Flickers from the Cave

Julie took over the film-selection this week, so we ended up watching two from Mr.  Steven Seagal . We start off with his first,  Above the Law  from 1988, which is directed by the reliable  Andrew Davis . It tells a very boilerplate story, but it tells it VERY successfully and really established Seagal as a new type of action star. We follow that up with his only directorial effort, 1994's  On De...

We decided to watch two films that feature the multi-faceted actor  John Heard , starting off with 1981's  Cutter's Way  and following up with 1977's  Between the Lines . None of us really "enjoyed" either movie, and we struggled in some cases to even make it through them. We bit both bullets though and pushed through for our podcasting art and we present our summation here. Even though the movies...

We're not sure it's fair to call these movies "rip-offs" but...they are kinda rip-offs, but really, really entertaining ones! Both of the movies this time feature  James Franciscus  in the lead role, and deadly animals underneath the water!  We start off with 1979's " Killer Fish ", which also stars  Lee Majors ,  Karen Black  and a lagoon full of hungry piranha! We follow that up with a 1981 "tri...

Netflix ! It brings us so many things, so often, that it can be overwhelming at times. For this show we decided to look at two films that are newly on Netflix that seemed like a good fit for the cave. Both are from 2017, but from opposite sides of the "pond". We start with " Bad Day for the Cut ", an Irish production that tells a very twisty story of revenge where a quiet, unassuming farmer has to...

Happy New Year and welcome back to the cave!  We have wanted to look at the  Billy Jack  series of films since before the podcast started, and it seemed like the 117th episode was a perfect place to finally do it! These are legendary low-budget movies and there is no question why...they are great! We start off with 1967's  The Born Losers  and follow that up with the masterpiece  Billy Jack  from...

We all fell in love with  Trina Parks  when we watched  Darktown Strutters , so we went in search of more of her films.  That lead us to  Cirio Santiago , a legendary Filipino director who was a major inspiration to Quentin Tarantino, so we chose two of his films for this episode. We start off with 1974's  T.N.T. Jackson , starring  Jeannie Bell  as the titular ( very apropos ) character who is se...

We go deep this time, and everybody gets wet as we examine two EXTREMELY similar films, both from 1989. First up is  Leviathan , from show-favorite  George P. Cosmatos  and starring  Peter Weller  and some other fairly big names. It is set in a deep-sea mining and research rig that encounters a mysterious monster in a sunken Russian ship. We follow that up with  DeepStar Six  from  Sean S. Cunning...

Back in the 70's the  van  became an important way for people to express themselves.  They would modify their "shaggin' wagon" with elaborate murals, shag carpeting, wide wheels and big V8 engines. We look at two less-than-stellar examples of a genre known simply as  vansploitation . First off, we look at 1977's  Supervan , which basically stars an incredible creation from the wizard  George Barri...

On this episode of the podcast, things get so weird that we had to bring in our friend Julie to comment on it all. During the 50's, 60's and 70's, cinemas ( and more often drive-ins ) were full of movies about  bikers and biker gangs .  Usually these were stories about disaffected men who had turned their backs on society to pursue a life with a different set of morals and rules. This era gave us...

There was once a time in American cinema when every movie that starred  Burt Reynolds  was a guaranteed box-office blockbuster.  On this episode we look at two of the films from the early part of his reign. We start off with 1973's  White Lightning , which tells the story of a bootlegger named Gator McKlusky.  The movie starts with  Ned Beatty  murdering Gator's younger brother in extremely brutal...

More  Oliver Reed ? Yes, Please!  We turn positively reptilian this episode with two films that combine the slithery goodness of a dangerous snakes, with the sweaty power of Mr. Oliver Reed. We start off with 1981's  Venom , which also includes  Sarah Miles ,  Sterling Hayden ,  Nicol Williamson  and the always interesting  Klaus Kinski . Combining a police procedural with home invasion, and then...

There is a popular belief that mankind was guided in the past by visitors from another world. This core idea is  behind masterpieces like  2001: A Space Odyssey  and also the hit History Channel show  Ancient Aliens .  We look at two films on the podcast that also explore this idea. We start off with a TV movie from 1975 called " Search for the Gods ". It stars the young  Kurt Russell  and the als...

We both love the classic  noir films  of the 40s and many filmmakers have tried to revisit that style and tone since those originals were released. We turn to two remakes of classic crime stories, starting with 1978's  The Big Sleep , with an amazing cast led by  Robert Mitchum  and directed by the infamous  Michael Winner .  It succeeds on almost every level especially with Mitchum's portrayal of...

The cave is flickering at half-mast as we mourn the passing of one of our heroes. We lost the legendary  George A. Romero  recently and we felt it was important to feature his work on the next show. It also gave us an excuse to talk about the effect he and his films had on our lives. We are sure that we aren't the only ones out there who felt his loss deeply.  We start our tribute with a film that...

Back in the 80's the cable network  Cinemax  was the best source for genre and exploitation films. We saw many formative offerings there. Countless nude scenes, beheadings, car crashes and laser blasts. One of the people who's work was featured prominently there was the late  Andy Sidaris .  His films were frequently set on Hawaii and "starred" a bevy of  Playmates  and  Pets  who would shoot guns...

Telephones are much more of a part of our lives now, but back in the dark ages, they were huge, monolithic things that sat idly by, waiting for someone to call and sometimes those people were calling to scare the living hell out of you!  We look at two movies from this era, starting with 1980's " Don't Answer the Phone " which deserves it's placement on the  UK's Video Nasties list .  It presents...

This week we go deep into the cave...all the way to the fires of Hell! We encounter evil forces yet, thankfully, live to tell the tale.  We start off with an amazing film from 1973 called  The Pyx . It stars  Karen Black  and  Christopher Plummer  in a tragic story of a prostitute who gets involved in nefarious dealings and pays the ultimate price, and the detective who's trying to unravel the mys...

To "Celebrate" the 40th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, we decided to look at two " tributes " to that landmark film from  Roger Corman . We start off with 1980's " Battle Beyond the Stars " which is essentially a retelling of " Seven Samurai " but with space ships instead of swords.  With a script from  John Sayles , it is a classic tale, told well, with occasionally-impressive effects w...

We felt it was time for some recent films, so we found a couple of doozies to talk about. We start off with 2017's  The Evil Within , from the late  Andrew Getty .  Knowing the  backstory  on the production of this magnum opus really gives you a different perspective when you watch this dark and twisted tale unfold. It has incredible, home-spun effects, a very powerful lead performance from  Frede...

We get very regional in this episode of the podcast, focusing on Mr.  S.F. Brownrigg , who gave the world a few memorable films in his too-brief career. We look at two, starting with a later film, 1977's " Keep My Grave Open ", which features the debut of the always-excellent  Stephen Tobolowsky  in a twisted tale that includes such family-friendly topics as incest, murder and equestrianism. We fo...

And so...we begin our second hundo with a rough and mean selection of films. We start off with 1977's  Hitch-Hike , starring  Franco Nero  and  David Hess . It tells the story of a vacationing Italian couple visiting America and running into a sadistic villain on the side of a lonely road. They pick him up and things go VERY badly. We follow that up with the 1974's sensational  Rabid Dogs , from I...

On this landmark episode, after 7 years of yammering on and on about weird movies, we decided to pause and reflect on where we've been.  We made lists of our favorites from the show, and also the ones we most despised.  Listen in as we go through them and present our foggy memories.  Rose-colored rear-view mirrors are certainly in evidence frequently during the discussion.  Please let us know what...

We left an entire picnic set up in the cave last week, and when we came in to record, the place was totally overrun with  creepy-crawlers !  We look at two films, both from 1977, starting off with  Empire of the Ants , from director  Bert I. Gordon , and featuring  Joan Collins  as an underhanded real estate developer who finds herself trapped in the  Florida Everglades  with an oddball group of p...

Thanks to a recommendation from friend-of-the-show George, we started down a long, twisty path that lead us to the films we discuss on this episode. The through-line on all of them is the idea of revenge.  We start off with 2004's Dead Man's Shoes , from director  Shane Meadows .   Paddy Considine  plays Richard, who has come back to his hometown to settle a score that involves his brother Anthony...

We all complain about how the dream factories of Hollywood only spit out remakes and rehashes of existing properties.  We see endless streams of superhero films, and "reimagined" versions of some of our most beloved titles, and we lose all hope. Then along come two really fantastic films that shake us out of this despair and show us that there are still some people out there doing good, original w...