Saturday Night Freak Show

Holly draws up the anchor and sets sail with Dead Calm (1989), a Hitchcockian suspense thriller from Australia which sees a ride-or-die couple's self-therapy cruise interrupted by a psychotic interloper. Things don't go as expected in this tale of high seas mayhem. Listen as we go on a Lars Von Trier tangent, hear about Sean's swamp witch grandma, and dust off our nautical survival skills and more...

Sean powers up his special attack skill to take on Street Fighter (1994), a live-action adaptation of the Capcom video game that pits the freedom fighters of the Allied Nations, headed by the Saturday Night Freak Show Wall of Fame reigning champion Jean Claude Van Damme, against the evil General Bison (Raoul Julia in his final screen role). Listen as we applaud game accurate costume design, nail d...

Colin learns that when vampires rule the earth, even the dead will scream in Leif Jonker's Darkness (1993), a micro-budget splatter flick filmed in the wilds of Kansas. A lone survivor of a vampire attack makes it his mission to hunt down the big bad who killed his family; meanwhile, a van full of kids returns from a rock concert to find the world really has gone to hell in a handbasket. Listen as...

Michaela finds that guilt gives her a case of Insomnia (2002), a thriller about a police detective (Al Pacino) assigned to catch a killer in a remote Alaskan town where the sun never sets, and finds himself involved in a cat and mouse relationship with the suspect (Robin Williams) after he's caught in a morally compromised position. Listen as we hail the virtues of Mrs. Doubtfire, find us pursued...

Sean undergoes an unauthorized surgical procedure to receive an Upgrade (2018) that give an experimental artificial intelligence control over his body and turns him into a karate chopping badass! Saw and Insidious writer Leigh Wannell graduates to directing with this sci-fi hybrid of RoboCop and The Crow as Logan Marshall-Green hunts down the street thugs who paralyzed him and killed his wife. Lis...

As the last free soul on the planet Earth, Colin puts pedal to the metal and hits the Vanishing Point (1971), a movie that follows the exploits of an enigmatic driver named Kowalski and his 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T on a multi-state police chase while a psychic DJ named Super Soul guides him from afar. Listen as we eulogize the Challenger in its final model year, meet snake wrangling faith healers...

Michaela heads to the Bahamas for a slaycation getaway with I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998). One year after her friends were killed by a hook-wielding fisherman, college freshman Julie James and her friends head out on an island adventure only to find the nightmare never ends! Listen as we talk about the convoluted mechanics of revenge, brain damaged heroes, electric toothbrush produc...

Holly discovers that not all aliens come from space in DeepStar Six (1989), one of several competing terror-from-the-deep flicks that hit multiplexes the same year. This one's directed by Friday the 13th's Sean S. Cunningham and finds Navy researchers on the ocean floor terrorized by a giant crustacean. Listen as we dive into deepsea truckers, cold water nips, accidental nuclear detonations, and r...

Just when Sean thought it was safe to go back in the water, Jaws 2 (1978) swam up and took a bite! The original blockbuster gets a sequel that pits Amity Police Chief Brody against obstinate bureaucrats, hormonal teens, and another great white shark that stalks and attacks its victims with all the shock and awe of a backwoods slasher. Listen as we land sharks, ghost sharks, club sharks, sand shark...

Colin thinks like a sociopathic serial killer in order to catch one in Manhunter (1986), the very 80s adaptation of Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon," pitting empathetic FBI agent Will Graham against The Tooth Fairy, a psycho who kills entire families in pursuit of twisted wish fulfilment. Listen as we compare and contrast Michael Mann's vision against multiple screen versions of the story and witness T...

Michaela wants to discover the secret of the ooze that makes dreams come true on Fantasy Island (2020), Blumhouse's horror-ish remake of the beloved TV show, that finds several vacationers running from living manifestations of their past sins on a magical tropical island. Listen as we exclaim "The plane! The plane!" as guests of the mysterious Mr. Roarke and our fantasies of revenge, love, heroism...

Holly opens up a can of whoop ass by bringing Steven Seagal to the Freak Show with Hard to Kill (1990), in which the human shaped automaton plays a cop who awakens from a 7 year coma and embarks on a rip roaring rampage of revenge, slapping all the guys who murdered his wife, really hard. Listen as watch the mysterious action hero bend elbows backwards, romance nurses, grow an epic beard, and run...

Sean leads us into the haunted woods of Burkitsville, Maryland with Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000), a meta-sequel to The Blair Witch Project that seems to suggest madness and murder are the outcomes of obsessive horror movie fandom. But that won't stop your intrepid quartet of Freak Show podcasters from plowing ahead onto haunted boat tours, encountering annoying self-obsessed Wiccans, as w...

Colin wants to discover The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), along with a lot of other men — one of whom might be a black gloved razor wielding maniac! Giallo queen Edwige Fenech is the titular socialite, whose extramarital proclivities place her life in jeopardy. Listen as we studiously avoid becoming targets of vengeful screenwriters, enjoy wistful sadomasochistic reminiscences, and encounter...

Michaela takes the weed whacker along on her nightmare vacation atop The Ruins (2008), which deposits tourists upon an ancient Mayan temple that holds a deadly secret. Listen as we talk about risky vacation behavior, hot rock leg amputation, creeping vines and internal organs, flesh invasion, carnivorous vegetation, and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

Holly plays The Most Dangerous Game and finds Jean-Claude Van Damme very hard to kill in Hard Target (1993), the first American movie by Hong Kong action pioneer John Woo. When a merchant seaman with some very special skills helps a young woman track down her missing father in New Orleans, they become the targets of human safari. Listen as we marvel at snake-punching, motorcycle surfing, double fi...

Sean says time is on his side, and that's why we spent 2 hours and 4 minutes watching Denzel Washington pursue a body-hopping demon in Fallen (1998). Bizarro murders committed after a serial killer is put to death puzzle Philadelphia police, and one dogged detective finds himself the target of the Satanic trickster. Listen as we talk demon entrapment, chomp on turkey legs, and stage impossible mur...

Colin continues serving Giallo Shots with What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) a hybrid Italian-German co-production that fuses the German "krimi" (crime) films with the Italian giallo genre they inspired. Girls at a Catholic prep school are murdered by a sadistic sex killer and a gym teacher finds himself a prime suspect after having an affair with one of his students. Listen as we talk about th...

Michaela wants to time warp back to an 80's era mall but finds it's haunted by the Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)! A horribly burned lover survives the fire that nearly killed him and wreaks havoc on the greedy developers who build a mall on the spot of his family home, while trying to woo back his sweetheart. Listen as we talk about assassin snakes, killer workouts, and the cinematic...

Holly finds that the pen is mightier than the sword in summoning a demonic Cellar Dweller (1987) from the netherworld! Students at a remote 'artist colony' (read: cabin in the woods) fall prey to a hairy creature conjured by a cloistered cartoonist in a film directed by makeup fx man John Carl Buechler. Listen as we pile hate on performance artists, tortured artists, pretentious artists, and art s...

Sean wants to swallow your soul after being possessed by Evil Dead (2013), a gory remake of Sam Raimi's no-budget classic. Five friends go to a cabin in the woods and unwittingly set loose demons that possess and kill them one by one, but those expecting a straight retread of the original are in for a surprise. Listen as we make it rain blood, summon evil spirits, hack off our own limbs, and gener...

Colin tracks the slasher movie genre back to Blood and Black Lace (1964), an Italian giallo from the maestro, Mario Bava, in which a (literally) faceless, black gloved killer stalks models at a haute couture fashion house. Listen as we reveal telltale ways to spot the murderer in any mystery movie, unravel convoluted whodunnit plotwork, and ooh and awe over the use of multi-colored lighting on thi...

Michaela begins to think a rocket launcher might be the only way to take out a haunted elevator in Down (aka The Shaft, 2001), a movie that features a pre-stardom Naomi Watts, about a maintenance company employee (Twin Peaks' James Marshall) who finds himself pitted against a homicidal piece of machinery that's lopping off heads at a NYC high rise. Listen as we propose Down 2: The Second Floor wit...

Surprise! The Freak Show makes a sudden detour to the Big Apple with Scream VI (2023), as the famed slasher saga relocates to NYC and asks "Who gives a #$%! about movies?" So much stabbing ensues. Listen as we power up on serial killer DNA, get haunted by ghosts and Ghostfaces, and find out if #JusticeForKirby is finally served on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

Sean vacations at the house by the pond (not to be confused with the cabin by the lake) and shouts, There's Nothing Out There (1991), only to discover there IS actually something out there: a horny, reptilian extra-terrestrial menace determined to kill everyone in sight! Listen as we discuss VHS-themed funerary rituals, the high school phenomenon of "super seniors" as we swing from boom mics while...