The Really Awful Movies Podcast

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Death_wish_three.jpg)Mental Cannon treatment of a series past its best before date. The first Death Wish is a stone-cold uber classic. By the time Golan and Globus got around to it though, things were really coming off the rails. Death Wish 3 was written under a pseudonym (understandably) and is the last collaboration between star Charles Bronson and...

(https://reallyawfulmovies.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/skin_traffik.jpg)An extremely underwhelming espionage thriller, Skin Traffik features a veritable "Who the hell cares?" of former stars. This includes Mickey Rourke, whose face is now a catcher's mitt because of an ill-fated pro boxing career in Florida, Michael Madsen, hammier than a porchetta panino and the sine qua non of bad moviedom, Eric...

(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/chuckychildsplay/images/1/1a/Childs-play-movie-poster1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100602092131)Mr Holland's opus. Tom Holland, that is. He's the mastermind behind this incredibly creative, understated 80s horror classic. Child's Play is so darn fun. A killer on the lam, by some sort of Voodoo mumbo jumbo, inhabits the body of a popular talking child's toy, subseq...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/The_Prowler.jpg)In this episode, a look at the Joseph Zito 1981 slasher flick, The Prowler. The Prowler (released internationally as Rosemary's Killer) is set in a very Podunk Northeastern town and is about a group of college students holding their first dance in decades because festivities had been banned due to a double murder. Seems like a bit of...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/The_36th_Chamber_of_Shaolin.jpg)Arguably the greatest martial arts film of all time, in this week's episode we look at the Shaw Brothers classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The film follows the exploits of San Te, a nobody who trains at the Shaolin Temple to master kung fu in order to overthrow the yoke of Manchu tyranny. At first, the Buddhist monk...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Captain_America_Death_Too_Soon.jpg) No, not The Winter Soldier. The other Captain America 2! There's a sinister plot against the United States. And it's being perpetrated by a guy named Miguel (Christopher Lee). It involves manipulative gerontology - administering drugs to prematurely age the populace unless the evil guy gets his way. Luckily, Captai...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/Fateful-findings-film-cover. JPG)Fateful Findings is mystical. It's paranormal. It's espionage. It's drama. The only thing it isn't is good. But it's pretty darn entertaining. Director Neil Breen makes mystifying, bizarre films that frequently make little sense. In this year's US presidential race, people on the Left have been feeling the Bern. We're...

(http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Brain-that-Wouldnt.jpeg)Mad ambitions and desire! This is a mad scientist movie...with a beauty pageant thrown in for good measure (hey, gotten lighten things up a bit). On this episode of the podcast, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, a film from 1962 that most people know from the now iconic movie poster. Sure, this is a shlocky production, but...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Toolboxmurders1978poster.png)The Toolbox Murders. With a title fraught with ambiguity like that, what could this one possibly be about? Not surprisingly, this one is about a series of murders, committed using toolbox implements. The Toolbox Murders made its way onto the Video Nasties banned list in the 80s, quite rightly, as it's a lurid and sleazy a...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/Bloodyvalentine3dfinal.jpg)My Bloody Valentine 3D is a 2009 reboot of a Canadian fave, the original MBV from the 80s. Does the remake stand up to the original? Instead of a bunch of unknowns, we get Smallville and Dawson's Creek TV stars. Instead of Nova Scotia, Canada, it's Harmony, Pennsylvania. And the key difference, of course, is 3D. This movie...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Anthropophagous-poster.jpg)Anthrophagus is in the Italian cannibal genre, an outputting one to many. Director Joe D'Amato is responsible for this one, as well as many of the Emanuelle exploitation movies. And he was a busy man. He made 200 films, many of which are...in the adult genre. Anthrophagus was on the Video Nasties list in the UK, deemed too...

(http://www.cineforest.com/Videos/LatestTrailers/JeruZalem%20Movie%20Trailer.jpg)JeruZalem is an Israeli first-person POV film, in which two American girls, Rachel and Sarah, find themselves on a sinister vacation in the Holy City. En route to Tel Aviv, they meet a student, who convinces them to change their travel itinerary from the laissez faire coastal city to the intense Jerusalem. Bad move. O...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4b/EscapefromNYposter.jpg/220px-EscapefromNYposter.jpg)On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, John Carpenter's exceptional Escape from New York. We break down the 1981 dystopian action flick set in a crime-ridden future, where inexplicably, the US' most pricey real estate has been turned into an island prison. Why Manhattan and not sa...

(https://reallyawfulmovies.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/hospital_massacre.jpg)We know some hospitals suffer from funding cutbacks, but the lack of staff here is ridiculous. And that's BEFORE some masked doc is on the loose killing nurses. Hospital Massacre, AKA, X-Ray, features Playboy's Barbi Benton in a protracted topless scene and some neat kills too. Because it's an 80s horror, there's also a r...

(http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000930841/DVD_492_Glen_o_Glenda_answer_3_xlarge.jpeg)The strange case of a "man" who changed his sex! Glen or Glenda is a tepid but ahead of its time oddball docudrama, written and directed by Ed Wood, who also stars. The 1953 flick features the one and only Bela Lugosi, as well as Ed Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller and Lyle Talbot (best known for his length...

(https://reallyawfulmovies.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/evil-dead-the-musical.jpg)Since it took to the stage in 2003, Evil Dead: The Musical has been a smash hit. On this episode of the podcast, we have a special Evil Dead: The Musical giveaway, two tickets to a Toronto performance of the hit show, February 17, 2016 at the Randolph Theatre. Listen to this episode for details about how to enter. And...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4d/Cannibalferoxposter.jpg/220px-Cannibalferoxposter.jpg)Did you hear about the cannibal who arrived late for the potluck? They gave him the cold shoulder. On this week's episode, machetes in tow, we hack through the deepest, darkest jungles and take our first look at the infamous cannibal genre and one of its most notorious flicks, Cannibal Ferox...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/41/Cobra_movie_poster.jpg)Everybody must get Stalloned. Cobra. One word, one syllable, one inimitable action hero. On this episode of the podcast, the George Cosmatos 1986 shoot-em-up. There's a hostage situation in the City of Angels. Who you gonna call? A member of an elite LAPD unit known as "Zombie Squad," and it's lead by this badass to the right....

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/Das-Cabinet-des-Dr-Caligari-poster.jpg)We dip into German expressionism on the podcast this week, taking a look at the classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The 1920 silent film is directed by Robert Wiene and is outside our primary mandate of covering horror and genre film "from the 1960s to today," as our tagline says. However, it's vital to understa...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Roar_film_poster.jpeg)"I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter. ... 'Cause I am the champion, and you're gonna hear me roar. ... You're gonna hear me roar!" Katy Perry Roar is UNREAL. It is completely and utterly BATSHIT. Do yourself a favor and see this ASAP, as nothing's been made like it since, nor ever will be again for ethical reasons. Roar is a f...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/59/Class_of_nineteen_eighty_four.jpg)Orwell's 1984 envisioned a sinister dystopia where everyone answered to a central, totalitarian authority. In Class of 1984, it's lack of authority that's the problem: a bunch of kids running roughshod over a highschool. Mr Norris is the new music teacher at a problem school, rife not with sax and violins, but sex an...

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eBkPXYH3bI8/Th66odjzPAI/AAAAAAAAKp4/Hg4Km2Ch9PI/s320/Kiss%2BMe%2BQuick_5.jpg)What is a nudie cutie? We delve into that very topic with Something Weird Video's release Kiss Me Quick. The nudie cutie is an odd sub-genre from the 1960s, featuring monsters and burlesque dancers and bad Vaudeville jokes. Producers, looking to cash in on more permissive attitudes, sought to st...

(https://reallyawfulmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/save-yourself-poster.jpg)We said this about Save Yourself: "If Save Yourself comes to your town, do yourself a favor and drop everything right away to go see it." The film, which stars Jessica Cameron, Tristan Risk, Ryan Barrett and Tianna Nori, is about budding filmmakers who become unlikely subjects in a nefarious experiment. Save Yourself r...

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Howling_II_poster.jpg)There are few sequels that managed to instantly erode/negate the goodwill generated by their superior, classic predecessors. Howling 2 is one such film. However it's an interesting and unintentionally hilarious failure. Featuring the unlikely bizarro casting of the legendary Christopher Lee alongside bumbleheaded naif Reb Brown,...

(http://www.rowthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/BLACK_CHRISTMAS.jpg)Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone. In the spirit of giving, we're giving our listeners a holiday treat - what is arguably the first slasher ever, Black Christmas. Featuring a POV killer, pre-Carpenter's Halloween, and a whole lot of mouth- breathing dirty phone calls, Black Christmas is a lovely film which still h...