Discover the Horror

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...

The Mummy (1932), The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), and The Mummy's Curse (1944). In this episode, we go back the Universal Classics and take on one of the most unusual of the classic monsters, the Mummy. It's probably one of the best costumes and memorable character, but never seems to reach the same level of notoriety as his fellow monsters. But strangel...

To celebrate our 50th episode of Discover the Horror, we decided to do a live event, giving our listeners a chance to ask questions or make comments in the chat room while we answer them live during the show. We don't have any particular topic we planned to discuss, but we sure did go through a lot of different things, such as how the podcast got started, possible future episodes, and much more. ...

One of the things that was realized at some point after the creation of Famous Monsters magazine, was that there was this horror fandom, or fan base, of all these horror fans around the country, in a variety of ages, that realized that they were not alone in their love of horror. While there were more magazines to follow, at some point there was the birth of the fanzine, which was the low budget v...

Night of the Eagle aka Burn, Witch, Burn (1962), Eyes of Fire (1983), Pyewacket (2017) Welcome to Episode 48, where we discuss one of the oldest perceived monsters in our history . . . witches. But as we know, in film there are many different types of witches, therefore a lot of different types of witch movies. In some, the craft is done for good, while others lean to the darker side, maybe for a...

House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Tingler (1959), and Mr. Sardonicus (1961). In the world of ballyhoo, nobody comes close to being a master at it than producer/director William Castle. From giving insurance policies to filmgoers in case they die of fright, promising the horrors onscreen will come off the screen into the audiences, to even letting the audience decide the fate of one of the characte...

Horror movies and heavy metal music have almost gone hand in hand, since the real first heavy metal band, Black Sabbath- which was even named after a horror film! Horror films were a huge influence on the metal genre, from imagery on the album covers, to the lyrics, and even the sound and style of the music itself. And they continue to do so to this day. To delve a little deeper into the connectio...

Corpse Mania (1981) , Red Spell Spells Red (1983), The Rape After (1984) Obviously, the title of our show, and its mission statement is about discovering new horror, In the past we've always brought films to the table that we already liked and wanted to discuss.   But on this episode, we were given a unique opportunity.   We were given a list of somewhat obscure Hong Kong-created black magic horro...

El Vampiro (1957), The Black Pit of Dr. M (1959), and The Curse of the Crying Woman (1963). Any horror fan worth their weight in blood knows their fare share about the classic monster films from Universal from the 30s and 40s before they died a slow death. But do you know that in the late 50s and early 60s, there was a bunch of classical looking horror films made in Mexico? Looking a lot like thei...

Back in ancient times, before Netflix and Amazon Prime, before Hulu and YouTube, even before DVDs and Blu-rays, if films weren't available to you from either your local video stores, or if you wanted to see an uncut print of a movie, or even one that wasn't released on VHS, the place you could find them would be in fuzzy gray market of the bootlegs. These types of vendors were a staple to a lot of...

Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). Time to go back to the source! The films that started a mythology, created the stereotypes, and taught us everything we were going to need to know about the mad genius that created a"monster" and the innocent, child-like creature that would eventually be known by his creator's o...

Devil Dog: Hound of Hell (1978), Vampire (1979), & Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981). Back in Episode 11, we covered 3 Made-for-TV films that we felt were must see! And now we're back again to go over another 3 titles that we think are well worth your time and attention. During the late '70s and early '80s was still a time of great films that were made to premiere on your television at home, deca...

Depending on when you not only grew up, but grew up with the horror genre could define what films you like, and what you don't like. But then there are other fans that open up the borders and search outside their comfort zone. In this episode, we discuss those ideas with our special guest, S.A. Bradley, author of Screaming for Pleasure: How Horror Makes You Happy and Healthy, as well as the host f...

3 on a Meathook (1972), Grizzly (1976), & Day of the Animals (1977). Director William Girdler is a name that some horror fans might know some of his work, but probably don't know a lot about the man himself, or maybe don't realize how many great films he produced in a very short time, before his untimely death. 9 movies in only 6 years, and one of them being the most successful independent film fo...

There are plenty of ways to help you on your way to discovering more about the films you love, as well as ones you might not know too much about. There's always books on different filmmakers, or sort of the audio form of that, the audio commentaries that are usually found on most of our favorite films. The more insight you have, the more you will know, and maybe even enjoy it more. One of those th...

Dracula (1931), Dracula's Daughter (1936), & Son of Dracula (1943). This is the series of films that really created and started what is now known as the Universal Classic Monster films. Dracula came out in Feb. in 1931 and did such business, the studio followed suit with another film. And another. And another. But are these classics remembered just because of nostalgia, or are they really well mad...

Obviously anybody listening to this podcast is a huge fan of horror movies. There is no better time to be a movie fan because of all the incredible releases that keep coming out, not just here in the states, but around the world. From movies that we grew up loving, to the more obscure and unseen titles, it is a never-ending journey to discover or re-discover these titles. And one of the men respon...

The Evil (1978), Angel Heart (1987), and Mr. Frost (1990). From the very first horror film, Georges Méliès' The House of the Devil from 1896, the Devil started his film career and has been going strong ever since! Appearing in a variety of roles, from bit parts to main characters, from comedies to dramas, from the campy to straight up terrifying, Satan has made his appearance numours times over th...