The Really Awful Movies Podcast

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a 1998 American slasher film directed by Steve Miner, the director behind two Friday the 13th films, as well as The Wonder Years and episodes of Dawson’s Creek. This film is the 7th, count ’em 7th installment in this seemingly inexhaustible series. The screenplay was by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg adapted from a story by the former. Jamie Lee Curti...

Shotgun Jones! This is a 1989 action flick directed by Addison Randall. It’s got absolutely everything that’s required for mindless action fun: helicopters, dirty cops, shady witnesses, ruthless henchmen, by-the-book bosses, men on fire, cocaine kingpins, cannons, ladies of the evening, you name it. Shotgun Jones and his partner Max (one white, one black a la Lethal Weapon, to which th...

This is a special bonus episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. Horror themes are an integral part of the viewing experience. In this episode, a breakdown of the Top 10 Classic Horror Movie Themes. Some of them will be obvious to listeners, others…we hope not so much.

A geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers fossilized evidence of a mysterious creature in the form of a skeletal hand with webbed fingers. On this episode of the podcast, travel to Brazil with us (OK, Florida) as we discuss Creature from the Black Lagoon . Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) orders his two assistants to stay in camp while he visits the marine biology institute to ge...

Watching this is a hellish experience. Well, not really, but close enough to warrant the terrible pun. Hell Night is one of those forgotten films from the slasher boom, and only known today because of two things: 1) incredibly cool cover art and 2) the presence of genre icon Linda Blair in the lead role as sorority/frat pledge Marti Gaines. When a movie has “hell” in the title, there a...

Grabbers! Grabbers ! What’s a grabber? It’s some kind of octopus-like tentacled creature. On this St Patrick’s Day episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we talk Ireland, JP Donleavy, Brendan Behan, Father Ted, pub culture, drinking, and cultural similarities between Canada and Ireland. We have quite a few listeners in Ireland, and we thought we’d reach out to them and...

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a by no means rigorous semi-defense of the popcorn muncher/crowd pleasure  Death Wish.  Co-host Chris, explains his surprising positive review of the reboot in a discussion with Jeff (who has not seen the Death Wish remake). Usually, we both watch a movie and discuss it. This time, Jeff was off hanging out with legendary rock stars in New York Ci...

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a look at the unconventional animal attack movie, Cujo . Adapted from a Stephen King novel, which oddly, as Stephen King die-hards neither of us had read, we decided to take a look at this one. Cujo was directed by Lewis Teague, and written by Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner (under the nome de plume of Lauren Currier). The film stars scream...

What do you get when you mix ancient Haitian voodoo mystery with uber-cheap tax shelter bargain basement Canadiana? Why, Zombie Nightmare , of course. Zombie Nightmare is a 1986 Canadian zombie film produced and directed by Jack Bravman. It stars Jon Mikl thor, who had a lengthy career fronting the eminently forgettable power metal band, Thor. The movie also stars a young  Tia Carrere (the babe fr...

Mario Bava. Super Mario. Molto Mario. Mario the Magnificent. On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, your genial hosts talk about Black Sabbath , the early 60s horror film anthology that gave Ozzy’s band, Black Sabbath, its name. Black Sabbath, aka, i tre volti della paura (The Three Faces of Fear) is a three-part flick that’s harmonious, and lush in color. And to introduce...

Ah, found footage. It’s usually crap. So when a barn-burner like Creep comes out, color us surprised. Creep is a 2014 American independent found footage horror film directed by Patrick Brice, based on a story written by Brice and collaborator Mark Duplass. The film is Brice’s directorial debut, and boy is this one solid. Creep premiered 2014, at South by Southwest, and was released on...

For the first time in the history of the Really Awful Movies Podcast we’re tackling an animated feature. On today’s episode, Heavy Metal , an anthology fantasy film that featured a bunch of scantily clad heroines and a bitchin’ soundtrack showcasing the likes of Sabbath, Sammy Hagar and Nazareth. Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian-American co-production. The film was directed by Gera...

The Master. Alfred Hitchcock. It’s amazing it’s taken us this long to discuss a Hitchcock. We look at Hitch’s penultimate film, Frenzy . Many people consider this “lesser Hitchcock.” But it’s a taut, exciting thriller with some gorgeous shots. There’s a “necktie murderer” roaming the streets of London. It’s a lot like Jack the Ripper. And...

It’s time to talk tech on the podcast! Since we already covered, Don’t Answer the Phone! we thought we’d approach another communications movie, Bells, aka, Murder by Phone! Call it a preoccupation, not a hang up (!) of ours. Oooh, that was deliciously bad. This one is a Canuxploitation not-quite-classic from the 1980s, back when government-funded drek was all the rage. For whatev...

Lucio Fulci’s The Psychic , while not nearly as gory as the canonical Fulci films, nonetheless bears some of the same trademark weirdness, and features…of course…a creepy house. And in this house…bones are found! We have a murder mystery on our hands, and blood is on someone’s hands…but whose? The house is owned by Francesco Ducci…and the bones are that of...

The poster says it all…Like father, like son. The Fly II did gonzo box office but badly with the critics. And that’s a bit of a shame as this one is fun as hell. Sure there’s no Cronenberg, Goldblum, Davis, etc. And those are big-time names. But director Chris Walas is game and gives us a solid oddball sequel that’s a smashing good time. Martin Brundle is the son of Goldblu...

It’s that time of year…a time for… New Year’s Evil ! Thank you, thank you, thank you Cannon Films. What would we do on the Really Awful Movies Podcast without the charming movies put out by the cousins, Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan? New Year’s Evil is a bit like  Hospital Massacre , another Cannon piece of cinematic cheese which was also centred around a festive tim...

On this episode, the Really Awful Movies 200th episode! We look back at our jangled nerves when recording our first episode, how we began chatting about Yor: Hunter from the Future, and very basic mic setup we had for our first show. We talk about our backgrounds growing up in Richmond Hill, Ontario. And how the (pending) legalization of marijuana has affected the show. We started out as a blog, R...

We’re into Evil Dead in a big way. Here, the third film in the trilogy, Army of Darkness , starring The Chin himself, (screw you, Quagmire and Bob Hope) Bruce Campbell. Ash is transported (along with his iconic jalopy Oldsmobile) to the 14th century, and instead of finding the Black Plague, he comes across an impossibly sunny landscape of Anglia (which resembles southern California, where th...

Part outbreak / contagion / zombie / vampire movie, Rabid is a wonderful little nugget of exploitation horror Canadiana. On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we examine David Cronenberg’s masterpiece, starring ex adult film star Marilyn Chambers as Rose, a young woman who’s involved in a motorcycle crash and who undergoes life-saving experimental surgery at an oddball cl...

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a 1987 Canadian slasher film directed by Bruce Pittman, and starring Michael Ironside. If that isn’t enough enticement to make you wanna watch, we don’t know what is. Frankly, Michael Ironside is a genre icon. C’mon, look at this resume, people: Scanners, Visiting Hours, Total Recall, Starship Troopers… He plays Billy, a 60s teen with an imp...

Jason Voorhees. The butcher of Camp Crystal Lake needs no introduction. Or does he? Perhaps to a new generation of audiences, who were unaware of the source material that is the original Friday the 13th movies. Of course, now Jason is seemingly everywhere, what with the video game developed by IllFonic, and published by Gun Media. And he’s been everywhere before too. This is the 12th film in...

Don’t Torture a Duckling  (in mellifluous Italian: Non si sevizia un paperino) is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, starring Tomas Milian, Florinda Bolkan, and Barbara Bouchet. It is notable within Fulci’s filmography as it is one of the first in which he began using violent icky gore effects, something Fulci would continue to do in his later films, most notably  Zomb...

Scenes from a mall. A CHOPPING Mall. On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a look at this Jim Wynorski feature, Chopping Mall . Wynorski (The Return of Swamp Thing / Hard to Die / Big Bad Mama II) is known as a highly prolific genre director. He directed 7 features from the mid eighties to the decade’s end. And usually worked on a really low budget. This Corman production was n...

On this special episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we delve into the Video Nasties phenomenon. The term “video nasty” was a Brit colloquialism which has its genesis in the early 80s, coinciding with the slasher boom. It originally referred to films distributed on VHS that were heavily criticized for their violent content. Some of the films were cut to be able to get a release,...