Killapalooza 41: VHS

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Killapalooza 41: VHS

V/H/S films 1-4. Breaking down every single segment of every single VHS movie in under an hour! The names behind each and every VHS film. Bonus Adam Wingard announcement – Alice Xandra Thirteen’s new documentary on the look of The Guest called Light and Fog. Creativity birthed through the fear of comparison. One word loglines for each V/H/S short. The alternative, darkwave, goth, post-punk & emo kids of Adam Wingard films. VHS segments, one by one. The VHS spin-off called Siren. The lost VHS segment. When the cheap look of an era moves from worst to chique. Repeat producer Roxanne Benjamin! Which is the lightest VHS segment? Which is the heaviest VHS segment? Michael makes a call for techno-horror. What ultimately makes V/H/S work. Continue reading →

Summer of 84 + As the Gods Will

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Summer of 84 + As the Gods Will

Adolescents faces the threat of imminent demise. Childhood games go very, very wrong. Summer of 84 taps into the ongoing 80s-kids-on-bikes genre. The overwhelming sense of dread. When the twist is simply delivering on the promise. Adults, and how they basically fuck everything up for everyone. The oppression of daily life before legal coming-of-age. Films getting the hooks in. Takashi Miike plays a dangerous squid-less game with As the Gods Will. Earth’s new obsession with bottle films revives this prior unsceen WTF film. Soviet Montage Theory inspires Japanese CGI theory. Asian cinema – is it weird, or is it cultural ignorance? Even on the podcast, two Americans can’t put together enough collective knowledge of childhood games to make sense of it all. Continue reading →

Cure + Zodiac

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Cure + Zodiac

Mysterious crimes and the people who are obsessed with them. Also, mandatory darkwave jokes. People are sucking for The Cure Ending Explained. Agreeing on a premise for Cure. The so-called killer – what he does and how the role is played. Trying to work backwards from the concept of the sleeper cell. Checking in to see how science-based skeptic and resident critical-thinker Michael feels about hypnosis. The mind virus comes for us all. Sound design in Cure and the impact on the audience’s feeling. The most and least supernatural interpretations of Cure. Many audience wanted the film Zodiac to solve the Zodiac Murders. The built-in problem with all true crime, be it documentary or fiction. Zodiac as a precursor to David Fincher’s Mindhunter. Continue reading →

Death Becomes Her + So I Married an Axe Murderer

Posted on November 11, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Death Becomes Her + So I Married an Axe Murderer

The Halloween punchline no one asked for. Creating a synopsis for the indescribal Death Becomes Her. Special guest Zemeckis expert Michael Koester. Uncovering one of the truly great Bruce Willis performances that allowed him to then phone it in several times a year until the end of time. Who is truly the star of Death Becomes Her? So I Married an Axe Murderer as an early Mike Myers work. What makes Axe Murderer unique against the other Myers films. Keeping the audience guessing, even when they don’t know they’re doing it. A complete retrospective on the career of a unique breed. The death of celebrity. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue comes to its final resting place. But for how long? Continue reading →

Blacula + Pola X

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Blacula + Pola X

Wrestling with the history of exploitation film. Film is wonderful worker exploitation is bad, and adding race makes everything more complicated. Can we still celebrate the art of those who were exploited? Film as historical documents. The additional context provided by Horror Noir. French Extreme was not a planned movement! How the New French Extremity came to be by accident. French extreme films still call for directors to make work that is very much their own. New French Extremity became horror because horror directors starting making New French Extremity. Cinéma du look and what France considers an “over-stylized film.” Leos Carax is Mr. X. Introducing real sex: unstimulated sex in French brings on a wave of actual sex acts captured between actors on film. Finally, the bleak truth of human existence is confronted in one of Alice’s favorite all-time scenes. Continue reading →

Deep Rising + Dagon

Posted on October 28, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Deep Rising + Dagon

Something blue. What is aquatic horror? How Deep Rising under-sells what’s special about it, and what a proper logline of the actual movie would look like. The rag-tag crew trope. What fears does aquatic horror tap in to? The overwhelming size of big. The mystique of the shadow. Old CGI is finally coming into it’s moment. Controversial opinions on the truth behind the best eras of practical effects. When different low budget film makers get larger budgets. The unique films of Stuart Gordon. The character of the independent director. The artist’s hand. Cancel the ocean. Something old, something new, something borrowing, something blue will return. Continue reading →

House of Wax (1953) + House of Wax (2005)

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
House of Wax (1953) + House of Wax (2005)

Something borrowed. A remake of a remake, sort of. In House of Wax (1953), Vincent Price pitches a wax venture. Maintaining purity in artistic intentions. Later, a person who may or may not be Vincent Price’s character shows up to propagate all the ideas he doesn’t stand for. 3D and other cinematic gimmicks throughout the ages. Which gimmicks stick and which send audiences fleeing the theater. The 2005 House of Wax remake borrows even less from House of Wax 1953 than that version borrows from previous source material. The bizarre reaction to Paris Hilton’s appearance in this very of-the-time horror film. Continue reading →

Upgrade + Malignant

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Upgrade + Malignant

Celebrating October with something new. Leigh Whannell and James Wan are back, back to back. Michael divides modern horror intro three groups. Creating a “wow moment.” Exploring the styles of Upgrade and Malignant: into the unique visual and narrative techniques employed by these two films. Upgrade’s utilization of a high-energy, action-packed style to tell the story of a man who receives a mysterious chip implant that grants him superhuman abilities. Malignant and the use of an atmospheric approach. Both films utilize their respective styles to heighten tension and engage the audience, making for an immersive viewing experience. However, the two films differ in their themes and subject matter, with Upgrade exploring themes of technology and the human condition, and Malignant delving into themes of the supernatural and the human psyche. Continue reading →

The Hunchback of Notre Dame + What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
The Hunchback of Notre Dame + What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Celebrating October with something old. Two films about people outcasted from society and the roles the are relegated to play. The invention of cinema in Paris. Or Europe. Or, you know, New York. Film was born wherever you want to say it was born. The era of the movie palace. Keeping Americans from watching foreign films. A period within a period within The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Getting to the bottom of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. The often cited rise of television pushed film exhibition along – but, in often overlooked ways, film exhibition caused television to innovate as well. It’s the birth of repertory! (or: the re-run) Continue reading →

Dead Man + El Topo

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Alice Thirteen
Dead Man + El Topo

The acid western. Jim Jarmusch’s black and white rock western…noir? Cinematographer Rober Müller. The central figure of the western. Tiny Johnny Depp. William Blake has a full time job – as an accountant. As an accountant. Entering the spiritual world. The original midnight movie. The man in black, El Topo, has to kill a bunch of people so that the woman he took advantage of will fall in love with him. Having exclusively covered the old gentle Jodorowsky, it’s time Double Feature talks discusses Jodorowsky the provocateur. Did Alejandro Jodorowsky actually rape his co-star on camera as he said he did? New York #cancels. El Topo as a Jodorowsky myth. Continue reading →