Movie Oubliette

Now that Episode IX is out of the way, you probably think you've seen all of the Star Wars movies. Think again! Matt Conley, Community Director at hitRECord, takes us on a journey to a galaxy far, far away to experience an Ewok spin-off TV movie from 1985 that features everything you expect from the iconic franchise: a shapeshifting witch, a 6-year-old watching her family being murdered, and Wilfo...

Kelli Maroney, star of Chopping Mall and Night of the Comet, joins us for a festive retrospective review of the first horror movie she saw in a theater: Black Christmas! The original 1974 slasher thriller has everything you want in seasonal cinema: screaming prank phone calls, unicorn stabbings and plastic bag suffocations! But does it deserve to be rescued from relative obscurity? Support us on P...

Jonathan King, director of Black Sheep (see episode 11), joins us to explore The Dead Zone (1983) – a Stephen King adaptation directed by David Cronenberg that's often treated as a footnote in both of the horror maestros' careers. Christopher Walken stars as a disturbingly morbid English teacher who becomes even more disturbing after he emerges from a 5-year coma with psychic powers. Does this epi...

Conrad and Dan go back to 90s high-school in this listener's choice episode, revisiting Robert Rodriguez's alien invasion thriller The Faculty (1998). It has an eclectic cast, including Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Salma Hayek, Usher and Jon Stewart, and is probably the first teen movie to suggest that drugs are the answer to an alien invasion. Does it deserve to escape the oubliette or should it b...

Don Mancini – writer, director and creator of Child's Play – joins us for our Halloween Special, and offers us a bewitching concoction that promises to take you back to your youth: Death Becomes Her (1992), a deliciously dark supernatural comedy starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and something that looks like Bruce Willis but must be an animated special effect because it's emoting too much. Should...

Dan and Conrad investigate a distress signal and discover Isaac Sutton, filmmaker and movie blogger, who diverts their course to investigate Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle's largely overlooked but arguably most influential film. It features Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans and Michelle Yeoh among a diverse crew on a mission to restart our ailing sun and save the planet. Eight astronauts stra...

"Something's wrong with you. More than you being just... female," says angsty teenager Brigitte to her suddenly feisty, pet-hungry sister in Ginger Snaps – a 2000 Canadian horror film written by Karen Walton and John Fawcett and directed by the latter. Dan and Conrad try desperately to avoid mansplaining while deciding if this is a strangely overlooked landmark in the werewolf genre with a unique...

The new Dark Crystal series on Netflix has given us an insatiable appetite for the fantasy worlds of Jim Henson, so we've plucked another of the company's films out of the oubliette. It's the tale of a young girl who argues with her parents and, after making a terrible wish about a family member that shockingly comes true, sets off on an adventure into a wild fantasy world to set the world to righ...

Dan and Conrad are stranded on an alien planet with Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr. and some remote control turtles. Yes, it's Wolfgang Petersen's 80s sci-fi epic Enemy Mine. Will they learn to get along to survive? Or will they get dragged into what looks suspiciously like the sarlacc pit? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the fin...

Duncan Skiles, director of 'The Clovehitch Killer', joins us to discuss the 80s remake of 'The Blob', directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by Frank Darabont. It creeps. And leaps. And, indeed, glides and slides. But does this gloopy body horror-infused update of the 50s classic deserve to ooze out of the oubliette? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus...

Jeff Palermo of the SciFi Onscreen podcast invites Conrad and Dan to the basement of an old church, where they discover John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987) sealed in a canister of green goo. Is it this combination of quantum physics and biblical disaster a mind-blowing jewel in the horror master's crown, or a forgettable bunch of lame zombie kills in beige corridors? Support us on Patreon t...

Dan and Conrad go on a lovely pleasure cruise for a summer break, but find themselves trapped in a (Bermuda) Triangle time-loop purgatory with Melissa George and a barefoot nondescript beach bum who apparently morphed into Liam Hemsworth. Will they escape the twisty psychological terrors of Christopher Smith's sci-fi horror thriller?  Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access...

Lance Guest, star of Halloween II and The Last Starfighter, join Dan and Conrad as they seal themselves in sensory deprivation tanks and regress to 1980, where they discover the trippy world of Ken Russell's Altered States. William Hurt and Blair Brown play academics who explore the far reaches of human ancestral memory – that is, when they're not interrupting sex to talk about cancer and explorin...

Let's get small! Dan and Conrad are injected into the butt of the 1987 Spielberg-produced summer blockbuster with the incredible shrinking box office: Joe Dante's Innerspace. Starring Dennis Quaid, Martin Short and Meg Ryan, this sci-fi comedy adventure about an Ant-Man style miniaturisation experiment gone awry has all the ingredients of a crowd-pleasing hit but vanished without trace. Did it des...

Dan and Conrad venture into the lair of Guillermo Del Toro and George R. R. Martin's favourite dragon: Vermithrax Pejorative, the undisputed star of Disney's 1981 fantasy adventure, Dragonslayer. It has everything you want in a family movie: full-frontal male nudity, Emperor Palpatine being torched to a cinder, and a Disney Princess getting her foot gnawed off by a sock puppet. But does it deserve...

For our first anniversary, we invite back our first ever guest – writer/director Serge Bodnarchuk. He comes in from the cold with a tall tale about Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle and David Arquette being out there somewhere in a forgotten western/horror cannibalism movie called 'Ravenous' (1999), so Dan and Conrad follow him into the icy wilderness after obediently smothering themselves in hot sauce....

Dan and Conrad tear up some paperback covers and assemble a map to John Carpenter's "last good film", 1994's 'In the Mouth of Madness'. It's got Sam Neill, Charlton Heston, a naked old man handcuffed to his wife's ankle, and more Lovecraftian cosmic horror than you could shake a tentacle at. But, crucially, is it actually any good? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access ex...

Dan and Conrad review listener's choice 90s horror 'Disturbing Behavior', in which twentysomething teenager James Marsden moves to a new town and discovers a Stepford Wives-style conspiracy against delinquent high schoolers. With the help of his new friends, post-Dawson's Creek Katie Holmes and pre-Terminator Nick Stahl, can he avoid becoming one of the squeaky clean Blue Ribbon Group of 50s throw...

Dan and Conrad celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dead Calm: the first movie in which Billy Zane was unpleasant on a boat. He terrorises a 19-year-old Nicole Kidman and hubby Sam Neill in Phillip Noyce's nautical thriller. Does it hold water or is it a wash out? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict! Rate and review us...

Dan and Conrad gaze long into the oubliette, and 'The Hole' gazes back at them! It all gets a bit meta as they revisit Joe Dante's sprightly 3D horror extravaganza, which disappeared without a trace in 2009. Do they conquer their worst fears? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict! Rate and review us on your podcast pl...

Dan and Conrad are pushed into watching Push (2009), the first ever listener's choice movie from the Oubliette Roulette! It features Chris Evans in his second superhero role as a telekinetic on the run in Hong Kong. Is the film pushing it or are our hosts a pushover? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict! Rate and rev...

Only two British horror films were released in theatres in the 80s. The second was the seminal classic Hellraiser (1987). Alas, the oubliette presents Dan and Conrad with the first: Xtro (1982). It has a shocking alien birth scene, a black panther and a future Bond girl. But is it worth saving from obscurity? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content,...

Writer/director Jacob Gentry introduces Conrad and Dan to Brian De Palma's The Fury (1978) and tries to convince them that the world needs to see 61-year-old Kirk Douglas's shirtless parkour and Amy Irving exploding people with her mind. Will he win the movie's freedom from the oubliette? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final...

Conrad and Dan venture into Don Coscarelli's dream-like Phantasm (1979) and find themselves dodging flying balls and homicidal jawas in the Tall Man's mausoleum. Is it genre-bending genius or a shaggy gopher-on-heat story? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict! Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, an...

Dan and Conrad Return... to Oz! Disney's belated and berated sequel to the beloved musical classic bombed in 1985, but does it deserve a re-evaluation? Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict! Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us. Follow us on TikTok , YouTube , Instagram and...