Episode Collection: Year 2

Two misunderstood and under-appreciated horror films. Conversations about filmmaking. Repo: The Genetic Opera is, in fact, an opera. Musicals vs operas. Sarah Brightman, Ogre. Industrial music and opera. The ridiculous cast. Building for cult appeal. Two rational, no-bullshit hosts hold the internets first serious discussion on Paris Hilton. Why Paris Hilton is actually awesome. Shadowcasts. Secret Saw sets. Mag’s eyes. More than you ever wanted to know about soft focus. Digital soft focus vs traditional lens. The budget and equipment for The Blair Witch Project. Audio. What color vs black and white actually does for the film. Scares based on sound. The universal fear of the unknown. What does the ending really mean? Continue reading →

Just how spoilable are Easy Rider and Death Race 2000? Easy Rider as a piece of New Hollywood. Where have the communes gone? Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as Wyatt (Captain America) and Billy. Life lessons via cross country motorcycle journey. UFO stores and pot smoking. Inspirations. The Dennie Hopper vs Rip Torn controversy. The editing and transitions in Easy Rider. What’s the scariest thing about Easy Rider? You kinda have to talk about the Death Race remake. Where has exploitative killing for sport gone? The casual nudity of the time. Continue reading →

East coast / west coast crime film double feature. Sidney Lumet and crime dramas. What does based on a “true story” mean? Al Pacino being crazy. 70s Anti-authoritarianism and fighting the man. Anti-hero vs vigilante. When bank heist films became spy movies. Could a movie like Dog Day Afternoon work in today’s political and economic situation? Women in Dog Day Afternoon. The talent behind LA Confidential. Film noir and Hollywood. Bringing character full circle. Continue reading →

Two genres Double Feature will never be fully prepared to cover. A kung-fu badass double feature. Finally – the blaxploitation primer. The woman’s place in blaxploitation. Creating an intelligent script on an ignorant subject. Writing jokes vs acting jokes. Laugh tracks and music cues. Original soundtracks. Cleaning up the streets. Black Dynamite as a commentary on exploitation throwbacks. Hero / Ying Xiong as an example of the evolution of kung-fu. Wire fights. Interpretative dance. The unreliable color scheme. Unitiy, the empire, and blowing your second chance. Double Feature reaches out to the listeners for a new project. Continue reading →

Two films in unfamiliar apartment buildings! Voyeurism. Does Zune have lyrics support? A modern day commune full of crazies. Music, mood, and Paul David Hewson. The tiny blue car revealed: The Corbin Motors Sparrow PTM. Peeking in the window vs wiretapping. A bit about the HBO Voyeur Project. Art scam. I Am The Walrus, as you’ve never heard it before. THE FLYING TOM TOM. The spanish film REC which was later remade in the US as Quarantine. While You’re Asleep. First impressions. Establishing and betraying safety. The doppler scream. Where did it come from? Eli Roth and chick vision. Another Alice Thirteen confession. Double Feature hosts as test subjects. Continue reading →

Different approaches to science fiction. BitTorrent and file sharing. Why some people just can’t watch sci-fi. Jumping the Shark. Tricks of low budget film making. The effect of living forever (the vampire myth). Film cliques and skepticism. The Man From Earth as an exercise in skepticism. The Fifth Element: A failure on paper. On screen, the greatest sci-fi adventure of all time. Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat. A look into the future! Continue reading →

Larry Bishop and Frank Miller – the protégé double feature. Grindhouse revival. Outlaw biker films. The origins of El Pistolero. Deciphering the influences. The evolution of biker films. Larry Bishop. Quentin Tarantino’s role in Hell Ride. Guns. The Badassery of David Carradine. Undeniable badassery. Questionable badassery. The opening of The Spirit. Good or bad, The Spirit is NOT just Sin City. Contrasting the approach and end goal of Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. You can’t talk Frank Miller without talking Batman. How Samuel L Jackson fits himself into any given movie. Scarlett Johansson gets it. Continue reading →

The most packed episode ever? Two very important “horror” films that went above and beyond their genre. What makes 28 Weeks Later and Cloverfiend so brilliant? A quick word on 28 Days Later. A twenty minute conversation about the first ten minutes of 28 Weeks Later. Being rapidly forced through the stages of grief. Compassion vs. self preservation. Looking death in the face. The physical zombie. Why the rage virus? Reflecting on the split decisions. What’s important in terms of horror. The original ending of 28 Weeks Later. Complete camera geek out! How to shoot day-for-night (american night). How to accomplish the “infected camera” look in more detail than you really cared for. Slusho? Chese? Cloverfield! Common reasons to not like Cloverfield (and why they’re ALL bullshit). The often overlooked accomplishments of the camera style. The monster as the b-story. The vast list of iconic moments from Cloverfield. Easter eggs. Alice goes to the ER. Continue reading →

Vampires! Why were these films such outstanding critical successes, and what can we learn from that? Using children as a mechanism to tell a mature story. Vampires as a medium rather than a plot outline. Eli’s guardian Hakan. The brutality of Let the Right One In. How the film treats violence. Vampire lore here and in other movies. Films that use the Let the Right One In philosophy. Unanswered questions. What Interview with the Vampire did for the genre. Anne Rice. What the bookends accomplish. Vampire theatre! No one better say anything about how silly this all is, ok? How scope impacts a film. Roadmap. Continue reading →

SPOILER FREE look back at Music Box Massacre 4. The Haunted House, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Old Dark House, Eyes Without a Face, May, The Facts in the Case of Mr. Hollow, Friday the 13th, Midnight Meat Train, Dead Alive, Phantom of the Paradise, Black Sabbath, Pieces, Jack Brooks Monster Slayer, The Exorcist. Arriving. What to expect. When do you bail? Live score! Remakes were just as rampant back then. The audience. Fear of finding out who a director really is. Seeing May again. Johnny Hollow. Finding Midnight Meat Train. Clive Barker. “The Way it Was Meant to Be Seen” is bullshit. Buy a better TV, you cheap fuck. Why people in Chicago boo Lionsgate. Revisiting Friday the 13th (Part 4). Joseph Zito. Brain Dead. The real Peter Jackson trilogy. Sleep Delirium. Ghost Cold. Apologies to Black Sabbath. Pieces and it’s relationship to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Fake trailers. The ultimate SAND BEETLE. Michael feels the Pull of the Weasel. Death curse! Why the Exorcist is actually a terrible film. Continue reading →

Children’s films with adult themes. New Studio. Aimlessly wandering through fantasy in Dark Crystal. Puppetry and immersion. Peter Molyneux. Making an audience feel for a character. Subtitles? Attention to detail. B-Roll. Folk or camp? The benefits of using a deceptively child-like medium. The introduction of obscene ideas to each individual child. When and why. More evidence that books are not better than films. More genre blending in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Film Noir in all its glory. Hampster styles. The whatever device. Cartoon shorts before films. The early 20th century Grindhouse. An incredibly well written device. An argument for death set against a cartoon reality. Continue reading →