Flickers from the Cave

Well folks, here we are at episode 46 of Flickers and we're knee deep in the brown stuff. Yep, you got it, shit. Oh and nazis too! We have two landmark, or maybe skid mark, examples of filmaking to throw at you this time. First up, 1968's  They Saved Hitler's Brain , a hodge podge patch job of a movie that we thought was maybe the worst thing we had ever seen, however, we stand corrected. Our seco...

Welcome all, to episode 45 of Flickers! This may well be the most politically charged episode we've ever done as we delve into the subject of racial tension in the south during the sixties and seventies. First up, we check out 1962's  The Intruder , a superior effort from the legend himself,  Roger Corman . This first-rate potboiler stars none other than  William Shatner , in what may be his great...

Hey friend can you spare some head, er, heads? Well anyway, on episode 44 of Flickers we're talking about parasites. No, this one isn't about congress, these parasites come from outer space! Pull up a chair and sit right down and dig into 1987's “ The Hidden ”, directed by  Jack Sholder  and starring Agent Cooper himself, Mr.  Kyle MacLachlan . A top notch sci-fi action thriller, it will rock your...

This time we decided to lighten the tone a bit and focus on two films that depict the END OF CIVILIZATION ON PLANET EARTH!  The post-apocalyptic genre is one of our favorites, and it has produced some standout examples, including  Omega Man ,  Planet of the Apes ,  Road Warrior  and countless others.  We start off by looking at 1977's  Damnation Alley , loosely based on a novella by the great  Rog...

This episode, Mike and Marty took the podcast out into the woods, for a fun camping trip and then things started to go horribly wrong.  We look at two films which follow in the footsteps of many previous films but perhaps most obviously, John Boorman's 1972 classic  Deliverance .  The first we look at is  Rituals  from 1977.  Starring  Hal Holbrook  and a small group of very talented actors, and f...

The cave has filled with thoughts of love this episode.  We look at two movies where love is in the title AND makes up the core element of the plots. First up is 1969's  The Psycho Lover , written and directed by  Robert Vincent O'Neill  who would later write Vice Squad ( which we covered in  episode 22  ).  It is the story of a psychiatrist, who is helping the police with a series of brutal rape/...

Well well well, we have finally reached a personal landmark for Flickers From the Cave, our 40th episode! We appreciate those of you who have hung with us through this journey and welcome all newcomers. As any regular listeners will be aware, we have a serious soft spot for Italian genre cinema, so it seems only fitting that we celebrate this auspicious occasion with a double hit from director ext...

The  Rape-Revenge  genre is one of the most used of all the various themes in  exploitation films .  We chose two from the early 80s to look at for this episode. Starting off with 1981's  Ms. 45 , directed by Abel Ferrara, which tells the tale of Thana, a young mute woman in New York City, working as a seamstress who suffers two brutal sexual assaults on the same day.  She then sets out to take re...

Back in 1974, Mike and Marty remember being terrified by the  trailer  for a little film called  Beyond the Door . Admittedly a rip-off of the enormously successful  Exorcist  with a touch of  Rosemary's Baby , the film raked in cash from a public starving for tales of possession and evil fetuses ( feti ? ). Three years later, a Mario Bava film, originally titled "Schock" was released under the mi...

John Boorman  has given us many great films over his illustrious career. Two of our All-Time favorites are  Deliverance  and  Excalibur .  Before he brought us his version of the incredible  James Dickey  novel though, he gave the world 1967's  Point Blank  which stars  Lee Marvin ,  Angie Dickinson  and features the debut of  John Vernon .  This is a twisty story of criminals and double-crosses,...

Episode 36 of the podcast turns to one of our favorite filmmakers,  David Cronenberg , and his son  Brandon  who seems intent on following in his father's footsteps. We start off by looking at the elder Cronenberg's 1979 feature  The Brood . Starring Art Hindle, Oliver Reed and the incredible Samantha Eggar, it tells the story of a father who wants only the best for his young daughter while his wi...

Episode 35 of the podcast is a departure from the format of previous shows. We look at two incredible documentaries that foucs on the late 70s and early 80s of New York City and the largely underground art and music that was being created there at that time. We specifically focus on the  Cinema of Transgression  and the artists who were part of that movement. The two documentaries we look at are ...

Episode 34 features two films that seem, on the surface, to have only  David Carradine  in common.  The connections go deeper though, since both films were originally slated to star  Bruce Lee  before his untimely death in 1973. We start with 1978s  Circle of Iron , AKA "The Silent Flute". This film has quite an impressive cast, including Mr. Carradine,  Roddy McDowall,   Christopher Lee  and  Eli...

The two films we cover on Episode 33 have one thing in common, and that is  McBain !  We start off with the  eponymous  1991 film  McBain  starring the almost always watchable  Christopher Walken  as the titular character.  It is hard to believe how catatonic Walken is as he stumbles through this film from the usually reliable  James Glickenhaus .  We then turn to the incredibly fun  Bulletproof  ...

Episode 32 of the podcast shows us being too clever for our own good. Two films, both about  hitmen , both with the word "mechanic" in the title, and both starring two legendary tough guys.  Surely they must both be excellent, right?  Listen in and find out just how wrong we were as we talk about 1977's  Satanic Mechanic  starring  Lee Van Cleef  ( more commonly known as The Perfect Killer ) and 1...

In episode 31 of the podcast, we focus on two films from the massive filmography of director  Michael Winner .  Winner's most famous films are probably the  Death Wish  series which starred  Charles Bronson .  We look at two, more obscure movies, 1977's  The Sentinel  and 1984's  Scream for Help . The Sentinel has a huge cast of top-notch talent, with the lead roles held by  Chris Sarandon  and  C...

Who exactly is  Martyn Burke ? Listen in to this episode of the podcast to hear about two films from this Canadian director that we only recently found out about.  We start off with 1981's  The Last Chase  which stars the  Six Million Dollar Man  himself,  Lee Majors .  This tells the story of a future where individual transportation has been outlawed and a former racing car driver decides to make...

Episode 29 of the podcast focuses on two remarkable films, 2012's  Excisio n and 2012's  We Need to Talk About Kevin .  Both of these movies look at the complicated relationship that exists between children and their parents, specifically focusing on the mother and child in each.  These are not easy films, as they deal very frankly with uncomfortable situations in stylish and artful ways.  Excisio...

After the Mayan apocalypse passed, Mike and Marty emerged from the cave expecting to find  chaos  and a  world in turmoil , but instead, we found birds chirping peacefully, and a stack of bills that needed to be paid. In the spirit of the expected doomsday, we decided to focus our triumphant (  ?  ) return on two wonderful films that seek to depict very different versions of what it would be like...

In episode 27 of the podcast, we are joined by Leif immediately following our trip to see  Prometheus  at the local  IMAX . We take the opportunity to talk about the  Alien  film  franchise  as a whole, starting with the original 1979 film, and each of the three direct sequels. 1986's  Aliens  from hit-maker  James Cameron , 1992's  Alien 3  from the incredible  David Fincher  and 1997's  Alien Re...

Episode 26 of the podcast looks at two films that surprised us with sudden bouts of total craziness and left us scratching our heads and asking "what the...?" After recently seeing  Joss Whedon 's  The Cabin the Woods , which caused this reaction numerous times, we started talking about other movies that had elicited similar responses and we immediately thought of these two gems. 2003's  Dead End...

Episode 25 of the podcast sees us delve into a danker, mustier and much darker corner of the cave. We return to the days of our youth and watch two films from 1983 that are so similar on the surface that you might think they're the same movies. We start with  Metalstorm - The Destruction of Jaren-Syn  which is another in a long line of mostly disappointing films from  Charles Band . We finish by l...

Welcome to Episode 24 of FFTC. In this episode we celebrate the fine actor  Yaphet Kotto , starring as the titular character in  Larry Cohen 's amazing 1972 film  Bone  and taking a fantastic turn as the villain in 1974's action packed  Truck Turner  starring  Issac Hayes . Although both films were made during the height of the  blaxploitation  era and feature some of the signature tropes of that...

Episode 23 of the podcast features two very divergent films that both fall within the umbrella of  exploitation cinema . The first is 1973's  Ricco the Mean Machine  which stars  Christopher Mitchum  ( son of the legendary Robert Mitchum ). It is a reworking of the classic revenge tale that includes organized crime, youthful rebellion, and soap. Featuring some of the hottest Italian actresses we h...

We start 2012 by looking at three films from director  Gary Sherman . We start with 1973's  Raw Meat  starring  Donald Pleasance  then look at 1981's  Dead and Buried  which stars  James Farentino  and finish up with 1982's  Vice Squad  which features an astounding performance by  Wings Hauser  as the nastiest pimp ever commited to celluloid, Ramrod. Gary Sherman displays his skill at crafting tig...