Discover the Horror

Films discussed: Satan's Sadists (1969), Brain of Blood (1970), Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) From the mid-60's until the late 70's director Al Adamson and producer Sam Sherman made some of the most memorable low-budget horror and exploitation pictures to slide across American drive-in and grindhouse screens.  Together they made films that not only exemplified genre, they also often transcend an...

In the realm of low budget filmmakers, Al Adamson, along with his partner, producer Sam Sherman, are gods among men. They created a wide variety of pictures, in just about every sub-genre out there, and made with more love than money. But they were entertaining, and always memorable. Perhaps their most memorable (and successful) film was 1971's Dracula vs. Frankenstein, in no small part thanks to...

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem (1920), and Waxworks (1924). In the very beginning of cinema, it was the German filmmakers who took cinema to the next level, even when it was still in its infancy. Creating strange angles, weird landscapes and buildings, and bizarre stories, these filmmakers gave audiences something completely new and different. It made such an impact, that it would i...

In the mid 1950's an overzealous witch hunt took place in the United States focused on the corrupting effects of comic books on young people, which ended in horror comics being banned from the shelves by a draconian comics code.  But why? What did those comics contain that got people so riled up? Well, it depends on who you ask.   WE asked Dr. Dan Yezbick, a comics scholar, and he sparked a lively...

Them! (1954), The Deadly Mantis (1957), and The Black Scorpion (1957) The decade of the 1950s gave horror fans a ton of different giant monster flicks, but usually taking something seemingly harmless, such as ants or grasshoppers, but somehow, someway, are mutated into growing into gigantic proportions! We had giant spiders, praying mantis, mollusks, and anything these creative filmmakers could co...

Splinter (2008), Thanatomorphose (2012), and Contracted (2013) When discussing films that deal with body horror, David Cronenberg and his work usually come up in the conversation. How can he not, when so many of his earlier films all dealt with some sort of body horror, mutations, and transformations? But there are plenty of films that go above and beyond (and even below) Cronenberg's impressive g...

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). And now, we come to the end of our Universal Monster episodes, having made our way through all the Dracula, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Mummy, and the Wolf Man films, we now take a dive into the Black Lagoon! Coming out a little less than a decade after the last Universal Monster film (no, I...

Obviously, many of us film fans see movies in theaters througout the year, whether it be at a national chain or at an independent, arthouse theater - or both. Some of us are even hitting film festivals, special screenings, and for the truly unhinged cinephiles, film marathons. For these kind of events to happen though, there have to be some mad geniuses behind the scenes. Those people are film pro...

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964), Crowhaven Farm (1970), and Cruise into Terror (1978) With this being our 3rd episode covering these little television terrors, one would get the idea that there is a lot of teleplays, or TV-movies, out there that deserve our attention. And you would be correct! From the '60s into the early '80s, there was a plethora of amazing features being made for the little...

During conversations with serious film collectors, you might hear terms like inter-positive, or first negative, or even OCN, and have no clue to what they actually mean. Don't feel bad because a lot of us are in the same boat. These are some of the many terms used when discussing the preservation and archiving of films, not to mention the amount of work that goes into doing just that. Plus, we're...

Chained (2012), Honeymoon (2014), and Relic (2020) With over 60 episodes so far in our podcast history, we realized that in all that we covered, we had never covered anything by a woman director. We knew we needed to change that. Going through the history of women directors, we realized that not only wasn't something new, but have been working in the industry since the beginning of film. And in th...

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), and House of Dracula (1945). Some say that the monster rally films marked the end of the Universal creature features, which could partially be true, but we feel it is for different reasons than the actual films themselves, and they still have a lot of merit to them. While the studio heads might not of cared too much about gettin...

This truly is a great time to be alive as a crazy cinephile. Just about every day, new amazing looking releases of some of our favorite films are announced, as well as some almost forgotten films brought back from the edges of obscurity for a whole new generation of fans to enjoy. And one of the companies at the forefront is Severin Films, who continues to amaze us fans with the quality of their r...

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House that Dripped Blood (1971) and Tales from the Crypt (1972) Amicus Productions was most known for their anthology films, even though that was a small percentage of the types of films they did make in over the years. But because of the quality of the films, the power of the stories they were based on, and the incredible cast of actors they would hire, t...

Bigfoot (1970), Creature from Black Lake (1976), and Abominable (2006). Tales of a mysterious, giant beast that wanders the wooded areas of the U.S., has never really proven to exist, but even to this day, is believed by many to really be out there, still hidden from mankind. Starting with Bigfoot in 1970, our furry giant became the subject of many movies and documentaries, and even on TV shows, s...

Satan's Slave (1976), Prey (1977), and Terror (1978) There are a lot of directors out there that might not have a huge filmography, or even be that well known to the general population of film fans, even in the horror genre. So there is always room to discover them! In this episode, we take a look at three films by British independent director Norman J. Warren, who didn't make a lot of films, but...

Another year ending means another Wrap Up episode where we go over our top picks for the year, as well as discussing some other titles we've seen in 2023. While most of the films we do cover here as our favorite viewings for this year are from the last few years, they are not all from 2023. But as we've pointed out many times before, if you're watching it for the first time, no matter when it was...

Tower of London (1962), Ghost Nursing (1982), and Stir of Echoes (1999). Believe it or not, but it's a tradition to tell spooky stories around Christmas time. Just think of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol ! While some tales might be told to give one pause about how they are acting towards others, to maybe change your ways, or some told to pass on a message of hope, while others are there just t...

The Werewolf of London (1935), The Wolf Man (1941), and She-Wolf of London (1946) When the night falls and the full moon rises, it is time to talk about werewolves. Not just any werewolves, but the ones that came from Universal Studios. While still riding the wave of their  successes with the horror titles of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man, Universal's front office continu...

There are few events in horrordom quite as joyfully gluttonous as the Black Friday sales put on by our favorite boutique film labels.   As the season approaches, speculation on social media and in rapid-fire in-person conversations reaches a fever pitch.   What new films? What new merch? What great deals? We dream of horrors we might own someday like we're kids again hunched over a wish book or st...

The Sting of Death (1966), APE (1976), and Brutal Sorcery (1983) It's November, so that must mean it's Turkey Time! Yes, that's right, for the last 20 years, Jon has been holding his Turkey Day Marathon Event, where we spend Black Friday delving into some of the strangest, weirdest, cheesiest, but always entertaining films. The ones most would call bad, we call them Turkeys! Damien started holding...

The Invisible Man (1933), The Invisible Man Returns (1940), and The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944). In the pantheon of Universal Classic Monsters, some might say the Invisible Man is the least terrifying in the monster heritage, or maybe even bordering on if they even belong in the horror genre. In this episode, we're going to delve into three of the films in Universal's Invisible series, for the...

Let's face it: horror fans are, as a group, a little bit obsessive. When we sink our teeth into something we do not do it barely or easily, we take a big, honkin' bite.   If we become infatuated with a director, we want to see every film they've made, read a book about them, hear people talk about them, watch documentaries about them, and so on.   And the same is true for national horror cinemas,...

Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), The Gruesome Twosome (1967), The Wizard of Gore (1970)  When Herschell Gordon Lewis made his first nudie cutie film in 1961, nobody would have expected that he'd become one of the most important names in the history of horror.  But with the release of Blood Feast just two years later, Lewis and his producing partner David F. Friedman would invent t...

Perdita Durango (1997), Common Wealth (2000), Witching and Bitching (2013) There are a few directors like Álex de la Iglesia. No matter what kind of film he's making, he weaves in and out of different genres like changing lanes on a busy highway. But no matter what, you will usually see his twisted and dark sense of humor, unique and interesting stories, and usually something you've never seen bef...