Half Price Horror

Time to dive back on in to the world of horror parodies, with a movie from a classic comedy franchise in the UK that's tackling a classic horror genre - the Hammer Horror film! Can Detective Bung and his sidekick Slobotham unravel the mystery of who's abducting young women? Is there a sinister secret behind all the shop dummies showing up in ladies' clothing stores? How many times can...

The Disney era of the 'Alien' franchise has begun, and with it comes a whole new approach to the venerable series. Do these movies work better when you throw money at them? Is an interquel inherently nostalgia-focused? Can you succeed artistically after making the single most misguided and horrifically amoral creative decision in the history of cinema? Let's just say some of these ques...

I'm guessing you haven't heard of this movie. In fact, I'm guessing nobody's heard of this movie. I hadn't heard of this movie until I found it waiting to be purchased, which sounds like a horror movie in and of itself, and it's dropped into obscurity so thoroughly that I'm the first person in 21 years to point out that the title is a mistranslation. So let's begin...

Sometimes the best things hit when you don't expect them. Everyone pretty much thought the Predator franchise was done and dusted after the failure of 2018's 'The Predator', but sometimes all it takes is one good creator with a good idea, and a ton of talented people who come along and hold that creator to an authentic and respectful vision of Comanche life set into a dazzling sci-...

I'm celebrating another big milestone here at HPH - my 250th episode! - and I figured, what better way to do it than with a movie shot at least in part in my hometown? So join me for the story of a group of teens that go to their last big sci-fi con together... and run into vampires, heartbreak, and a very irresponsible dealer's room in 'My Sucky Teen Romance'!

It's pretty much universally agreed on that 2018's 'The Predator', from action auteur Shane Black, is a hot goddamn mess. But what made it such a hot mess? Is it the uncomfortable ableism? Black's decision to heavily involve his buddy Fred Dekker in the screenwriting? The big revelations about the reasons behind the Predators' visits to Earth that absolutely nobody liked? T...

What's not to love about 'The Tingler'? It's got William Castle and his most famous theater gimmick, Vincent Price at the beginning of his big horror style era, and all the subtext you could ever want about 50s repression! Come on in and spend a little time with HPH on the most fun you can ever have being scared... and if it gets to be too much, just scream for your life!

And so the Star Trekkification of the 'Alien' franchise is complete, with a movie that's named after the ship it's set on and a plot that's straight out of the first season TNG episode "Datalore". But does that make it bad? Can those two tones be merged successfully? Is there a reason why they cast James Franco in this movie? Listen to this episode and find out!

This one was a long time in the making, but a movie this important deserves a lot of conversation. So get ready for a big discussion of the Jim Crow South, organized religion's role in perpetuating its oppression, cultural appropriation and intersectionality, and oh yes FRIGGING VAMPIRES, as we discuss Ryan Coogler's landmark cinematic achievement 'Sinners'!

Ridley Scott had no way of knowing when he selected this title that fans of the short-lived animated comedy "The Critic" would see it and immediately think, "Oh no! Promootheus!" But-- Well, actually he did have a way of knowing, because "The Critic" originally aired between 1994 and 1995 so he could fully have anticipated this reaction. So honestly it's entirely...

Welcome to Half Price Horror, your destination for haute cuisine. Tonight we have an amuse-bouche of tension, followed by an appetizer of violence with just a touch of social satire, with a main course of mesmerizing acting and for dessert... maybe a cheeseburger? Unconventional, I know, but this is just that kind of establishment, and I can't wait to discuss the entire Menu with you.

Featuring a surprising number of Oscar winners for the fifth installment in the 'Predator' franchise, this latest movie takes us off-world and onto an alien game reserve stocked by the titular Predators for their special hunts. But are the predators the alien hunters... or the people they've come here to hunt? That's the question the movie asks, so let's dig in together and see...

The Dark Universe! Just the mention of this storied franchise stirs the soul of every cinephile, bringing back memories of 2017's 'The Mummy' and... um... actually it was just 2017's 'The Mummy', wasn't it? And to find out why, give this episode a spin and discover the history of the cinematic universe that wasn't and all the reasons behind its failure.

If there's a single entry in the 'Alien' and 'Predator' franchises it's acceptable to simply dump on, this would probably be the one. But what are the actual problems with this movie? Why does it fail, and what can we learn from its artistic struggles? There is value in discussing these things... all of which is a very nice way of saying that this movie is nine miles of rou...

Horror director Joe Begos has been building a reputation for himself over the last decade, but due to a bad bit of SEO luck his first feature doesn't get a whole lot of attention. So I thought I'd change all that with a full episode on 'Almost Human' (not the Karl Urban TV show) and all the ways this first-time filmmaker worked to get his vision on screen.

That's right, folks, it's time for the main event! We've gone through four installments of the 'Alien' franchise, two installments of the 'Predator' franchise, and it was all to get to the moment where they fight! So how does it go? Is it exciting? Is it plausible? Does Lance Henriksen get to say that his experts tell him... it's a pyramid? Well, listen on and find...

You all knew I was going to have to cover a Troma film eventually, and honestly this is one of their more famous movies so it's a good entry point into the studio's output. So let's get into problematic gender identities, gratuitous nudity, shock for its own sake, and everything else that makes Troma such a controversial studio!

It's never truly over when it comes to the world of horror franchises, so even though Ellen Ripley took a swan dive into a blast furnace she's still back for Part Four! How? Why? What does it have to do with disgraced sex pest Joss Whedon? All the answers are in this week's episode!

The most inaccurate summary of this movie would be to say that sometimes the real treasure was the friends we made along the way. And for a much more accurate summary, and to understand that joke, you'll need to listen to the latest episode of Half Price Horror!

You could instead call it "Alien 3", or "Alien Cubed", or "Alien^3"... but I think what you could mainly call it is 'troubled', as everyone who took a crack at this script over the course of the late 1980s eventually did. That's right, we are tackling the Assembly Cut of a movie whose director disowns it, and why? Well, you'll find out when you listen...

Gotta admit, this was one of those movies that looked like it would never wind up on the show. But Christmas came and brought a free copy right into my lap, and I'm not going to turn down the chance to find out what happened to Sarah and Juno after what seemed like their certain death at the end of Part One. So join me for another deep dive into caves and crawlers as HPH tackles 'The Desce...

The 80s were the decade of the sequel in many ways, but 1990 was just past the end of an era when it came to launching big sci-fi horror franchises. So when 'Predator 2' came along, offering its audiences no Schwarzenegger and no John McTiernan, a lot of people wrote it off sight unseen... but as a reflection of a very important transition in American culture, it's got a lot to offer f...

2025 brought us a lot of horror, only some of which was cinematic, and one of the biggest hits of that year was Zach Cregger's follow-up to 'Barbarian'. But does 'Weapons' hold up to repeat viewings? What makes it so fascinating? Why don't we ever see a reporter in this town that's supposedly so full of media? It's a lot of questions, and lucky for you Half Price Ho...

Get to the choppah, everybody, because we don't have time to bleed--there's just too much to talk about in this episode! That's right, it's time to tackle one of the biggest triumphs for one of the biggest stars of the 80s, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his action-horror-science-fiction movie 'Predator'! So everybody give your buddy a big sweaty handclasp, because here we go!

It looks like a low-budget Predator ripoff. It sounds like a low-budget Predator ripoff. But 'Without Warning' came out a full seven years before 'Predator', and it's got Jack Palance and Martin Landau in the cast! Two Academy Award winners dealing with an alien big-game hunter played by Kevin Peter Hall years before his biggest role (and wearing a Rick Baker mask instead of a...