Bound
TOTAL MASSACRE
CRIME LESBIAN Month concludes with BOUND, The Wachowskis before-its-time erotic thriller from 1996. It's a well-loved movie for Rowan, Kev, special guest Alex Welch, and...wait, Carli doesn't like it? Well that just got spicy. Actually we're all very respectful and have a frank exchange of opinions about the Wachowskis' eggness, Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly's chemistry, Joey Pants kinda taking over the movie, two incredible death scenes, and an incredibly squeaky leather jacket.
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Love Lies Bleeding
TOTAL MASSACRE
Critical support to women's wrongs, as Crime Lesbian Month continues with 2024's LOVE LIES BLEEDING. It's a nasty little thriller which shows how far Kristen Stewart has come as a weirdo since her TWILIGHT days, and Rowan, Kev, and Carli with special guest Stella Sacco are entirely on board for it. We talk about how it's a horny movie but not a sexy one, the wide variety of mullets on display, and what might have moved it into being a deeper movie but maybe not a better one.
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The Handmaiden
TOTAL MASSACRE
CRIME LESBIAN CRIME LESBIAN CRIME LESBIAN IT'S CRIME LESBIAN MONTH for Rowan's birthday, and we're kicking it off with Park Chan-Wook's lesbian thriller, THE HANDMAIDEN. Did it preface a decade of pop culture lesbians in the way OLDBOY did revenge action scenes in hallways? Is it one of Park's very best, or very worst, or both? How hot is that amateur dentistry? What's with that guy's eyebrows? Should pornography used as abuse be destroyed even if it's rare? No seriously, the mouth rubbing scene omg.
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Annihilation
TOTAL MASSACRE
October's cosmic horror month concludes with the reason for the season: ANNIHILATION (2018), a film all three hosts and special guest from RogerEbert.com and New York Magazine Matt Zoller Seitz all excited to get into it. We talk about what makes for a pure science fiction experience, differences between the book and the film, ANNIHILATION as the anti-blockbuster, deals with the fey, and of course, that goddamn bear. Hoo boy that bear.
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Color Out Of Space
TOTAL MASSACRE
TOTAL MASSACRE goes back to Lovecraft as we discuss COLOR OUT OF SPACE. Listen to us discuss how much substance is really beneath the surface of this movie, how this modern take diverges from the very 80s FROM BEYOND, and of course a lot of Nic Cage talk.
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From Beyond
TOTAL MASSACRE
Cosmic horror month invades from another dimension, as TOTAL MASSACRE checks out Patreon suggestion FROM BEYOND, a 1986 adaptation of a Lovecraft short story with some of the gnarliest practical effects you've ever seen. Rowan, Kev, and Carli gather to investigate a scary old mansion filled with discussion of what cosmic horror means to us, why it's cool in spite of Lovecraft being a massive racist, how strong this movie's themes of kinkshaming are or aren't, mean old psychiatrist ladies, and headdicks, headdicks, headdicks!
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Train to Busan
TOTAL MASSACRE
Zombie month concludes with a modern masterpiece of the genre, 2016's TRAIN TO BUSAN. It's a fast-paced, fast-zombie film that went viral in the streaming age, and Rowan, Carli, and special guest Bryant Francis are here to talk about why it totally deserved its acclaim. Uh, also, Kev is here and they didn't like it, so, surprise conflict amongst our survivors!
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Return of the Living Dead
TOTAL MASSACRE
Zombie month continues with RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, a nihilist zombie horror-comedy that's both as authentically punk and fake Hollywood punk as you can get. Either way, the energy is good, the special effects are good, the characters are good, and Rowan, Kev, and guest Zack Handlen are all here having a great time.
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Dawn of the Dead
TOTAL MASSACRE
It's zombie month over on TOTAL MASSACRE, as Rowan, Carli, and Kev all check out a classic we've never actually seen before, DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978). We invite horror fan Jack McDonald along, and talk about tremendous editing, the rarity of seeing the collapse from the side of the people in authority, capitalism, how cool Ken Foree is, the implicit and explicit discussion of race, and how horror movies struggle with endings in the most fascinating ways. Let's go ice skating together!
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Alien Resurrection
TOTAL MASSACRE
TOTAL MASSACRE's Alien month concludes with the black sheep of the franchise that's the black sheep of franchises. ALIEN: RESURRECTION is widely considered the worst of the series or at least the original run, but what this podcast presupposes is: what if it's actually some weird, icky, goofy fun? Kev, Carli, and Rowan are all in agreement, as is special guests David Bednar, who runs down what actually makes for an Alien film, and why Avatar and Fargo both are but Alien 3 isn't. Rowan also mentions Babylon 5. Multiple times.
info_outlineWhat is the nature of memory, and how fuckin' rad is it to have a swordfight with two metal baseball bats? These are the deep philosophical questions asked by the magnificent DTV action schlockfest UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING. We invite number one Jean-Claude Van Damme superscholar Abby Waysdorf on board to join Kev, Rowan, and Carli in dissecting a surprisingly great and influential action movie.