Saturday Night Freak Show

Michaela finds she can't uninstall the grim reaper in the smartphone horror flick  Countdown  (2019). A young nurse finds herself stalked by death after downloading a killer app which ticks off the minutes until her predicted death, and must enlist the help of a sardonic wireless salesman and a rap-loving priest to save herself. Listen as we talk technological terrors, #MeToo in the work...

Holly finds that all the boys, the girls, and the demons are obsessed with possessing  Jennifer's Body  (2009). Sex symbol Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried star in a tale of two childhood BFFs whose friendship begins to fracture when one of them becomes possessed by a demon and starts eating people. Listen as we discuss satanic rock bands, female power fantasies, the career longevity of Ada...

Sean gets us to watch his preferred version of  Halloween II  (1981, aka "the censored, alternate universe TV cut"). Listen as we reminisce about watching R-rated movies get sterilized for television, marvel at the editorial free-reign afforded Universal's broadcast wing in the 1980's, and bash  Halloween  (2018)  again , all on this week's supernerd episode...

Colin runs for his life from a hideously deformed carny after witnessing the strange goings-on inside  The Funhouse  (1981).  Texas Chain Saw Massacre  director Tobe Hooper's first studio feature follows a quartet of teens into a traveling carnival which may be hiding a monster within. Listen as we talk about county fairs, turkey legs, freak tents, fortune tellers and monkeys-r...

Michaela finds herself on the receiving end of head-drilling, brain-sucking silver spheres of death with  Phantasm  (1979)! Brothers Mike and Jody, along with hippie ice-cream man Reggie, investigate creepy goings-on at the local mortuary and run afoul of the sinister Tall Man. Listen as we chat about nightmares, drive-ins, impromptu jam sessions, and worship at the altar of the '71 Hemi...

Holly offers the Internet Radio Superstars $1 million a piece to spend the night in the  House on Haunted Hill  (1999). Five strangers find themselves trapped in a former art deco insane asylum along with ghosts, creeps, ghouls and a rich married couple (Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen) who amuse themselves by plotting to kill each other. Listen as we remember horror's PT Barnum, William...

Sean takes a whack at the Big Apple with  Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan  (1989). Getting tired of chopping up teens at a woodsy summer camp, Jason hops aboard a cruise ship bound for NYC where he finds himself welcomed by a city in which he fits right in. Listen as we rank all the Friday the 13th movies, pay tribute to Kane Hodder's contribution to the series, and marv...

We go on a return Freak Show Field Trip to the clown-haunted sewers of Derry, Maine for a final confrontation with  It: Chapter Two  (2019). Twenty-seven years have past since 7 kids thought they beat a child-eating monster that lives beneath their hometown; now, they're summoned back once it's discovered to have survived. Listen as we talk about killer clowns from outer space, changes b...

Colin lives through the holy terror of communion with a freaky Catholic slasher with  Alice, Sweet Alice  (1976). Little Brooke Shields, in her first film role, is murdered in church and suspicion falls on her troubled sister, Alice. Is she the masked killer in the yellow rain slicker? Listen as we talk about religious fanaticism, pedophile landlords, schizoid tweens, and soap opera dyna...

Holly finds that fraternity hazing rituals aren't complete without a deranged murderer on the loose on  Hell Night  (1981). A quartet of pledges locked up in a spooky old mansion who discover that tales of a psychotic killer loose in the house may be true. Listen as we fathom the post-Exorcist sex appeal of Linda Blair, the bizarre bedroom rituals of college surfers, face grabbing as a p...

Michaela swears off going on vacation after watching  Vacancy  (2007). Quarreling marital duo Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsdale, en route to getting a divorce, stop off at an out-of-the-way motel and end up tormented by three masked men who are intent on adding them to their snuff film enterprise. Listen as we talk about the zeitgeist of horror films in the 2000's, motel-set horror movies...

Sean makes a bet that he'll never be killed by lions, a claim that can't be made by the makers of  Roar  (1981). Called "the most dangerous movie ever made," a madman takes his family (including Melanie Griffith and her mother,  The Birds  star Tippi Hedren) into a habitat full of man-eating lions, tigers, and leopards to make a movie, resulting in over 70 cast and crew injurie...

Colin finds himself forever standing guard over the Gates of Hell as  The Sentinel  (1977), in a star-studded Satanic supernatural shocker from  Death Wish  director Michael Winner. A beautiful model moves into a New York City brownstone and finds herself terrorized by bizzaro neighbors and nightmarish visions while a blind priest, who lives in the apartment above hers, may hol...

Michaela finds herself surrounded by killer felines in Strays (1991), in which a family moves into a country home only to find it's cellar is the lair of one super-pissed off, territorial cat and a furry army of murderous pussies. Listen as we debate the existence of the LA Metro, discuss the dynamics of Lifetime movie dramas, and unravel the mysteries of one Chuck Lubin, all on this exciting epis...

Holly gets baked with the stoner horror comedy  Idle Hands  (1999), in which forgotten teen heartthrob Devon Sawa discovers his right hand is possessed by Evil, his stoner buddies come back to life as zombies, the hot girl across the street improbably has the hots for him too, and a Druidic demon hunter wants to kill him. Listen as we talk about the career trajectories of Seth Green...

Sean imagines ending the world with a plague of dinosaurs courtesy of this week's flick,  Carnosaur  (1993), an ultra low budget Roger Corman-produced quickie designed to ride the dinosaur phenomenon created by Jurassic Park. Diane Ladd stars as a mad scientist determined to destroy the civilized world and restore dinosaurs to their place at the top of the food chain. Somewhere in t...

Colin geeks out to flame-throwing, laser-blasting, smoke pellet-chucking ninja action in  American Ninja  (1985). Michael Dudikoff was chosen by Cannon Films to step in when Chuck Norris passed on the project, to play an American G.I. (named Joe!) who must use his master-level ninja skills to defeat an arms dealer and his army of ninja assassins. Listen as we marvel at hitherto unknown n...

Michaela finds herself pursued by a killer whale with a death wish in  Orca  (1977)! After a fisherman (Richard Harris) kills his mate and her baby, a killer whale single-mindedly hunts him down, killing everyone he knows in an attempt to bait him out to sea for open fish-vs-man combat! Listen as we talk about Jaws ripoffs, post-apocalyptic roller derbies, leg-capitation, and the best pl...

Holly finds that it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters, and worries about the fate of Igor the mailman as we watch  Motel Hell  (1980). A kindly farmer and his wife sell the best smoked meats out of their rural motel/hog farm -- the kind of cannibalistic treat made from the body parts of unfortunate visitors! Listen as we talk about the life and career of Freak...

Sean heads off to a magical land of barbarian kickboxers in search of enlightenment with  Circle of Iron  (1978, aka The Silent Flute). Allegedly Bruce Lee's personal dream project, it was realized after his death with David Carradine taking on the role of The Blind Man (and several other characters) who lend wisdom to a muscular warrior on a quest to retrieve a sacred book from an evil...

Colin celebrates  Alien 's 40th anniversary by watching the sleazy, low-budget Roger Corman version:  Forbidden World  (1982, aka Mutant)! An intergalactic "troubleshooter" is summoned to a distant research outpost where all the women get naked and throw themselves at him while a giant creature alternately eats the crew and/or turns them into pulsating puddles of goo. Listen as we m...

Michaela spins us a full-on spider apocalypse as we watch William Shatner versus the  Kingdom of the Spiders  (1977), a movie that finds The Shat (in a lull between Star Treks) playing the curiously christened "Rack" Hansen: Horseback Veterinarian, a good-old-boy who must save his arid Arizona community from an attack by thousands of poisonous tarantulas. Listen as Shatner puts his...

Holly explores the 90's movies' fascination with serial killers with the Serial Killer Greatest Hits movie  Copycat  (1995), wherein Sigourney Weaver plays agoraphobic psychologist who lends her expertise to the San Francisco P.D. when a psychopath begins recreating the murder scenes of infamous mass killers all around town. Listen as we revisit the "computer morph", ogle open...

Sean sneaks a made-for-video movie into the dark bowels of the Saturday Night Freak Show screening room with his pick of  Tremors 2: Aftershocks  (1996), the promised final entry in his 2019 Spring of Sequels selections. Listen as we talk about the extended life of the beloved(?) Tremors movie series (and retirement savings project for series regular Michael Gross) which currently s...

Colin thinks  The Manitou  (1978) is the greatest movie ever made about a woman with a reincarnated 400-year-old Indian medicine man growing on her neck! In one of the 70's strangest supernatural thrillers, Tony Curtis plays a fortune teller who has to recruit a modern day Native American shaman to combat an evil spirit that's taken possession of his girlfriend. Listen as we endure hyste...