Saturday Night Freak Show

Holly finds that it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters, and worries about the fate of Igor the mailman as we watch Motel Hell (1980). A kindly farmer and his wife sell the best smoked meats out of their rural motel/hog farm -- the kind of cannibalistic treat made from the body parts of unfortunate visitors! Listen as we talk about the life and career of Freak Show Hall of Famer Rory Calhoun, the best way to season BBQ, chainsaw duels, and pig-headed killers on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean heads off to a magical land of barbarian kickboxers in search of enlightenment with Circle of Iron (1978, aka The Silent Flute). Allegedly Bruce Lee's personal dream project, it was realized after his death with David Carradine taking on the role of The Blind Man (and several other characters) who lend wisdom to a muscular warrior on a quest to retrieve a sacred book from an evil wizard. Or something. Listen as Eastern philosophy comes crashing down on Western knuckleheads as we weigh the merits of dissolving the Terrible Thing with Eli Wallach, face the trials, and espouse our own nuggets of ancient wisdom on this most excellent episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin celebrates Alien's 40th anniversary by watching the sleazy, low-budget Roger Corman version: Forbidden World (1982, aka Mutant)! An intergalactic "troubleshooter" is summoned to a distant research outpost where all the women get naked and throw themselves at him while a giant creature alternately eats the crew and/or turns them into pulsating puddles of goo. Listen as we marvel at the styrofoam sets - designed by future wunderkind James Cameron, and witness gratuitous space nooky, gory prosthetic effects, and kamakaze space flute playing, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela spins us a full-on spider apocalypse as we watch William Shatner versus the Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), a movie that finds The Shat (in a lull between Star Treks) playing the curiously christened "Rack" Hansen: Horseback Veterinarian, a good-old-boy who must save his arid Arizona community from an attack by thousands of poisonous tarantulas. Listen as Shatner puts his real-life cowboy skills to use as hundreds of spiders learn how to cut power and phone lines (before breaking windows en masse) and one woman makes the questionable choice to use a firearm to remove spiders from her body; all this and more on this week's exciting episode!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly explores the 90's movies' fascination with serial killers with the Serial Killer Greatest Hits movie Copycat (1995), wherein Sigourney Weaver plays agoraphobic psychologist who lends her expertise to the San Francisco P.D. when a psychopath begins recreating the murder scenes of infamous mass killers all around town. Listen as we revisit the "computer morph", ogle open floor plan houses, and marvel at the way the 90's understood the Internet, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean sneaks a made-for-video movie into the dark bowels of the Saturday Night Freak Show screening room with his pick of Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996), the promised final entry in his 2019 Spring of Sequels selections. Listen as we talk about the extended life of the beloved(?) Tremors movie series (and retirement savings project for series regular Michael Gross) which currently stands at four sequels, a prequel, and a TV series, with an announced 7th movie on the way! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin thinks The Manitou (1978) is the greatest movie ever made about a woman with a reincarnated 400-year-old Indian medicine man growing on her neck! In one of the 70's strangest supernatural thrillers, Tony Curtis plays a fortune teller who has to recruit a modern day Native American shaman to combat an evil spirit that's taken possession of his girlfriend. Listen as we endure hysterical fortune telling, breezy seances, Indian mysticism, an evil dwarf, ghost lizards, skinned men, frozen hospitals, exploding typewriters, and cosmic encounters on this week's episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela thinks Jaws would have been better with paws, and to prove it she offers up Man's Best Friend (1993)! Intrepid reporter Ally Sheedy frees Max, a Tibetan Mastiff, from an experimental medical facility and slowly learns, to her horror, that the genetically-engineered mutt is an unstoppable, blood-thirsty killer. Meanwhile, dogged scientist Lance Henriksen does his best to retrieve the beast before it's too late. Listen as we talk about "when animals attack" movies, "lecture" movies, and potential health benefits of drinking "celery water," all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly takes us back to a simpler time, when a giant crocodile ate a small Maine town called Lake Placid (1999). National treasure Betty White feeds cows to the beast, which eventually starts eating the locals, which doesn't set well with the local sheriff, who calls in DNR specialist Bill Pullman, paleontologist Bridget Fonda, and crocodile-worshiping freak Oliver Platt to deal with the creature. Listen as we make a case for Twister being the best giant monster movie of the '90's on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean gets under the hood of Robocop 2 (1990), which sees our favorite cyborg police officer go up against both a corrupt corporation and the minions of a cult leader/drug peddler/terrorist before becoming literally transformed into the P.C. police and then regaining his senses to lead what's left of Detroit's law enforcement against a technological terror known as RoboCop Two. Listen as we get into the nuts and bolts of comic-book scribe Frank Miller's dystopian sequel and hear your thoughts on the new Pet Sematary remake, all on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin brings on the monster apocalypse by opening the doors to Waxwork (1988). Six friends spend the night at a ghoulish wax museum where each fall through portals into scenes from monster movies from the past, facing werewolves, Dracula and the mummy, as a diabolical warlock plots to bring the creatures back to life and destroy the world. Listen as we long for the halcyon days of Vestron Video, VHS movie nights, steak tartare, self referential horror movies, and goopy special effects, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela comes to find out there's truth in the phrase "sometimes, dead is better" as we watch the remake of Pet Sematary (2019). Stephen King's classic novel gets resurrected, this time with stars Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, and Amy Seimetz. Listen to our overlong therapy session (masquerading as a podcast) and talk about Wendigos, kids in animal masks and undead cows, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean wonders if The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) is the most '90's movie that ever '90'd. A sort-of-sequel to Stephen King's troubled teenager story, The Rage features an angsty teenage protagonist who begins to manifest telekinetic powers while being tormented by the jocks on the football team. Listen as we learn more about Sean's love of sequels, discuss "artistic" filmmaking, and find out why CD's make the best murder weapons, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly squares off against the Red menace with her dope karate skills with No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) which finds perennial Freak Show favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme as the villainous Ivan Kraschinsky, a Russian enforcer for the New York Mafia, tasked with defeating an American kid who's been trained in the martial arts by the ghost of none other than Bruce Lee himself. Listen as we talk about spontaneous break dancing, garage dojos, sexy training techniques, missing reels, alternate cuts, and full contact karate tournaments on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin stirs the wrath of a horribly scarred, killer summer camp caretaker with The Burning (1981), a splatter flick from the genre's Golden Age that features gore and grue by legendary makeup FX man Tom Savini. A guy named Cropsey gets burned alive in a prank gone wrong and returns to camp five years later to murder every teenager alive, including Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens and Holly Hunter! Listen as we compare classic and modern slasher movies, the FX career of the Sultan of Splatter, and challenge you to try Malort, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela dives deep into the bowels of the Earth on a caving expedition that uncovers mutant monster people in The Descent (2005), the second film from Dog Soldiers director Neil Marshal. Listen as we experience claustrophobia, nyctophobia, androphobia, discuss evolutionary biology, and the improbability of the hero neck snap, all that and more on this week's thrilling episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly wades through exploding hookers, severed limbs, and mad science with Frankenhooker (1990)! When his girlfriend is killed in a freak remote-controlled lawmower accident, Jeffrey Franken will stop at nothing to resurrect his lost love, even if it means sewing her head on the body parts of dead New York City hookers. Things go wrong when the resurrected ho-bag returns to her old Times Square stomping grounds. Listen as we analyze East Coast Horror, your dad's BBQ grilling shoes, and the dangers of smoking supercrack, all on this week's thrilling episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin dusts off the crucifix and holy water to deal with Dracula's soul brother, Blacula (1972). African prince Mamuwalde visits Dracula's castle and is cursed with vampirism. He later awakens in 70's L.A. and uses his supernatural charm to woo the reincarnation of his long lost love while leaving a trail of bloodless bodies in his wake. Listen as we chart the intersection of the modern day vampire and the Blaxsploitation genres, talk about the birth of Black horror films, find no love for Dark Shadows, and think Thalmus Rasulala might be one of the coolest names ever, all that and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela thinks Spielberg could have a strong legal case against Mac and Me (1988), which follows an adorable, wart covered, pucker-faced creature from another world stranded on earth. He's taken in by a young boy and spends the movie getting into mischief while trying to get home to his alien family. Listen as our jaws gape at improbable physics, dangerous paraplegic stunt work, impromptu McDonald's musical numbers, and stomach-churning but friendly aliens, all that and more on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly charts the fall of a Hollywood icon with Malone (1987), which finds fading superstar Burt Reynolds playing a modern day Shane, here an ex-CIA hitman, who winds up intervening in a battle between a sinister corporate developer and the inhabitants of a small mountain town. Listen as we dive deep into the lore, the loves, and the life of the legendary Burt on this epic episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.