Discover the Horror Podcast
Horror films are a unique genre because they can have a profound effect on the viewer. They can literally change lives, leaving such a strong impression that something shifts in the psyche. Whether it makes someone afraid to go in the water, uneasy around bugs, frightened by Frankenstein’s creature, or just generally on edge, these films can have a lasting impact. They are meant to scare us, but for some, they remain harmless entertainment. For others, certain films reach much deeper, lingering in the mind long after the credits roll. And yet, we keep coming back for more. Do these films...
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It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), The Monster that Challenged the World (1957), and The Giant Gila Monster (1959) There is something special about this decade, one that gave us so many sci-fi / horror films, with plenty of incredible monsters, whether they came from outer space, or right here from our backyard. And thanks to atomic energy, those monsters tended to be big ones! In fact... GIANT ONES! Just imagine a creature, from bugs to animals, and I'm sure someone in the 1950s made a movie about them- one where they were bigger and angrier! In this episode, we take a look at three...
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House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964) In the beginning of his career as a producer / director Roger Corman was known for cranking out cheap and fast black and white pictures that always made money. He worked in all genres, but it was mainly the horror and sci-fi pictures in the mid to late '60s he was known for. All that changed in 1960, when he convinced AIP to let him adapt a story from Edgar Allan Poe, but in color, with a bigger budget, and longer shooting schedule. That started a new phase of Corman's career, which also made an even...
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In My Skin (2002), Inside (2007), and Martyrs (2008) While the French aren’t widely known for their horror films, when they do enter the genre, it’s often something special. A perfect example is Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960). With its stark realism and dark themes, it established a tone of discomfort and unease that still feels powerful today. In the early 2000s, a new wave of younger filmmakers took that sense of unease and pushed it much further, deliberately testing the limits of what audiences could tolerate. These films were often graphic, sometimes over-the-top, and...
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The Deadly Spawn (1983) & Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1990) A cult fan favorite of the 1980s low-budget monster boom, The Deadly Spawn is best remembered for one of the era’s most distinctive creature designs. Its semi-sequel, Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor, is a scrappy and underrated follow-up that’s still a lot of fun, and long overdue for a proper Blu-ray upgrade. Behind both films is Ted A. Bohus, a true multi-man of independent genre cinema. Beyond producing and directing, Bohus has also been a vital chronicler of film history and technique through his magazines SPFX and...
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Another year in the books, which means it is time for our annual Wrap Up, where we not only go through our personal favorites of the year, but also some other standout films, as well as some others that came out in the last 12 months. For the second year in a row, it is astounding at some of the high quality pictures that have been getting released. From ones going straight to streaming services, to other wide release pictures, there have been plenty of fantastic titles out there. It really is a great time to be a horror fan. It's a long episode, so make sure you have a pad and pen, because we...
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Every now and again, the horror genre produces a film that becomes a bona fide classic. In 1980, director William Lustig and co-writer and star Joe Spinell teamed up to make what may be the defining film of the 42nd Street grindhouse era: Maniac. The film has it all, a serial-killing protagonist who scalps women while sobbing about his mother, buckets of gore from an early-career Tom Savini, and all the usual suspects of late-’70s Times Square: hookers, drugs, and utter despair. A remake, directed by Franck Khalfoun, written by Alexandre Aja, and starring Elijah Wood, arrived in 2012. This...
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Count Dracula's Great Love (1973), Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973), Panic Beats (1983) We're finally back to discuss the wonderful cinematic world of Paul Naschy! Back in episode 21, we covered three different entries in Naschy's werewolf films. So this time out, we are covering three of his NON-werewolf titles. It's important to remind fans that while he was known for his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf films, he made plenty of other films, incorporating a bunch of different kind of monsters. And if you are familiar with more of his work, then what better time to revisit some of them,...
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Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Terrorvision (1986), and Uninvited (1988). That's right, folks! It's Turkey Time again, and we are celebrating our 5th episode dedicated to those wonderous missteps in cinematic history. They aimed for the stars, but dropped like frozen turkey chucked off a building! But as we always say, the only bad movie is a boring one. And these films are definitely not boring. Because once the credits roll, if you've been entertained, then how could it be considered bad??? So sit back and enjoy this episode, where we discuss giant telepathic crabs, a ravenous space...
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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...
info_outlineThe Blob (1958) & The Blob (1988)
Continuing our theme of taking a deep dive into an original film and its remake, this time we're looking at a pair with exactly 30 years between them: The Blob, from 1958, and its 1988 remake. A lot had changed in those three decades, especially on the technical side, with advancements in special makeup effects definitely upping the ante on what we see on screen. But the remake also retains much of the same small-town feel and trappings of the original. With these two entries, it’s interesting to see the similarities just as much as how the remake plays out as its own creature; sometimes winking at the original, but ultimately leaving its own gelatinous footprint.
For those out there that love to hate on remakes, here's yet another pair that break the mold and had given us two entertaining entries. Sit back and enjoy!
Films mentioned in this episode:
4-D Man (1959), Beware! The Blob (1972), The Beyond (1981), The Blob (1958), The Blob (1988), The Brood (1979), Dark Star (1974), Daughter of Horror (1955), Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Dinosaurus! (1960), Equinox (1970), Eraserhead (1977), Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), The Fly (1986), Forbidden Planet (1956), Fright Night 2 (1988), Funeral Home (1980), Giant Gilla Monster (1959), Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959), The Horror at Party Beach (1964), I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Jaws (1975), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Master of Horror (1965), Nightbreed (1990), Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), Return of the Living Dead (1985), Robocop (1987), Rock Rock Rock! (1956), Scanners (1981), Schlock (1973), Scream (1996), Them (1955), The Thing (1982), Videodrome (1983)