Saturday Night Freak Show

Brent explores the neurotic world of Woody Allen with Celebrity (1998), in which Kenneth Branagh does an spot on Allen impersonation as a celebrity journalist going through a divorce, and the gamut of sexual encounters he stumbles into while searching for meaning in life, while his wife (Judy Davis) suffers a a series of meltdowns in search of the same. Join us as we talk infidelity, celebrity, wr...

Sean celebrates Santa's arrival with the holiday classic Black Christmas (1974) - one of the first "slasher" movies - a Canadian import which arrived 4 years before Halloween (1978). A group of girls get murdered one-by-one, by a demented psycho named "Billy" who makes obscene phone calls to their sorority house on Christmas Eve. Director Bob Clark is also responsible for the Yuletide favorite, A...

Travis digs up the forgotten horror flick Spookies (1986), which finds a group of 30-something teenagers choosing an old mansion in which to party, and ultimately end up summoning a bunch of monsters who kill them off one-by-one. Listen as we discover the thrills of farting muck-men, shriveled sorcerers, spider-women, Gremlin-like demons, zombies and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on...

Jenny relives her childhood fascination with Macaulay Culkin's screaming fits and proclivities towards violent mayhem in Home Alone (1990). In the film, the pint-sized terror scalds, stabs, shatters, and mangles a couple of bumbling, ne'er-do-well burglars who mistakenly target his home for their Christmastime plundering. Listen as we try to sort through the rich, multi-layered meanings of this of...

Colin says "long live the new flesh!" and unleashes David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) signal upon unsuspecting minds in this week's episode. James Woods stars as a fringe-TV programmer whose reality begins to unravel after he becomes obsessed with pirate transmissions of a torture reality show. Pull up a chair and listen as we talk prophetic visions, insidious political agendas, and discuss the...

Brent concludes a year celebrating Back to the Future and time-travel movies with Back to the Future Part III (1990), which sees Marty and Doc transported to 1885, where they run afoul of 'Mad Dog' Tannen, a disabled DeLorean, and an unexpected love affair, in this sweet-natured conclusion to the classic fantasy trilogy. Gather 'round as we discover why Brent loves this movie (and why Travis hates...

Sean comes back for a second course of furry extraterrestrial troublemakers with Critters 2 (1988), which finds more of the small creatures hatching and causing havoc in a small town, while series holdovers Scott Grimes and town-drunk-turned-alien-bountyhunter Charlie (Don Opper) try to stop them. Listen in as we talk about monster movies, the perils of sequels, the career of director Mick Garris,...

This week, Travis takes us on a magical mystery tour of American Pop (1982), an animated feature from Ralph Bakshi, director of Fritz the Cat, The Lord of the Rings and Cool World. The film is an ambitious, multi-generational saga; an immigrant story that traces its lineage through the world of 20th century music and the lives of four men. Listen as we talk a bit about Bakshi's career, the controv...

This week, Jenny gets her freak on with Would You Rather (2012), in which Re-Animator's Jeffrey Combs stars as the sadistic host of a dinner party, who puts his desperate guests through a deadly game, with the promise that the winner will take home a tidy sum of money. Listen as we challenge each other to drinking games, celebrate the acting career of Combs, belittle the talent-free porn star-turn...

This week, we celebrate Halloween with Colin's seasonal pick of Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem (2013) in which a cursed record album conjures up a centuries old witches' curse to haunt a modern day rock DJ (Sherri Moon Zombie). Listen as we talk cinematic witchcraft through the ages, demon babies, demon lovers, the film career of Robert Wolfgang Zombie, and more on this week's exciting episode! H...

This week, Sean officially returns to the Freak Show with a look back at cult item Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983), an anomaly in the Halloween movie series that does not feature boogeyman Michael Myers. Instead, we get a plot to sacrifice millions of children, conducted by a novelty mask manufacturer, aided by technology gleaned from the druids. Does Halloween III deserve its current da...

This week Travis pulls the strings of cult favorite Puppetmaster (1989), the first in a series of low budget horror films about a group of living dolls, brought to life by an ancient Egyptian spell, who are used by a psychic to kill his former colleagues. Listen as we talk the rise and fall of Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment, the lost experience of surfing cover art at video stores, and our...

This week we fly to Neverland with Peter Pan in Jenny's pick of Hook (1991), Steven Spielberg's sequel-of-sorts, which finds a middle-aged Peter (Robin Williams) being forced to re-discover his magical potential when his children are kidnapped by Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). Gather 'round, children, as we try to untangle what happened to Neverland in this week's exciting roundtable throwdown! Ho...

This week, Colin exposes us to the gorefest delights of Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979 - also known as Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh Eaters), which sees eyeball-poking, shark wrestling ghouls resurrected by voodoo on a Caribbean island. Listen as we dive head first into the living dead - finally - on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, O.G. Tom returns to the Freak Show to behold the giant mech battle movie, Robot Jox (1989). In a post apocalyptic world, wars are fought in a gladiatorial arena by giant robots driven by each faction's best pilot. Who will win out? Good Achilles or evil Alexander? Join us as we analyze director Stuart (Re-Animator) Gordon's movie and talk all things battle mech, including unavoidable co...

This week, Jenny enters the so-bad-it's-good sweepstakes with her pick of the Nicholas Cage-starrer, Con Air (1997). Loveable criminal cage is put on a high-security plane with a bunch of hardened criminals, rapists and serial killers, (including John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, and Ving Rhames) and wouldn't you know it - they hijack the plane with him on board! What's an unfairly incar...

This week, Colin subjects us to the camp sci-fi classic Starcrash (1978), an Italian Star Wars rip-off that finds the buxom Stella Star (Captain Kronos' beauty Caroline Munro), along with a menagerie of robots and aliens, setting out to thwart the galaxy conquering plans of the evil Count Zarth-Arn (Joe Spinell). And, oh yeah, Christopher Plummer and David Hasselhoff co-star. Join us for a lively...

This week Travis indulges his love for monster movies with his pick of The Fly II (1989), a follow-up to David Cronenberg's 1986 re-vamp of the classic '50's chiller. Picking up where the previous film left off, The Fly II finds Eric Stoltz as the offspring of Jeff Goldblum's doomed scientist, in the custody of a sinister corporation who is waiting for his latent creature genes to manifest themsel...

This week we discover it was Jenny who did it, in the basement, with the movie Clue (1985), a slapstick adaptation of the classic board game. It's a dark and stormy night as Tim Curry, as a hapless butler, who assists a colorful cast of characters (including Christopher Lloyd, Leslie Ann Warren, Martin Mull, Madeline Kahn, and more) as they try to determine who killed the blackmailer, Mr. Boddy. H...

This week we sell our souls for rock n' roll with Colin's pick of Brian de Palma's horror/comedy/musical Phantom of the Paradise (1974). When an up and coming songwriter is disfigured and his music is stolen by a shady record producer (70's songwriting impresario Paul Williams), he dons a cloak and mask and haunts the producer's trendy venue, The Paradise, in order to secure the talents of talente...

This week Brent tries to determine if Groundhog Day (1993) can be classified as a time-travel movie. Self-centered weatherman Bill Murray gets stuck in Punxsutawney, PA in more ways than one, finding himself reliving the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over again. Is it cosmic punishment for the misdeeds of his life? Or is some other force at work? Listen as we try to figure it out on this week'...

This week Jenny takes us to the the nightmare fantasy world of Return to Oz (1985), a supposed sequel to the much beloved classic film that, in the hands of the maniacs at Disney, becomes a full-fledged freak show. Dorothy gets committed to a mental institution and finds her way back to a ruined Oz, which is now under the command of a shrieking, head swapping witch and an amorphous Gnome King. Joi...

This week Colin ventures into H.P. Lovecraft territory with a 30th anniversary review of Re-Animator (1985). Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a medical student who conducts bizarre experiments on dead tissue, which eventually draws both his roomate (Bruce Abbott) and his roomate's girlfriend (Barbara Crampton) into some of the most gonzo moments in ever seen in horror cinema. Listen as we talk abou...

This week Brent steps into the ring with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the time-travel epic Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)! Come with us if you want to live, as we evaluate one of sci-fi's enduring action movie franchises, and attempt to wrap our heads around James Cameron's twisted timeline in this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pesky electronic gremlins have struck again and have devoured our intended review of The Babadook, so this week the power of Christ compels us to watch William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III (1990). Screen titan George C. Scott battles Satan in this pseudo-sequel to the 1973 original, this time dealing with body-snatching Brad Dourif and homicidal old folks as well as Old Scratch himself. Tun...