Half Price Horror

There's a Tall Man effortlessly lifting coffins one-handed, strange dwarves in brown robes transporting cargo through a hole in space, and a silver sphere with twin blades that flies through the air on a murderous rampage. It all adds up to one of the strangest cult classics in horror, 1979's PHANTASM, and we're going to dig into every gory detail!

This is an odd adaptation of the classic self-help book 'Healing the Child Within', but I have to say I kind of like--oh. No. Wait. This is the adaptation of the video game 'Werewolves Within', and it's got a lot to unpack. So let's talk social dynamics, fake geek girls, black comedy, and everything else that goes into this 2021 horror-comedy!

Half Price Horror decides to bring a little class to the production by reviewing a swanky foreign film! It's got artsy colors, and ballet dancers, and, um... rains of maggots, and women falling into razor wire... okay, so maybe "class" isn't the best way to describe SUSPIRIA. But as you'll see from this episode, maybe SUSPIRIA is just indescribable.

I recently did an episode of They're Terrified and Tipsy with the amazing Courtney and Stephanie, and they've graciously given me permission to post it here! You can repay the favor by subscribing to their highly entertaining podcast, leaving them a nice review, subscribing to their Patreon, and all the other stuff you do for the podcasts you love!

Every horror fan knows that the real scare, especially in Britain in the 80s, were the people willing to use horror's unsavory reputation as an excuse for authoritarianism. But what about the people who truly believed that scary movies could influence society into acts of violence? Could they be the biggest monsters of all? Find out as we do a deep dive into Prano Bailey-Bond's amazing debut featu...

It's time for our crash-bang-boom 50th episode, and we celebrate with the directorial debut of James Gunn! He's famous for Guardians of the Galaxy, but Slither shows he's always had the chops and we're going to go over every wonderful minute of this body horror-comedy.

It's time to CUT OUT the CANCER as we dig into 2021's controversial entry from James Wan, MALIGNANT! There's neo-giallo themes, medical curiosities, and some playful trollery in this movie, and HPH talks about it all!

HPH finally tackles the legendary John Carpenter and his strange, trippy, metafictional before metafiction was cool movie 'In the Mouth of Madness'! Find out how HP Lovecraft, Stephen King, and post-modernism combine to create an apocalyptic threat that even Sam Neill can't stop.

Thanks to the miracle of physical media, Half Price Horror finally gets to take a look at a nearly-lost classic of the legendary director George Romero, his zombie epic to end all zombie epics DAWN OF THE DEAD! We dig into the film's social commentary, its inventive use of authentic 70s locations, and its struggles with that thing called feminism.

It's time to explore another black-and-white classic, as HPH digs into the independent movie that became a staple of late-night television and influenced arthouse horror films for generations to come! Join me as we take a long drive out to Utah, explore the old abandoned carnival, and look at the space between life and death in 1962's CARNIVAL OF SOULS!

Time to get away from the freezing weather with a relaxing trip to Daddy's beach house! It's nice and warm here... warm enough, in fact, to release trapped microbes from a volcanic vent and usher in the end of the human race as we know it. But hey, don't be scared, right? Don't be scared. Don't be scared. Don't be scared....

It's an unexpected return to Woodsboro for Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson, and an unexpected delight for the people who love the Scream franchise! Join in the Stab-a-Thon with Sidney, Gale and Dewey, and find out why this podcast doesn't need friends. It needs FANS!

John Krasinski's follow-up to 2018's 'A Quiet Place' might have been delayed by the pandemic, but this podcast episode won't be! Join me for a conversation about Marcus's real dad, cryptic radio messages that don't need to be, and possibly-cannibals galore!

The Scream series goes Hollywood, in an installment that's so meta it's literally about the making of itself! It's also about the generational trauma inflicted by sexual abuse, the interlocking systems of power that protect abusers, and the toxic male entitlement that permeates our culture. And it's time to really talk about what it's saying.

Shhh. Be vewwy vewwy quiet. They're hunting... us! Yep, time to dig into the fictional logic of monsters, complain about inconveniently placed nails, and discuss the debt we owe to our children as we look at 2018's A Quiet Place.

Time to spend a little more time with Sidney Prescott and friends, as she goes off to college and runs into a pair of copycat killers with an axe to grind. Features discussion of toxic male entitlement, the last-minute changes that transformed the screenplay, and why Randy had to die. (Um. Spoilers.)

As a special Halloween treat, Half Price Horror spends a little time in the company of classic 80s Elvira and her episode on the 1971 movie BLOOD LEGACY, aka LEGACY OF BLOOD! Features discussion of the way Cassandra Peterson's life informed her comedy, as well as the reasons why the movie in question might have ended up relegated to fodder for a late night horror show.

The episode runs a little long as HPH tackles one of the most influential horror movies since Halloween, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's meta-slasher classic SCREAM! Features a discussion of 80s video stores and their influence on 90s movies, and a deeper-than-deep dive into the movie's game-changing opening sequence.

As our Prime Time Horror October rolls on, HPH takes a look at probably the most influential work of science fiction horror out there, Dan O'Bannon and Ridley Scott's seminal (although in this context, John Hurt at least might not appreciate that choice of words) movie ALIEN!

Continuing October's deep dive into the classics of horror, we take a look at Tobe Hooper's unrivaled exploitation masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This episode looks at ableism in horror fandom, the value of coming to directing from documentaries, and the origins of the Sawyer family.

As we begin 2021's Spooky Season, there's no better place to start than with a landmark of the genre, George Romero's seminal zombie apocalypse film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. We discuss fallout shelter etiquette, Vietnam allegories, and the literal and figurative conflict between generations as we tackle one of the finest horror movies ever made.

Despite our best efforts, it's hard to stay positive as we look at Neil Marshall's first original movie since 2010's CENTURION, the purportedly feminist but decidedly exploitative witch hunting drama, THE RECKONING! Featuring discussions of historical and medical accuracy and why they normally wouldn't be important but kind of matter here.

Time to look at another current movie, this one a feminist look at the empowerment aspects of vampiric transformation as depicted by horror icon Barbara Crampton! Let's dig into 2021's sexy gory vamp flick, JAKOB'S WIFE!

Before he was the fantasy equivalent of George Lucas, Peter Jackson was a scrappy independent film maker from New Zealand with a penchant for gross-out horror comedies. If you've ever wondered how one Peter Jackson became the other Peter Jackson, come take a deep dive with us into 1996's 'The Frighteners' and see how a movie full of CGI ghosts and relentless pursuit became the failure he needed to...

Time to take a deep dive into the waters of magical realism, as we take a look at what's beneath the surface of Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning masterpiece THE SHAPE OF WATER! Don't worry, there's nothing fishy going on here--this production went swimmingly! (I promise, I don't do these aquatic puns in the actual episode. This is just for the halibut.)