Twitch of the Death Nerve

For this episode, Charles and Samm were joined by dear friend Phil Jablon, an author, photographer, and researcher who first made a name for himself photographing and documenting historic movie theaters in Thailand. He also collects and sells Thai movie posters — enabling our growing addiction to them — and we talked to him about everything from life in Thailand, his journey exploring...

One of our favorite people, Robert Skvarla, is back on the show to discuss a particularly popular American conspiracy: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Charles and Samm ask Rob a million questions about the murky facts surrounding the murder and dive into a few JFK movies, namely: New Hollywood classic The Parallax View (1974), spaghetti western The Price of Power (1969), and French...

We’re getting romantic in true Death Nerve fashion this Valentine’s Day — with a discussion of three juicy necrophilia films that run the gamut from gore fest to indie teen romance to Hong Kong thriller. Charles and Samm are joined by dear friend Angel, a New Jersey/Philadelphia based performer and model with an unusual penchant for all things macabre. In addition to loving Valen...

We’re diving into some of the Twitch crew’s favorite subjects with the latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode: political resistance, folk horror, and Polish cinema. Historian and pal Matt Kowalski joined Charles and Samm for a lengthy discussion of Andrzej Żuławski’s The Devil (1972) and Marek Piestrak’s She-Wolf (1983). Both films are set during key historical periods in...

We’re baaaaaaack! Charles and Samm took a much needed break in December to relax, regroup, and plan some exciting episodes for the next few months with more wonderful guests. And despite the title of this episode, we also spent a lot of time thinking about our favorite films of 2022; not necessarily new releases, but films that were new to us. So without further ado, here we are, complaining...

For the latest episode of Twitch of the Death Nerve, Charles and Samm are joined by dear friend Eric Bresler, who runs beloved local venue PhilaMOCA and the Philly chapter of the Psychotronic Film Club. We pick his brain about the visionary film, art, and music programming at PhilaMOCA, and the ins and outs of the Psychotronic Film Club. Eric has encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese film, music, and...

A lot of cult movie fans look forward to November, primarily because of the Vinegar Syndrome Black Friday sale — so what better time for Twitch of the Death Nerve to celebrate one of the best blu-ray and film restoration companies. Recently, Charles and Samm took a little vacation up to Connecticut, mostly to go to Vinegar Syndrome’s headquarters and the Archive, their retail store. Wh...

Last year, Twitch of the Death Nerve had a great time covering Exhumed Films 24-hour Horrorthon , the best annual Philadelphia-area event. So here we are again, tired but still alive after a weekend of 15 movies (and trailers and cartoons) across about 26 hours. October 22nd was the 15th Horrorthon and a celebration of 25 years of Exhumed Films — basically Christmas for the cult cinema obses...

Happy Halloween friends! We are vibing so hard this season, between horror movie marathons and pumpkin carving and candy binges, Twitch of the Death Nerve is a little off schedule. So as a seasonal treat, we’ve decided to unlock one of our bonus “happy hour” episodes, which are usually Patreon exclusives. These are looser, more free wheeling discussions that touch on everything from pop cult...

Friends, it is OCTOBER. And the Twitch of the Death Nerve crew is here to party, mostly by discussing everyone’s favorite Italian gothic horror exploitation movie about torturing people in a castle, The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965). A group of models shooting material for a horror novel stumble across a castle owned by tortured actor Travis (Mickey Hargitay), who has become obsessed with the...

Twitch of the Death Nerve is back with the show’s single most requested episode: William Friedkin’s controversial queer serial killer masterpiece,  Cruising (1980). Charles, Jon, and Samm have wanted to talk about this film before the podcast officially began and — out of sheer excitement — the episode is a doozy. Of course we dive elbow deep into Cruising, the various cont...

It’s been almost exactly a year, but the time is finally nigh to return to one of our favorite topics here at Twitch of the Death Nerve: Hong Kong CAT-III films. In the latest episode, Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss Danny Lee and Billy Tang’s horror masterpiece, Dr. Lamb (1992), which has recently had a long overdue restoration and blu-ray release. The film stars Simon Yam as a disturb...

Are you yeti to party? We certainly are in the latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode, which has a slightly different format: Charles and Samm are joined by Rob Skvarla, who is filling in for Jon this week. Some of you might remember Rob as Samm’s co-host on goth podcast Evil Eye . Rob is also a brilliant writer, researcher, and has a wild Twitter account where he discusses conspiracy theories,...

The very first Twitch of the Death Nerve episode of 2022 was on a Godzilla movie, but we just had to include what you could call a kaiju-adjacent episode before the year was out. Charles, Jon, and Samm just love Ishirō Honda so much, which brings us to our latest discussion of Honda’s underrated and underseen Matango (1963). Though Honda is beloved for creating the Godzilla series and direct...

The latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode marks a number of occasions for Charles, Jon, and Samm: it’s the one-year anniversary of our podcast and it’s just a few days away from Samm and Mario Bava’s birthdays (both on July 31st). For this episode, we talk more broadly about Bava’s incredible career and do a deep dive on  Bay of Blood (1971), the film with a thousand tit...

Twitch of the Death Nerve are back from a brief hiatus! For this episode, which just happened to be recorded on the 4th of July, Samm INSISTED on doing a deep dive into Billy Jack. We cover the many hours of cinema writer, director, and star Tom Laughlin devoted to the character over four films: The Born Losers (1967), Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974), and Billy Jack Goes to Washi...

Thanks to the last episode dropping early and then COVID laying one of us low, Twitch of the Death Nerve has gotten slightly off schedule. To tide you over, we decided to unlock one of our bonus “happy hour” episodes, which are usually Patreon exclusives. These are looser, more free wheeling discussions that touch on everything from pop culture and new releases, to our latest gripes. F...

After a two year hiatus (thank you COVID), Exhumed Films’ 12-hour exploitation movie marathon known as eX-fest — one of the best annual events in the Philadelphia area — made its grand return last weekend. Previously held at the now defunct International House in Philly, ex-fest part X moved to the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA. In this episode, Charles, Jon, and Samm disc...

On the last Twitch of the Death Nerve episode, we covered sociopathic teenagers bombing Hong Kong, so we decided to lighten things up this time around with a discussion of systemic racism, fighting back against white supremacy, and overthrowing the state. Charles, Jon, and Samm dive into the Black power classic, The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and two radical related films, Top of the Heap (...

Charles, Jon, and Samm have really been on a tear lately discussing some brutal films with radical political themes. Theoretically, we should stop for a minute and do a “fun” episode, but the current state of the world is making this difficult. Between the formula shortage and abortion rights likely being overturned in the US to the barrage of tragic (and thoroughly preventable) mass s...

We hope you’re hungry, because the new Twitch of the Death Nerve episode is a real feast for the senses. Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss one of the most notorious cult movie subgenres — Italian cannibal films — particularly focusing on Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust. The questions we try to answer in this episode include: Who actually likes these films? (Spoiler: we do!) Wh...

Just in time for Walpurgisnacht, the latest Twitch of the Death Nerve is all about one of our favorite topics: witchcraft. In this episode, Charles, Jon, and Samm focus on the underrated British-American classic, City of the Dead (1960), better known to American audiences as Horror Hotel. In order to write a research paper, a young college student travels to an eerie New England town known for its...

Since Twitch of the Death Nerve first became a possibility, we have been waiting for this glorious moment… OUR FIRST (but certainly not last) PINKY VIOLENCE EPISODE!!!! Sharpen your switchblades, rev your motorcycles, and get ready for an intense discussion of one of our favorite things in the entire world. This episode, Charles, Jon, and Samm dive into the Japanese pinky violence subgenre b...

Twitch of the Death Nerve really went off script for this latest episode, where Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss Mexican legend El Santo. One of the world’s greatest pop culture heroes, Santo made 50 films in addition to his celebrated wrestling career (and run of comic books, etc), so we decided to celebrate his life in a broader sense, rather than focusing on one particular film. We do share...

The latest episode of Twitch of the Death Nerve is devoted to French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot and his masterpiece of suspense, Les diaboliques (1955). A landmark of crime and suspense cinema, it ushered in a new type of murder mystery. Charles, Jon, and Samm talk about their love for that film and so much more: Clouzot’s career, why Diabolique is so important and influential, the diff...