Make Your Own Damn Podcast

Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, House on the Edge of the Park, Promising Young Woman... what do all these films have in common? They're all part of the r*pe/revenge subgenre. Jeff Burk and Lucas Mangum discuss these films in detail, as well as list some of their favorites.

In this previously Patreon-exclusive, Lucas and Jeff sit down with Kevin L. Donihe (author of Night of the Assholes) to discuss war movies and A24 fandom.

Troma has long been known for making films designed to provoke their audience, but have they ever taken things too far? Has the studio that gave us  Bloodsucking Freaks  and  Terror Firmer  ever outdone itself? We're not sure, but 2000's  Unspeakable  certainly comes close to crossing those boundaries. A low-budget, transgressive affair,  Unspeakable  follows a grieving father as he stalks the str...

Why are there so many Amitville movies? Who is making them? How deep does Amitville Rabbit Hole (release date TBD) go? It's technically the horror franchise with the most sequels, but very few made in the past twenty years are canonical. Whatever that means. Join Jeff and Lucas on this strange, haunted journey to discover WTF is going on with the Amityville franchise.

In 1992, the BBC aired a Halloween special starring its own anchors and featuring an excursion into a purportedly haunted house. The results led to Ghostwatch being one of the most controversial made-for-TV movies ever made. Jeff and Lucas unpack the movie itself and its notorious reputation.

Shot on a budget of only $25,000,  The Deadly Spawn  is an iconic 80s monster movie. As much as Jeff loathes 80s slashers, he loves 80s monster movies. Lucas likes both, big surprise. They dive into the making of this movie and highlight their favorite moments. 

This week on Make Your Own Damn Podcast, Lucas tortures Jeff with another slasher movie. This time it's the well-loved (but not by Jeff) 1981 hidden gem Graduation Day. Distributed by Troma Entertainment, this cult classic features Christopher George (Fulci's Zombi 2 and City of the Living Dead), Linea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Demons), and Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White!

Jeff and Lucas come back swinging with their top ten movies of the previous year. A lot of the entries may surprise you, but not as much as a plethora of internet issues surprised us this week. The gods did not want us to do a listicle, it seems, but we did it. We won. If you love the show, consider supporting us on the  Patreon . 

Director Mike Dougherty followed up his Halloween masterpiece  Trick 'r Treat  with  Krampus  an old school monster movie set on Christmas. Jeff and Lucas rundown the film's plot, the production, and Christmas movies in general in this extra special Christmas spooktacular episode of Make Your Own Damn Podcast.

This week on Make Your Own Damn Podcast, Jeff and Lucas look at Troma's  other  killer kids movie. This one's got atomic hugs, body-melting, and a score by Friday the 13th's Harry Manfredini!

Jeff and Lucas discuss the much-maligned cannibal subgenre, as well as movies containing cannibalism either through explicit depictions or inference. Cannibal Ferox, Blood Diner, Motel Hell, Silence of the Lambs, The Green Inferno, and Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea all get mentions. Ruggero Deodato is still the king. We like Joe D'Amato too. Umberto Lenzi, not so much.

First, The Toxic Avenger saved Tromaville from a corrupt mayor and gym-rat bullies. Then, he took Tokyo, Godzilla-style. Now, he squares up against the Devil Himself in The Toxic Avenger III: The Last Temptation of Toxie. A self-fulfilling prophecy for Troma, it chronicles Toxie's selling out to Apocalypse Inc and subsequent redemption. It's an intriguing note in the company's history, but is it a...

A meta labor of love sequel to a DIY, no-budget slasher, THANKSKILLING 3 has the dubious honor of being called the worst movie of all time by armchair movie critics, but is it? The short answer is no, and you might be a poser if you think it is. If you're not a poser, and you'd like to support our show, stop by our Patreon for bonus episodes and other goodies:  Make Your Own Damn Podcast is creati...

Somehow Troma Entertainment has the distribution rights to the 1940s-style wedding farce Brian DePalma made in graduate school. And Robert DeNiro's in it! We have... very little else.

Today, Jeff and Lucas discuss the much-maligned disaster movie genre. Like most much-maligned genres, we love it, and argue that it's a lot deeper and more interesting than its detractors would have you believe. 

A landmark film in the history of queer genre cinema, Killer Condom is a notorious entry from distributor Troma Entertainment's mid-90s revival. We've got a protagonist with a foot-long dong, prophylactics with sharp teeth designed by H.R. Geiger, mad scientists, and the grimy streets of pre-Guiliani New York. In other words, everything! Killer Condom is the rubber that rubs you out.

Unquestionably the most controversial film ever made, Cannibal Holocaust was unleashed upon audiences in 1980. It's been talked about at-length, but Jeff Burk has uncovered some even more shocking behind-the-scenes information regarding this landmark film. And despite all its baggage, Cannibal Holocaust remains infuriatingly good. Support the podcast by buying our merch:  Home | Make Your Own Damn...

PLAGA ZOMBIE is an independent horror movie short on resources but long on guts. Originally released in 1997, it launched a Latin American splatter franchise that's still going strong today. Jeff and Lucas take a deep dive into its goriest scenes.

Known primarily for schlocky hits like  House on Haunted Hill  and  13 Ghosts , William Castle was the horror genre's equivalent to a carnival barker. His movies came with unique theater experiences that still resonate to this day.

An 80s slasher movie with a Troma twist, Splatter University tells the age-old tale of an escaped mental patient stalking co-eds. Plus, the abortion conversation, dick stabbings, boob stabbings, and slasher movies where no character is safe.

We're not sure there's ever been a music video project like NIN's Broken Movie. A faux snuff film intercut with videos for every song off the Broken EP but "Last" and the two secret tracks, it was one of the most sought out pieces of media of the modern era. It was leaked to bootleg sites in the mid-2000s (purportedly by Trent Reznor himself), it's never had an official release. We discuss it in d...

In the late aughts, Virginia filmmakers Drew Bolduc Dan Nelson set out to film the post-apocalyptic splatter movie The Taint. An exploration of misogyny, violence, and sexual violence with some highly impressive Troma-esque gore, The Taint is the sort of B horror flick that would play well at a party. This episode was NOT sponsored by BlueChew.

Possibly the most polarizing figure in horror filmmaking, Eli Roth splattered onto the scene twenty years ago with CABIN FEVER. Jeff is a mega-fan, and in this week's episode, he argues for Roth's validity as a creator and personality. 

This week, Jeff and Lucas look at a slasher movie that also mines the haunted house and possession subgenres for its tropes. Girls School Screamers is basically a trope-fest, shot in Philadelphia in the 1980s by John P. Finnegan and distributed by Troma (who also reshot parts of the film). Lucas is much kinder to this one than Jeff is, but they both agree: the music by John Hodian is excellent.

In 1976, genre giants Samuel Z. Arkoff and Charles B. Pierce unleased the crime thriller THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, a film that inspired a meta sequel/remake by the makers of American Horror Story, local controversy, and nightmares for co-host Lucas Mangum. We dive deep into this effective slice of regional filmmaking.