Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)
In Japan, when the volunteer social assistant Rika Nishina is assigned to visit a family, she is cursed and chased by two revengeful fiends: Kayako, a woman brutally murdered by her husband and her son Toshio. Each person that lives in or visits the haunted house is murdered or disappears.
Brian Trenchard-Smith is a film director with over 50 credits to his name. Some notable titles include Dead End Drive-In, Stunt Rock, and BMX Bandits. He is also an author. His current book Alice Through The Multiverse promises a time twisting, paranormal thriller. Check out the trailer below and maybe pick up a copy with the link at the bottom.
Today why don’t we take some suggestions from someone who makes horror movies? Tony Wash has been making indie horror films for awhile and he knows his stuff. Take a look at his recommends below.
1. Phantasm II
Sure, every horror fan knows about this series and sure, Phantasm II makes zero sense, which is about zero more sense than the other four movies in the series make. But damn do I love this movie! I think a large part of my affinity for Phantasm II comes from watching it numerous times as a child. This movie easily added to my developing love of the horror genre with its awesome practical creature FX, the ominous Tall Man, a four-barreled shotgun, and of course, the Flying Silver Balls of Death!
2. The Evil
Richard Crenna of Rambo fame stars in this seldom seen Roger Corman horror flick. Same premise as most; a bunch of people who go to clean up an old house that is supposedly haunted get killed off one by one. This is easily one of the coolest and largest houses I’ve seen a horror film shot in, and for someone who absolutely loves the “people who die in a haunted house” concept, this is no exception.
3. House By The Cemetery
Lucio Fulci doesn’t get as much credit as Dario Argento when it comes to Italian horror, which disappoints me because I am such a hard core fan of this film, as well as The Beyond and Zombie. To a degree though, I have to wonder if his lack of fame was on account to how absurd and nonsensical his movie’s were. HbtC is certainly no different. A family moves into a creepy old house (the same house’s facade is used in Umberto Lenzi’s 1988 movie Ghosthouse) and discovers that the original owner, a Dr. Freudstein was responsible for a number of heinous acts against mankind and is still alive and murdering people… whilst still living in their basement! It really doesn’t make much sense at all, but I love this movie all the same. Don’t hate me if you despise the little kid Bob’s dubbed voice, it is truly cacophonous.
4. Beyond The Black Rainbow
Every horror fan saw last year’s indie success Mandy, but have you all seen director Panos Casmatos’ earlier film, Beyond The Black Rainbow? Bursting with some of the best visuals a low budget indie has ever graced the screen with, this film’s production design and cinematography alone should’ve put it on your radar. Though more sci-fi than horror, this movie still possesses tons of eerie imagery and situations to rank it amongst one of my favorite horror films of recent years.
5. Skeletons in the Closet
Yeah, yeah, yeah so I’m bringing up one of my own films, but honestly, it could use the promotion and views from true horror fans. So if you haven’t seen this fun 80s horror anthology, check it out on Amazon Prime, iTunes, PopcornFlix, tubi, or pick up a copy from my website, scotchworthy.com. If the trailer alone doesn’t intrigue you enough to check this flick out, no harm no foul. But if you like 80s horror specifically revolving around supernatural terror mixed with equal parts comedy, this is the perfect film for your next viewing party.
Tony Wash is a horror filmmaker out of Chicago. His films can be found at the following links:
Tony Wash
President
Scotchworthy Productions, Inc.
www.scotchworthy.com
Short Film Curator www.Bloody-Disgusting.com
2018 Show Reel https://vimeo.com/251458782
Skeletons in the Closet Trailer (NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5szjVvzAW_Q
The Rake Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzV_JQnNurQ
High on the Hog Trailer (NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnSRbTmQnPc
World of Death Trailer (NSFW) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HAPLjEB8PI
This week cats invade the podcast. First up we go for a luxury cruise when a mutant cat sneaks on a rich persons yacht and starts eating everyone in Uninvited. After that we movie into a new house that suddenly gets taken over by cats in Strays. We also chat about musicians birthdays, Leprechaun Returns, and the Arrowverse Elseworlds Crossover.
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Hey everyone, Sometimes Mike here. Between living in hotels and also locking myself out of GN.com, I’ve been away for a bit. But with the hotel’s wi-fi, and the help of some guy named Bryan in GN IT, I’m back now, and what have I got for you? No, I didn’t get you any T-shirts. I didn’t know what sizes to get, or if you’d even wear them if I got them for you.
No. Today, I’ve got a new trailer for you. The movie is called Brightburn, and while James Gunn’s name is stamped prominently on the trailer, as well as shamelessly on the above title, it was written by his brothers, Brian and Mark Gunn, and directed by David Yarovesky.
The tagline goes thus: What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?
Sounds familiar, and you’ll spend the trailer making note of all the similarities to you know who. Superman…in case you didn’t know who but didn’t want to ask for fear of looking silly.
Give it a look:
I mean, they even used the same font from Man of Steel. And I haven’t looked that closely into it, but the music sounds very close. Zack Snyder’s vision of making the DCEU’s Superman (or at least, this movie’s version of an alien that for copyright reasons definitely probably isn’t Supes) the evil overlord of Injustice fame is coming true, at the hands of a group of people very capable of making it worth seeing. At least we know there might be decent, unambiguous character development this time around.
Superhero horror is the next logical step in this equation, and let’s be honest, it’s taken a lot longer to hit the big screens than you figure it would. This looks interesting for sure, and my curiosity is more than a little piqued at the timing of such a movie, what with Gunn getting the boot from Disney, and half the DCEU’s future being a giant question mark. Is this a play to prove something to the ill-fated, lackluster WB/DC movie-verse, or is it a move in spite of them? Either way, James Gunn’s money is in the pot, so I think we’re in for something special.
Brightburn hits theaters May 24th, 2019.
What did you think of the first Brightburn trailer? Let us know in the comments.
Ever since the end of Infinity War we’ve been waiting. Antman and The Wasp gave us a quick glimpse on who could be left to help our heroes but we wanted more. Finally we get a look at what world we’re left with. How our heroes are coping with the loses. Now it looks like they are ready to take that step forward and fix everything. Take a look at the Avengers Endgame trailer.
Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, any kid that wandered into their local Spencer’s Gifts or Hot Topics would eventually come face to face with some of the most amazing genre based collectible figurines.
Legendary comic creator Todd McFarlane launched a line of collectibles called Movie Maniacs. Amazingly intricate and detailed figurines of the icons of horror. Freddy, Jason, Leatherface and so many more were able to be brought home to adorn our shelves. But like so many things, they went the way of the dodo.
Now, in the age of ultimate nostalgia, McFarlane is bringing back his line of creepy collectibles
During an interview at New York Comic Con over the weekend, Todd McFarlane told IGN that a handful of the lines that put the company on the map will be coming back.
“We live in a brave new world now where you can go literally from production to the consumer, right? You can cut out all the middle men and we’re seeing that with Kickstarters and people doing direct, you know, dot com,” McFarlane told the site. “So what we’re gonna do is, when we started McFarlane Toys twenty-plus years ago, we were built on the detailed stuff, doing all these cool monsters and all this sort of wicked stuff. Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage’s and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they’ve all fallen to the wayside.”
But it won’t just be the Movie Maniac line, McFarlane dropped another big bombshell when he said “So we’re gonna go back to our origins and we’re gonna go, hey, for all you people who like Tortured Souls? There’s gonna be more. For all you people who like some of the Movie Maniacs? There’s gonna be more. But even the new — the stuff we just created, like Dragons? More. Spawn? More. Twisted Tales? More.”
It’s everything my teenage self with no disposable income could have desired. If you have forgotten what they looked like, check out below for a look at some of the original line of the Maniacs and then start putting your pennies away. Watch out Funko, McFarlane Toys is coming for you…
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning. A small chill is in the air. It must be time to go back to school! Luckily that falls during Slater September so we can celebrate with the Christian Slater classic Heathers! After that we head to college to see what devious pranks befall the girls in Sorority Row. Also Noah talks about his cat, Doug talks some Iron Fist, and Bryan goes back to the Summer of ’84!
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This week we discuss a long overdue title for the NES, River City Ransom. Somehow Scott has gone his entire life without playing this one. Come here his first impressions.
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Don’t forget to keep up with the show and relive all the nostalgia by following us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Send us your memories or show suggestions at graveyardduckpodcast@gmail.com. And be sure to check out all of the great content from this show and other nerdy favorites at geeknerdery.com.
Fan-favorite and one of the best players to play the game, Darrell is in the house! We ask the standard questions, but we also had to squeeze in some questions about Sarah Greyson, the Gauntlet Queen and one of my favorite players. Darrell was a super charming and personable guy, and we bought him hot dogs. We’re basically best friends now. This wraps up our interviews from the Challenge Throwdown for the Cause event in Yorkville. Thanks for listening!
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Melinda asked us to get a little weird with it, and we did. I think we made her a little uncomfortable, but that’s ok because she did the same to us. Or at least she tried. We haven’t seen Melinda on the show for quite some time, but we were still excited to meet her in person. We had a separate conversation before our interview that I wish we would’ve recorded but alas, this is all you get of the beautiful Melinda.
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