Shoot The Hostage

Join us one last time in Liminal Spaces as we peer into the green swirling abyss for another visit to John Carpenter town. It’s time to talk about Prince of Darkness (1987), a film that proves that when it comes to 80s horror, nobody does it like the master of horror himself. In this episode, we dive into cosmic horror, subatomic evil and the ultimate showdown between religion vs science. We discu...

We’re entering the Shimmer for the penultimate episode of the season! Or as Dan insists on calling it, (much to Sarah’s annoyance) the “penny”. Join us as we discuss Alex Garland’s 2018 sci-fi weirdness, Annihilation. As the 7th entry in our Liminal Spaces season, Sarah explains why this dreamlike and ethereal landscape is the ultimate subversion of the genre, moving away from empty car parks and...

Don’t Wake in Fright because you’ve got a massive hangover; wake up and join us in The Yabba for a cold midi! This week on Shoot the Hostage, we are continuing Sarah’s Liminal Spaces season with a journey into the sun-drenched beer-soaked nightmare of Australian cinema: Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 film, Wake in Fright. In our 6th episode of the season, we follow Gary Bond as John Grant, a bonded schooltea...

It Follows that we should probably talk about this movie before Dan stages a coup. We’re five episodes deep into our Liminal Spaces season, and Sarah has chosen David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows (2014). While Sarah has watched this enough times to be legally haunted, Dan is still convinced that a Detroit setting should automatically involve more OCP interference or at least a robot that can’t cli...

We hope you don’t get lost on the highway to this episode because we’re taking a detour into the obtuse, dreamlike world of 90s cinema with David Lynch’s 1997 head-scratcher, Lost Highway. As the fourth entry in our Liminal Spaces season, we’re trying to figure out if we’re on a road to nowhere or just stuck in a psychogenic fugue state. To help us navigate this noir nightmare. We’ve bought back J...

We’re climbing back into the void for the third instalment of our Liminal Space season. After the chaotic vibes of last week, Sarah has led us into the hazy sun-drenched mystery of Peter Weir’s 1975 masterpiece, Picnic at Hanging Rock. It’s a film that defines Australian cinema and remains one of the most haunting pop-culture touchstones of the 1970s, even if Dan is convinced the titular landmark...

Welcome back to the second stop on Sarah’s tour of liminal space movies, and this week we’re descending into the 1973 cult cinema classic, Messiah of Evil. It’s the film that sparked this entire season, and while it might have sat on a shelf for years, it’s currently having a bit of a second coming on the pod. We’re breaking down the dreamlike logic of Point Dune (formerly new Bethlehem) and explo...

Don’t be a square, it’s time to get an acute perspective on our latest pick as we sail into a brand-new season! Dan is convinced we’re kicking off a “season of shapes” having already prepared notes for The Circle, Hex the Hexagon and the Secret Life of Rectangles but Sarah is here to steer the ship back towards her actual theme: Liminal Space Movies. And we’re launching with Christopher Smith’s Tr...

Apologies in advance if this one stings a little. Yes, it’s a bee pun. What else! While we’re currently between seasons, we’re keeping the hive alive by raiding the Patreon archive to bring you this bonus discussion. Today we’re talking about another entry in the Statham vocation cinematic universe, The Beekeeper (2024). In this outing, directed by David Ayer, Statham plays a man who literalises h...

Come in and make yourself at home. Feel free to lie down on the couch and tell us about your mother. If not, why not check in for one last session in our season of films exploring identity. Before we move on to Liminal Spaces in season fifteen, it’s time to revisit some of our favourite chats from the last eight episodes. We dived into the cinematic identity of everyone from Gotham’s elite to ball...

We’ve reached the end of our season on identity in cinema, and frankly, we’re more confused than when we started. But none the less, it’s time for our end of season wrap show preview.  In this “Total Recap”, a name we’re definitely not trying to brand, we swear, we dive into everything from Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins to the horrors of The Substance. We’re dissecting the psychological themes...

Open your mind and join us for one last ride in our Identity season as we discover Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990). We dive into the cinema of Arnold Schwarzenegger, debating if he makes a good secret agent of if he’s too conspicuous for anything other than a bodybuilding competition. Along the way, we pay tribute to the legendary Sharon Stone, the terrifying Michael Ironside, and our ultimat...

Welcome to the seventh stop on our tour of Identity movies, where we’re discussing the bone-white brilliance of Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000). In this episode, we get into why this is one of the most misunderstood movies in cinema history. While certain corners of the manosphere, incels and the red pill community treat Patrick Bateman like a looksmaxxing icon, we’re here to remind the dweeb...

It’s time to swan-dive into the sixth episode of our Identity season. This week, Dan has chosen to subject us to the dark, grainy and deeply uncomfortable world of Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychodrama, Black Swan. After surviving Requiem for a Dream during our season of films about drugs, we’re back for a second helping of Aronofsky-flavoured self-destruction. We’re talking Natalie Portman in possi...

We’ve hit the midpoint of our Identity season, which Dan has effectively turned into a curated gallery of “disenfranchised men,” and our latest target is the A24 cringe comedy masterclass, Friendship (2024.) We explore the desperate lengths someone will go to for a bit of validation and the uncomfortable gap between who we are and the character identities we perform for others. Introducing Craig W...

Inject this into your ears and pray that a better version of yourself doesn’t pop out of your spine. We’ve reached the fourth episode in Dan’s Identity season where we’re discussing Coralie Fargeat’s the Substance (2024). This isn’t one of those slow French movies where characters meditate on a fireplace for three hours, it’s an $18 million bloodbath that treats Hollywood beauty standards like a p...

Welcome back to Shoot the Hostage! We are three episodes deep into Dan’s Identity season, and things are getting… well, icky. This week, we’re tackling Brian De Palma’s 1980 classic/controversy magnet, Dressed to Kill. Retroactively functioning as a best of De Palma, this film features many of the hallmarks you would expect from the director – voyeurism, shower scenes, and enough split diopter sho...

Welcome back to our Identity season, where Dan continues to force his personal favourites onto the show. This week, we’re here to discuss Andrew Niccol’s 1997 directorial debut, Gattaca (1997). We dive in to see if this 90s sci-fi classic still holds up or if it’s just a sterile nightmare of brutalist architecture and electric cars. We’re examining the character identities in a world where your ca...

Holy identity crisis Batman! It’s time to tumble into a brand-new season of Shoot the Hostage. This time, the theme is Identity and we’re kicking off with Christopher Nolan’s “grounded” take on the superhero genre, Batman Begins (2005). While Nolan was busy trying to convince the world that a billionaire in a rubber suit is grounded, we’re here to ask the tough questions like why Christian Bale so...

Before embarking on a new season next week, this is the third and final instalment of our 2025 clip shows, featuring the best of our recent conversations over the last 12 months. From debating the anatomical accuracy of kangaroo prosthetics to Danny “Boyling” down the legendary career of the British filmmaker, we’re covering all cinematic bases. Join us for the usual film discussion and tangents a...

We didn’t want to leave you all searching for a missing pig before the new season begins on March 2nd. Which is why we’re releasing part two of our three-part best-of 2025 clips shows. For cinephiles who love a good disaster, we’re diving back into our “Flops” season – a true comedy of errors where we learned that even Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro aren’t immune to box-office bombing. Whether...

Welcome to a very Nic Cage focused bonus episode of Shoot the Hostage. Now, look, we know you guys were expecting the grand premier of Dan’s “Identity” season today, but life has a funny way of throwing a Pig at your plans. Due to some family bereavement and health complications behind the scenes, we’ve had to push the new season back to March 2nd. We’re deeply sorry for the delay but we promise t...

Yes, it’s February! Yes, it’s a bit late for an end of year show! But we refuse to let the calendar dictate when our cinematic celebrations conclude. This week we’re unleashing our top 5 films of 2025 where we use a bargain bin blu ray toss to decide their ranking. Beyond the top five, we get into the nitty-gritty of 2025 movies, asking the tough questions like: does Aaron Taylor-Johnson have a mo...

Welcome to a special clip show of Shoot the Hostage, where Dan and Sarah revisit the highs, the lows, and the incredibly bleak mid-points of our true crime films season. Whether you’re a regular listener of a newbie looking for the best true crime movie podcast to binge while hiding from the “water wars,” this episode is the perfect entry point. We’ve spent the last few months analysing flicks dep...

We are committing to our final sentence as we deliver a verdict on our true crime films season. Before we shred the documents, please enjoy this sneak peek regarding our malfeasance-themed recap. We traversed the globe – from desert landscapes to separate nations to investigate these dark stories, making the last eight weeks feel like a life sentence. Sarah explains how her academic path in behavi...