Hard Candy + Funny Games

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Hard Candy + Funny Games

The dark side of humanity. When people are mean to each other. The return of camera chat! Ambiguous characters. Thought experiments. Character studies. The two character dynamic. Why you want natural, ambiguous characters with questionable motivations. Torture scenes from people who know torture films. Revenge film setup, humanizing payoff. One sheet. “Torture porn.” The point of the Aunt Denise story. Ambient sound. Photography. The US shot-for-shot remake of Funny Games. Pacing, framing and suspense. The question of “why?” The killers behind closed doors. Breaking the fourth wall. Don’t forget to watch videos of adorable pets. Continue reading →

Starship Troopers + Small Soldiers

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Starship Troopers + Small Soldiers

War films, Double Feature style. Paul Verhoeven. A Flying Tom Tom? Animating the bugs. The look and feel of Starship Troopers. War movie cliches. Characters and politics. Maintaining a light feel in a time of war. Censorship. Starship Troopers’ commentary on military recruitment. Wait, what strategy? Various jobs. Class warfare. Privacy. Joe Dante and the tiny. More info than you ever really needed about Eerie, Indiana. Small Soldiers, big voices. Wow, that sentence was lame. Casting. BEAR OR NO BEAR! Artificial Intelligence is apparently not a big deal. Why Small Soldiers is actually darker than Starship Troopers. Science vs one-liners. Continue reading →

Blue Velvet + The Game

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Blue Velvet + The Game

There’s two films, and something’s not quite right. The beginning of a string of Double Feature celebrations. 100 episodes…and people are still listening. New ones, even! Why we still don’t talk about symbolism. An apology to David Lynch before talking Blue Velvet. Noir without the usual suspects. Making the normal seem bizarre. The horror moments. The lighting and environments in Blue Velvet. The impending darkness. Candles. The role Frank plays. Voyeurism. Imagery. David Fincher and The Game. Why one billion twists are actually ok. What’s actually part of the game? When you actually want a film to wrap up at the end. Anticipating audience questions and pointing them towards the right ones. Continue reading →

JCVD + Bronson

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
JCVD + Bronson

Two people who want to be famous – and don’t mind using violence to accomplish this. A new film podcast experiment! Can you even spoil these films? Some behind-the-scenes Double Feature stuff. Alice doesn’t know who JCVD is. Action movie marathon! JCVD as an intro to Jean-Claude Van Damme. Jump cuts. How long before you pull back the curtain? Dog Day Afternoon parallels. Bank heist cliches. How to get away with a bank robbery. Humor in JCVD. The resurgence of late night gameshows. How JCVD is different than breaking the 4th wall. The commentary of self aware films. Fighting and art. Prison addiction. Hard questions about reform and te prison system. Several takes on the theatrical asides. Continue reading →

Rosemary’s Baby + Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Rosemary’s Baby + Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The terror of the times! Two films that embody the horror mindset of the 60s and 70s. Roman Polanski’s apartment trilogy. Fact check: Anton LaVey isn’t in Rosemary’s Baby. How this film differs from Inside. Is there really a connection between the baby boomers and Rosemary’s Baby? Intentional obfuscation through cleverly planned cinematography – and it’s effects! Different interpretations of the ending. Various ways to view the plot of the film (and evidence for each). Alice would be mad if you fucked him in his sleep without prior consent. How Rosemary’s Baby is like a conspiracy theory. Plants don’t have feelings. Invasion of the Body Snatchers remakes. Acupuncture and mud baths have equal medicinal value – which is to say no medicinal value. Leonard Nimoy. Feminism. 70s paranoia. MEATCART. Next week’s highly dubious experiment. Continue reading →

Repo: The Genetic Opera + The Blair Witch Project

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Repo: The Genetic Opera + The Blair Witch Project

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 →

Easy Rider + Death Race 2000

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Easy Rider + Death Race 2000

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 →

Dog Day Afternoon + LA Confidential

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Dog Day Afternoon + LA Confidential

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 →

Killapalooza 9: Hellraiser

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Killapalooza 9: Hellraiser

Hellraiser films 1-8. Pinhead. If you haven’t seen Hellraiser, how much of it should you actually commit to? More on Cliver Barker. Doug Bradley. The Hellbound Heart. Pleasure vs pain. How the treatment of BDSM compares in Hellraiser against Secretary. Coercion vs free choice. Recap overkill. Performing mythology experiments. Michael gets uncomfortable. Curiosity. The Cenobites. Finding the point Hellraiser became a slasher franchise. Retroactive continuity as we’ve never been expected to believe it before! A pillar of monster parts. New cenobites. Pinhead loves princess! Spirit fingers. Things start to get bumpy. The most hated you’ve heard expressed for a film in a long time. The downward spiral that is the last four Hellraiser movies. The end of Killapalooza? Let us know! Continue reading →

Detroit Rock City + Christmas on Mars

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Alice Thirteen
Detroit Rock City + Christmas on Mars

A very musical episode of Double Feature. Kiss and The Flaming Lips. A quick word about the upcoming Killapalooza. A horror director and cast making a 70s Kiss film. Finding the horror moments in Detroit Rock City. Explaining Kiss to a person who couldn’t pick them out of a lineup. The film as a promotional tool. Concert events. Controversial music. Rock and Satanism. The double standard of statutory rape. An examination of Detroit Rock City as a cult film. Why this is relevant to non-Kiss fans. Who or what is The Flaming Lips? Independent science fiction. Making a movie when you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing. When color hurts. Dynamic range in the audioscape of film. What’s going on in Christmas on Mars? More vaginas than ever before. Continue reading →