Join the Horror Duo - Cory & Forest - for a sit down chat about one of the most iconic superheros in his debut feature film, Superman: The Movie. Together they kick off the first of a series of Mondo Commentaries devoted to the Superman film franchise celebrating it's 40th anniversary, and the 80th anniversary of the titular character. Listen as they lay down a fat layer of Superman history combined with dick jokes and questions about the sex lives of superheros. To clear up any confusion, this commentary is is to be synced with the theatrical (more common) version of the film.
Ever since watching the delightfully twisted The Man Who Collected Food, I have been dying to know what writer/director Matthew Roth's next project would be. Fortunately, the wait is over as his new film Five Piece (which had a screening at Erie's Spirit Quest Film Festival last month) is here and it is a very different, though no less intriguing take on an obsessed individual.
The documentary Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a super in-depth coverage of everything you could ever want to know about the making of the first two Hellraiser movies. Clocking in at a massive 476 minutes, it gives Never Sleep Again a run for its money.
Why are so many people so attracted to horror films? It's not something that people spend a lot of time thinking about, but it is strange that a sizable number of us seek out images of knife-wielding maniacs chasing terrified women.The popular consensus among the mainstream, both liberal and conservative is that this fascination is rooted entirely in misogyny; that male horror fans are drawn to these movies because secretly we're all Ted Bundy and just want to see women being tortured, brutalized and mutilated. Fortunately with her landmark book Men, Women and Chainsaws, professor Carol J. Clover thinks very differently.
To celebrate Slaughter Film's 300th podcast, Forest has taken on the painstaking task of chronicling ANOTHER 50 of the very best film of all time! And in this fifth and final part all will be revealed for what it truly is...
Just when you thought it was safe, you find yourself parked alone on a summer night. You're deep in love with Forest and his newest list - hand crafted for Friday the 13th. The moon was full and you had a chance to be all alone, but you're not alone. 'Cause he's back. No, not the man behind the mask. It's Forest with a new To See Before You Die...but he IS out of control!
Well, he's done it. Forest has watched and reviewed EVER Godzilla film for the Slaughter Film Podcast, and he's putting all those hours of giant monster battles to good use. If you are interested in the King of the Monsters but you're overwhelmed with sixty years of city destroying, alien visitors & time travel, let this be your definitive guide to all things Godzilla.
HM. 10. 09. 08. 07. 06. 05. 04. 03. 02. 01.
"KING KONG VS GODZILLA" "GODZILLA VS MECHA GODZILLA" "GODZILLA AGAINST MECHA GODZILLA" "DESTROY ALL MONSTERS" "GODZILLA VS MONSTER ZERO" "GHIDORAH, THE THREE HEADED MONSTER" "GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH" "GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH" "MOTHRA VS GODZILLA" "GODZILLA RETURNS" "GOJIRA"
The independent filmmaker should be considered one of the tragic heroes of our time. They put in years of their lives, untold numbers of hours and put themselves in tremendous debt all in the pursuit of making a film that will most likely be completely forgotten before it even comes out. For every Evil Dead, Bad Taste or Clerks there are thousands of indie films that just end up getting lost in the shuffle. The incredible documentary American Movie is the tale of just one of those tragic stories.
Mark Borchardt is just such a tragic figure. He has dreams of making it as a filmmaker and breaking away from the life of a typical worker in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. After making a few short horror films with his friends, he decides to start working on his dream project: a film known only as Northwestern. Unfortunately, due to a lack of money, problems with his family and the fact that Borchardt himself may be more than a little disturbed, the project stops and Borchardt instead seeks to finish an old short film called Coven.
The film puts us in the trenches with Borchardt and his cast and crew as they scout locations, attempt to raise money (including a $3000 loan from Mark's uncle Jim) and listen to Borchardt talk... and talk... and talk about how awesome this film is going to be once it's completed. We also get to meet some of the people in Borchardt's life, most notably, his best friend Mike Schank who is so optimistic and eager to help that we can't help but fall in love with him and the aforementioned Uncle Bill who is the real highlight of the film. Mark's enthusiasm coupled with Uncle Bill's world-weary realism make for a perfect balance. Uncle Bill also gets the biggest comic highlight in the film when Mark needs to shoot thirty takes for a scene where Uncle Bill only has to say one line! It's a classic moment of awkward humor that would make the cast of The Office cringe in embarrassment.
In the end Mark Borchardt does finish Coven and we get to see its big premiere. After watching it now all I can say is "that's it?". After three years of grueling work and an untold amount of dedication, we're left with a film that is at best, decidedly average? Just another short horror film to add to the hundreds that are released every year? Well ... yes, but it doesn't matter because Coven is Borchardt's film, dammit! And that's what's important. My favorite scene in the film is where Mark watches the 1997 Academy Awards with his family and Billy Crystal announces that that year is the year of independent films. Nuts to that! Those rich phonies don't know what independent films are. Movies like Coven and by extension, American Movie are the real independent cinema and without an equal number of dreamers and lunatics, it wouldn't exist at all.
The 1996 adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau is regarded as one of the biggest cinematic disasters of all time and like any doomed production, has a making-of story that is far more interesting than the film itself. The documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau tackles the troubles and heartbreak of this fascinating cluster-fuck.
It all begins with Richard Stanley, an ambitious young director who after breaking into the scene with some successful indie genre films like Hardware and Dust Devil, approaches New Line with his dream project of adapting the H.G. Wells novel. New Line offers him a deal but almost instantly the producers seem to want to cut him out of the project. Stanley fights for his vision but due to the combination of a director's inexperience, an actor's egotism and just a string of bad luck, the project is stopped after just four days of shooting and Stanley is fired. I feel bad for saying this, but this documentary really starts to pick up after Stanley is taken off the project. This is the point where the making of this film goes from bad to surreal.
A new director is hired and he immediately starts re-writing the script. Then Val Kilmer begins creating friction with the director and the other actors due to his poor attitude and on-set bullying. Then, most bizarrely of all, star Marlon Brando begins making increasingly insane demands. He comes to the set wearing white make-up on his face (insisting that all outside scenes be done like this), begins demanding that he get different types of hats to wear (even at one point wearing an ice bucket on his head) and he convinces the director that Nelson de la Rosa, the world's smallest man who had been cast in a supporting role be with him in every scene. Also, in typical Brando fashion, he hadn't even bothered to learn his lines.
Just when it seems like things couldn't get any crazier, the film hits us with another surprise at the end. During filming, some effects people learned that Richard Stanley had never taken his flight back to England and had been living in the jungle near the movie set. These crew members then make him up as one of the beast men so he can basically observe the set and watch his dream project die right before his eyes.
Lost Soul is an interesting film, but the really interesting stuff doesn't come until the very end with the on-set insanity. Before that it's just a typical story of an ambitious director being railroaded by a studio. However, it's also a unique glimpse into the movie industry and how much time and hard work goes into a project that sometimes ends up dismissed and quickly forgotten. Even if it's a doomed journey half the time, everyone behind the scenes puts their best efforts into it and that makes the journey an interesting on at least.
Join the Horror Duo as they share their thoughts, memories and waked out futuristic time travel theories while watching The Terminator. The sci-fi/action classic about an unstoppable killing machine sent back through time to assassinate Sarah Conner and the futuristic soldier who loves her. It's a film about the
The Horror Duo share their thoughts, memories and factoids about the futuristic sci-fi classic, RoboCop, directed by Paul Verhoeven. RoboCop is about "Omni Consumer Products", an evil corporation that exploits the crime of Detroit to taking over city and to privatize it's municipalities and it's police force.
We've all heard of films that are "so bad they're good", well Forest has gathered a list of the crème de la crème of bad. But these aren't just bad movies. No, these are all movies created with ambition, vision and a truck load of heart...but unfortunately are still terrible. Prepare yourself for the most entertainingly inept films to grace the silver screen - because future viewings of these films will make you laugh, in the future.
If you've shied away from Troma in the past, stick around and let Forest teach you a thing or two about the longest running and most passionate independent filmmakers EVER! See which of the many films flying under the Troma banner are a must see! There is head smashing, car flipping, chicken monsters, fighting
Join the Horror Duo as they share their thoughts on Night of the Living Dead, the first modern zombie tale. They discuss behind the scene stories, filming locations, what critics have said about the ghoulish classic, as well as their own interpretations of the film and also the zombie films and trends that have followed.
The thing I love most about films distributed by Troma is that I never really know what to expect. For example, when I first heard about the film Mad Cow, (about a mad scientist who makes a crazed half-man, half-cow creature which then escapes and goes on a homicidal rampage) I was expecting some
Movies can be viewed in a lot of different ways. Some people watch them for pure escapism, some to be enlightened or informed, and some movies are watched because they viewer connects them with a personal emotional experience. Still, there are people who watch some movies (or maybe
