Wake Up Heavy

The Kulturecast Crossover continues with this look at Tobe Hooper's 1982 horror classic POLTERGEIST. Chris Stachiw joins WUH to talk about the movie that traumatized him as a wee-one and turned him off of horror for years. We also delve into the sequels and the 2015 remake. Our Crossover also includes an episode of The Kulturecast on the new CONJURING film, and its cinematic universe. Look for tha...

Sharing some episodes of https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/ that I've been lucky enough to guest on. Starting with my first appearance on the show. You can hear/feel my nerves here. "On this special episode of The Projection Booth we’re looking at the 2019 film from director Orçun Behram, The Antenna (2019). The film stars Ihsan Önal as Mehmet, a overseer of an apartment building in Turkey. W...

Guest co-hosts: Mike White and Samm Deighan On this episode of WUH we discuss the 1977 film LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR. GOODBAR was written and directed by Richard Brooks, based on the 1975 novel by Judith Rossner, which is loosely based on the real life and death of Roseann Quinn. The film stars Diane Keaton as Theresa Dunn, a twenty something woman living in The Big City who leads a “double life.”...

Yes, I watched a lot of movies on TV as a kid, but I also watched a lot of TV shows on TV. On this "very special episode" (get it?) I talk about my earliest TV scare, and some of the programs with a spooky edge that I really enjoyed. Beware the mysteries among the dark shadows of the night gallery. Muah ha ha ha!

Cleo's back to talk* about two more Monster Battle Movies. Since Kong is in both of these we're going with KING KONG VS... this time around. First up is King Kong Escapes (1967). And then we get into the just-released Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). *Doing these episodes reminds me that even when it’s about something they enjoy, getting a 13-yr. old to talk can be like pulling teeth. :) For more info: h...

In each episode of this series my daughter Cleo and I will be hopping around the Godzilla and King Kong Franchises (mostly Godzilla) and talking about two or three films. Naturally we started with their epic Match-Up in the 1962 Toho film King Kong vs. Godzilla . We'll be discussing that film in comparison with Mothra vs. Godzilla which came out two years later. For more info: https://www.wakeuphe...

*SURPRISE DROP* Okay, maybe this isn't THE shortest episode (the WDIRT on The Beast Within still holds that honor) but it's pretty dang short, AND was a nice bit of serendipity after the last episode. I don't want to spoil the surprise of this surprise drop, so just have a listen. For more info: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2021/03/wuh-tv-and-projection-booth.html

In this episode I talk about the kinds of movies I watched as a kid, and more specifically HOW I watched them. The warm glow of the ol' tube TV kept me company during my early years. The second part of the episode is a celebration of The Projection Booth Podcast and their recent 10-year Anniversary. Congrats to Mike! There's also a Spooky Story from a listener, and a very brief Watch List. UPDATE:...

Michael Pilmer, aka Devo-Obsesso , stopped by to chat all things DEVO , his longtime love of the band, their music, and what they meant to him from a young age. Find out what took him from DEVOted fan and collector to meeting and working for the group. For more info: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2021/02/wuh-interview-with-michael-pilmer.html

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Full episode of my second appearance on https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/ is now available through WUH. " The Brood is the story of the Carveth family and how the sins of the past visit the children of the next generation. Frank (played by Art Hindle) and his wife Nola (played by Samantha Eggar) have separated. She’s under the care of Dr. Hal Raglan (played by Oliver Reed). He’s the head of...

A full year ago, on the WUH: Twenty Nineteen episode, I talked about wanting to do some shows in 2020 on the myriad obsessions I entertained back in my youth. That never really happened. But those old obsessions have begun to percolate again, so instead of a year-end wrap-up I'm going to touch on some of those, as well as some other interesting(?) things from my childhood. Turkey Monkey picture an...

It was a strange year so here's a strange compilation of tunes that appeared on WUH in 2020. Bonus points and my undying respect if you figure out the connection to the player image. Visit the site for the track list: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2020/12/wuh-tunes-2020.html

A mish-mash recipe for your Thanksgiving holiday festivities. Two parts Why Didn't I Rent This, one part Cleo, a sprinkle of watch list recs, and a dash of DEVO. Happy(?) Thanksgiving from the WUH Family to yours! For more: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2020/11/wuh-what-turkey.html

After directing two experimental films (STEREO and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE) David Cronenberg realized that if making movies would be his vocation he would need to do something "commercial." And at the time commercial, more often than not, meant exploitation. Inspired in part by a nightmare he'd had Cronenberg set about to write a screenplay for the Canuxploitation Pioneers at Cinepix. What emerged wa...

No, I'm not giving a clinic on Cronenberg (I wouldn't presume to be an expert all of a sudden) although, since March of this year I think I've taken one myself! This is more of a primer for the upcoming Cronenberg Crossover event with The Projection Booth Podcast. Having read, watched, and absorbed so much Cronenberg over the last seven months it only seems natural that all the connections in his...

Really didn't think I'd be doing another one of these BUT WE'RE STILL DEALING WITH COVID-19 so here we are. I get on my soapbox for a bit, but mainly talk about my movie watching from the last month or so. Yeah, it's one of "those" episodes. Take a listen to The Projection Booth Podcast's episode on FADE TO BLACK here: http://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2019/10/episode-436-fade-to-black-1980.ht...

The Sender (1982) is a horror film directed by Roger Christian and starring Zeljko Ivanek as The Sender, Kathryn Harrold as Dr. Gail Farmer, and Shirley Knight as Jerolyn. Two years before Freddy terrorized the kids on Elm Street, John Doe 83 would project the power of his dreams onto the patients and staff of a mental hospital in the town of Corinth. For more information: https://www.wakeupheavy....

More Cleo! Lots of Hobbitses! A giant shark, a killer dress, dinosaurs, Calvinism vs. LA porn, and other odds and ends. Plus a surprise appearance from Leonard Nimoy. Is this the final NFH episode? When I'm in charge you never can tell.

A not-so-quickie episode with more movie recs, a much longer discussion with Cleo in which we talk about some possible kindertrauma she may have suffered because of me, and some cool German synth pop tunes throughout. Check it out why don'tcha!

Just a quickie episode to share some movie recs, have a little chat with my daughter about some of the films I've forced her to watch, hear my wife get the bejeezus scared out of her, and let people know what's going on at WUH headquarters during these strange (count how many times I say that in the episode!) times.

For this episode I am once again joined by Mike White from The Projection Booth Podcast [http://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/]. In 1983 Sam Raimi and Co. took the horror world by the neck and shook it until it begged for mercy. The Evil Dead caught the attention of Stephen King at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and his pull-quote, "The most ferociously original horror film of 1982," placed it on...

The Tenant was directed by Roman Polanski, who also stars as Trelkovsky a mild-mannered file clerk looking for a new apartment in Paris during a housing shortage. He finds a not-quite-vacant room in an American-owned building, but the last tenant, Simon Choule, is clinging to life after throwing herself out of the apartment's window. When the apartment becomes available Trelkovsky moves in and his...

It's the 30th anniversary of my semester in London, and recently I've been thinking a lot about my time there. For a budding cinephile the repertory cinemas were a revelation to me, and I formed many of my fondest movie going memories during this time. In this episode I run through the films I saw, and some I didn't, and those marvelous movie houses: the Scala, Electric, Phoenix, Riverside, and Ev...

A brief look back at Wake Up Heavy's first full calendar year on the ol' podcast trail. A hazy look forward, plus some of my favorite "first time watches" from the year. I mentioned Peter Ivers in the episode, and instead of making you chase down the articles I read they are all linked in the show notes, as are all the Watch Lists mentioned: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2020/01/wuh-twenty-nineteen....