Popular Antiquarian

In which HJDoom spends far too many words talking about The Asylum’s 2009 creature feature that does more or less what it says on the tin. There’s a shark. There’s an octopus. There’s no money. Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus stars Debbie Gibson, Lorenzo Lamar, Vic Chao, and Sean Lawlor. It was written and directed by Jack Perez under the pseudonym Ace Hannah.

Who knew that you could avoid infringing the copyright of The Terminator by simply sticking a letter S on the end? The Asylum that’s who. This was far from their first rodeo and it’s an effort to cash in on Terminator Salvation a film that looks better in retrospect only because everything got much worse after that point. The Terminator takes the core premise of a robot uprising but adds a little...

The Universal Monster movies are one of my absolute favourite things so the obvious thing to do was watch a deeply cynical attempt to cash in on their unique visual aesthetic whilst spending as little money as possible. What a glorious time to be alive.

Snakes on a Plane was arguably 2006’s biggest disappointment, a film that promised so much more than it was able to deliver despite the presence of noted charisma haver Samuel L Jackson. Fortunately all was not lost as The Asylum bravely decided to tackle the idea of reptiles on public transport with Snakes on a Train. It’s got no budget but can it manage to deliver some slithery thrills regardles...

Zombie movies. The finest art form known to humanity or only the second finest art form known to humanity? This is one of the questions that may or may not be answered as HJDoom takes on The Asylum’s first movie produced in house and a rare foray originality (insofar as a zombie movie in 2004 could be called original). It’s certainly very cheap but is it also rubbish? Listen along to find out.

Episode 2 of our deep dive into The Asylum sees us tackle the company’s first and arguably most successful mockbuster, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds from 2005 which just so happened to come out at the same time as Spielberg’s riff on the classic novel. It’s obviously incredibly cheap but it does have H Thomas Howell in it. Will that help? Listen along to find out.

The Asylum is perhaps the most hated movie studio in Hollywood, churning out extremely cheap movies which are usually based on an existing and more popular film. They are the undisputed masters of the mockbuster and their films are typically derided as parasitic cash ins. We’re going to find out if all that hate is deserved by watching as many Asylum movies as I can stand. We start with one of the...

HJDoom examines the infamous fanfic by Jim Thiess

issue 5 of Animal Man, a DC superhero comic written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Chas Troug and Don Hazlewood with colours by Tatjana Wood and letters by John Costanza. The cover art is by Brian Bolland.

Join HJDoom has we explore the work of a forgotten master of the weird tale, Allison V Harding. A curious and elusive figure who wrote over a short period but left behind a fascinating body of work.

Who doesn’t love a Gameboy game about a being of pure id? Wario Land 2 from 1998 is a fascinating little game which shows that it’s not always the most powerful platform that has the most memorable games. HJDoom takes you on a tour through the strange history of a large, furious man.

HJDoom takes a look at an episode of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon from 1987, The Collect Call of Cathulhu, and gives his barely informed thoughts on this curious slice of kids entertainment inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft.

Join Hieronymous J Doom as he takes you on a tour of media produced before the turn of the millennium. In this inaugural episode we're looking at I Was A Communist For The FBI, a classic piece of red scare paranoia from the 1950s.