Unwatchables with Marc & Seth

Today we’re joined by film critic Vikram Murthi for two very different films inspired by the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. First up is 1968's Boris Karloff-starring TARGETS, the directorial debut of Peter Bogdanovich that featured a fictionalized version of the shooter just two years after the tragedy; and then 2016's TOWER, an animated hybrid documentary told entirely from the...

Today we go down the rabbit hole of the Czechoslovak New Wave with two dark, grimy, surreal versions of beloved fairy tales. First up is the 1978 horror fantasy BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (or literally, THE MONSTER AND THE VIRGIN), from THE CREMATOR’s Juraj Herz; then Jan Švankmajer's demented stop-motion take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, 1988’s ALICE. Unwatchables is hosted by Marc D...

Today author and ScreenCrush editor Matt Singer returns to discuss one of the oddest detours in a legendary Hollywood career. When THE CABLE GUY came out in 1996, Jim Carrey was on one of the hottest streaks in cinema history; fans just didn't know what to do with a dark comedy/thriller that made him into a full-blown creep. We talk about why it was considered a flop, where it falls in the car...

Today we welcome Bryan Loomis, host of the film podcast WHAT A PICTURE, to discuss the work of polarizing surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky made some of the most bizarre and controversial cult films of the 1970's, and we'll be discussing perhaps his two most notorious: 1970's phantasmogoric acid western EL TOPO and 1973's psychedelic odyssey THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. Y...

Today we’re joined by SPLIT YOUR HEAD’s Bob McCully to discuss a cinematic movement entirely new to our hosts. The Japanese “pink films” of the 60s, 70s, and 80s were part lurid exploitation flicks and part transgressive art films, like arthouse video nasties. We tackle two of its most provocative touchstones: Koji Wakamatsu's true-crime inspired VIOLATED ANGELS and Hisayasu Sato's gay sad...

The late David Lynch explored the line between the watchable and the unwatchable as distinctively and mysteriously as any filmmaker ever has. UNWATCHABLES kicks off Season 4 by tackling his first and (sadly) last films, his two most alienating avant-garde works separated by almost exactly 30 years: 1977's hugely influential surrealist classic ERASERHEAD, and 2006's polarizing 3-hour digita...

Film critic Keith Phipps returns for his second UNWATCHABLES season finale, and how better to close out the year than with a harrowing arthouse classic and its unlikely grindhouse remake? Ingmar Bergman’s THE VIRGIN SPRING is a stark, unsettling adaptation of a 13th century folk ballad; 12 years later, it served as the inspiration for the grisly debut of horror director Wes Craven, 1972’s THE LAST...

Today we welcome author, filmmaker, and (retired) performer Christopher Zeischegg for two films by notorious transgressive author Dennis Cooper. Cooper’s queer, graphic, sex- and death-obsessed fiction is disturbing enough on its own. Now he’s ventured twice into filmmaking: first with 2015’s LIKE CATTLE TOWARDS GLOW, a collection of shorts concerned with many of the same violent themes as his wri...

Today we’re joined by critic Steve Erickson for two films that dared to dramatize the 1999 Columbine massacre—both in 2003, barely four years after the tragedy. Ben Coccio’s ZERO DAY and Gus Van Sant’s ELEPHANT each encountered controversy, though only one would win the Palme D’Or while the other is now mainly available on YouTube. We’ll talk about the films’ very different approaches to one of th...

It’s the UNWATCHABLES Halloween special, and we’re dissecting two films that helped pave the way for last year’s subject, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. With help from return guest Zach Butcher, we consider how two earlier, less “respectable” horror movies deglamorized serial killers by putting us in their shoes: 1980’s grimy New York slasher MANIAC and 1983’s Austrian cult shocker ANGST.This...

Today we’re kicking off Horror-tober with two classics from the undisputed master of body horror, David Cronenberg. And who better to help us than filmmaker and novelist Bobby Miller, the director of horror films like CRITTERS ATTACK! and 2016's THE CLEANSE starring Johnny Galecki and Angelica Huston. We’ll be discussing two films that blend horror, sci-fi, and grand tragedy in ways that churn you...

For the very first Unwatchables live event hosted by Akron's Nightlight theatre, Seth and Marc introduce a special screening of THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T, the only film ever written by Dr. Seuss— one deemed too dark and strange for family audiences when it flopped in 1953, but now rightfully beloved for its surreal production design and infectiously absurd musical numbers. Unwatchables is hosted...

Today we welcome Letterboxd’s own Swartacus for the 2nd edition of our CANNES-TASTROPHES series. The Cannes film festival is the most prestigious of its kind in the world, and these films had premieres so disastrous that hundreds booed and even fled the theater. First up is Vincent Gallo’s scandalous 2003 art film THE BROWN BUNNY, which Roger Ebert famously declared the worst film in Cannes’ histo...

Today’s UNWATCHABLES looks back on two very different films about the September 11th terrorist attacks. Paul Greengrass’ UNITED 93 came out less than 5 years after the tragedy and was the first Hollywood film to dramatize the day that many people weren’t sure needed dramatized. We’ll discuss what recreating the attacks means today as well as back in 2006, and then consider the other end of the spe...

Today we’re joined by author Derek Fisher for two eerily similar, and similarly miserable, family portraits. Both are the directorial debuts of renowned British actors who would never direct again; both follow dysfunctional working class families; and both star Ray Winstone as *the* worst dad of all time. Only one, however, was too much for one of our hosts to finish. Is it Gary Oldman’s 1997 slic...

On the conclusion of our two-part episode on the STAR WARS prequels, we somehow find both more AND less middle ground. ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH are generally considered the worst and best of the prequels, respectively—so naturally, we can’t even agree on that. Topics include whether lightsaber Yoda is a high- or lowlight, how you whiff the casting of Anakin two times over, and...

On a special two-part UNWATCHABLES, our hosts opinions are galaxies far, far apart. George Lucas’ STAR WARS prequels were greeted with mixed to hostile reactions over 20 years ago, but these days some fans—even one on this podcast!—will argue that they’re worth defending. With help from our producer Tony, we’re tackling all three films in the most divisive STAR WARS trilogy of them all… but can a...

Today we’re joined by Zack Bornstein, the Emmy-nominated, WGA and Peabody Award-winning writer from shows like SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and SHRINKING, to answer the question: what if the Care Bears were in ANTICHRIST? The animated films of Alberto Vázquez are full of cuddly talking animals, but also graphic gore, human-looking genitalia, and possibly clinical depression. We’ll be discussing his two unr...

Unwatchables welcomes back Cinematary’s Michael O’Malley for two unhinged California cult curiosities that land somewhere between ROCKY HORROR and THE ROOM. Are they crazily inspired, or just crazy? They are: Timothy Carey’s 1962 Frank Zappa-scored satire THE WORLD’S GREATEST SINNER, and Richard Elfman’s 1980 absurdist musical fantasy FORBIDDEN ZONE. You can find more from Michael at https://www.c...

Today we welcome podcaster and musician Bob Ethington to discuss two ambitious, high-profile flops from two of the 1970’s most ambitious, high-profile auteurs. Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola were following up some of the most beloved American films ever made when they sunk huge budgets into experiments that blew up in their faces— and that might even share some blame for the end of the...

Today we welcome back Paul Keelan of CINEMATIC UNDERDOGS to discuss the abrasive, deliberately alienating character studies of Rick Alverson. Alverson works with alt-comedy icons like Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington, but his films are anything but normal comedies— whatever you call them, they’re dark, uncomfortable, and follow people you probably don’t want to spend much time with. We’re discus...

In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re joined by horror author Emma E. Murray to take a look at the Unwatchable side of motherhood. Today’s films aren’t afraid to put both small children and pregnant women in peril; they include possibly the single bloodiest film of the New French Extremity horror wave, as well as a truly demented (and underseen) Hitchcock riff. They are the 2007 French slasher film INSI...

Today we’re going back to 1928 for what might be the most harrowing film of the silent era. Carl Theodor Dreyer’s intense, claustrophobic THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC was like nothing at the time and arguably still isn’t; we’ll talk about the film’s controversial history, what makes it so radical, and whether it might be too much for some viewers. Unwatchables is hosted by Marc Dottavio and Seth Tro...

Unwatchables welcomes Erik Davis, managing editor of Fandango.com , to discuss possibly the most heart-wrenching film we’ve yet covered. Erik wrote the first review of 2008’s true crime doc DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER after its Slamdance premiere, and anyone who’s seen it knows it’s not the kind of movie you ever forget. We discuss what makes it so uniquely devastating, how it...

Today we welcome back Jetta Weinstein, aka Letterboxd's theironcupcake, to discuss the film that scarred a generation of HOME ALONE fans. Macaulay Culkin was at the height of his child stardom when his father/manager signed him on for HOME ALONE 2 under one condition… that his next role be the murderous child sociopath in 1993’s R-rated thriller THE GOOD SON. We’ll talk about who this movie wa...