Video Monsters

Anyone who has listened to the podcast for even just a little bit knows that we like having a theme for our episodes each month (whether or not we are able to always stick to that theme is a different story...but, in general we like themes).  The theme for April was supposed to be Chattanooga Film Festival coverage, but (like everything else) it had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  S...

Continuing our year-long theme covering the history of cinema, today's episode covers films from the 1930s!  While there are countless amazing movies from the 30s that we could have focused on, as well as some tremendous advancements in cinema (such as "talkie" pictures and technicolor), this episode primarily turned into a discussion of Universal Monsters and The Marx Brothers (two of Nathan's pe...

In preparation for the world premiere of Fangoria's remake of Castle Freak at the Chattanooga Film Festival (April 16-19), today's episode is about the original Castle Freak from 1995, directed by Stuart Gordon and staring Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Jessica Dollarhide, and Jonathan Fuller as the title character (the castle freak, that is).  Castle Freak is drastically different in tone from...

Continuing our year-long theme covering the history of cinema, today's episode covers films from the 1920s!  As a reminder, these History of Cinema episodes will not be a comprehensive coverage of every single movie that was released that decade. It isn't even necessarily going to be the "top" movies from the decade.  Instead, it will be more of a broad discussion of some of the advancements, them...

If you've been listening to the podcast for a little while, you've realized that we generally like to do themed months.  This year, along with the themed months, we will also be doing a year-long theme covering the history of cinema.  We will be covering a decade a month, starting with the early days of cinema (ok, so this first episode is a bit more than a decade...) and going right up to present...

Closing out our series of Love and Monsters (which we did in honor of both After Midnight and Sadistic Intentions being released on Valentine's Day) is Warm Bodies!  After covering such amazing films as Spring and The Shape of Water, Warm Bodies might seem like a bit of an odd choice.  But, despite the fact that the marketing of the movie has gotten it lumped into the likes of Twilight, Warm Bodie...

Continuing our series of Love and Monsters (in honor of both After Midnight and Sadistic Intentions being released on Valentine's Day) is The Shape of Water!  Even though this movie is only a few years old, it is among our all time favorite movies here at Video Monsters.  And when we first discussed the idea of doing a Love and Monsters series, we both instantly knew that The Shape of Wa...

In honor of both After Midnight and Sadistic Intentions being released on Valentine's Day, our series for February is Love and Monsters.  The focus of this series is going to be movies that are primarily driven by a romance story line, but that also have monsters (rather than monster movies that have a romance subplot)... so, we are super excited to be kicking off this series with Spring (2014), b...

Closing out our "Newer Isn't Always Better" series is the 2014 remake of the Paul Verhoeven masterpiece, RoboCop.  As a reminder, even though part of the reason for the title of this series is to poke fun at ourselves (with our "official" relaunch of the podcast) - and even though each movie that we discussed in this series does not live up to its predecessor - there are a few important things tha...

Next up in our "Newer Isn't Always Better" series is a John Carpenter remake double-feature with The Fog & The Thing.  As a reminder, even though part of the reason for the title of this series is to poke fun at ourselves (with our "official" relaunch of the podcast) - and even though each movie that we will be discussing in this series does not live up to its predecessor - there are a few importa...

It's a new year, a new decade, and the "official" relaunch of the podcast (complete with finished logo and new intro music)...so we are kicking things off with our series "Newer Isn't Always Better."  And since we take movies seriously at Video Monsters, but not ourselves, we are totally on board with the irony of using this series as the official relaunch of the podcast.  Even though pa...

It's time, once again, for the annual Video Monsters Christmas Spectadequate (it's not spectacular, but it's at least spect...y'know...adequate)!!  This year's Christmas Spectadequate was born out of our Frightening Ass Film Fest coverage in which Mark Christopher Covino talked about how he tries to watch a Santa slasher movie each day in December.  So, on tonight's episode, Mark Christo...

Tonight's episode of Video Monsters is a special minisode to serve as a teaser for the release of our Christmas Spectadequate episode on Christmas Eve!!  The topic for this year’s Christmas Spectadequate is going to be a countdown of the top Santa slasher flicks, as voted on by you, the listener - with special guests Mark Christopher Covino and Andrew Austin!  So, tonight, Kyle Kuchta (f...

A few weeks ago, I joined the wizarding world as CONjuration once again descended upon Atlanta, providing a magical weekend for fans of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and all things fantasitcal!!  CONjuration was founded in 2014 and each year the con becomes bigger and better (but without outgrowing its roots or forgetting why it was started in the first place)! The variety of programming,...

Twas another heist before Christmas and on tonight's episode, both movies we discuss are kinda middle of the road. That doesn't mean that we hate them, in fact they both have great factors.  But for one of the movies, Eric would rather be hit by a tractor. Our opinions differ greatly for these cinematic excursions, but we both agreed that these weren't the best versions. Both movies we watche...

Twas the heist before Christmas and all through the podcast, there were many schemes a stirring to theme our holiday 'sodes (I can shorten "episodes" to "sodes," right??). The microphone was set by the computer with care, in hopes that inspiration soon would be there. When what should appear to our wondering eyes, but an autocorrected text changing "horror" to "heist!" The theme was perfect, we th...

In tonight's episode, we (finally) conclude our coverage of the Knoxville Horror Film Festival 2019!!  There are always so many amazing movies that screen at Knoxville Horror Film Festival that, not matter how hard we try, we just aren't able to get all of our thoughts contained into just one episode.   The people involved in making KHFF happen absolutely have a passion for horror m...

Even though we have covered both Fingers and After Midnight on the podcast multiple times before (in our Chattanooga Film Festival, Knoxville Horror Film Festival, and Frightening Ass Film Fest coverage), if you listened to part one of our Knoxville Horror Film Festival 2019 coverage a few episodes back, then you heard Nathan talk about how the Fingers & After Midnight double-feature was one o...

In tonight's episode, special guests Andrew Austin and Mark Christopher Covino join the Video Monsters (well, one of them at least...) to discuss the Frightening Ass Film Festival, presented by the Chattanooga Film Festival!  Along with discussing the films we saw at FAFF (some we all absolutely loved, and some we had some differing opinions on), we go way off topic several times...so, you know, a...

Welcome to Video Monsters!  Where we take movies seriously, but not ourselves.  If you have been following us on social media recently, you know that we are currently in the process of some rebranding and have changed the name of the podcast from The Gargyle Podcast to Video Monsters.  And if you have listened to just about any episode of the podcast, you have undoubtedly heard us t...

After two months, 9 guests, and a multitude of horror movies (most of which were first-time viewings), we are finally drawing our Horror Movie Blind Spot series to a close.  We have had such an amazing time that I am sure we will eventually do another round of horror movie blind spots.  But, joining us to close out our Horror Movie Blind Spot series for 2019 is writer, director, actor, pop-up barm...

Already a little sad that Halloween is over?  Well, lucky for you, the Halloween season doesn't have to be of just quite yet!!  Thanks to the fact that the last few weeks have been hectic, we were delayed in getting all of the episodes in our Horror Movie Blind Spot series posted prior to Halloween.  So, in tonight's episode, you can continue in the Halloween spirit with our special guest, Brian L...

In two short weeks, Atlanta once again joins the wizarding world as CONjuration descends and provides a magical weekend for fans of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and all things fantasitcal!!  CONjuration was founded in 2014 and each year the con becomes bigger and better (but without outgrowing its roots or forgetting why it was started in the first place)!  The variety of programming, panels,...

Continuing in our Countdown to Halloween, Kyle Kuchta (one of the creators of the Survival of the Film Freaks documentary) joins us for a Bruce Campbell double-feature as we discuss Bubba Ho-Tep and one of my all-time favorite movies...Evil Dead II!!  Fans of the podcast have undoubtedly heard us talk about films in the Evil Dead franchise many times before, but it is one of our favorite movies, s...

Continuing in our Countdown to Halloween, director Mark Christopher Covino (THE CREST, A BAND CALLED DEATH) joins us to discuss one of the more obscure films in our horror movie blind spot series, ANGST.  This German horror movie was ahead of its time in terms of cinematography, narrative structure, and subject matter...but, maybe a little too far ahead of its time.  While still a powerful film wi...