Discover the Horror Podcast
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) Continuing our quest to get through the rest of Hammer's Frankenstein films which starred Peter Cushing, we cover the last three titles that Hammer made. Cushing loved to play this character, and he's done it like no one ever had, or ever has. Along with the screenwriters, Cushing made this character his own, and really made him the real monster in this series. While these films might be well covered by others, sometimes we forget just how good some of these are, as well as...
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The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), and The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) What can you say about the Hammer Frankenstein films that hasn’t been said before? Well, a lot, actually! In 1957, a relatively small, mostly unknown studio made a film that would forever change horror and kick off a cycle of sensual, bloody, and atmospheric fright flicks that would dominate the genre for around twenty years. To say that The Curse of Frankenstein is a classic is almost like saying that water is wet, but it is also a film that lives up to it's reputation. It and its...
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No matter what kind of horror fan you are, there's a good chance that you love the monsters. Whether it’s from the Universal Classics, Hammer’s colorful reinterpretations, the amazing creatures from Ray Harryhausen, to the no-classic aliens in Star Wars, monsters are a backbone of cinema, and arguably, are the backbone of horror. It’s one of the things that we horror fans rally around, and love to discuss: from our favorites, to how some are designed, how they move, and everything in between. Oscar winning special makeup effects artist Howard Berger and author Marshall Julius have a new...
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The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Quatermass 2 (1957), Quatermass and the Pit (1967) Everyone knows the name Hammer Films (at least, we hope they do!) but most people associate it with gothic horror, particularly their reimagining of the Universal classic Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). Yet Hammer had been around long before Peter Cushing breathed life into that first stitched-together corpse. Founded in the 1930s as a distribution company, the studio gradually moved into producing films, often adapted from popular TV and radio series. In 1953, the BBC aired a six-part serial,...
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The Ghastly Ones (1968), The Man with Two Heads (1972), and Carnage (1984) There are not many filmmakers like Andy Milligan. Sure, there were a lot of no-budget independents during Milligan’s era that somehow got their finished pictures to play theaters and released on home video. But there weren’t many whose real life was almost as terrifying as the films they made. But Andy Milligan would fit neatly into that category. Making over 30 pictures in almost 25 years, with some of the most outrageous and memorable titles, he still remains very close to obscurity. But...
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A Company of Wolves (1984), Nightbreed (1990), Errementari (2017) As horror fans, we might not really think about the amount of horror elements that are in other sub-genres, such as fantasy. Sure, we all know titles like Conan the Barbarian (1982) that has a guy who turns into a giant snake, or Legend (1985) where one of the main characters is some sort of demon or devil, do those elements make it a horror film? We all know that horror is used in many different genres of films, even some where the filmmakers themselves go out of their way to make sure to define it NOT as horror. But we know....
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If you’ve been to a few horror conventions over the years, you’ve probably noticed all the artists showcasing their work. Do you ever stop to browse, flipping through their illustrations and taking in the different visions of horror they bring to life? These artists set up hoping to catch the eye of fans wandering past, sharing their unique takes on monsters, movies, and macabre ideas. One of those artists is Don England. For decades, Don has been a fixture at conventions, known for his striking pen-and-ink style. His work is not only distinctive, it’s consistently excellent. We’ve...
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Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972), Deathdream (1974), Black Christmas (1974) Director Bob Clark will probably always be remembered for his now classic holiday film, A Christmas Story (1983), released the same year as his previous film, Porky's, which is one of the raunchiest sex comedies of that era! But he started off making horror films, 3 of them in particular, before he moved on to making films in just about every other sub-genre. As you can imagine, it is these 3 horror films that we are going to discuss on this episode. One of them set many of the standards of what would be...
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Better grab something to write with before you hit play on this one. In this extra-long episode, we dive into a variety of horror sub-genres and each pick a title that we think defines that category. Not necessarily the best film, but one that captures the essence of the sub-genre in a meaningful way. To help us take on this ridiculously huge (but fun) challenge, we’ve brought back Aaron Christensen—aka Dr. AC—to join the conversation. If you're new to the genre, this one's especially for you. If you've been around a few years (or decades) we think the conversation is still worth...
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That's right . . . we made it to episode 100! Taking a nod from Fangoria Magazine from back in the day, when they would put out their annual "Bloody Best Of" issue, we're going to follow suit (in a way) by revisiting favorite moments from our previous 99. When we published our first episode back on Oct. 5th, 2021, who knew we were going to make it this far? But we can honestly say that hearing all the positive feedback from you, our listeners, and hearing that you are seeking out films because we talked about them, seeing them either for the first time, or maybe seeing more of...
info_outlineThere have been many horror writers that have been important to the genre, but few have had the outsized impact of the one and only Chas. Balun. Whether it was his work in Fangoria, Gorezone, or his own magazine Deep Red, even if you didn’t see his name at the head of the article, you knew it was him within a few sentences, by either by the tone of the writing, or maybe the films he was covering. Chas’ style was humorous and more than a little confrontational, but he was always waving the flag in support of movies that he felt were important and hadn’t received enough attention. Sure, they tended to be on the gory side, but for Chas. it wasn't just about the gore.
Not entirely, anyway.
While the three of us knew his work and the impact it had on us personally, for this very special episode, we felt we needed to talk with other folks who were just as impacted by him, and also knew him personally. In the second half of the show, you'll hear from John Szpunar, author of Xeroxferox: The Wild World of the Horror Film Fanzine and Blood Sucking Freak: The Life and Films of the Incredible Joel M. Reed; Art Ettinger, editor at Ultra Violent magazine; and finally Shawn Lewis, creator of Rotten Cotten and Eibon Press. They all share their own stories of Chas, and we all discuss the profound the impact Chas. had on us and on the horror genre in general. Don’t miss this one!
Films mentioned in this episode:
Abomination (1988), Bad Taste (1987), The Beyond (1981), Beyond the Darkness (1979), Blood Sucking Freaks (1976), Blue Velvet (1986), Braindead (1992), Bug (1975), Cannibal Holocaust (1980), City of the Walking Dead (1980), Dellamorte Dellamore (1994), The Exorcist (1973), Friday the 13th (1980), Guinea Pig 2: The Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985), Hell of the Living Dead (1980), Last House on Dead End Street (1973), Last House on the Left (1972), Mad Ron’s Prevues from Hell (1987), The Nest (1987), Night of the Demon (1980), The Omen (1976), Pieces (1982), Splatterfest Exhumed (2024), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972), Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1977), Zombie (1979)