Storytelling + Mister Lonely

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Storytelling + Mister Lonely

Two filmmakers who love similar themes but don’t get along with each other. Pretending all films are totally approachable and that you’re not worried people on the internet will think you’re an idiot. Every week, Double Feature talks about two films as if they’re the best films ever made. Truth and fiction in Storytelling. Every story-writing workshop that ever happened. Sexuality and youth. The return of American Movie. A life of impersonation in Mister Lonely. Looking too deeply into a film. Harmony Korine at face value. When a movie takes the right path. Continue reading →

Killapalooza 22: The Evil Dead

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Killapalooza 22: The Evil Dead

The Evil Dead films 1-4. How an indie film that wouldn’t pass the film-class final became one of the most ifluential horror properties of all time. The power of rhythm and repitition. Aggrivated industrial loops (and other secrets Trent Reznor already knows). Continuity. When and why a film would strive to make sure the audience is uncomfortable – even as far as actively having a bad time. The possessed camera. Evil Dead and the nature of evil. How do you reconcile Evil Dead 2 with the original Evil Dead? What’s canonical. An unpopular opinion on Army of Darkness. The Ash Factor. Wild horses. Using the power of the remake for good. Continue reading →

Akira + The Sky Crawlers

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Akira + The Sky Crawlers

Double Feature and anime. A continued attempt to learn about film purely through immersion. What Akira has in common with previous films Double Feature has covered. The influence of Akira on live-action American storytelling. Biological technology in a cyberpunk way instead of a body horror way. Doing new and unfamiliar things with body horror. The introduction of commercial Japanese animation to the American youth market. An obsession with power. Changing forms. Future Tokyo, animated. The animation breakthroughs unleashed by Akira. Keyframes, limited animation and sound. The Sky Crawler’s vision of corporate-sponsored warfare. Quenching the (probably not real) human need for violence. Modern-day gladiators. A surprisingly realistic depiction of a type of warfare not often seen. An element of mystery is revealed. Anime’s fixation on childhood. Inspecting youth in military. Foreign animation and eroticism. Continue reading →

Prom Night + The House on Sorority Row

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Prom Night + The House on Sorority Row

Slasher one-off (non-franchise) films with cult standing. Year One of Double Feature is returning! Details within! Studios marketing a film differently with each home video release, essentially telling audiences it’s about something different now. Prom Night is watching a slasher film before “slasher” became a genre. The red herring. Consider: if it’s worth doing, it’s worth over-doing. How the 80s slasher film disrespects its audience, and how its audience came to love that. Horror films based on events and holidays. Another return of Mean Creek kids being mean as pranks go wrong. Revising the group lie / cover-up. Peer pressure and the pack mentality. Why the memorable slashers (Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, etc) are the least personal characters in their films. The all female cast of The House on Sorority Row. When you call for the police. Continue reading →

Double Feature Year 7 Kickstarter and Mini-Series

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Double Feature Year 7 Kickstarter and Mini-Series

The Year 7 Kickstarter is up!
Year 7 Kickstarter

We’ve been filming a Double Feature mini-series in secret, and now it’s online. The series acts as a fictional prequel to our Year 7 Kickstarter, which is now live as well. We’ll be updating the Kickstarter page with new videos every few days, so keep checking back. If you like the podcast, these videos are pretty much designed for you. It’s weird how much of our show is in there.

The Kickstarter incentives are even better than last year. This is your chance to get in on the Additional Content you’re missing out on, as well as the next year’s worth (assuming we get funded). We really want to keep doing the show. This last year has been a blast, it’s been great discovering all these new films with you. Let’s do it again!

In addition to all that, we’re making a new set of Year 1 remasters available to backers. Head over to Year 7 Kickstarter page, watch some videos, and see what’s in store. Thanks in advance for your help, you guys really are the best.

-Alice and Michael

Showgirls + Meet the Feebles

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Showgirls + Meet the Feebles

Double Feature’s big announcement unveiled – an all new Kickstarter featuring a narrative Double Feature mini-series! An examination of show business through broken lenses. The success of Showgirls. Funneling the audience through embarrassment. NC17’s impact on marketability. The amazing things about Showgirls lost to time. How an audience boils a movie down to a single idea as years pass. A totally different perspective – why other audiences defend Showgirls today. Peter Jackson’s love of filth. Why Meet the Feebles should exist. The artistic role of an extreme. Making sacrifices to live at the end of a specturm. Continue reading →

Ghosts of Mars + Giallo

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
Ghosts of Mars + Giallo

Blacksheep comebacks from horror giants. Continuing to find insight on two directors Double Feature knows front to back. John Carpenter’s enemies that can not be reasoned with. Loving a film the director himself can’t stand. Secret things you can do to get more fun out of a film. Pretending there’s a hidden scene where Jason Statham was put in a timeout. The space frigate genre. Pretending there’s an unreliable narrator. A flashback within a flashback. Audiences cheering on protagonists without thinking. Applauding for martian genocide. The real secret reason Ghosts of Mars is notable – Ghosts of Mars is the most accurate adaptation of the gaming franchise Doom. Revisiting Dario Argento’s influence on the giallo genre. Skeptics approach the elements of giallo, including the paranormal. Is Dario Argento’s film Giallo self-referential? A conversation about the sexual theme (or lack of) in the film. Where this killer falls in the pantheon of movie killers. The purpose Linda serves. Continue reading →

John Dies at the End + The Man with the Iron Fists

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
John Dies at the End + The Man with the Iron Fists

Fuck you, rules! Convention-defying movies for the internet age. Trickle down auteurism. Going into a movie knowing nothing – how do you pitch films to people who don’t want to know about them before seeing them? The tendency of frequent movie-goes to develop a taste for the strange and extreme. Double Feature’s unconventional opinion is every movie is a “see it.” Revisiting Franz Kafka. Spoiling John Dies at the End. Appreciating the weirder path (scenic route!) to plot resolution. The Theseus Paradox. There’s no time to explain, aka Bear or no bear. Play along goddamnit; looking for plot holes ruins movies. The Balducci Levitation, SETI, and Deepak Chopra – tipping your hand to the Skeptical movement. Using the powers of skepticism for evil. The Internet is starting to write films. Eli Roth as a producer. Filmmakers pay filmmakers to proliferate auteurism. Hollywood gets out of the artist’s way. Larry Bishop, Quentin Tarantino, and The Man with the Iron Fists. The RZA plays pretend. The various clans and styles. Continue reading →

The Wolf Man + Soylent Green

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
The Wolf Man + Soylent Green

The last of the Year 6 Universal horror and classic science fiction pairs. The cautious release of The Wolf Man in a post-war cinema. What did genre-horror look like the better part of 100 years ago? The metaphores of the Wolfman. An unlikely celebration of the inherit sexism in Universal monster films. Lon Chaney Jr, the lovable creep. Unintended meaning added over time. Today’s hippy fad-diets of California drive a culture to look more like the world of Soylent Green – no apocolyptic circumstances required. Human invention solves overpopulation. Nostalgia ruins human progress. Look forward. Things did not used to be better. Was the 70s better than today? No. No, it wasn’t. Celebrating cheery-picked memories. Modern cynacism is still cynacism. Continue reading →

American Movie + Mean Creek

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Alice Thirteen
American Movie + Mean Creek

The consequences and triumphs of reducing human beings to caricatures. Fears of the midwest. Mark Borchardt’s process in American Movie. How first impressions, language, and appearance impact your impression of someone’s intelligence. Is Mark a skilled filmmaker or a hack? The best take-aways from filming Coven. What prevents Mark and Mike from being more noticed or successful? Mean Creek creates a challenging conversation. Alice would still turn Michael in to the police. Listeners request a reconsideration of the national bullying dialogue. Where is the line crossed in Mean Creek? What’s the morally correct position and why is it so hard to identify? Double Feature agrees to have an uncensored thought experiment that could change the fate of the podcast forever. Continue reading →