Saturday Night Freak Show

Michaela takes to task Frank Oz' comedic reworking of The Stepford Wives (2004), a big budget all-star misfire which turns a chilling 1970's feminist paranoia thriller into a toothless skit show starring Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman. Listen as we talk about square dancing gradeschoolers, mandatory fun days, piggy bank robot wives and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. Se...

Holly finds life might be perfect by murdering those who disrupt domestic tranquility along with Serial Mom (1994), director John Waters satirical take on American suburbia and the celebrity culture around serial killers. Kathleen Turner stars as the picture perfect housewife-slash-serial killer. Listen as we talk about Franklin Mint collectibles, having a dog wash your feet, and commit the cardin...

Sean loves slasher sequels just like Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), a killer-on-the-loose-at-a-college-campus vintage that finds a group of co-ed film students stalked by a demented whacko in a fencing mask. Listen as we wallow in watered down teen horror, try to make sense of nonsensical plots, and then try to make an impassioned-but-illogical defense of the movie for our final act! Hosted on A...

Colin thinks weaponized salt battle trucks should be a no brainer in the fight against Slugs (1988), a gory eco-horror flick from the director of Pieces . When mutant, man-eating slugs ooze up from the earth, a band of working class heroes must unite to stop the slimy suckers before they consume an entire town! Listen as we talk about methane pollution, bloody sex scenes, exploding heads, explodin...

Michaela thinks there should be more ski resort-set slasher movies like Iced (1988), which transplants the tried-and-true formula to a snowy mountain cabin where several couples are menaced and murdered by a masked skier, probably as retribution for a long-ago death. Listen as we tell tales of killer Jeffs, hot tub electrocutions, ski pole impalements, icicles as murder weapons, and even more on t...

Holly joins the hunt for an ugly (but sharply-dressed) alien spree killer in Nightbeast (1982). After crash landing on Earth, the titular creature begins alternately vaporizing and eating the residents of a woodsy small town, leading the sheriff, his female deputy, and the town's man-of-action to track it down. Listen as we marvel at the wonders of backyard filmmaking while enduring cinema's most...

Sean commits the cardinal sin of bringing Nothing But Trouble (1991) to the Freak Show, a movie reviled for being too gross, too weird to exist. But here it is. Writer/director/star Dan Aykroyd reimagines the Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a PG-13 comedy, casting himself as a cantankerous judge who holds Chevy Chase and Demi Moore hostage in his boobytrapped hoarder mansion. Listen as Holly and Michae...

Colin finds that when you're the son of a secret agent, you're Never Too Young to Die (1986). John Stamos plays an unlikely action hero, a college student pressed into service against his deceased dad's arch enemy, a hermaphrodite terrorist played by KISS' Gene Simmons in drag! Listen as we talk about an aversion to long fingernails, sexual frustration and apples, water hose seduction, and more on...

Michaela gets behind the handlebars of a BMX bike and finds it's Rad (1986). Stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham guides a small town group of bike enthusiasts as they compete against world-traveled pros in an arena dubbed the Helltrack. Listen as we talk toy stuntman playsets, terrible paperboys, cakes in the oven, and marvel at the BMX prom on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See a...

You demanded it, so we're watching Killer Workout (aka Aerobicide, 1987), the last of our Listener's Choice picks for 2021! Someone's murdering the customers of Rhonda's Workout with a giant safety pin; it's up to a detective and an undercover private eye to unmask the suspect. Listen as we talk about beautiful gyrating bodies, backyard fights, broken drywall, and the hidden origins of the 80's vi...

You asked for it, so we're blasting Lectroids from Planet 10 along with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), a totally bizarro cult item that stars Peter Weller as a scientist, neurosurgeon, martial arts expert and rock star trying to prevent John Lithgow from stealing a device and preventing aliens destroying the planet. Listen as we discover that "wherever you go, t...

You demanded it, so we're chasing down body-hopping alien thrill-killers in  The Hidden  (1987), a genre-bending sci-fi buddy cop movie that pairs Flashdance's Michael Nouri with Twin Peaks' Kyle MacLachlan as a cop and an FBI agent on the trail of a criminal alien slug from another planet! Listen as we talk alien physiology, what it means to be human, and find out we're driving the meat...

We shake the pillars of Heaven and burrow deep into the mystical Chinese underworld of John Carpenter's  Big Trouble in Little China  (1986), the first of our Listener's Choice month selections. Join us as we hop aboard the Pork Chop Express with blowhard hero Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) and get into all sorts of martial arts mayhem beneath the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown and lis...

It's that time of year again where we compile our lists of the Best and Worst Movies of 2020 , except this year there was a dearth of new movies so we went a little broader for this special episode, tackling Best TV Show, Best New to You Movie or TV Show, Most Unexpected/Guilty Pleasure, Best/Favorite Movie of 2020, and Biggest Disappointment/Worst Movie of 2020! Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

Holly goes hunting a Sasquatch who maims his victims with his  Night Claws  (2012), a sub-low budget horror flick from prolific C-grade action movie helmer David A. Prior, pitting sheriff Reb Brown (Yor: The Hunter From the Future) against the titular rampaging beast. Listen as we reminisce about the direct-to-VHS rental days, try to get Sean to sing the film's "Legend of Cooter Brown" b...

Sean tries to break reality itself (and the brains of the Freak Show crew) with  Bloodbeat  (1983), a rightfully forgotten Christmas horror pic, shot in rural Wisconsin, which features a woman possessed by the spirit of a vengeful Samurai. Because...why not? Listen as we explore the phenomena of mystical boinging, the sonic landscapes of the Wisconsin farmland, and collectively lose our...

Colin think's Peter Cushing's doctor is the monster in  The Curse of Frankenstein  (1957), Hammer Films full-color, blood and guts version of the classic tale, which made a star out of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and launched a revitalized interest in Gothic horror in the age of sci-fi and atomic monsters. Listen as we deep dive into stuntman safety, punchable faces, child murder a...

Michaela wants to believe the truth is out there about the  Fire in the Sky  (1993), a dramatization of the supposedly true story of Travis Walton, a forester who was allegedly abducted by a UFO in 1975. We've got an all-star cast including Robert Patrick, D.B. Sweeny and James Garner and one of the most nightmarish sequences ever conducted on an alien operating table. Listen as we talk...

Holly discovers every body tells a story in the morgue of  John Carpenter's Body Bags  (1993), a made-for-TV anthology film which was intended to be Showtime's answer to HBO's Tales From the Crypt...but never took off. The Horror Master uses his wit and ghoulish panache to introduce three terrifying tales. How do they stack up? Listen as we talk serial killer slashers, horrifying hair hi...

We felt bad that Holly missed out when we discovered the greatest Thanksgiving slasher movie ever made, Blood Rage (1987), last year, so we threw our pumpkin pie at the wall, declared "it's not cranberry sauce" and headed back to relive the nightmare at Shadow Woods and get her wrap up. You can find our original, full length Blood Rage episode here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i...

Sean confronts the terror of going insane trying to rid his home of a giant rat in  Of Unknown Origin  (1983), which stars Peter Weller as a fellow in the same predicament. On the cusp of having it all, a trust fund manager finds his home under siege by a creature hellbent on destroying everything he's built for himself. Listen as we explore obsession, cat-killing rats, the career of Sha...

Colin overstimulates his pineal gland for the ability to see creatures  From Beyond  (1986), director Stuart Gordon's follow-up to Re-Animator, which reteams him with Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton for another gonzo, over-the-top slime, sex and splatter extravaganza. Listen as we talk about dangling brain stalks emerging from glistening, pulsating orifices and other gory delights on...

Michaela learns to be careful what she wishes for after tangling with the  Wishmaster  (1997), a movie featuring a who's who of horror movie all-stars in the story of an evil genie who wanders around modern day L.A., twisting people's desires into gory, FX-driven deaths. Listen as we talk of djinn, 90's horror, the long shadow of Freddy Krueger, those Wes Craven Presents movies, and more...

Holly celebrates Halloween with the Yuletide set  Night Killer  (1990), an Italian-made flick, from the director of Troll 2, that was advertised there as the 3rd Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, despite having no relation. A woman suffers a psychological trauma at the hands of a mask-wearing nutjob, suffers amnesia, and undergoes even more derangement while cops try to catch the killer. Li...

Sean finds vampires in the Wild West in  Billy the Kid Versus Dracula  (1966), a drive-in classic that was shot in 8 days and features John Carradine, reprising his interpretation of the vampire count, this time trying to steal Billy the Kid's girlfriend. Listen as we talk vampire Westerns, bats with top hats, questionable Wolfsbane, and watch one of the West's famous outlaws save Americ...