Saturday Night Freak Show

Travis encounters The Bad Seed (1956) and contends that some people are just born evil. Plus: we discover his Top 10 favorite horror movies in our special Halloween segment! Affluent Christine Penmark enters a parental nightmare as evidence stacks up that suggests her pretty, perfect 8-year-old daughter Rhoda may, in fact, be a serial killer. Listen as we analyze one of cinema's first stabs at examining psychopathy and go after the roots of all human evil, deus ex machina endings, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the eve of the premiere of a new HBO series, Colin takes us on a vacation to the original Westworld (1973) and we end up on the run from killer robots! Wealthy vacationers visit a Western-themed amusement park when an unexplained malfunction causes the previously benign humanoid robots, who populate the park, to go on a homicidal rampage. Listen as we dig deep into the the perils of virtual reality; sex and murder as recreation; witness the birth of both The Terminator and Michael Myers in Westworld's gunslinger; and uncover more on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly wants to see What We Do in the Shadows (2014) and spies on the nocturnal habits of a group of New Zealand vampires who share a house together, thanks to a documentary camera crew who is allowed to follow the flatmates around as they prepare for an annual vampire party, called the Unholy Masquerade. Listen in as we talk about vampire movies, movie character arcs done right, the appeal of mockumentaries, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean picks up some Street Trash (1987) and discovers it's not what he thought it was! Described as a movie about NYC winos who melt after drinking toxic booze, the Internet Radio Superstars inadvertently sit through a Troma-esque riff on hobo culture, which includes homicidal Vietnam veterans, hipster hobos, necrophiliac junkyard managers, sexual deviancy, and a game of Keep-A-Way involving a severed penis. Can we accurately describe the wonders of Street Trash? Find out on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis wanted to join a fraternity, but ended up in a Dude Bro Party Massacre III (2015)! In this psychedelic slasher parody (the title of which is part of the joke: there is no Dude Bro Party Massacre 1 or 2), a masked killer known as Motherface preys on the jocks, dudes and bros of the Delta Bi Theta fraternity, while the twin brother of a former victim tries to infiltrate the order to get revenge for his sibling's murder. Listen as we spot celebrity cameos while trying to pin down a breed of patience-testing, interminable sketch comedy on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin wants to be part of The Monster Squad (1987), a group of monster-lovin' kids who become the only hope for civilization after Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and The Gill Man all arrive in town, in search of a powerful talisman that can alter the balance of good and evil. Listen in as we find out about ruptured wolfman nards, indulge our love of movie monsters and read a lot of listener mail, all on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean discovers what lurks in the basement dungeon with Castle Freak (1995). The Re-Animator/From Beyond team of director Stuart Gordon, producer Charles Band, and stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton bring us yet another loose adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story, as an American family inherits an Italian castle (producer Band's real house!) with a dark secret - in the form of a misshapen, sex-crazed, boob-eating freak - trapped in the basement. Come with us now, if you dare, as we uncover the ghoulish delights of Castle Freak on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis opens the door to House (1986) and finds monsters inside! In this cult horror-comedy, a writer moves into a big Victorian house following the disappearance of his son, and begins to experience strange hallucinations and phenomena, including slimy monsters that burst out of closets and medicine cabinets! Come back with us to a time when horror movies were fun, as we revist this oft-overlooked 80's classic from the creative team who brought you the original Friday the 13th! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin digs up Dan O'Bannon's H.P. Lovecraft adaptation The Resurrected (1992 - aka Shatterbrain aka The Ancestor), based on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". A beautiful woman hires a private investigator (24's John Terry) to find out what's gone wrong with her scientist husband (Chris Sarandon), stumbling onto a centuries-old conspiracy involving a 1770's warlock and black magic. Listen as we talk about the literary influence of Lovecraft's fiction on the horror genre, name drop both The Call of Cthulhu and The Haunted Palace (a 1963 version of the same story) and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly loves unicorns...and Tom Cruise, and Legend (1985), director Ridley Scott's visually arresting fairy tale-fantasy epic, in which a young forest lad (Cruise) must rescue a princess (Mia Sara) and a unicorn from the clutches of the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry in an awesome Rob Bottin makeup design). Listen in as we detail the differences between the U.S. theatrical version and the international Director's Cut, pontificate about fairies, Gumps, Screwballs, Brown Toms, and more on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean says bustin' makes him feel good with his pick of Ghostbusters II (1989). Five years after the 1984 classic, the out-of-work Ghostbusters are forced back into action to deal with an epidemic of psychoactive slime flooding the sewers of NYC, an evil painting possessed by an ancient sorcerer, and, most horrifying of all, Venkman's old flame now has a baby. Join us as we tunnel through the nostalgia-fortified shrine of Ghostbusters II, and work in our thoughts about The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the 2016 Ghostbusters remake, all on this week's exciting show! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis goes to bat for Superman III (1983), in which someone thought it would be a good idea to put Richard Pryor and Superman together for the Man of Steel's third big screen showdown. In this sequel, Superman faces off against a gifted computer hacker, an evil tycoon, and - wouldn't you know it - a Super Computer that may be able to destroy the Son of Krypton once and for all! Listen as we talk creepy cyborg transformations, that day that Superman became a jerk, and more on on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin dares to go back in the water for Jaws 3-D (1983), and finds that the third dimension is terror! Florida's SeaWorld is about to open an new underwater attraction when a giant, 35-foot great white shark swims in through an open sea gate and terrorizes the visitors on opening day. Dennis Quaid, as the son of Amity police Chief Brody, runs around trying to save the guests and his relationship with perky whale expert Bess Armstrong. Listen as we relive the brief 80's 3D movie craze, compare the Jaws shark to Friday the 13th's Jason, and get our eyeballs gouged out by amazing 3D in this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean summons Ghoulies II (1988) and they nearly get him in the end...again! This sequel adventure finds the diminutive Gremlins/Critters ripoffs (from Charles Band's Empire Pictures) hiding out in a travelling carnival's spook house, where they wreak all sorts of havoc, mischief and murder until a plucky carny, his drunken uncle, a leggy harem dancer, and a profit-conscious businessman, get wise and try to send them back to Hell with ancient carny magic. Listen in as we gab about the entire Ghoulies series (so you don't have to!) on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis once again transforms into a Japanese superhero character in Guyver: Dark Hero (1994). Having defeated the evil monster Zoanoids, our hero Sean Barker (Metal Gear Solid's David Hayter) takes his psychic space armor and travels to a cave in Utah, where an archaeological dig may unearth answers about the Guyver Unit's mysterious origins. Will he find love? Will he uncover another insidious Zoanoid plot? Will he fight like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger? You can find out to listening to this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin conjures up the 1982 fantasy film Sorceress, a campy flick from the post-Conan, 80's fantasy movie craze. An evil sorcerer searches for his twin girls (Playboy's Leigh and Lynnette Harris), warrior women who were raised as boys, and who now team up with a barbarian, a satyr, and a dwarf, to stop him from conjuring an evil deity to enslave the world. Listen as we name drop as many 80's fantasy films as we can while pointing out the bad acting, bad dubbing, and altogether hysterical awfulness of a movie that has to be seen to be believed, on this week's exciting episode! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Holly tries to find "The Glow" of Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon (1985), Motown's first (and only) motion picture production. A kung-fu movie by way of MTV music videos, this blacksploitation flick centers on a martial arts student, Bruce Leroy (Taimak), who seeks to become master of his discipline, which can only be achieved by defeating both the Sho'Nuff - the Shogun of Harlem - and a slimy corporate type who threatens a pretty TV VJ (Vanity). Nothing could have prepared us for the explosive, laser-enhanced final battle! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean takes a look back at a movie that terrified him as a sensitive 15-year-old: the Corey Haim vehicle Watchers (1988). Based on a novel by Dean R. Koontz, Watchers is the story of a super-intelligent, genetically engineered dog who has a psychic link with another, more beastly creature. When both of them escape from a government research facility, they somehow end up putting 80's teen heartthrob Corey Haim and his family in danger. Listen as we give props to the genius of Michael Ironside, have a lengthy aside about the merits of the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra, and figure out how you can make a monster movie without having a monster in your movie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Travis takes us back to the height of ninja popularity in American pop-culture with Ninja III: The Domination (1984), in which an aerobics instructor (Lucinda Dickey) - who moonlights as a telephone repairman - becomes possessed by the spirit of an evil ninja and starts hunting down the cops who killed him. Join us for full-on ninja-skills dissection of an absolutely insane 80's gem, plus we try to determine where movie nudity has disappeared to when we answer listener mail! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin proves you don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre with Pieces (1982), a camp-classic splatter opus. A child hacks his mother to death after she catches him assembling a naughty jigsaw puzzle; forty years later, a black-gloved serial killer starts carving up coeds at a Boston university with a chainsaw. Could they be related? Is the killer trying to assemble a human jigsaw puzzle? You'll howl with delight at both the movie and our episode as we try to recreate classic Pieces line-readings, marvel at completely random kung-fu, and behold the majesty of Pieces - it's exactly what you think it is! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.