Saturday Night Freak Show

Abracadabra! We experience all sorts of split personalities when we watch Magic (1978), the creepy ventriloquist dummy movie starring Anthony Hopkins as a stage magician whose grip on reality begins to slip when pressures in his life begin to mount up. Listen as we talk about creepy puppets, Jeff Dunham, the best method to dispose of a body, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Where's Wario? We may have plugged up the toilet and are in need of a coupla plumbers after watching Super Mario Bros (1993), the big-budget adaptation of the popular Nintendo game. Brothers Mario and Luigi are whisked into another dimension full of dino-people, ruled over by the evil King Koopa. Their mission: rescue Princess Daisy and a gemstone that could destroy the world. Listen as we talk about dystopian movies from the 1990's, magic plumber powers, and bleeding edge 1993 CGI and puppetry on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Can a movie drive its viewers insane? That's the warning label we're putting on Detention (2011), the first listener pick of the month! A slasher, UFO's, time traveling bears, and alien vegetable people disguised as Canadians collide in a high school obsessed with 90's pop culture nostalgia in an ADHD movie that defies rational thought and may have you reaching for the Ritalin. Listen as we try to keep up on this week's episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gather 'round as we sum up the best and worst movies we saw in 2018 with our annual Best and Worst episode. Listen as we go around the table and attempt to distill a year in film down to our choices for the 5 best movies and the 1 we think was the worst. Will your favorite make the cut? Thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin celebrates the New Year with a murder in each of America's four time zones with New Year's Evil (1980)! An L.A. radio personality receives threatening phone calls during her televised New Year's Eve bash from a psychopathic killer on a schedule to murder someone each hour, with her as the final target. Listen as we dissect the tropes of the American Slasher Film, early 80's New Wave music, and discover a movie where a bag of marijuana is used as a murder weapon: all this and more on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michalea chains herself to a tree to avoid going on a Bad Moon (1996) rampage! Thor is a German Shepherd who becomes agitated when werewolf Uncle Ted (Michael Pare) moves his trailer into his sister's picturesque Canadian Pine backyard. Listen as we talk about the movies of writer-director Eric Red, name five favorite movie werewolves, and talk wholesome family sex-and-gore movies, all that more on this week's episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly suggests that if you spend as much time daydreaming of Chuck Norris as Jonathan Brandis does in Sidekicks (1992), you may have a mental health problem! The Chuckster plays himself in a series of vignettes designed to play as a child's fantasy of adventure along side his favorite screen hero, while in real life the kid learns martial arts to take on school bullies and learn to rely on himself. Listen as we talk about mental disorders, ruin our childhoods by psychoanalyzing kids movies, and try to understand the inscrutable appeal of Chuck Norris on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean tries to find the killswitch for the Killbots of the 80's cult classic Chopping Mall (1986). A group of mall workers stay after-hours to have sex in a furniture store and end up getting locked in with the mall's state-of-the art security system, a trio of killer robots. Listen as we avoid the pitfalls of buying used mattresses, talk about 80's movie robot design, the career of schlockmeister director Jim Wynorski, and discover that a movie called Chopping Mall is all mall and no chop, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin takes a trip back to the rain-slicked, neon streets of Hollywood Boulevard in the 1980's with Angel (1984), about a high school honor student by day who moonlights as a hooker by night. She's being stalked by a psycho who preys on streetwalkers while a virtuous cop and a colorful gang of misfits look out for her. Listen as we find out the correct way to eat a raw egg and bathe in the sewer of cinematic sleaze on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michalea asks "Whatcha gonna do when the Hulkster runs wild on you?" and gets in the ring with Hulk Hogan in No Holds Barred (1989). Hogan, fittingly, plays a wrestler named "Rip" who is lured into the fight of his life in rules-free Battle of the Tough Guys tournament organized by an oily cable TV executive. Can better believe it, brother! Find out the meaning of life, the universe and everything as we review one of wrestling cinema's greatest achievements on this week's episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly takes on cocaine-fueled, motorcycle-riding ninja warriors with the power of rock n' roll with Miami Connection (1987), purported to be one of the best worst movies ever made. Evil Miami ninjas threaten the peaceful existence of Tae Kwon Do-practicing Orlando, and the chosen warriors of the band Dragon Sound are called upon to take them on. Listen as we recount tales of how a bad movie of this magnitude became a beloved cult classic while Michaela performs Jim's monologue, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean takes his love of ornithology to new heights as he soars like a California Condor over Wes Craven's My Soul to Take (2010), which finds bird-loving teenager Bug (Max Theiriot) -- along with six of his friends, who are all celebrating the same birthday -- wondering if he is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer, known as the Riverton Ripper, who allegedly died on the same day 16 years ago. Listen as we try to untangle and keep up with the convoluted plot of one of Craven's most dense (and oddly autobiographical) movies on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin swears an oath to join the Count Dracula Society and summons the prince of darkness with Dracula A.D. 1972, a late-cycle entry into Hammer Films' Dracula series. The sinister majesty of Christopher Lee's Count is paired with the unflappable determination of Peter Cushing's Van Helsing, with the action updated into the silliness of Austin Powers-era swinging London. Listen as we talk about vampire movie rules, questionable fashion choices, and talk about how much of a badass Christopher Lee was in real-life, all on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Internet Radio Superstars take a Freak Show Field Trip to go see the newest Michael Myers' stab-a-thon, Halloween (2018), which brings back 5-time series regular Jamie Lee Curtis, still suffering from the trauma of his Halloween night homecoming 40 years ago. Listen as we dive into a spoiler-heavy, nuts and bolts discussion of what we thought worked and what didn't, and we each rank the entire Halloween movie series on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela proposes 'The Night Stocker' might be a better title for Intruder (1989), a slasher movie set within the confines of a grocery store. Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi, and Bruce Campbell all appear in this gory tongue-in-cheek thriller which finds a late shift crew killed off one by one by a homicidal maniac. Listen as we relive the trauma of our retail job experiences, revel in the gory delights of practical effects' slaughter, and talk about famous movie families in this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly hopes she doesn't get thrown in with The People Under the Stairs (1991), Wes Craven's social comment on class warfare between a ghetto-born kid named Fool and a couple of wealthy weirdos, played by Twin Peaks alumni Everett McGill and Wendy Robie. To keep from being evicted, Fool and Co. break into the ridiculously fortified, booby-trapped house of their landlords and finds breaking out nearly impossible. Listen as we find there's no truth in advertising, mourn the loss of Wes Craven, and celebrate out 300th Episode with champagne and cigars, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean discovers what is perhaps the only 80's British slasher movie, Slaughter High (1986). It's set in the USA but filmed in England, with British actors faking their way through American accents as they recount the tale of a tormented nerd, disfigured by his classmates, who returns to stalk and kill them at a high school reunion. Listen as we get the theme music stuck in our heads, add the beautiful Caroline Munro to the Freak Show Hall of Fame, and catalog the slaughter of Slaughter High -- all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin hits the road with the Shogun's executioner and his son in Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1973), the fourth in a series of cult Japanese samurai movies that follow the exploits of the deadliest father/son duo in the history of mass slaughter. Together they cut through an endless supply of hypertensive ninjas and tangle with a topless, tattooed female assassin. Listen as we mispronounce all sorts of Japanese words, marvel at the film's excessive bloodletting, and stand in awe of stone-cold child warriors on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michaela thinks Catwoman (2004) is the purrrfect way to prove that no matter how bad you think comic book movies can get, they can always get worse. Oscar winner Halle Berry stars as a meek graphic designer who becomes possessed by an immortal housecat, which leads her to dress like a stripper to get revenge on the evil cosmetics company who wronged her. Listen to the dismay in our voices as we try to puzzle out who thought this movie was a good idea on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly scales to the height of adventure with Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger (1993), which finds the action star as a rescue climber crawling over mountains at the command of super-villain John Lithgow (and his phony English accent) in pursuit of three suitcases containing $100 million. Listen as we marvel over the film's stuntwork, twirl our mustaches with over the top villainy, and try not to leave you hanging by the end of this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.