Flickers from the Cave

There is something undeniably freaky about puppets and mannequins. This time in the cave we look at two movies which feature this fact at the core of their stories. We start off with " Magic " from 1978. Directed by  Richard Attenborough  and starring true Hollywood heavyweights  Anthony Hopkins ,  Ann-Margaret  and  Burgess Meredith , and with a script by the legendary  William Goldman , based on...

To celebrate Halloween, we went back to the well for another round of "What Scares You?"© where Julie returned to the creepy land of clowns! We start off with the abysmal " The Clown Murders " from 1976. Directed by  Martyn Burke , who've we talked about before, this is a fully Canadian production with some familiar faces in the cast, including the late great  John Candy ! The story is more compli...

This one has been a long time coming! We have been wanting to cover the work of  Ron Ormond  since we first stepped into the cave, many years ago! He has been slowly gaining more recognition recently and a box set of his films has been released. Starting out on stage, he moved into films and had a successful run making exploitation movies primarily for drive-in audiences. After an accident in a sm...

For the epically-long episode 224 we look at two dark comedies with cannibalism at their core. We start off with the 1980 classic " Motel Hell " from show-favorite director  Kevin Connor . It focuses on "Farmer Vincent" played by  Rory Calhoun  and his sister Ida, played by Porky's-own  Nancy Parsons . They run the "Motel Hello" and are known all across the local area as the purveyors of "Farmer V...

We cross "the pond" to find two unique films from the legendary British film studio " Hammer ". Both movies feature vampires and supple young females, and both are VERY entertaining! We start off with 1971's " Twins of Evil " which stars Grand Moff Tarkin himself,  Peter Cushing , as a crusading member of "The Brotherhood" who is trying to save the souls of everyone in his small European village f...

It's Pride month and we are looking at two really fun movies written by and starring the iconic  Charles Busch ! We start off with " Psycho Beach Party " from 2000 which is a mash-up of the old beach party movies from the 50's and 60's combined with a bit of the "teens running amok" films, but with all of that projected through a modern lens and presented in a campy, tongue-in-cheek send up of all...

We're back to the fascinating world of stuntmen and daredevils this time in the cave. We are looking at two films from director Mark L. Lester which he made very early in his prolific career. We start off with " Steel Arena " from 1973 which stars several real-life daredevils as they tour the backroads of America, performing their insane stunts at county fairs. We learn all about the struggles and...

Mirrors are objects of fascination and have become powerful symbols through the course of human history. Our two movies this time have mirrors as the heart of the stories and, in both cases, these are mirrors you might want to avoid looking into! We start off with 1980's " The Boogey Man " from director  Ulli Lommel . Opening in a flashback, set in a rural area, we see two young siblings involved...

We return to the familiar territory of the 80's for our selections this time, starting out with 1983's " Sweet Sixteen " directed by  Jim Sotos . It's a sordid and occasionally confusing tale of a small town that is suddenly plagued with mysterious events, including murders! The local sherrif, played by show-favorite  Bo Hopkins  attempts to get to the bottom of things with the help of his two tee...

Come back with us to the 70's for two music-focused films that you may know more for the songs on their soundtracks than for the story content. We start off with " FM " from 1978, with an incredible cast, including  Martin Mull ,  Cleavon Little  and  Eileen Brennan . The plot follows the staff at a radio station in Los Angeles that is struggling to maintain it's integrity while corporate forces w...

There is so much glitter scattered all over the cave this time after we watched two movies that center around the workers at strip clubs. In both movies, there are mysterious deaths occuring, the police are called in, and clothes are discarded...these are pure 80's nonsense and great examples of the sort of low-budget filmmaking that was happening back then. Both films are written and directed by...

For our first episode recorded in 2023, we look at two films from writer/director  Eric Red ! We start off with " Cohen and Tate " from 1988, starring  Roy Scheider  and  Adam Baldwin  in a tale of two hitmen sent to retrieve a young boy and bring him in for questioning by the mob. It's a bit of a mess, with cartoony performances but it has enough good ideas and moments that it's ultimately satisf...

Happy New Year! Our last recording of 2022 is the first posted episode of 2023! We look at two weird little movies from directors we are very fond of. We start off with  Rian Johnson's  " Brick " from 2005. Starring  Joseph Gordon-Levitt  as Brendan, a high-schooler who is wrapped up in a very tangled and tragic mystery. Presented like a classic noir detective story, with sharp dialogue and double...

We make this podcast in a cave, so it should come as no surprise that our movies this time involve journeys deep under the surface of the earth. We start off with " Grim " from 1996, a tiny little movie from director  Paul Matthews  with an impressive monster suit and a story that almost instantly fell out of our brains after watching it. It is set in a small town with an elaborate set of caves ru...

Happy Halloween from the Cave!!! In the "spirit" of the season, we look at two very fun films from the 80s that focus on witches, curses and the overwhelming influence of evil. We start off with 1983's  The Devonsville Terror  from director  Ulli Lommel . A new teacher shows up in a small town where the locals are NOT open to oustiders. The teacher learns about the checkered past of the town, and...

Who's that watching you from across the street? Is someone listening in to your private conversation? Did someone put something in your drink? Why is everyone out to get you? These are all questions that swirl in the minds of the conspiratorial and also in the cave this time as we look at two EXCELLENT conspiracy-related films. We start off with 1974's  The Parallax View , directed by the legendar...

In a world that seems to be clearly working AGAINST women, there is something cathartic about watching films where females turn the tables on the people keeping them down and teach them a little something about right and wrong. We watch two VERY wild examples of this type of storyline this time in the cave. We start off with 1987's  Angel of Vengeance  co-directed by two legends of low-budget film...

We are focusing on the respected director  John Dahl  on this episode of the podcast. A front-runner in the  Neo-Noir  movement, he has produced a number of films that drip with style and he loves a twisty plot full of backstabs and deceit. We start off by talking about  The Last Seduction  from 1994. Starring actor-turned-director  Peter Berg  and  Linda Fiorentino , it's a pitch-black tale of a...

America has a gun problem. So much media is out there where guns are featured almost as the lead characters, and sometimes there's nothing more fun than getting lost in this alternate reality and letting the cathartic violence wash away your cares of the day. It seems lately though that the reality of gun violence is harder and harder to ignore. We picked two movies for the podcast that focus on g...

Vincent Price  is a horror icon for good reason...he's been in so many classics and has one of the most recognizable voices ever. We looked at two of his films that are a little lighter for the podcast this time. Starting with 1983's " The House of the Long Shadows " that has a truly stellar cast of horror luminaries including  Christopher Lee ,  Peter Cushing  and  John Carridine . The lead is pl...

When we sat down to record episode 207, we just wanted to talk about  Fred Ward  and how much we love him in everything! Several days after recording, the world learned that he had passed away, and we were left with an episode where we talk at length about him, not knowing what was to come. So, please think of this episode as a memoriam for a great actor who was great in every film he was in, with...

We head to Australia for a couple of VERY fun stuntman-focused films that both star the magnetic and truly daring  Grant Page  and both are directed by show-favorite  Brian Trenchard-Smith . We start off with 1976's  Death Cheaters  which co-stars  John Hargreaves  as Page's partner who are recruited to help the government deal with a group of bad guys by using their stunt-focused skills. It is a...

We have another interesting pairing of films that have a lot in common. They both focus on film editors who get caught up in some crazy moments and violence and murder ensues!  We start off with  Evil Ed  from 1995, a Swedish production that really goes for it! This movie is incredibly ambitious, especially when considering it's small budget, but the filmmakers really succeed! The film follows a m...

Once again, we've found two VERY similar films to talk about. This time we look at two black & white vampire movies set in New York City, with VERY big ideas, awesome cinematography and great music. We start off with 1995's  The Addiction  from director  Abel Ferrara . It stars  Lili Taylor  as a graduate student who is attacked by a vampire and begins to turn. It presents vampirism as a parab...

It seems like we just can't get enough of the films of director  Cirio Santiago ! We look at two from him that are VERY similar...maybe a little TOO similar when you get right down to it! We start off with " Wheels of Fire " from 1985 which stars  Gary Watkins  as a  Mad-Max -Alike named Trace who is driving around a post apocalyptic wasteland trying to save his sister from an evil cabal known as...