--And Now The Podcast Starts!

Exorcist II: The Heretic has been called "the worst film ever made" (by Mark Kermode) and has attracted derision ever since its release in 1977, not least by the makers of the original The Exorcist (1973).  Our Ian, who worships The Exorcist, has always avoided it.  But esteemed critic Neil Young, our special guest on this episode, insists The Heretic is a more interesting film than its progenitor...

We return to an unplanned irregular release schedule (Dan explains all on the pod) with the first in a series of long-envisioned specials in which horror maestro Simon Clark explains to Dan why the scripts of Nigel Kneale's 1950s trilogy of TV terror about Professor Bernard Quatermass are such an inspirational read.  2023 is the 70th anniversary of the transmission of the first serial, The Quaterm...

At Stella's urging, Dan has finally checked out the ghoulish comedy sequel, Addams Family Values, and it's fair to say he loves it.  Hear them rhapsodise, with spoilers throughout.  It's the second Missed Classic in which the team are called to praise Carol Kane (the previous one being When A Stranger Calls), but Dan feels bad that they never mention Jimmy Workman, who's stuck in the least interes...

Welcome to our hot-take review of a movie that was released six months ago (and a discussion recorded four months ago)...  In what will hopefully become an annual tradition, Stella and Dan get to talk about the new Scream movie.  Just in case you still haven't seen it, the discussion is divided into spoiler-free and spoiler-filled sections.   00.00.00 Intro and our adventures getting into cinema s...

A long while after our last Missed Classic on When A Stranger Calls (1979), Ian Winterton confronts another feted movie he has heretofore avoided, 1984's iconic Wes Craven slasher, A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Dan joins him for the discussion and there are spoilers from the start.   A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 version) is available to rent on Amazon . Since this chat was recorded, RedLetterMedi...

WARNING - SPOILERS FOR MIDNIGHT MASS ARE COMING IN THE VERY NEXT PARAGRAPH - AND THIS IS ONE (HUGELY RECOMMENDED) SERIES THAT'S BEST ENJOYED ENTIRELY UNSPOILED!   Or, "Vampire In A Cardigan".   Kirsty, Stella, Ian and Dan are reunited to discuss a real masterpiece of recent years, Mike Flanagan's seven-part Netflix drama, Midnight Mass.  We've already discussed Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill Hous...

"It's a bit like The Beatles..." Returning after a long delay, Dan, Stella, Ian and (in a surprise telephone cameo) Howard commence their latest series with a discussion of 1976's The Omen, the first in a series of retrospectives on The Omen Trilogy, inspired by the fact that all three films (plus the 2006 remake of the original) are now on Disney+.  (However, Omen IV: The Awakening, 1991's forgot...

Kirsty wanted to talk about one of her true loves, Robert Wiene's 1920 Expressionist masterpiece, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and Dan was only too happy to indulge.  Although he drew the line at pronouncing the film's German title ('Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari') because he was chicken about pronouncing two syllables wrong. The restored Blu-Ray version of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari to which Dan and...

We're fishing some unreleased content from the vault this week, to present a 2021 discussion between Stella, Ian and Dan about Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polanski's still-powerful 1968 tale of inner-city Satanism, from the novel by Ira Levin.  We discuss how the film draws satirical parallels between fears of Satanism and anti-Semitism, how its meaning has changed for us since we first watched it 20-s...

Not horror, but in many ways horror-adjacent, 2022's extremely quirky sci-fi comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All At Once was announced this week to be the unlikely recipient of 11 Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actress (twice), Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score, Best Song, Best Film Editing and Best Costume Design.  K...

Stella and Dan have wanted for some time to discuss their love of Steven Spielberg's 1971 cinematic debut, Duel, written by Richard Matheson.  However, they'd never seen the shorter, original intended-for-television version of the film before recording this episode, and therefore spend a lot of it speculating about what that version was like and how Spielberg might have made changes to Matheson's...

Following up (after a few delays) on our recent Lee/Cushing episode on the Star Wars franchise, the wonderful Sean Mason returns to the podcast to discuss the more recent instalments of George Lucas' cinematic legacy.  He is joined by another favourite returning guest, Spider-Dan of the Spider-Dan & The Secret Bores podcast.   Relevant links All films discussed are available for streaming via Disn...

Happy New Year! As a counterpoint to the previous episode featuring Howard and Dan's archival music chats, here, as a final flourish of Christmassyness, is a more contemporary selection from Kirsty, Ian and Dan (again).  Each of them has chosen three music tracks to talk about, which are excerpted in the episode, but you can find the full tracks at the YouTube links below:   The Woods Bela Lugosi'...

In our last ep of 2022 Dan & Howard unearth musical gems from the archive of the Lee/Cushing Podcast - with never-before-heard material. Here's to 2023, folks!

Apologies, yesterday's upload had a technical issue - this should now be fixed. Blurb coming soon! But make sure you visit Lucid Dimensions on YouTube And Dan's daily Christmas comedy podcast is The Faces At The Window

Show notes coming soon!

Stella and Dan express their fandom of co-writer/star Simon Pegg and co-writer/director Edgar Wright's horror tinged 'Cornetto Trilogy', aka the comedy films Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013), plus the TV series they co-created with Jessica Hynes, Spaced (1999-2001).   Links Spaced is currently available for streaming on All4 (and the first episode is on YouTube...

We go back to the Alien franchise again, as Ian and Dan compare their personal lists of five favourite things from the 1979 classic.  We assume you've all seen this one, so it's spoiler-filled from the start.  And if you haven't seen it, stop listening to us, get yourself to Disney+ and treat yourself to this ageless film!   Relevant Links The Ghostwatch limited edition Blu-Ray is available now fr...

Together as a foursome for the first time in a while, Kirsty, Stella, Ian and Dan discuss 2012's The Hunger Games, as well as touching on its sequels and the books the films were based on.  Beware, some spoilers...   (Kirsty at one point says "kill to the death" instead of "fight to the death".  Dan, who once said "murder kills" when he meant "mercy kills", feels seen.)   Relevant Links The new Ma...

A few weeks late, we're giving our first coverage to Grimmfest 2022. Stella and Dan discuss the Italian comic heist thriller with a gruesome undertone, L'Orafo aka The Goldsmith, winner of the festival's Reaper Award for Best Screenplay.  Dan was unable to attend Grimmfest itself due to illness, but Stella did and recorded a spoilery interview with co-writer/director Vincenzo Ricchiuti and produce...

This episode, Dan and Stella discuss the subgenre of body horror: what are our favourite body horror sequences in film and TV, what makes them work, how body horror crosses subgenres and how it's evolved with the development of FX techniques. The discussion takes in the following films and shows, with occasional spoilers, so beware if you haven't seen them: Body Melt, Creepshow (TV), Hannibal (TV)...

Welcome to the second proper weekly series of --And Now The Podcast Starts!  And happy Halloween. This episode, Kirsty, Ian and Dan are discussing Men, director Alex Garland's recent hybrid of folk horror, gender commentary and body horror, first in spoiler-free fashion, then with full spoilers.   00.00.41 Intro 00.04.04 Men review (spoiler-free) 00.33.23 Men review (spoilerific) 01.20.45 Outro an...

A relaxed, horror-adjacent chat this week, as Stella and Dan put their feet up and chuckle about the horrific elements of their (and possibly everybody's) favourite sci-fi sitcom, Red Dwarf. (The Series 2 episode they discuss without naming is called Thanks for the Memory.)   Red Dwarf Series 1-8 are available for streaming via Britbox .  Series 9 onwards are frequently (but not always) available...

Following their discussions of Aliens (1986) in the previous two episodes, and Alien3 (1992) much earlier, Dan and Ian now take on 1997's not-much-loved fourth part of the franchise, Alien Resurrection, although the two can't agree whose idea it was.  Listen as Ian rediscovers a nightmare from literally half a lifetime ago.  The discussion doesn't dwell on the story in detail, but if you haven't s...

Following the brief discussion last episode, Ian and Dan now get to enthuse at length about one of their favourite movies, James Cameron's 1986 sequel to Alien, Aliens.  Plus a child pops in.   All the Alien films are available for streaming via Disney+   Find out more about the new Aliens documentary, Aliens Expanded, here   Visit our website, andnowpodcast.com