Episode Collection: Year 11

The eleventh year of Double Feature

The eleventh year of Double Feature, from July 5, 2018 to June 27, 2019. Back episodes are available to members.

Reverse Order of Release

Double Feature Year 11 Finale

Double Feature Year 11 Finale

A spoiler-free look back at all of Double Feature Year 11. Are you new to Double Feature? This is a great place to start.

Eighth Grade + A Serbian Film

Eighth Grade + A Serbian Film

Ending the year on the most transgressive films. Those fucking kids Double Feature. The most dangerous film in recent history, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade. Also, A Serbian Film. If there’s a new year of Double Feature, Alice promises that Michael will stop making ten-year-old self-references. The challenges of subversive art. Pastel subversion. Presenting both parent and child as human beings. Should I be seeing this? Adult discomfort at normal childhood sexuality. School shooting practice is not normal to adults. Dangerous times in cars. A Serbian Film is a doctorate level fucked up film and smarter than its reputation would have you believe. Oh Fuck, this is a real film. The mystery. The discomfort of everyone at the most infamous scene. A Serbian Film: Really Watchable.

Dude Bro Party Massacre 3 + Hamlet 2

Dude Bro Party Massacre 3 + Hamlet 2

This are not really sequels. The craziest episode of the show. Until next week. Depression is exacerbated by the Patreon. The third, first, and only entry in a franchise. The use of deceptive film titles. Video nasties and lost film. Self-awareness in film. Why would anyone who hates dude bro films watch Dude Bro Party Massacre? The overlap of late horror film hours and early straight world hours. Using the joke title to show a gag reel. Hamlet 2 spent over a decade in the secret, mythical Double Feature graveyard. A film about the nonexistent film sequel to the play, Hamlet. Not showing you the meta film or relating to the play. Realizing you’re not good at creating art. The origins of Michael’s Soundcloud rapper career. Starting a film during the fall from grace. Alice’s imaginary friends show up in support of his art.

The Woman in Black + The Princess and the Frog

The Woman in Black + The Princess and the Frog

The Hammer and Disney journey ends with The Woman in Black and The Princess and the Frog. The new face of Hammer and Disney making A modern animated film. A pairing not based on racism. A scary ghost film. Legitimizing scares in horror. Period horror, not to be confused with Carrie. The bizarre genre of early 1900s property litigation paperwork films. The more recent history of Hammer. The Krimsey’s menu. What if Disney made a cartoon about Louisiana? If you make a cartoon character, you’re going to end up with caricatures, and it’s not necessarily racist. Probably. Maybe. A formulaic, classic Disney princess film with a black princess who gets her hands dirty and spends most of the film as a frog. A frog. The strategy of Disney characters, music, and plot. Alice’s sensitivity TED talk. Racism somehow survived two POTUS terms. Attacking individuals when voting doesn’t make a difference. The dangers of propaganda and distinction between hateful caricatures and innocuous ones. Acknowledging the time a film was made, not as an excuse, but to understand them.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno + Mother!

Zack and Miri Make a Porno + Mother!

A sexy Double Feature, courtesy of Kevin Smith and Darren Aronofsky, so strap in and strap on. What’s the opposite of a reward? Hatefucking? The stages and trajectory of Kevin Smith’s film career and audiences. The end of Phase 1 Kevin Smith via Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The impact of a film bombing. One man, one woman, and a porno. Does sex + a camera = porn? Coming down on the wrong side of questions. Snipping and tossing title phrases. Film title punctuation! Mother! Metaphorical actors, metaphorically fucking. Darren Aronofsky has sex with the Earth. Films that cannot work on a literal level. There is no sky pig. Beating Catholics. And beating the audience over the head to differing effects. Aronofsky’s film career trajectory.

Get On the Bus + Chan is Missing

Get On the Bus + Chan is Missing

Road movies with non-white casts. Spike Lee’s Get On the Bus and Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing. Get on the Patreon. Spike Lee’s contemporaneous Million Man March film is a bottle film and road film. But it’s not a Circle. Spike Lee does not care for subtlety because he’s too busy being right about shit. Resolving your infighting so you can unite to fight the bigger, shared problem. Go watch Chan is Missing. Racism against Asian Americans is probably not getting fixed until we fuck it out of each other. The film that laid the groundwork for terrible, big, dumb Asian American films like Crazy Rich Asians. It was all about the journey. Surpassing Citizen Kane without getting any of the recognition for it. Chan is Missing is a perfect film with imperfect marketing. Forcing yourself to watch incredible films instead of thinking they aren’t relatable for you.

The Changeling + Gothic

The Changeling + Gothic

Horror, old and new. Gothic and The Changeling. Not the 2008 film. Or any of the other Changeling films. The spooky chair one and a definite article. Empty chairs that get lots of attention. Person vs House. Michael learns how to pronounce succession. The solid plots of old horror films. Choosing not to address the spooky stuff. Not giving the audience a release until the climax. Old school and modern risers. Production takes time. There are no answers to Gothic. Michael’s introduction to Gothic and terrible cuts of horror films. Eyeball nipples. Music that’s excited to be in the film. You cannot simply be told what Gothic is.

A Bittersweet Life + The Man Who Wasn’t There

A Bittersweet Life + The Man Who Wasn’t There

Films about characters driven by the absence of agency. Tokyo Drifter returns as Jee-woon Kim’s A Bittersweet Life. A loyal enforcer who fails to do his job by doing the moral thing. Flexing on ’80s street thugs. Dudes be fighting and toxic masculinity. Having the choice to escape and have a better life. Eastern versus Western mob movies. Passing up the chance for redemption. The Coen Brothers’ noir flick, The Man Who Wasn’t There. You know, for kids. A barber who cuts hair well, but does everything else wrong. Thinly-veiled stories about the film industry. Financing films and Alice’s life as a filmmaker. Grifters as inciting incidents. Good old dark grey-blooded Americans. The masculinity of the ’50s. Fate happens regardless of your actions.

Starman + Visitor Q

Starman + Visitor Q

Visitors from afar come to John Carpenter’s Starman and Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q. Observing humanity from a non-human perspective. John Carpenter’s Starman fits right in with his other early films. The original Jeff Bridges uncanny valley. Movies where aliens just try to get back to their spaceships and leave mankind alone. Everyone still remembers Run Fatboy Run. The significance and impact of Carpenter’s career and films. Takashi Miike is the best, even after over 100 films. Visitor Q forces the audience to accept everything it presents to them. Making as many films as Miike forces him to be an experimental filmmaker. Shooting film on early digital cameras to look like a home movie. Has necrophilia been on the show before? Making something as fucked up as possible to get people talking about it.

Ginger and Rosa + How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Ginger and Rosa + How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Rebellion as a way of life. Ginger and Rosa, plus Alice learns How to Talk to Girls at Parties in an Elle Fanning Double Feature. You can’t half-ass activism. Your daddy fucking your best friend is going to be your biggest problem. Is hysteria the more sensible response to impending existential threats? The unsustainability of hysteria. Golden daddy dick. Infighting over the plan when you have the same goal. The power of personal narratives. Everyone would quickly stop caring if aliens landed on Earth. Punks in England. Do The Punkest Thing. Absurd, horrible punk one-liners. How punk is going to be remembered. Resisting authority. When Nicole Kidman shows up, you know it’s a real movie.

Cam + Demonlover

Cam + Demonlover

The internet destroys society despite the magic healing power of sexual intercourse. The horrors of technology in Cam and Japanese anime tentacle sex in Demonlover. Sex for another purpose. Alice just covers the films with things he wants to talk about, like sex positivity. Camming is just a fun thing we do sometimes. Double Feature, like camming, uses Patreon. Michael isn’t actually a cam girl. All movies are bad, except ones that respect the audience’s intelligence. Using the empathy machine to take the audience along with the film. Demonlover makes Michael reflect upon child pornography. We want films to be full of Klaus Kinski, not victims. The Internet and exponential increase in technology. Deepfakes, censorship, and invasive technology. The Congress infiltrates another episode. Technology surpassed everyone’s ability to understand what they’re giving up to tech companies. Alice and Michael are upset about the harmful uses of technology.

Killapalooza 36: Ginger Snaps

Killapalooza 36: Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps films 1-3. A comprehensive look at all that is Ginger Snaps. Why Ginger Snaps deserves a Killapalooza despite appearing to be a trilogy. It’s Ginger Snaps Day! Sequels that have seen the original, but not each other. Fuck Kickstarter. Long live the Patreon. Werewolf movies always suck, except for whatever one you’re watching right now. And Ginger Snaps. A non-tired werewolf metaphor: promiscuity. Unassuming aesthetics. Making film about subtext. Not worrying about fanservice. Boldly choosing not to retcon and ending up with an airtight franchise. Is there a line between period remake and prequel?

Keep An Eye Out + An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn

Keep An Eye Out + An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn

Two filmmakers who seem to belong nowhere but are perfectly at home together. Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber 4, aka Keep an Eye Out. How the fuck did this great movie get made? The miracle of making a good movie. Making indescribably weird films. Authorities tripping over their feet in new and interesting ways. Hate fucking the audience because all film is boring. Watch the opening scene of Rubber. Jim Hosking’s An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin. Sometimes the film is just about the journey. Choosing the constraints to use in experimental film. How acting works. Vamping for an entire act. Resisting the standard rules of narrative storytelling. How to still be weird if you make weird film. Get weird.

Dracula AD 1972 + Aladdin

Dracula AD 1972 + Aladdin

Hammer and Disney collide once again in part four of the annual Double Feature journey. The natural pairing of vampires and sneaky peasants. Cartoons can remain timeless, but vampires show their age. Michael messes with time. Titties aren’t in the goddamn sheet, or even the hot tub, but didn’t get snipped and tossed. The history of Hammer vampire films. The instantly-dated modern vampire. Alice’s words are of the time. The childhood Disney films of millennials. Aside from the fact that every story is stolen, Disney classics are Disney as fuck. Studio rising from rock bottom to hit machine. This is actual Disney. The unexpected heroic sacrifice that doesn’t benefit the hero at all. Visit the new Double Feature Geocities site!

Hot Tub Time Machine + Timecrimes

Hot Tub Time Machine + Timecrimes

The global nightmare that is the Hot Tub Time Machine and Timecrimes episode is finally here. When you want to watch a movie you don’t care about. The moment when Michael realized Hot Tub Time Machine was more than just a movie to not care about. You don’t want a squirrel on the field. Making a time travel movie to make fun of time travel movies. When you throw away the straws and graph paper in a time travel film. Nacho Vigalondo returns to Double Feature with Timecrimes. The dark edge to Nacho’s film. Alice Thirteen’s Timecrimes grand theory. Short, easy time loops. Difficult time travel duplicates. Duck it. Rules that don’t apply. Maybe no one understands Timecrimes. Or maybe scientists just like fucking with people.

Toad Road + Here Comes the Devil

Toad Road + Here Comes the Devil

Hell and the parties you can have there. Double Feature goes to hell, again, but with fewer subtitles this time. Still not Timecrimes or Hot Tub Time Machine. Kids (actually?) doing drugs in film and the real-life tragedy of Sara Anne Jones. The tragic nature of drug use and culture. Why don’t hairstyle trends end up in more films? Dismissing the humanity of people who abuse drugs. Local film scenes and groups of people teaching each other how to make film. The devil as a film trope. Everybody’s banging in Here Comes the Devil, but that’s not what should make you uncomfortable. People who ignore the evidence in front of them to protect themselves from acknowledging their failures. Films that don’t explore the mystery location.

The Jerk + The Master

The Jerk + The Master

These fucking guys. On this week’s discussion of Hot Tub Time Machine + Timecrimes, The Jerk and The Master get meta. How can a podcast break the fourth wall? Once you’ve been through Soul Man, nothing seems quite so bad. Steve Martin holds up better than Virginia’s politicians. The comedic influence of The Jerk. The type of comedy and comedian that existed at the time and largely can’t exist now. Adapting a stand-up routine into a film. Dogwhistles and virtue signaling in comedy. Steve Martin is the true master and [name redacted] is the true jerk. Paul Thomas Anderson’s L. Ron Hubbard biopic. The near-silent, timeless voice of Paul Thomas Anderson as a director. How did this get made? (But not in the usual way.) Hollywood is the heart of Scientology. Soft-mindedness, definitely not a problematic term that definitely will not look bad in the future. Cults and pyramid schemes, and the challenge of getting one started. Grifters, spoken walls of sound, and skepticism.

Prep School + Firestarter

Prep School + Firestarter

External and internal pressures. Double Feature covers an audience-directed horror movie, Prep School! After weeks of discussing the difficulties of creating independent film, Prep School offers the opportunity to support one. A discussion on the finer points of fucking up your classmates and doing horrible things. When the protagonist is too sad to be the in the movie. Institutions that protect their members from being punished by the laws and rules the rest of society adheres to. Firestarter, the first and basically only film about starting a fire with your mind. A secret alternate plot within Firestarter. Michael finds joy in murdering some parents. Where the fuck are all the pyrokinesis movies? Continue reading

Tumbbad + Baskin

Tumbbad + Baskin

Folklore, moral tales, satanic torture orgies and other fun life lessons to live by. Embrace the subtitle. Tumbbad, the remake of the film no one has seen called Tumbbad. Greed and the fun things you can do with it. Luring the audience into a moral smackdown. “Please stop talking about short films like anyone watches them” says guy who made short film. What the fucking fuck happened in Baskin? An extended chase in a circle masquerading as constructive conversation. Something bad is going on. Murdering orgies and the ceremonies they murder in. When you don’t understand something in a horror movie, just tell everyone it’s Dante’s Inferno or whatever. Continue reading

Trouble Every Day + A Dangerous Method

Trouble Every Day + A Dangerous Method

Artsy smuthouse. French people create trouble, every day. Looking at Trouble Every Day as a French extreme film. No one trusts Vincent Gallo, even if his character deserves it. Some kind of plot is derailed by sexy times. When the erotic meets splat. Is there a supernatural element? Blood and body parts. How the new French extreme uses violence in a way other horror films do not. Where A Dangerous Method sits in the David Cronenberg lineup. A film about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud is really about their ideas more than about the men themselves. Ok, actually this film is all about Keira Knightley. A psychotic performance in an arc worthy of give Keira Knightley an auteur label. Continue reading

Swiss Army Man + Harvey

Swiss Army Man + Harvey

Imaginary friends that society just won’t accept. Swiss Army Man, Sundance, and Highland Park, California. Who or what are Daniels? hen the harsh light of day hits at the end of Swiss Army Man. A film 2018 people would be saying is the much-needed conversation about understanding. Accidentally falling in love with monsters. There’s a time and a place for invisible rabbits. The vague mental health issue seen in the film Harvey. How a lack of specificity creates greater inclusion. The massive appeal of cinema classics. Expanding the possible commentary Harvey provides. Despite ongoing attempts at a truce, witches still don’t really like one of the hosts of Double Feature. Continue reading

Halloween + Puppet Master The Littlest Reich

Halloween + Puppet Master The Littlest Reich

Approaching the unapproachable slashers. Halloween and Puppet Master get loaded updates. “Not for everyone” for the masses. When the remake is no longer enough. Deep fan service in production instead of easter eggs. Getting the band back together. What does slasher trauma actually look like? The sad consequence of growing up scream queen. New family dynamics. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich might not give a fuck. Ok, it’s called The Littlest Reich, clearly it doesn’t. Humor where you would least expect it. When VOD is the preferred medium. Fangoria makes movies! The special effects brutality of the Mortal Kombat style parallel universe. How Puppet Master feels gorier than even possible. The ending of Puppet Master might be the most shocking thing on today’s show. Continue reading

New Jack City + Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

New Jack City + Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

Father son pair Mario Van Peebles and Melvin Van Peebles have two movies that tells stories of very different times and places. First up, a trip back to the early 90s. Everyone is worried about crime, crack is a problem, and there’s an issue with the police that isn’t be talked about. Also people hadn’t even seen Pooka yet. Back in the 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles set out to prove there was an audience for a new kind of movie. Looking at the demand Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song capitalized on. What it takes to make in independent film when no one fucking believes in you. Creating an entire decades long genre just to prove your point. Continue reading

Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me + Twilight Zone The Movie

Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me + Twilight Zone The Movie

Television goes to the movies. A very broad conversation bout Twin Peaks, how it fits into David Lynch’s filmography, and various reactions to new entries over time. A conversation about Twin Peaks The Return because it’s basically a movie and someone really likes it. David Lynch and Mark Frost create Twin Peaks, the original series. Twin Peaks without David Lynch and Mark Frost. Lynch returns for a Lynch movie. Twenty five years and one really really long Skype call. Twin Peaks comes back in true form, but will anyone accept that? The Showtime network reacts to a bold power move. Michael wants to talk about something awkward. Twilight Zone: The Movie and the conversation no one is willing to have. How and if a movie survives a very public, very notable, very important news event. Continue reading

The Witches + The Black Cauldron

The Witches + The Black Cauldron

Hammer studios and Disney studios. A fresh look at two unique entities in different spaces. Unique marks on an otherwise crystal clear record. How The Witches is both quintessentially Hammer horror and something completely different. Voodoo vs magic vs whatever the fuck it is Alice’s silly witch friends believe in. The Black Cauldron is an adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain without many chronicles or much Prydain but definitely still with a magic pig that can see the future or whatever. The evil guy with horns who wants nothing less than to get on everyone’s bad side. Continue reading

The Eyes of My Mother + Don’t Look Now

The Eyes of My Mother + Don’t Look Now

Death in the family. The fallout of grief, loss, loneliness and isolation. It turns out Michael likes Alice’s double feature. The courage of The Eyes of My Mother pays off in a lengthy 2016 festival run covering basically everywhere a film could ever want to play. Making the unsafe bets as a filmmaker (and winning). Grief and the grotesque. How The Eyes of My Mother uses counter-intuitive editing to deliver on horror in an innovative and brutal way. Don’t Look Now and the layers of symbolism. What symbolism feeds the tone and what feeds the narrative. Continue reading

Boxing Helena + Patty Hearst

Boxing Helena + Patty Hearst

A Double Feature Stockholm Syndome double feature. Dangerous cinema returns. When you put Helena in a box like you do (RIP Cubbiebear). The deeper issues actually at work in Boxing Helena are just regular issues but no one comes to movies where they live anymore. Helena the prop and the crazy man who has mommy problems. Between the panes strikes back. The central issues at the heart of the Patty Hearst story. Can Patty Hearst be both the victim of terrorism and herself a terrorist? Don’t miss the all new Additional Content.

Rumble in the Bronx + Skyscraper

Rumble in the Bronx + Skyscraper

A look at secret role China plays in big American films. Double Feature gets into the weeds on how blockbusters are assembled, from the creation of a bankable team to the financing and eventual distribution. America sees a martial arts niche and brings it to the United States. China loves American blockbuster action stars. Fake American films made by China. Imposter fake American films made by China that are actually made by Americans. The fake American companies funded by China that actually make the imposter fake Chinese rip offs of American films. Double Feature talks about The Meg because it’s easier. Where a cause or a symptom, streaming services play a role in the American devaluation of cinema.

Delicatessen + Paddington

Delicatessen + Paddington

Bear and Long Pig, together at last. Outrageously whimsically characters disrupt the system. No negative jokes about Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s art direction suffering after 1995. Michael feels the need to rant about his top ten list and then randomly namecheck Black Panther. Has Alice Thirteen’s heart changed in 2018? Delicatessen disrupts the system. A kindly speaking bear takes over England in Paddington. Only on Double Feature is Paddington the weirder movie. Continue reading

Lo and Behold + Idiocracy

Lo and Behold + Idiocracy

A cynical look at technological progress. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. Just what kind of reveries is this about? A guy from Austin talks to an ex-Silicon Valley programmer about Werner Herzog questioning digital pioneers – and none of them have any answers. The problem of how to talk about future technological problems. An entire conversation about Idiocracy beyond “oh my god, it’s basically a documentary.” A society painted in shitty advertisements. The insane basic-income type ideas that will rule the future and how they compete with the vision presented in Idiocracy. Continue reading

A Ghost Story + What We Do In the Shadows

A Ghost Story + What We Do In the Shadows

Horror non-horrors (which, it should be noted, is different than non-horror horrors). Alice Thirteen spares everyone else his own depression. Addressing the brilliant, frustrating, vital experience of A Ghost Story. Time’s flat circle doesn’t make it any less fucking sad. Michael Koester is the guy at the party who ate all the pie. It turns out there’s other stuff in A Ghost Story besides self-indulgent millennials and vegan pie. Maybe not on this podcast, but at least in the movie. What We Do In the Shadows: ok, so what is it we do in the shadows then? The many types of vampires, all living in harmony. Making special effects special again. Layers of comedy. Continue reading

Blown Away + Fatal Attraction

Blown Away + Fatal Attraction

The contagion of madness. Blow Away, a film from a parallel universe where Jeff Bridges stars in Big Trouble In Little China and Tommy Lee Jones did time at The Rock. zMacro shots, they’re fucking everywhere. Being right inside the very bomb itself. Try to tell Blown Away it’s not getting away with exactly what it thinks it is. Go on, try it. Fatal Attraction spreads its wings. It varies but the smallest things. You never know how anything will change. The 90s erotic thriller by way of 1987’s Fatal Attraction. Warning: beware of falling mania. Unique traits of the erotic thriller genre, where that audience was before, and where the audience lives today. Continue reading

Forrest Gump + The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Forrest Gump + The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The lives of individual men as told through bizarre high-concept epics! Double Feature talks about the films of Alice Roth. An examination of the lives of others and what can be learned from them. Indulging the wild premise hooks of Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. What does Forrest Gump look like without the historical cameos? Robert Zemeckis has high-tech dreams. Remembering the popular introduction to arthouse via the discovery of David Fincher. Michael refuses to believe a film is actually about what it claims to be about. What can be learned from aging backwards? A midpoint turn brought about through the fantasy mechanic. Continue reading

Scream of Fear + Bambi

Scream of Fear + Bambi

Hammer meets Disney. The second step in a deep drive on two studios. Scream of Fear is probably actually called Taste of Fear. Where does Scream of Fear sit in 1960s horror? Hammer aside from the more commonly known Universal-Monsters style Hammer Horror. It turns out it was an insurance scam the whole decade. Bambi in reputation and actuality. Animals are innocent! Hunting is terrible and ruins everyone’s sweet party. Seriously, why are people still eating meat? It’s gross. This isn’t really part of the episode or anything, but while you’re reading this, stop eating meat. Just stop. There’s no point. It’s terrible for you, it’s expensive, and it’s barbaric Continue reading

Killapalooza 35: Jaws

Killapalooza 35: Jaws

Jaws films 1-4. A look at the entire Jaws franchise as if it’s the true horror property people say it is. What’s refreshing about Jaws if it is a horror film. Aquatic horror and the Miskatonic Institute. Seriously, go if you have the chance. Jaws 2 as the second in a series of slasher films. Jaws 3-D: everything is better in three dimensions, maybe. Jaws 3-DD: wrong franchise. No one can agree who the people in Jaws 3 are, including their friends or even the characters own motivations. Sea World was probably happy, though. The dilemma all aquatic horror movies face: to embrace the Jaws franchise or run away from it? The dilemma Jurassic World for some reason felt inclined to face. The longest two people have ever indulged Jaws 4: The Return. Putting aside psychic sharks, what are Continue reading

Tales from the Hood + XX

Tales from the Hood + XX

Anthology films as a mechanism for inducing social change. XX is not the band The XX. Tales from the Hood as a group of segments with one coherent vision. How specific is Tales form the Hood to mid-nineties Los Angeles? Which parts of Tales form the Hood are just as relevant today? Portraying the big green monster of domestic abuse. The range of anthology film interstitials. XX as a group of segments with a diversity of voices. The amount of power directing XX is insane. Annie Clark, first time long time. St. Vincent music videos. This is not Roxanne Benjamin’s first anthology film. Double Feature favorite Karyn Kusama. Everyone should watch Jovanka Vuckovic’s short films. Continue reading

The Monster Squad + Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl

The Monster Squad + Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl

Missing out! How great films have become further hidden by the difficult moral absolutism of modern times. The Monster Squad, warts and all. Discovering The Monster Squad today. Looking past the foul-mouth dressings of some 80s kids. How The Monster Squad actually held up an underrepresented segment of society. Box office tragedy turns into heartwarming cult success. Bringing the outsiders together. Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl’s much harder to defend content. The Japanese Gore film. How Japanese fashion makes a mess of social issues. What the fuck is going on with all the blackface in this movie? Impossible to believe, Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl might just be accidentally racist. Lolita, Ganguro, and the right side of overly tan Japanese girls with permanent Continue reading

Hocus Pocus + Slice

Hocus Pocus + Slice

October kicks in with the full force of mystic green Halloween energy. Two fantastical spooky-delights with very different receptions. Horror outsiders then and now. Hocus Pocus hits 25. Alice Thirteen’s film Disposition plays in a theater and heads for the Brooklyn Horror Film Fest. Could Hocus Pocus be made today? Of course it WILL be made today, but CAN it be? Of all the normal elements in Hocus Pocus, what happens to be horror community’s favorite? Who is Mick Garris and why does he never show up on Double Feature? An actual answer to that question (hint: it has nothing to do with how much Double Feature loves spooky vegan Mick Garris, which is plenty). Why it’s ok for everything to just be a horror movie. Slice drops unexpectedly. World building, fresh faces, and an unexacting public! Continue reading

Mandy + Revenge

Mandy + Revenge

Basic melts minds. Two films with straight-forward plots to different dramatic ends. How can something so basic become so mind blowing? Celebrating the return of The New French Extreme to Double Feature. But first: Mandy should be seen big and seen loud. Nicolas Cage is crazy, but that’s really selling the film short. The cheddar goblin, also meme-worthy. Revenge as a soul-filling temple of artistic glory. The impossible task of a rape revenge film not only working in 2018, but actually being critically essential. Underpromise, overdeliver. The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas and Hollywood’s The Egyptian Theater. Some words on transgression. Continue reading

Coherence + 10 Cloverfield Lane

Coherence + 10 Cloverfield Lane

Take it and run. Sitting down to have dinner with friends. Back to back mind-benders. How Coherence under-promises before over-delivering. The little film you just don’t expect. When that things that always happens starts happening. Turning the tables on expectation. Hitting a mind fuck and then pressing forward. Why it’s impossible to to talk about 10 Cloverfield Lane without talking about Cloverfield – no matter how much the film deserves that conversation. Cinematic-world baggage. Audiences watch television like Double Feature watches franchises. Don’t forget, it’s Patreon time! Continue reading

Unbreakable + The Beach

Unbreakable + The Beach

A new look at two infamous directors. Michael for some reason believes people don’t really know who Danny Boyle. An update on Alice Thirteen’s new film Disposition, with a new round of theatrical dates in the upcoming weeks. Everything is broken, part nine thousand. The movies of M. Night Shyamalan. The entire world was wrong about M. Night Shyamalan and owes him an apology. People are also wrong about Rob Zombie but they’re not quite ready to accept that yet. Does the public narrative regarding “the guy who does the movies with the twists” match reality? Was this real or imagined? Movies ruined by how strangely complicated movies have become. How The Beach uses secrets every step of the way to push forward its plot. The extreme highs and lows of Danny Boyle. People who check out Sunshine again, just saying. Continue reading

Perfect Blue + Enemy

Perfect Blue + Enemy

Identity, duality, and the public eye. Reflections and persona. What is personhood? Alice Thirteen’s new film Disposition now has a trailer! Disposition (2018) Trailer. Perfect Blue as an insight to an Asia-centric phenomena. Working Perfect Blue backwards. The psychological thrills of Denis Villeneuve. What’s up with the spiders? Enemy’s secret deeper meaning. Do people still have the stamina for puzzle solving? Working though a complex, layered narrative. Rearranging beats to solve a mystery. Find Disposition showtimes at https://dispositionfilm.com. Continue reading

Thoroughbreds + The Craft

Thoroughbreds + The Craft

The outsider’s need to belong and the influence of the spooky peer-group. Wearing an aesthetic to sneak past the gate. Three fantastic performances. The public face and the private face. The role of score in Thoroughbreds. Well check out the first time feature director over here! Two halves make a oh no jesus christ don’t do that come back downstairs. The aesthetic of high society. Privilege, wealth, and using the institution to take down the institution. The Craft as a…visual effects buffet! 90s teen horror. The spooky teen film. Bad influences. Cult films and sub-divided communities. The aesthetic of witchy goth kids. Using Trojan horses to bring opposing communities together. Continue reading

Hereditary + Kill List

Hereditary + Kill List

Two movies with a secret in common. Some people have heard of this little film called Hereditary. Stanley Kubrick, Ben Wheatley and the non-submersible unit. Creating icons before even starting on the plot. The boldest icons of Hereditary. That infamous scene with the thing that happens after the other terrible thing. Then things get worse by not getting better, and finally worse by getting much worse. The greatest all-time shock cut? What people seem to miss – the top line, broad-stroke metaphor of the film. Michael gets upset at a screening of Hereditary. Kill List finally makes its appearance on Double Feature. What the two films share in common: spoilers! The decision that hard-turns Kill List toward horror territory. Not all things need be revealed. A breakdown in carefully choosing which elements shall remain a mystery. Continue reading

Dogtooth + Picnic at Hanging Rock

Dogtooth + Picnic at Hanging Rock

Dangers of growing up with a single source of knowledge. The films of Yorgos Lanthimos. Dogtooth as a comedy. Licking the keyboard. Kynodontas is Dog tooth in…Greek? Is Greek a language? Teenage isolation. Beware of cats. Kill is kiss. Growing up homeschool. A unique thing that only happens with a Yorgos Lanthimos film. It’s the Panic at Hanging Rock. Anticipating the thing. The things that happen up at Hanging Rock. Trying to piece together the mystery. The ending of Picnic at Hanging Rock as a mystery – if only more people had actually seen Picnic at Hanging Rock. That infamous thing that happens, how people feel about it, and why that thing is an interesting thing to do. Continue reading

Good Time + Nice Dreams

Good Time + Nice Dreams

From hijinks to devastation, Double Feature does some drugs. Good Time, a film from a parallel universe. Robert Pattinson is not fucking around. Settle down, synthesizers. When bad times get worse. It’s getting harder not to just classify all of humanity in harsh black and white. The accountability of Connie Nikas vs the accountability of Nick Nikas. Who is the true Nice Dreams? Cheech and Chong run from the law and everyone loves it. What the legalization of pot can illustrate about counterculture films. A tasty Sprite to go with your ice cream. Explaining the short shelf life of comedy. How comedy cuts to the heart of the zeitgeist and why this should continue to be the North Star. Continue reading

Black Swan + Patti Cakes

Black Swan + Patti Cakes

Female fame in different games at different levels. Black Swan as a mainstream arthouse horror film. Why the horror elements of Black Swan are worthy of callout – body horror! A fight between avoiding the most obvious conversation and avoiding the most delicate conversation. The lengths an artist goes through to achieve success, revisited. How Black Swan mostly avoids being rape-y when it basically is. Patti Cakes. Patti Cake$. Patti Cake Dollar Sign. A stunning turn in the plot when someone turns out to not be a cartoon villain. Who actually has talent or promises n Patti Cake$? Living the art life. Escaping the suburbs. Arrested development, lower-case d. Patti Cake$ and the simple art of never giving up. A suspicious lack of conversation around Black Swan’s portrayal of oral sex. Continue reading

Horror of Dracula + Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Horror of Dracula + Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Horror of Dracula, very much not the same as original Dracula. Jonathan Harker upsets Dracula after after accepting a job at the vampire’s castle under false pretenses. Legends of hammer horror. The Universal Monsters and the Dark Universe reboot. What was happening in horror in 1958. Later, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household. Disney’s place in the modern world. Dwarfs is more commonly spelled Dwarves now. Thanks, Tolkien. The intersection of Disney and angry progressives on Twitter. A case for ladies being chased around by mad men or what the fuck ever. The world as it could be vs living in the world as it is. Princess problems. Continue reading

Blood and Black Lace + School of the Holy Beast

Blood and Black Lace + School of the Holy Beast

Yellow and Pink films. Italian giallo pulp films and a requisite number of Dario Argento jokes. Japanese pink films – pinku, pinky violence, and nunsploitation. Blood and Black Lace in high definition. A masked, shadowy killer brutally murders the models of a scandalous fashion house in Rome. That goddamn Suspiria 4k remaster. Putting on a play or opera or whatever behind the scene thing. The giallo fixation on props. School of the Holy Beast aka The Transgressor. What is a pink film? Japense pinku. Finding the canonical pinku and pinky violence films. In order to investigate her mother’s strange death, a woman enters a sacred convent run by hypocritical, perverse nuns. Peeing on Jesus. One of the most incredible things Double Feature has ever seen. Continue reading

Bad Boys + Rush Hour

Bad Boys + Rush Hour

Double Feature does the bare-minimum to look at two 90s blockbuster buddy-cop movies. Bad Boys is an unlikely film in an unlikely time, all before you consider Michael Bay. Even stranger still, it didn’t look or feel weird at the time! Representation in big movies. Are buddy cop culture-clash films problematic? Is everyone tired of using the phrase problematic? Everything is easier when you can dismiss it out of hand. The self-conscious anxiety that projects mainstream problems onto obscure movies. Bad Boys was far to easy to defend, time to watch Rush Hour. A Los Angeles film totally lost on a Texan. Chris Tucker was loud and that was fine. Jackie Chan was a weirdly-gazed asian commodity and that was probably also fine. People saw these goddamn movies. For all the ill, there’s unsung power in tropes and clichés. Continue reading

Road Games + Body Double

Road Games + Body Double

Contrasty Hitchcock covers. Tributes? Ripoffs? Probably not ripoffs, right? Road Games: two words. Although sometimes Roadgames, one word. The open road and how not to tune your guitar. Murder death. Murder death is how not to. A suspicious lack of jokes about dingos. Americans in the outback. The temporary towns that exist on road trips. What Illinois, California, Austin, and some random part of Australia all share in common. How a placement of extreme violence in one specific location can impact the entire viewing experience. Body Double, two words. One half of this episode, still featuring Barbara Crampton. Brian De Palma finally gets some air time on Double Feature. Voyeurism to the next level. Under the surface – what else do audiences get out of voyeurism? Another option for placing your extreme violence. Continue reading

Victor Crowley + The Endless

Victor Crowley + The Endless

New listener? Start here! A brand new year of Double Feature starts a fresh run with returning local heroes. Pay to rent these films! Victor Crowley as Hatchet 4. Returning to form. The slasher trajectory. The most misunderstood element of the Hatchet franchise – the humor! Top secret Hatchet 10 year anniversary. The impact of Adam Green’s series on two young horror fans. Felissa Rose gets the spotlight she deserves! The Endless is better if you’ve seen previous Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead films. Remembering back to Resolution. 2018 makes joining a cult super easy. One of the most mind-blowing moments in Double Feature history. Intentional or not, The Endless as a metaphor for filmmaking. Expanding on an interpretation from previous Benson / Moorhead work. Continue reading