Cinematic Oblivion

A more wholesome year then most, adjusting to fatherhood/unclehood and the trappings of a toddler's Halloween while also inviting more wild 80s horror comedies into the discourse like Wacko (1982) and Full Moon High (1981). Harry wants to remind everyone to, like him, watch the entire filmography of Jose Ramon Larraz, if you can find it, and Nick wants to talk about the bookends of the screen life...

Where is that sinister, beautiful, liminal hospital of which I endlessly dream? Where can I get a can of frozen apple juice concentrate in this day and age? When will I stop getting election texts? Why won't the police stop ruining horror movies? And why did everyone in the early 2000s think they'd reached the peak of what CGI effects had to offer? Happy Halloween! I refuse to edit this one out of...

Strange cutout anime, brooding resentment about the 00's, discourse on disturbing horror, nostalgia for the Universal classics, major creative output from our circle, welcome back to our cacophonous carnival of Halloween horrors, we've missed you. 

Taste the fruits of Autumn Burn away the dead crops 

Once a year, once a year, now it's here, now it's here. 

Our last episode ever. Putting the final nail in the coffin on the original concept of Cinematic Oblivion. Happy Halloween, it's the season of change and death after all. Keep watching the screens. 

It's been a while. We discuss what's kept us entertained and sane in Shelter-In-Place including the gory, gutsy guerrilla action film  Deadbeat at Dawn  (1988) Guy Maddin's odes to his city and ours in  My Winnipeg  (2007)  and  The Green Fog  (2017),  Harry's pickaxe striking a mother lode of untapped 80's horror sleepers, Nick teaching Chris Marker's  La Jetée (1962)  to his AP English class, an...

You can find me in the back of the Castro theater drinking whiskey and cherry Coke yelling at people to get off their phones before the third Mexican noir starts. 

We promise to only be this basic once every ten years. 

In this year's Halloween episode of Grab Bag Harry revisits some horror movies we didn't used to like very much and reveals that we were right about one of them and wrong about another, Nick discusses his new  Giallo  concept bar and cocktail menu, and we both revisit some childhood Halloween specials that warm our heart. Carve a Jack O' Lantern now before it's too late!

Sweets for the sweet, it's our official Halloween special. Listen as we discuss horror fantasy's finest imaginer, Clive Barker, and his brief career in film, as well as the trademarks of his work, including sadomasochistic inter-dimensional travelers, queer zombies, and ghosts of urban segregation. prologue: I have seen the future of horror (1:43) Chapter 1: Now we can begin (14:30) Chapter 2: Cas...

The Earth shall tremble. Graves shall open. They shall come among the living as messengers of death and there shall be the "nigths" of terror. Continuing our October horror rituals, we examine the ineffable minimalism of Andrea Bianchi's zombie shadow play Burial Ground,  a film that achieves unique style and effectiveness completely by accident. 

We turn our October attention to one of the least conventional iterations of the Frankenstein monster all in the interest of discussing Nick's favorite and most expensive toy. 

The Dude Bros are coming to the Balboa Theater here in San Francisco on October 23rd for a Rewind Wednesday VHS screening of Cinematic Oblivion's favorite slasher comedy Dude Bro Party Massacre III! Two of the directors, Tomm Jacobsen and Michael Rousselet, will be in attendance, the latter of whom chats with Nick in this episode. Listen as they discuss the early comedy of USC's public access chan...

R.I.P. Sid Haig 1939-2019

The third part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films. In this episode we focus on the science fiction films of the USSR's final years including grey, colorful, and silver tones all in the wake of Andrei Tarkovsky's influence.    Chapter One: Grey Chapter Two: Color Chapter Three: Silver

Our report from an oblivionated weekend at the historic Balboa theater under the curation of the Overlook Hour. We briefly review the history of found-footage and then discuss such diverse representatives of the subgenre as  The Midnight Swim, La Llorona Investigation, The Moosehead on the Mantel, Hound Footage,  and the film that may have killed us both;  Antrum. 

We briefly review and analyze such classics as Pickup on South Street (1952) and  Kiss Me Deadly (1955) from our recent outing to Noir City at the Castro Theater, during which we discovered that we are total amateurs at this whole "liking movies" thing. 

The second part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films. In this episode we focus on the two science fiction contributions of Soviet auteur Andrei Tarkovsky,  Solaris  (1971) and  Stalker  (1979), and discuss how his contributions forever changed the landscape of Eastern genre cinema and film in general.  Chapter 1: The Ocean (3:35) Chapter 2: The Zone (43:30) 

A sickly sweet cocktail of various ingredients, Harry and Nick reunite after two weeks apart to discuss the 90's films of Brian De Palma, the video art of Jan Svankmajer, Ryan Trecartin, Alan Resnick, and the "wayward circus child" sub-genre, particularly Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay  (1988) and Hiroshi Harada's  Midori  (1992). 

The first part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films.  In this episode we begin in the silent era with  Aelita: Queen of Mars  (1924)   and  Cosmic Voyage  (1935) and then blast off into the space race with  Road to the Stars  (1957),  The Silent Star  (1960),  Planet of Storms  (1962), and  Ikarie XB-1  (1963) These films shine with the hope of a united communist...

The first installment in a new series of mini episodes called spotlight, wherein Nick and/or Harry take a look at a particular theme (film/director/genre/etc.) that wouldn't otherwise be featured in a regular episode.   In this inaugural episode Harry takes a look at the 2009 indie horror comedy Make Out With Violence, while also reflecting on the days when Netflix offered a bevvy of bizarre low b...

Happy Halloween kiddies! We celebrate the season by paying tribute to EC comics, a horror brand as notorious as it was influential. We follow the brand's legacy from Amicus pictures, to Stephen King, to HBO. Come down into the Crypt of Terror with us. The morgue the merrier!  Chapter 1: Low Culture (3:18) Chapter 2: Amicus (25:55) Chapter 3: King and Romero (49:30) Chapter 4: Little House on the S...

In this special Halloween episode of Grab Bag we discuss  Ruby  (1977),  Pin  (1988),  Don't Look Up  (1996),  The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and the long awaited  Terrifier (2017). We also discuss the rise and fall of J horror, the myriad Frankenstein adaptations and the complete lack of a great clown horror masterpiece.

In this episode we go back to some of the earliest adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world and explore the evolving world of 1970's American animation.  Chapter 1: There and Back Again (10:00) Chapter 2: Bakshi's Big Trip (37:00) Chapter 3: A Tale of the Hobbits (1:07:17)