Saturday Night Freak Show

Travis finds himself lost In the Mouth of Madness (1994), John Carpenter's apocalyptic homage to H.P. Lovecraft. Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neil) is hired to find missing horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) but finds his grip on reality slipping as the twisted reality of Cane's works begin to threaten reality as we know it. Listen as we lose our minds discussing the stories of Lovecraft, Carpenter's "Apocalypse trilogy", religion, the responsibility that comes with being a horror story teller, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin takes us into dark fairy-tale territory with the cult film Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973). Also known as Lemora: Lady Dracula and The Legendary Curse of Lemora, the film follows virginal, Prohibition-era choir girl, Lila Lee (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), into the grim world of a lecherous lady vampire who has designs on initiating her into the world of the undead. Listen as we break down the film: it's themes, it's literary influences, and it's budgetary shortfalls on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean celebrates the 20th anniversary of Scream by watching... Scream 2 (1997). In what should be known as Scream: The College Years, poor Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) takes the entire small town of Woodsboro with her to university, where a Ghostface-masked copycat killer tries to outdo the murderers of the first film. Listen as we celebrate the legacy of director Wes Craven, examine the Scream franchise and subsequent MTV series, and well as the impact of the franchise on horror films and the slasher genre, on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis takes us back to high school with Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987), an in-name-only sequel to the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis slasher, in which the ghost of vengeful, murdered prom queen Mary Lou Maloney returns to Hamilton High to for bloody revenge. Listen as we look back at this colorful mashup between Carrie and A Nightmare on Elm Street, reminisce about USA's Up All Night TV show, and decide not only to show it, but Freak Show it, on this week's exciting episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin takes us on a paranormal investigation into The Legend of Hell House (1973), in which a group of psychics and scientists (featuring Roddy McDowall and Pamela Franklin) venture into the "Mount Everest of Haunted Houses" in hopes of proving, conclusively, whether or not there is life after death. Of course, they get more than they bargained for when the restless spirits of the house begin to stir. Listen as we invite an actual paranormal investigator to join us and talk about ghostly phenomena, great haunted house movies, British horror and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean dons the red, white and blue with Captain America (1990), the first attempt to bring Marvel's comic book character to the big screen. Imbued with super powers in a secret WWII experiment, Steve Rogers (Matt Salinger) teams up with the daughter of his one-time love to track down the villainous Red Skull (Scott Paulin), and stop a villainous plan to take over the United States. Listen as we talk about the career of director Albert (Mean Guns) Pyun, the downfall of Cannon Films, and inevitably compare this incarnation of the character to it's big budget brother, Captain America: The First Avenger. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis takes us on a spiritual journey with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984), a Japanese fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic future. A princess has to stop an aggressive neighboring kingdom from using a powerful weapon to eradicate a toxic jungle of giant insects. Listen as our good intentions snowball into absolute confusion, chaos and incoherence as we try to decipher this acclaimed film, directed by acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki, on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle with her pick of Triangle (2009), which finds Melissa (Alias, 30 Days of Night) George experiencing what we refer to as the "Groundhog Day effect" (only with much bloodier consequences) while aboard an adrift ocean liner. This podcast is marked S for SPOILERS as we dive deep into the temporal mechanics of writer/director Christopher Smith's ocean-set mind bender. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin uses his black belt to combat black magic as he summons The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) on this week's show. Genre stalwart Peter Cushing travels to China to aid villagers under siege from the titular undead plague; he's assisted by 7 kung fu-wielding brothers (and their 1 sister) in this bizarre co-production between Britain's Hammer Films and the Chinese Shaw Brothers studios. Does Count Dracula show up? You betcha (the movie was released as 7 Brothers Meet Dracula in the U.S.) Listen in as we spend a lot of time talking about the career of Christopher Lee (who does not appear in this movie!) on this week's exciting program! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brent swims us out to The Beach (2000), as Leonardo DiCaprio discovers a paradise on a tropical island off the coast of Thailand, then discovers that the only threat to perfection is man himself. Listen as we talk entitled youth, shark attacks, hippie communes, mercy killings, forbidden romance, and bear witness to Travis' tirade against "liberals" on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean was having a good day until every machine on the planet went into Maximum Overdrive (1986), horror author Stephen King's first (and only) directorial effort. Earth passes through the tail of a rogue comet which imbues all machines with sentient life. Their first order of business: exterminate mankind! A bunch of murderous semi trucks converge on the Dixie Boy truck stop and only Emilio Estevez and a band of dim-witted rednecks stand between us and oblivion! Listen as we try to name-drop as many Stephen King related titles as we can on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis becomes the night with a look at Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), a big screen edition of the Batman: The Animated Series TV show, which finds Batman (Kevin Conroy) dealing with the appearance of a new costumed vigilante in Gotham, and battling conflicting emotions stirred up by the re-appearance of the girl who got away, Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delaney). Listen as we track the evolution of the Dark Knight character through comics, TV and movies all the way to his latest incarnation in Batman v Superman on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny celebrates her birthday with a re-visitation of the childhood staple The Princess Bride (1987), a sweet-natured spoof of fairy tales directed by Rob (Misery, A Few Good Men) Reiner. Is one of the most beloved movies of all time beloved by the Internet Radio Superstars of the Saturday Night Freak Show? You'll have to listen to find out! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin tries to make sense of Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives (2013), in which Ryan Gosling stars as a psychologically damaged drug smuggler, living in Bangkok, who plows a path of revenge after his brother is killed. Things get complicated with the arrival of his monster of a mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a seemingly supernatural policeman. Listen as we analyze the meaning of symbolism and metaphor in the film, and discuss cinema as art on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brent explores the neurotic world of Woody Allen with Celebrity (1998), in which Kenneth Branagh does an spot on Allen impersonation as a celebrity journalist going through a divorce, and the gamut of sexual encounters he stumbles into while searching for meaning in life, while his wife (Judy Davis) suffers a a series of meltdowns in search of the same. Join us as we talk infidelity, celebrity, writing and relationship drama on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean celebrates Santa's arrival with the holiday classic Black Christmas (1974) - one of the first "slasher" movies - a Canadian import which arrived 4 years before Halloween (1978). A group of girls get murdered one-by-one, by a demented psycho named "Billy" who makes obscene phone calls to their sorority house on Christmas Eve. Director Bob Clark is also responsible for the Yuletide favorite, A Christmas Story (1983). Listen as we toss back some holiday cheer and sit under the tree to discover Black Christmas' place in the horror history! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis digs up the forgotten horror flick Spookies (1986), which finds a group of 30-something teenagers choosing an old mansion in which to party, and ultimately end up summoning a bunch of monsters who kill them off one-by-one. Listen as we discover the thrills of farting muck-men, shriveled sorcerers, spider-women, Gremlin-like demons, zombies and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jenny relives her childhood fascination with Macaulay Culkin's screaming fits and proclivities towards violent mayhem in Home Alone (1990). In the film, the pint-sized terror scalds, stabs, shatters, and mangles a couple of bumbling, ne'er-do-well burglars who mistakenly target his home for their Christmastime plundering. Listen as we try to sort through the rich, multi-layered meanings of this oft overlooked, feel-good holiday classic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin says "long live the new flesh!" and unleashes David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) signal upon unsuspecting minds in this week's episode. James Woods stars as a fringe-TV programmer whose reality begins to unravel after he becomes obsessed with pirate transmissions of a torture reality show. Pull up a chair and listen as we talk prophetic visions, insidious political agendas, and discuss the best course of action when you grow (and then feed videotapes to) a lower abdominal slit. All on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brent concludes a year celebrating Back to the Future and time-travel movies with Back to the Future Part III (1990), which sees Marty and Doc transported to 1885, where they run afoul of 'Mad Dog' Tannen, a disabled DeLorean, and an unexpected love affair, in this sweet-natured conclusion to the classic fantasy trilogy. Gather 'round as we discover why Brent loves this movie (and why Travis hates it) on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.