Paranoid Excess

     This week Tyler returns to bathe in early 1980s Californian abundance and terror. We have thoughts about The Shards episodes 1-4. Join us, won't you?
   The Shards Minisode 1- Paranoid Excess

Ice-Cold Angel

     This week- a pair of films starring the late French icon Alain Delon.

     Tom Ripley has been sent to Italy to retrieve Phillippe Greenleaf, son of a wealth San Francisco family. Phillippe has no intention of returning home, especially if it means leaving behind his fiancée, Marge. He soon grows cruel and abusive to the always fawning Tom. But Tom Ripley has ideas and plans of his own. The first film adaption of the original book Patricia Highsmith's classic novel series, Purple Noon (original title: Plein soleil).

     A Gentile art dealer in Vichy France is mistaken from a Jewish man with the same name. Robert Klein's wealthy and secure life is thrown into a paranoid mystery as he tries desperately to both satisfy the authorities on his identity and find who put him in this position to begin with. A Kafkaesque film about obsession and identity, Monsieur Klein.
     All that and Kevin is summoned with digital necromancy, Dave sees the bright lights big city, and Tyler sharpens his tongue for next week. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 375- Ice-Cold Angel

Mind Your Teas and Qs

      This week two girls with slight daddy issues and different ways of expressing their inner turmoil. 

     13- year old Rynn's father is a poet and far too secretive for their nosey landlady, Mrs. Hallet, who keeps finding reasons to bother them. Which, in turn, gives her son reason to suspect that his bothering Rynn won't have anyone to interfere. Part takedown of small town bigotry and isolationism, part children's rights parable, part  wrapped in a unique horror mystery... what happened to The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane?
     Cécile has her father's ashes in a Tupperware container. Her grief turns her into the embodiment of desire as she roams through a small French seaside city. There's a vague economic crisis and a group of connected but nameless and faceless pretty young people stumble around with her. Will Cécile and the rest find whatever it is they are looking for? Or is there nothing but Q (aka Desire)?
     All that and Dave gets senile, Kevin self harms, and Tyler rolls in something. Join us, won't you?

Episode 214- Mind Your Teas and Qs

Criminal Activities

     This week multiple masterminds make mischievous misfortune for moral masses and mobbed moneylenders.

     Now that his son is getting to the point of fleeing the nest, widower Shigeharu looks to connect with a woman in hopes of wifing a nice younger woman. Instead of turning to the normal methods of bars and matchmakers and online profiles, he and his producer friend decide to hold a fake casting call. Because nothing says "I am looking for love" like a light Weinstein session. His eye is caught by Asami and he worms his way in.... unfortunately he doesn't notice the corpses strewn about. Takashi Miike's first international breakthrough film, which lead the early 2000s J-horror boom and inspired the Hostel style US body horror trend, based on a novel by Ryu Murakami... Audition.

     Underground black and white Japanese cyberpunk from cult filmmaker Shozin Fukui shows how much you can do with nothing but determination and stuff stolen from your neighbor's garage band. A pair of rogue scientists perform psychic drug experiments on people grabbed off the street. Subjecting them to brutal tortures that end in horrible deaths and failure... until their final project yields even more terrifying results. Sex, drugs, Speedos, and a whole lot of high concept insanity are crammed in Rubber's Lover.
     One of the best action film directors to ever command a set, one of the most unlikely romantic heroes of the 1970s, a bank robbery gone wrong, a hitman on their trail, and only one way out. Don Siegel delivers another tough and cynical film with a stellar cast, anchored by the great Walter Matthau, in the mostly overlooked gem that is Charley Varrick.
     All that and Kevin moves his command center to a new underground bunker, Dave knows that two actors in that movie were in popular ST roles but he wanted to go easy on them, and Tyler loves like only loving lovers love. Join us, won't you?

Episode 188- Criminal Activities 

Tank VS Sub

     This week we roll into 2021 and Japanuary with an action classic, a pinku classic, and a listener selected overlooked war movie from that long distant mythical time called the 1980s.

     What do you get when you unleash an escaped prisoner, a young woman, four yakuza, and a whole lot of zombies in the middle of a forest that doubles as a gateway to the otherside of this mortal coil? A lot of bloody fun in Versus.
     When she was a high school freshman Naoko was abducted and imprisoned by her neighbor. She went through a month of Hell. Now she lives a double life. By day she is one of Japan's top experts in fertility, by night she is a popular submissive at a high scale S&M club. Naoko has spent her life chasing a feeling she once had in captivity but what is it exactly? Is it the taste of a Sweet Whip (Amai Muchi)?
     A Russian tank is separated from the column. Meanwhile, Taj returns home to find it destroyed and his brother killed. With the tank lost and a group of revenge hungry mujahideen on their trail how long will the group of soldiers keep it together or will their interpersonal conflicts kill them all? Can Taj rise to fill his brother's shoes and lead this group and his village? Or is The Beast truly unstoppable?
     All that and Dave fights Skype, Kevin yearns for the old days of hot buttered crumpets, and Tyler wistfully dreams of Mitsu Dan. Join us, won't you?

Episode 186- Tank VS Sub

Cowabunga-ed in Carbonite

     In the penultimate episode of 2020 we go to two happy places.

     Long long ago in a galaxy far far away, a group of people where chilling, literally, on an ice planet when the evil Empire found them and kicked off a whole bunch of problems for the second to last Jedi, his secret sister, her smuggler lover, his hairy life partner, and their sentient android slaves. Yeah, that's bad but it's The Empire Strikes Back. Hard to find new ways to describe it.
     Long long ago in a city on the East Coast, four teenage ninjas had just taken out the vicious leader of a criminal gang driving the worst petty crime wave in history. Unfortunately, their rest and celebration is cut short as their enemies return thirsty of mutated revenge shenanigans. Also Vanilla Ice is there... what will be revealed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze?
     All that and Kevin had higher highs and lower lows, Dave does Santa right, and Tyler loves like a loving lover who loves. Join us, won't you?

Episode 184- Cowabunga-ed in Carbonite

Can You Read Title Cards?

 
   This week three disembodied voices discuss devoiced bodies. 

     A classic that launched 31 years of monster movies. A benchmark performance in the genre which looms just as large 91 years later. The first of a billion chandelier drops. Lon Chaney and company transform one of literature's most absurd characters into a haunting legend that overshadows its source. Read that strange duet with The Phantom of the Opera.

     A permanently smiling clown, desperate for love that he fells he can never deserve, is elevated to the halls of power in an adaption of Victor Hugo's melodrama. The last glorious blast of German expressionism which casts almost as long a shadow over the Universal Monsters as Phantom. Bolstered by one of the most sensitive performances ever filmed. Tragically, they did remove his brutal takedown of English government... The Man Who Laughs.

     The first film of one of the world's most popular characters. Starring by the first man to ever play the part and brought many of the staple to him that the author never envisioned before. Lost for nearly a century. William Gillette kept Sherlock Holmes viable and popular while Doyle desperately tried to forget him. 1916's Sherlock Holmes.

     A commentary on the conditions people face because of modernization. A tedious, lazy, and completely out of touch satire that set the stage for so many luddite arguments to follow. Considered by some his magnum opus despite yet another fair and featureless heroine and a total lack of points to make besides old rich man thinks progress is bad, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. Don't worry, not all of us hated it.
All that AND Dave shares the pain, Tyler embraces love, and Kevin plots revenge. Join us, won't you?

Episode 181- Can You Read Title Cards?

Hungry Captive Homicidal Sacrificed Vampire Women In The Celluloid Jungle

     OCTOBER HORROR WEEK 2! This week we celebrate women directors in the genre with a five pack of scary flicks.

    The 1980s, trendy restaurants, shallow associates, the stress of keeping up appearances, and over the top murder. Life is difficult for Mary Harron's spree killing investment banker and all around American Psycho.

    A coward sent to a post in exile will soon learn of new dietary regimen that grants remarkable powers and incredible health benefits but comes with a heavy price. The inhabitants of Antonia Bird's fort aren't just peckish but totally Ravenous.

    A serial killing taxi driver takes in a new pet. As the years pass he decides to mold the child into being his protégée. Will Rabbit follow this dark path or will he find salvation from Jennifer Lynch's Chained nightmares?

    Unfairly maligned on release but recently receiving a complete reassessment, Karyn Kusama's dark comedy in finding a very receptive cult. Taking initiative at a gig in a small town, a mediocre band sacrifices Needy's best friend to the legions of Hell. Things take a turn when she reappears with a craving for male classmates. What is Needy to do with Jennifer's Body?

    One of the best vampire films ever made. Caleb discovers the night life when his too aggressive flirting gets him a small neck wound. Taken by a group of nomadic killers, with his father and younger sister on their trail, and forced to choose between love and eternal night or a worse fate. Kathryn Bigelow shows us what happens Near Dark. 

    All that and Kevin schemes, Tyler gets hyped, Dave has senile lapses, and Anna finally uncovers the true mystery hiding in this idyllic town. Join us, won't you?

Episode 174- Hungry Captive Homicidal Sacrificed Vampire Women In The Celluloid Jungle