Flickers from the Cave

For this episode of the podcast, we look at two more films from the 70s, but both of these feature special-effects work from people who would go on to redefine what is possible in film effects work. We start off with 1970's  Equinox , with effects from  Dennis Muren  who has more than a few Oscars in his cupboard. It is a very interesting, Lovecraftian tale, about ancient books that unlock doorway...

Happy New Year, and welcome back to the damp confines of the cave!  We are going into the wayback machine to remember a film series that made a major mark on genre cinema. We start off with the very entertaining " Airport " from 1970. With a stellar cast lead by  Burt Lancaster ,  Dean Martin ,  Helen Hayes  ( in an Oscar-winning role ) and series-regular  George Kennedy , the film is based on the...

Happy Holidays from the Cave! Nothing says  "We Love You" more than a couple of vicious and depressing tales of crime and criminals. We start off with 1973's  The Friends of Eddie Coyle , starring show-favorite  Robert Mitchum   as Eddie "Fingers" Coyle who has made some bad choices and is finding himself running out of options. It is complicated and challenging and totally engrossing. We follow t...

We look at two films based on work by the writer  Huber Selby Jr.  on this episode of the podcast. We  had only seen the amazing 2000 film  Requiem for a Dream , which is based on Selby's book, so our expectations were high as we sought out his other films.  We start off the podcast with the 1989 film  Last Exit to Brooklyn , which is based on Selby's controversial novel and which caused a big sti...

We get super-political on this episode of the podcast, just in time for the U.S. elections which are almost upon us. We start off with 1970's " Joe ", an early film from  John G. Avildsen  who would later give us such box office champs as Rocky and the Karate Kid.  It takes a look at the relationship between the haves and have-nots at a time when the youth were not interested in following in their...

We added an entirely new ( and probably unwanted ) feature to Flickers... VIDEO !  If you want to see us recording the second half of the show,  click here .  We are back to the deep dark sea on this episode, focusing on two older movies that take place above, on and under the waves.  We start off with 1966's  Destination Inner Space . Full of cheese and an almost Donald-Trump-Level of of gender p...

Watch out, the cave is flooded and we have been beset by man-eating sharks!  We go back to the 70's for two films that took our eternal fascination with these fearsome beasts and try to use that to bring people to the cinemas.  We start off with 1975's  "Shark's Treasure" , which stars the legendary  Cornel Wilde  who also produced, wrote and directed the film.  Essentially a little  tale  of trea...

We go back to Italy for another dose of fine Italian cinema, this time focusing on two of their many " Spaghetti Westerns ".  We start off with a Django film with surprisingly-low amounts of Django in it ( we figured it had, roughly, zero percent of Django in the actual film ) but...it was still totally awesome. We are talking about the oddly-titled " Django Kill...if you Live, Shoot " from 1967....

We hit the road again this week, thanks to a great suggestion from one of our awesome listeners named Andrew. He told us about an amazing Canadian film from 1970, called " Goin' Down the Road " from director  Donald Shebib . The film follows two " maritimers " who leave their homes to travel to the big city of Toronto with hopes of a chance to live a better life.  An incredible film, with honest a...

We love getting recommendations from listeners but it might seem like we were ignoring one of those recommendations, but we assure you that is not the case. Thanks, and apologies, go out to Hugo, who suggested that we look into the " Blind Dead " films from  Amando de Ossorio .  We  missed Hugo's message for a LONG time, but when we found it, lurking in the dark corners of our inbox, we leapt on t...

We are sticking close to home with the latest episode of the podcast. We look at two films that are totally products of our home-state of  North Carolina . We start off with 1968's  Killers Three , which was produced, co-written by, and co-stars the one and only  Dick Clark !  With a surprisingly strong cast and a  well-paced story, this movie is a real blast ( literally at times ). We follow that...

For this episode of the podcast we wanted to rewatch some films we had seen before but had NOT like, and see if our opinions changed on them this time.  It was an interesting experiment.  We  start with 2003's  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . which has a truly impressive cast and is based on a graphic novel series of the same name from the legendary  Alan Moore . We follow that up with 200...

A Flickers podcast that doesn't look at films from the 70s or 80s!?!?! What has the world come to!?!? We wanted to update things a bit this time, so we are looking at two from 2015, starting with  The Invitation , which is very much like if  Werner Herzog  directed a claustrophobic remake of the  Big Chill . Filled with great performances and a great ( and surprising ) story, this was a real treat...

Thanks to faithful listener Jason, we discovered something new and wonderful for the is episode of the podcast.  He turned us on to New Zealand director Geoff Murphy and suggested that we pair up two of his films. We start with 1981's  Goodbye Pork Pie  which follows a nutty young man named Jerry and his accidental companion John as the travel basically the entire length ( north to south ) of New...

We are off to  Jellystone  for this episode of Flickers!  There are bears in those woods and they are wanting to do more than ruin your picnic.  We start with 1976's  Grizzly  from director  William Girdler  and featuring performances from some of our favorite character actors, including  Christopher George ,  Richard Jaeckel  and  Andrew Prine .  In a story that is VERY similar to a certain hit f...

What is it about the inescapable pull of  Menahem Golan ?  We have yet another film from this storied filmmaker this time, but we start with 1986's  Cobra , from  George P. Cosmatos , who had previously given the world,  Rambo: First Blood Part 2 .  In a solid tale of a renegade cop who's trying to stop a ruthless serial killer from knocking-off a witness to one of his kills, Cobra delivers everyt...

Apparently, in 1980, the world was gripped with a bad case of  Disco Fever !  We prove this theory by talking about two films from this significant year.  With it being our 80th episode (!) we thought it was fitting to look at two from that specific year.  We start off with the totally baffling " The Apple " from producer/director  Menahem Golan .  A mind-boggling biblical parable with more makeup...

Did you say "action movies"? Did you say "Chuck Norris" ?  Wait a second, did somebody say "The Eighties" ?  Boy, oh boy, do we have you covered on this episode!  We both recently watch  Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films  ( which we HIGHLY recommend ) and it inspired us to do this pairing of films.  We start off with 1985's  Invasion U.S.A . which sees  Chuck Norris  square-...

It is off to Merrye Olde Englande this time, for two amazing tales of witches and their hunters. We start with 1968's  The Witchfinder General  ( also known as The Conqueror Worm ).  We were lucky enough to watch the Director's cut of this amazing story based on the true story of  Matthew Hopkins  who did his best to rid the British countryside of witches in the 1600's. We then turn to 1971's  The...

We run giggling back into the strong, manly arms of Mr.  Doug McClure  again for episode 77 and bask in his glory.  It is time to get the rubber monsters out, and to set sail across a mysterious sea filled with mysterious dangers, and we are going to pack our ships with shifty characters and lots of twisty subplots.  We go out to sea for 1968's  The Lost Continent  and follow that up with 1978's ...

A new year is upon us, and a new Flickers is upon YOU!  We start out the year with two movies that put children in perilous, zombie-related, situations, but with varying levels of success. We start with 2015's  Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse , which is on the extreme low end of success and finish up with 2014's  Cooties , which truly knocks every single ball out of the park.  Scout's Guide,...

We are back to the 80's...again...and probably not for the last time, with two movies from the duo of  Stephen Carpenter  and  Jeffrey Obrow . We start off with a film from 1982 that is known by a handful of titles, but most frequently "The Dorm That Dripped Blood".  A solid slasher-who-dunnit, it perfectly captures those genres with fairly solid performances and shows a good deal of technical ski...

We are back to the 80s, again, with two more fine examples of what it was like to wander into a theater while we were in high school. We start off with 1983's  Mausoleum , starring a gorgeous  Bobbie Bresee  and the show-favorite  Marjoe Gortner .  It is not, in any defensible way, a good film, but we have each seen it multiple times so there must be something about it. We follow that up with 1982...

It's time to strap on your helmets and grease up the chains, we're going offroad on our BMX bikes! We look at two movies from the 80's that focus on the  BMX craze  that was sweeping the world then. We start with 1986's  Rad , directed by  Hal Needham . It is an achingly-sincere and earnest film. Set in small-town America, with a plot that borrows heavily from dozens of sources, it is stupidly cha...

Thanks to listener Jason, we were turned on to an amazing string of British movies known as the " Carry On Films ". This series of cheeky comedies were unknown to us and we are very happy to have found them. We picked two of the 31 theatrically released films as our introduction, starting with 1966's  Carry On Screaming!  and then following that up with 1969's  Carry On Camping . All of the films...