Saturday Night Freak Show

Coming in at No. 4 on this year's Listener Choice month is Phantasm II (1988), a studio backed, big(er) budget sequel to one of the oddest horror movies ever made, featuring the return of the sinister undertaker from another dimension, The Tall Man, and his army of silver spheres. Listen as we talk baldheaded rodeo sex, Hemi 'Cudas and cult movie cars, the Brad Pitt movie that never was, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We sum up the best and worst movies and television we saw in 2021 with our annual Best and Worst episode. Listen as we go around the table and attempt to distill a year in film down to our choices for the 5 best movies and the 1 we think was the worst. Will your favorite make the cut? Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin belts out "everybody's got something to do, everybody but you!" after boarding the Night Train to Terror (1985), a horror anthology made up of parts cannibalized from three other feature films, framed by a train ride taken by God and the Devil as they argue over souls. Listen as our brains explode from slo-mo breakdancing, Claymation devil monsters, Tazmanian Winged Beetles, Nazi nightmares and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela seeks revenge by subjecting Sean to The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), a made-for-TV variety show so embarrassing that George Lucas sought to banish it from the planet. Han Solo has to get Chewbacca home in time for Life Day, but the Empire gets there first. Listen as we talk virtual reality Wookie erotica, psychedelic holograms, Star Wars cooking shows, and further abominations on this weeks exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly boards a New Year's Eve party Terror Train (1980) and finds out there's a killer on board! One of the 5 horror movies that Jamie Lee Curtis made following the success of Halloween that cemented her as the genre's preeminent Scream Queen finds her and a graduating college class stalked by a slasher killer onboard a locomotive. Listen as we talk about the sinister magnetism of David Copperfield, find the limit of our knowledge of New Years masquerade customs, and hazing rituals gone awry, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean uncovers a secret Society (1989) of body transmogrifying deviants hiding out among the wealthy elite of Beverly Hills, conducting strange elastic flesh orgies and consuming the bodies of unsuspecting mortals! Will he join in annual Shunt or won't he? Listen as we applaud the makeup fx of the legendary Screaming Mad George, gobble up leftover shunt shavings, pull people inside out and turn into literal buttheads, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin tries to understand his Habit (1995) for watching weirdo independent horror films in the 90's. Director Larry Fessenden also writes and stars as a NYC alcoholic who finds himself smitten with a mysterious girl who turns out to be a vampire, and finds that might be bad for his health. Listen as we plunge into New York City grime, lick plates, and find strangers engaged in strange rituals in bar parking lots on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela finds High Tension (2003) in the French Extreme wave of 00's horror films. Two girls decamp to a remote country home which is immediately attacked by a brutish killer in Alexandre Aja's debut feature. Listen as we heap praise upon the practical gore FX of Gianetto di Rossi and explore plot holes big enough to drive a rusty truck through on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly unlocks the difference between voodoo and its darker cousin, hoodoo, with The Skeleton Key (2005). A hospice worker moves out to the Louisiana bayou to care for an aging man, and comes to find out there's sinister things afoot in the old plantation house. Listen as we hide all the mirrors, get the "vapors" and eat poisoned sugar cubes on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean prays to the TV demon, gets juiced by the electric chair and becomes a Shocker (1989) with Wes Craven's electrifying tale of serial killer Horace Pinker, who becomes a channel surfing nightmare after his execution, making life a living hell for a college football star. Listen as we watch Craven cram a notebook full of ideas into one movie trying to create the next Freddy Krueger on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin thinks having Two Evil Eyes (1990) are better than one as two Masters of Horror, George Romero and Dario Argento, adapt a pair of Edgar Allan Poe stories. Adrienne Barbeau oozes sexuality in The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar, while Harvey Keitel gives a master class in drunk acting in The Black Cat. Listen as we talk freely about multiple cat murders, duplicitous lovers, shadow ghosts, pagan renaissance faires, thirsty bartenders and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We think Halloween Kills (2021) should bear the subtitle "Haddonfield's Revenge" as director David Gordon Green turns our beloved slasher series into a muddled message movie about the pros and cons of assembling a mob of angry residents to track down the cold-blooded killing machine, Michael Myers. Listen as we yell and scream and chant "Evil Dies Tonight" with as much enthusiasm as we can muster on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela thinks its hard enough being a teenaged girl, much less coping with becoming a werewolf, with Ginger Snaps (2000). One of two misfit sisters is horrified after the other is bit by a werewolf and starts going through a transformation, and mom couldn't be happier about her girl's blossoming womanhood. Listen as we talk about dog disemboweling, bad wigs, overbearing parents, and discover the 90's Ooze on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean learns the hard way it can be fatal to offend curse-spewing gypsies in Drag Me To Hell (2009), Evil Dead director Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre after a long absence, which finds a bank loan officer given 3 days to live before a demon, known as the Lamia, devours her soul. Listen as we wonder who deserves to get dragged to Hell, imagine Raimi cackling with glee directing gross-out scenes, and weigh the moral implications of damning someone to Hell on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly buries childhood trauma deep in the back of her head with Malignant (2021), James Wan's off-the-rails supernatural shocker about a woman who comes to believe her one-time imaginary friend may be responsible for a series of grisly murders. Listen as we drink electricity, speak through radios, decide whether the year's goofiest movie is by design or by accident, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin's only got 7 days to live after watching a cursed Japanese videotape in Ringu (aka Ring, 1998), a movie that created a worldwide interest in J-horror, inspired a wave of imitators and remakes, and made audiences afraid of VHS tapes and young girls with long hair. Listen as we present the oral history of Japanese horror movies, suffer technological anxiety, develop ESP and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela sets up cameras all over the house and digs out the VHS tapes to document Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), the entry in the long-running horror series that attempts to explain just why said spooks are haunting sisters Katie and Kristi in the first place. Listen as Sean's belief in ghosts is tested, Michaela tells horrifying babysitting tales, and ghosts get married, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly wakes up with guns stapled to her hands and has to kill Harry Potter before he kills her, and wades in Guns Akimbo (2020). Daniel Radcliffe plays an Internet troll who is unwillingly recruited into a real-life deathmatch against Samara Weaving, for the entertainment of an online audience. Listen as we compare Radcliffe to Nic Cage, confuse Weaving for Margot Robbie, and get traumatized by a hot dog on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean says a bigger spider doesn't necessarily mean a scarier spider with Eight Legged Freaks (2002), a comedic throwback giant monster movie which sees David Arquette and Kari Wurher teaming up to save their small town after toxic waste creates giant jumping spiders! Listen as we wonder who would visit a spider farm, decide where we're going in the event of a giant spider apocalypse, and fail to make a ScarJo-Black Widow joke, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin takes in a showing of the latest fashion in murder with Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill (1980). Angie Dickinson stars as a bored, sexually frustrated housewife; Michael Caine is her psychiatrist; Nancy Allen is a high priced call girl. To say more would spoil the twisty turns of what's been dubbed De Palma's American giallo. Listen as we talk black gloved killers, homage vs plagiarism, primal urges, and movie shower scenes on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.