Nov 03 2014

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

lifeforce

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Lifeforce

Lifeforce a glossy mid-1980s outer space sci-fi vampire sex invasion film that erupted out of the infamous Cannon Films studios at the apex of their heyday. It’s like everything that was right and wrong about mid-80s sci-fi fare got packed into a single, sprawling, kinda insane film that managed to find an excuse to have a woman walk around buck naked for most of the movie’s running time. Bonus: a younger (and yet still bald) Patrick Stewart appears midway through. Superbonus: this film contains a sweeping score by none other than the great Henri Mancini. You have to see this thing to believe it.

audition

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Audition

I recommend this movie even though I have no intention of ever watching it again. It’s the kind of movie that really sticks with you. Audition is a Japanese film about a widower seeking to get back out into the world and hopefully make a fresh start with a new love. A friend comes up with a perfect dating-screening ploy: A movie audition with a call for a specific type of young female. What could go wrong? At the audition, our protagonist Shigeharu Aoyama (played by Ryo Ishibashi) spies a lovely young woman and pursues her. Warning signals pop up – but who can deny true love?

Oct 30 2014

Episode 38: I’ve Got No Quarrel with a Bomb

, with special guest:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

0038 ApesIn this week’s episode, dear listeners, we are joined once again by Matt Kessen for a discussion of Planet of the Apes! Matt Kessen, as you may recall, is the gentleman behind Reverend Matt’s Monster Science, and he is also a complete and total Planet of the Apes nerd.

If you would like to drink along, we vastly enjoyed a bottle of Lagavulin 16 during the episode. We highly recommend doing the same.

Show notes behind the cut!

Continue reading

Oct 27 2014

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

GingerSnaps2

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Ginger Snaps 2

Have we recommended Ginger Snaps? Maybe we’ll do that next! But you don’t need to have seen Ginger Snaps to really get into this unexpected sequel. Brigitte is suffering from a unique curse – being a werewolf. Trying to self-medicate with monkshood while being a runaway leads to her being locked into a juvenile psychiatric ward – and that’s where things get REALLY interesting. The clock is ticking and she needs to either get her drugs or get out – neither of which seems likely. Will her new young friend Ghost help her? A very surprising and interesting take on the werewolf mythos, mixing in excellent commentary on mental health and women’s issues. The ending will leave your jaw hanging! (Sidenote: the young girl Ghost is played by Tatiana Maslany, who is absolutely destroying the lead role in ORPHAN BLACK)

Housebound

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Housebound

Housebound is a brand-new, delightful horror-comedy from New Zealand. It took Fantastic Fest by storm a few weeks ago, and it was in my top five of best films seen at the festival.

Housebound focuses on a young woman who is caught trying to steal a cash machine. Instead of sending her to jail, the judge decides instead to sentence her to house arrest at her mother’s eerie old country home… which does not delight either woman. However, after a few days, it becomes clear that the mother believes the house is haunted, and while the daughter does not agree about the paranormal, there are definitely things going on that neither can explain. What ensues from there is both creepy and hilarious; if you have fondness of the poppy horror-comedies of the 1980s, you will find a lot to love here.

Housebound became available on several American streaming video services last Friday. Highly recommended!

Oct 23 2014

Episode 37: Your Crazypants Are on Fire

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

0037 GhostThis week, dear listeners, we have an episode all about ghost movies! Haunted houses, poltergeists, and children in peril… it’s all here!

If you would like to enjoy some spirits with your spirits, we suggest you join us in drinking Fog Head Cabernet, because is fog is creepy and ghostly.

If we sound like we’re recording in a box (AGAIN), it’s because the recording software used the wrong microphone. Thankfully, the microphone on the laptop isn’t too terrible, but you will hear some artifacting generated by removal the computer fan noise. Melissa is currently in a corner with a flog, chanting mea culpas.

NOTE: We mention in the episode that we ran out of Listener Answers, which is true. However, there are a couple sets of Listener Answers that have not yet hit the podcast feed (they will show up in episodes 38 and 40). So, if you sent in answers to our Questions and haven’t heard them yet, they should still be coming up! If you haven’t answered our Questions at all yet… you should!

Show notes behind the cut!

Continue reading

Oct 20 2014

This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

waxwork

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Waxwork and Waxwork II: Lost in Time

It is October, which means I have to remind people that Waxwork and Waxwork II exist. These two movies are far from perfect, but they both have flashes of delight and brilliance that are worth your time. The first film centers around a wax museum, where patrons of the museum go missing when they step into the tableaus and find themselves inside the action of the scene. The second film inexplicably involves a time portal. The brilliant part is that both films have a very episodic structure, where individual characters are thrown into vastly different environments… which means the filmmakers use those segments to parody other horror movies. The films also make great use of cameos, including folks like John Rhys Davies, Patrick Macnee, Bruce Campbell, Marina Sirtis, and David Carradine. Oh, and did I mention that David Warner is in the first film? And that Zach Galligan did something other than Gremlins? Yeah, check these two films out. They’re fun.

spiral_staircase

Windy’s Pick of the Week: The Spiral Staircase

Dorothy McGuire stars in this early and eerie serial killer movie (with Ethel Barrymore as the older woman she cares for!). Someone is targeting young women with disabilities, and Barrymore is worried about her young caretaker who is also a mute. Early but effective special effects showing you the killer’s viewpoint are quite creepy in this pleasant whodunit. A good choice for a chilly fall evening!

%d bloggers like this: