Cinema Shock

What if ALIEN had been directed by Clive Barker? In this episode of Cinema Shock Roulette, we’re diving into EVENT HORIZON, Paul W.S. Anderson’s cult sci-fi horror film that famously crashed and burned at the box office before becoming a late-night classic. We’ll explore the troubled production, including studio interference, a rushed edit, and the now-legendary lost footage. We’ll also dig into t...

What if John Hughes movies did murder? In this Roulette episode, we dig into Michael Lehmann’s pitch-black 1989 teen satire, HEATHERS — a film that skewered high school cliques, weaponized sarcasm, and launched a thousand “Dear Diary” imitators. We’ll talk about how Daniel Waters’ script turned every studio exec pale, how Winona Ryder risked her rising career to play Veronica, and how a young Chri...

How do you describe a film like HOUSE? Equal parts haunted house horror, surrealist art film, Looney Tunes cartoon, and experimental cinema, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s HOUSE (HAUSU) is one of the wildest, most unique cult movies ever made. But behind the madness is a fascinating story of how a commercial filmmaker and former ad man channeled the imagination of his 11-year-old daughter into one of the mos...

This Halloween, we’re sinking our teeth into one of the most iconic horror films ever made: NOSFERATU (1922). A few weeks ago, we had the honor of co-hosting the very first Cinema Shock live event — a special screening of F.W. Murnau’s silent horror classic, presented alongside our friends at GUTPUNCH. At the event, we scratched the surface of the film’s eerie legacy… but we knew that Nosferatu de...

After wrapping up our look at John Waters’ early filmography, we’re back for one final spin around the block — this time with HAIRSPRAY (2007), the glossy, big-budget remake of Waters’ most mainstream hit. Adapted from the Broadway musical (which was itself adapted from the 1988 original), this version of HAIRSPRAY featured an all-star cast, splashy production numbers, and a budget big enough to m...

By the late 1980s, John Waters was ready for a change. After a decade of shocking audiences with boundary-pushing midnight movies, he set his sights on something a little more… family-friendly. The result was HAIRSPRAY — a pastel-soaked 1960s dance-party satire that retained Waters’ signature weirdness while appealing to a much broader audience. In this episode, we dig into how Waters transitioned...

With POLYESTER, John Waters cleaned up his act — well, sort of. This 1981 melodrama spoof marked a major turning point in Waters’ career: a bigger budget, a suburban setting, and his first taste of (semi-)mainstream success. It was also the first time he cast 1950s teen idol Tab Hunter, a move that shocked audiences and opened doors. In this episode, we explore how POLYESTER emerged from Waters’ d...

With DESPERATE LIVING, John Waters pushed his vision into wild new territory — a surreal, grotesque fairy tale set in the trash-strewn, totalitarian town of Mortville. Made without Divine for the first and only time in this era, the film instead centers on an unhinged cast of women revolting against a corrupt, fascist queen. In this episode, we explore the chaos and controversy behind the making o...

After the underground success of PINK FLAMINGOS, John Waters and his Dreamlanders set out to make a film that was just as transgressive — but with a more structured narrative and bigger ambitions. The result was FEMALE TROUBLE, a grotesque satire of fame, beauty, and the American obsession with crime. In this episode, we explore how FEMALE TROUBLE pushed the boundaries of taste even further, casti...

In this episode of John Waters: Divine Filth, we’re diving into the depraved, legendary cult classic that made John Waters and Divine underground icons: PINK FLAMINGOS (1972). Shot for just $10,000 on 16mm, PINK FLAMINGOS follows Divine in a grotesque and hilarious battle for the title of “Filthiest Person Alive.” With scenes of chicken sex, foot licking, public indecency, and a now-infamous final...

"One must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste." — John Waters The filth hits the fan in the very first entry of our new series John Waters: Divine Filth, as we dive headfirst into the gloriously blasphemous chaos of MULTIPLE MANIACS (1970). Filmed on a shoestring budget with Waters’ early Dreamland crew, MULTIPLE MANIACS is a black-and-white barrage of bad taste...

He seems like the perfect husband. The ideal father. But behind that neatly trimmed mustache and suburban charm… is a body count. In this Cinema Shock Roulette episode, we’re digging into the underrated 1987 psychological slasher THE STEPFATHER, starring the terrifyingly good Terry O’Quinn as a man obsessed with building the “perfect” family — no matter how many lives he has to destroy along the w...

After the massive success of SPIDER-MAN 2, all eyes were on Sam Raimi to deliver an even bigger third chapter. But SPIDER-MAN 3 ended up becoming one of the most divisive superhero films of its era. In this episode, we unpack how SPIDER-MAN 3 spiraled into creative conflict — from studio-mandated villains to an overstuffed narrative that left even Raimi unsatisfied. We’ll trace the production stru...

After the massive success of SPIDER-MAN, expectations for a sequel were sky-high — and somehow, SPIDER-MAN 2managed to soar even higher. In this episode, we dive into the making of what many fans and critics still consider one of the greatest superhero films ever made. We’ll cover the behind-the-scenes drama that almost kept Tobey Maguire from returning, the casting of Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, an...

After decades of false starts, rights battles, and abandoned scripts, SPIDER-MAN finally swung into theaters in 2002 — and changed the superhero genre forever. In this episode, we continue our series on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy by tracing the production of the first film in the series, from how Raimi landed the job (despite not being the studio’s first choice), to casting Tobey Maguire, and...

When we wrapped our Sam Raimi: The Entertainer series, we promised we’d be back to talk about Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN films — and folks, we keep our promises. But before we dive into the production of Raimi’s blockbuster trilogy, we’re kicking things off with something a little different: a look at the decades-long saga that brought Spider-Man to the big screen. From the aborted Cannon Films version in...

For this installment of Cinema Shock Roulette, we’re taking a dive into what might be Shane Black’s most overlooked gem: THE NICE GUYS.   Released in 2016, this hilarious and hardboiled detective flick pairs Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as mismatched investigators stumbling through a tangled conspiracy involving porn, pollution, and the auto industry — all set against the grimy backdrop of 1970s...

After a nearly decade-long break from filmmaking following THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, Alejandro Jodorowsky returned in 1989 with what many consider his most emotionally resonant film: SANTA SANGRE. Produced by Claudio Argento (brother of Italian horror legend Dario Argento), SANTA SANGRE fuses the surrealism and religious symbolism of Jodorowsky’s earlier work with the lurid style of Italian giallo and ps...

After the underground success of EL TOPO, Alejandro Jodorowsky was given total creative freedom — and a sizable budget courtesy of John Lennon and Yoko Ono — to create a follow-up film. The result was THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, a psychedelic, symbolic, and boundary-smashing spiritual epic. From the opening frames, where Jodorowsky himself plays a mystical Alchemist shaving the heads of two nude women, it’...

In the annals of cult cinema, few films are as infamous — or as influential — as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1970 masterpiece EL TOPO. A violent, hallucinatory blend of spaghetti westerns, Zen Buddhism, surrealist theater, and esoteric philosophy, EL TOPOfollows a black-clad gunslinger on a spiritual journey of transformation and destruction. It shocked audiences, confused critics, and helped define th...

Before he became the godfather of midnight movies and a psychedelic prophet of cinema, Alejandro Jodorowsky made his directorial debut with a black-and-white surrealist nightmare called FANDO Y LIS. Based on a play by Fernando Arrabal and made on a shoestring budget in Mexico, FANDO Y LIS caused riots when it premiered and was banned in its home country. But it also marked the beginning of a bold...

In this episode of Cinema Shock Roulette, we dive into the totally bonkers, synth-fueled, ninja-packed world of MIAMI CONNECTION, a forgotten 1987 indie action film that rose from obscurity to become a full-blown cult phenomenon decades later. Filmed in Orlando, funded by a Taekwondo grandmaster, and featuring a rock band called Dragon Sound who fight crime in their spare time, MIAMI CONNECTION is...

Well, we just wrapped up our 7 episode series on the career of Sam Raimi, and you know what that means: It's time for another Cinema Shock Roulette episode! Roulette episodes are randomly selected from an ongoing list (which you can find over on Justin's Letterboxd) and are designed to function as standalone episodes, not part of a larger series. It allows us to explore the history behind cult fil...

After a decade spent in the world of big-budget blockbusters — including three SPIDER-MAN films — Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots with 2009’s DRAG ME TO HELL. The result? A lean, mean, gross-out machine packed with bodily fluids, demonic goats, and Raimi’s signature mix of slapstick and sadism. But DRAG ME TO HELL wasn’t just a nostalgic exercise — it was Raimi proving he could still go toe...

After the cult success of ARMY OF DARKNESS, Sam Raimi took a sharp stylistic detour — straight into the sun-drenched, bullet-riddled world of the American Western. Released in 1995, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD brought Raimi’s hyper-stylized camera work and comic-book energy to the genre, complete with whip pans, POV bullets, and a rogue’s gallery of gunslingers. It was also a star-studded affair: a pre...