Twitch of the Death Nerve

The latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode tackles one of the most notorious sexually transgressive epics: Tinto Brass’s Caligula (1979). Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss the absolute wildness of the movie and its complicated, disastrous production history. We also dive into so many of our favorite topics: ancient Rome, the Golden Age of porn and hardcore sex in movies, critiques of absolute...

Earlier this month, the Twitch of the Death Nerve gang took a Texas vacation. Charles, Jon, and Samm ate a lot of tacos, went to the movies, and explored Austin. This trip was primarily for Jon’s birthday, which means there was also a weekend-long movie marathon. The Unsung Horrors Podcast served as our gracious host and kindly allowed us to use their recording equipment, so we had a lengthy...

In the latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode, Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss Jimmy Wang Yu’s epic kung fu revenge masterpiece, Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976). The episode also gives a general overview of the great Wang Yu’s career, why he’s so important to martial arts cinema, and his history as a real life street fighter. We also talk about the wild array of Hong Kong...

In the latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode Charles, Jon, and Samm take a deep dive into ’70s American exploitation cinema with this look at Guerdon Trueblood’s nasty classic, The Candy Snatchers (1973). We discuss how much we love the film — especially the mute child Sean, the real star of the show — but we talk more broadly about the history of American exploitation c...

Happy New Year, friends! Charles, Jon, and Samm are back with an episode on everyone’s favorite guy: Godzilla. We nerd out about one of the wildest Godzilla films, Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), which includes everything from a fight against pollution, psychedelic mod dance sequences, an alien blob monster, and much more. We also take a broader look at the wonderful Showa era films, the origin...

For Christmas Eve eve, Charles, Jon, and Samm are like the Three Wiseman of cult cinema podcasting — delivering the gift of part two of our 12 Days of Psychotronic Christmas episode (which is hopefully more entertaining than frankincense and myrrh). We talk about everything from samurai swords and home invasion movies to time travel and German expressionism. Let us know what you think of our...

Happy Winter Solstice! Charles, Jon, and Samm have a special treat cooked up this Christmas season — a festive, two-part holiday episode of Twitch of the Death Nerve! There’s no way we could pick just one favorite Christmas film, so we’re discussing enough psychotronic holiday movies to get you through all twelve days of Christmas. This includes some expected classics, wild surpr...

On the latest episode of Twitch of the Death Nerve, Charles, Jon, and Samm dive into a particularly beloved cult movie topic — the spaghetti western. We focus on one of the absolute masterpieces of the subgenre, Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence (1968), where two bounty hunters (Klaus Kinski and Jean-Louis Trintignant) face off in the snowy wilderness. The discussion also includes ho...

Happy Thanksgiving from Charles, Jon, and Samm! If you’re not already feeling nauseated from all that stuffing you just ate, this latest Twitch of the Death Nerve episode will surely raise your gorge! We took a deep dive into Faces of Death (1978) and the notorious mondo movie subgenre. Like  National Geographic gone wrong, these brutal shockumentaries include everything from erotic encounte...

Beloved Philadelphia-based cinema collective Exhumed Films have an annual Halloween event, Horrorthon, where they screen 24+ hours of horror movies — an all secret lineup mostly on 35mm. Two years ago they held the “last” Horrorthon, because the venue they were using closed and then of course the pandemic happened. Charles, Jon, and Samm all love Horrorthon and have been to most...

Happy Halloween! In honor of everyone’s favorite holiday, Charles, Jon, and Samm present a special Halloween episode. This is a celebration of the glorious director William Castle and his partnership with best-human-ever Vincent Price — one of our most fun episodes yet. We talk about The Tingler (1959), Castle and his madcap marketing schemes, Price and all his glory (and Samm’s...

Charles, Jon, and Samm are back to share their love for Sammo Hung with this episode all about his groundbreaking horror comedy, Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980). Sammo stars as an unwitting villager and kung fu adept who becomes targeted by a local sorcerer and has to battle zombies, ghosts, hopping vampires, and more. The episode also covers haunted attractions, kung fu horror more broadly, e...

Spooky season is officially upon us, so Charles, Jon, and Samm are back to talk about one of their favorite Halloween pleasures: the lush and atmospheric expanse of Hammer horror. This episode focuses specifically on the Frankenstein series — which launched Hammer’s foray into iconic genre cinema in 1957 — in particular the wild fourth entry, Frankenstein Created Woman (1967). Th...

Not for the faint of heart, this episode is all about one of Charles, Jon, and Samm’s favorite films — Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (1993). Based on the true story of a massacre at the Eight Immortals Restaurant, this is the grim tale of Wong Chi-hang (Anthony Wong), who murdered an entire family, took over their restaurant, and served them up to the customers. Rated “cate...

Charles, Jon, and Samm are back this week to discuss genre icon John Carpenter. The episode particularly focuses on his debut film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), which he wrote, directed, edited, and scored. They discuss everything from Carpenter’s use of classic western tropes to depictions of gang violence, an ice cream truck visit gone wrong, the way the film handles issues of racism and...

Twitch of the Death Nerve is doing something a little different for episode four. Instead of taking a deep dive into a single film, Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss their favorite animals attack movies, ranging all over the subgenre from killer orcas and baby-eating alligators to cuddly bunnies and cheetahs racing down the highway. This sprawling beast of an episode includes a rough top ten list of...

Episode three of Twitch of the Death Nerve is a real scorcher. Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss Roberta Findlay’s hardcore horror classic, A WOMAN’S TORMENT (1977). When a disturbed young woman flees to an isolated beach house, she descends into madness, sex, and violence. Director Roberta Findlay was one of the few women making exploitation and porn films in the ’70s and this epis...

Welcome to episode two of Twitch of the Death Nerve! This time around, Charles, Jon, and Samm discuss one of the holy grails of psychotronic cinema, Shogun Assassin (1980). When the Shogun’s assassin is framed by a rival clan and his wife is murdered, he and his young son have to go on the road fighting ninjas, cutting off heads, and chilling in a tricked out baby cart. The episode also goes...

Episode one of Twitch of the Death Nerve is all about a movie that changed our lives: Lucio Fulci’s The Gates of Hell aka City of the Living Dead. Charles, Jon & Samm talk about everything from the title discrepancies and intestine puking to the majesty of Christopher George and his big Daddy energy.

Welcome to episode zero of Twitch of the Death Nerve. Charles, Jon, and Samm introduce themselves and the podcast and share what they think psychotronic cinema is all about — and what to expect from the show.

Get ready for episode one of Twitch of the Death Nerve, a film podcast all about a movie that changed all our lives—Fulci’s Gates of Hell aka City of the Living Dead!