Baz To The Bone

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 11: Night of the Lepus — Some Bunny's Gonna Regret It. Runtime: 23:48. A real Australian rabbit catastrophe, a POW-memoirist-turned-satirist, and the giant killer rabbit movie Hollywood built on top of both — starring Janet Leigh and Star Trek's DeForest Kelley, shot completely straight. Plus a personal detour into Baz's own failed rabbit-breeding career in rural South Carolina.

Films and references in this episode: Night of the Lepus (1972), dir. William F. Claxton. The Year of the Angry Rabbit (1964 novel by Russell Braddon). The Naked Island (1952 memoir by Russell Braddon).

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Cold Open

Find Baz on all platforms: @baztothebonecast · @baztothebonecast (Threads) · @baztothebonepod (X/Twitter)

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Shop: Daddy Baz Designs on Etsy

Contact: [email protected]

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 10: The Old Dark House — Have A Potato. Four hours in a makeup chair, a family named Femm, and a director who put his queerness on screen in 1932 without flinching. James Whale's pre-Code haunted-house classic gets the deep-dive treatment — plus the tragic parallel lives of Whale and makeup legend Jack Pierce, and Baz's own decades in the makeup chair at Halloween Horror Nights.

Films and references in this episode: The Old Dark House (1932), dir. James Whale. Frankenstein (1931). Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The Invisible Man (1933). Benighted (1927 novel by J.B. Priestley).

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Cold Open

02:58 — The Setup

07:36 — Movement 1: The Cast

13:26 — Movement 2: The Queer Subtext

17:41 — Movement 3: Jack Pierce and the Cost of Being the Best

23:35 — The Turn

28:13 — The Legacy

31:50 — The Close

Find Baz on all platforms: @baztothebonecast · @baztothebonecast (Threads) · @baztothebonepod (X/Twitter)

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Shop: Daddy Baz Designs on Etsy

Contact: [email protected]

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 09: Phantom of the Paradise — Dealing With My Devils. A stolen song, a blood contract, and the one Canadian city that refused to let a Halloween-night bomb die. Brian De Palma's 1974 rock-opera horror-comedy built the modern horror-musical family tree — and carried a coded queer charge decades before Baz had the words for what he was watching.

Films and references in this episode: Phantom of the Paradise (1974), dir. Brian De Palma. The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Sisters (1973). The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Shock Treatment (1981).

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Cold Open

Find Baz on all platforms: @baztothebonecast · @baztothebonecast (Threads) · @baztothebonepod (X/Twitter)

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Shop: Daddy Baz Designs on Etsy

Contact: [email protected]

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 08: Nightbreed — My Own Private Midian. Clive Barker built monsters a whole civilization, a studio got scared of it, and fans spent twenty years refusing to let a butchered cut be the final word. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie closed out his career painting Nightbreed's history. And underneath the monster makeup, a personal story about finding your own Midian a long way from home.

Films and references in this episode: Nightbreed (1990), dir. Clive Barker. Cabal (1988 novella). Hellraiser (1987).

Find Baz on all platforms: @baztothebonecast · @baztothebonecast (Threads) · @baztothebonepod (X/Twitter)

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Contact: [email protected]

TIMESTAMPS

Est. Time

Section

Notes

00:00

Cold Open

Delivers on the EP07 tease — “Midian looks surprisingly like Canada.”

01:42

The Setup

The argument: understanding the monster means understanding yourself, or the thing you fear.

04:22

Movement 1 — The Novel

Cabal (1988). Why Barker kept it short and fragmentary.

06:58

The Casting Coup

Cronenberg against type. Peloquin, Kinski. Ralph McQuarrie's mural.

09:58

The Trilogy That Never Was

What Morgan Creek's fear cost the wider mythology.

11:31

Movement 2 — The Film

Building Midian. Shot in Alberta.

13:19

Movement 3 — The Butchering

The studio note, the recut, the personal toll on Barker.

17:09

The Critics Come Around

The decades-late critical reappraisal.

18:10

The Fandom Strikes Back

Mark Miller, Russell Cherrington, Occupy Midian, the tape bake.

21:56

Movement 4 — The Resurrection

The Cabal Cut. The Arrow 4K set.

24:00

The Other Cut

Fan Cabal Cut vs. official Director's Cut — not the same thing.

25:10

The Influence

Hellboy, Buffy, Angel, True Blood — Midian's children.

26:26

The Turn

Midtown, My Midian — Baz's own story.

28:56

The Door

Barker's own words on what Nightbreed was always about.

30:07

The Close

Wrap, next-episode tease, sign off.

FILMS AND REFERENCES

Film / Reference

Year

Context in Episode

Nightbreed

1990

The central film. Dir. Clive Barker. Both theatrical and Director's Cuts discussed.

Cabal

1988

Barker's source novella, published as part of Books of Blood Vol. VI.

Hellraiser

1987

Barker's directorial debut — referenced in Movement 2 as the film Barker chose not to simply repeat.

KEY FIGURES

Figure

Context in Episode

Clive Barker

Writer/director. Adapted his own novella. Central voice throughout via 2012 Rue Morgue interview.

David Cronenberg

Plays Dr. Philip K. Decker — cast for his reserved, composed manner.

Craig Sheffer

Plays Aaron Boone.

Anne Bobby

Plays Lori.

Oliver Parker

Plays Peloquin, the Breed member who bites Boone.

Nicholas Vince

Plays Kinski.

Charles Haid

Plays Sheriff Eigerman, leader of the human posse.

Mark Goldblatt

Editor of the theatrical cut — caught between Barker's vision and studio orders.

Danny Elfman

Composer. Score later reused to score the fan-reconstructed Cabal Cut.

Ralph McQuarrie

Concept artist (Star Wars trilogy, E.T., Star Trek IV). Painted a 60-foot mural of the Nightbreed's history — his final screen credit.

Mark Miller

Seraphim Films co-head. Found the lost workprint footage in Barker's storage closet.

Russell Cherrington

Film lecturer who assembled the fan-made Cabal Cut from workprints and Barker's earliest scripts.

OTHER REFERENCES

Rue Morgue Issue 129, “Midian Calling” (December 2012) — primary source for the production history, Barker's personal account of the recut, and the “closet where the homos live” quote used in The Door. Interview conducted with Barker, Mark Miller, and Russell Cherrington.

The DarkSide magazine, Arrow Video 4K UHD review (Allan Bryce) — source for the Arrow disc's extras breakdown and critical reappraisal material.

Occupy Midian — the fan campaign (5,000+ Facebook members, 8,000+ petition signatures, 15+ screenings from March 2012) that pressured Morgan Creek into supporting a proper restoration.

The Cabal Cut (2012, Russell Cherrington) vs. the official Director's Cut — two distinct fan/studio reconstructions, addressed directly in The Other Cut segment.

EP04 callback — Baz's lifelong werewolf/monster affinity, referenced in The Influence as connective tissue between episodes.

EP07 tease payoff — the Cold Open delivers on the “Midian looks surprisingly like Canada” line first teased at the end of Episode 07.

LINKS FOR SHOW NOTES

Podbean: baztothebonepod.podbean.com

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7nY4azkoWpBThOjg0Pb80F

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baz-to-the-bone/id1891305409

Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/06d80ad3-d7b5-49e9-821a-fbd654ea1de2

iHeartRadio: iheart.com/podcast/329448085

Patreon: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Beacons.ai: beacons.ai/baztothebonecast

Instagram: @baztothebonecast

TikTok: @baztothebonecast

Bluesky: @baztothebonecast

Threads: @baztothebonecast

X/Twitter: @baztothebonepod

Facebook: @baztothebonecast

YouTube: @baztothebonecast

Email: [email protected]

Daddy Baz Designs (Etsy): etsy.com/shop/daddybazdesigns

AUDIO CREDITS

Theme music: The Last Reel (mid-tempo version) — original composition. Licensed for commercial use via Suno.

“extremely-close-thunder” by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0

Baz To The Bone is produced independently. Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 07: Horror of Party Beach — A Love Letter to a Terrible Film.

Picture it: a public beach in Stamford, Connecticut, and something dragging itself out of the water with a face like it lost a fight with a barbecue. A drive-in double feature commissioned on a shoestring. Monster suits built in Gutzon Borglum's old sculpting studio. A real rock band's last summer together. A William Castle-style fright waiver. And Eulabelle Moore — a serious stage actress written in as a stereotype, who turns out to be the one person who actually saves everyone. Bad taste, done properly, is never the joke. It's the commitment.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Cold Open — The Episode One promise, paid off.

Films and references in this episode: The Horror of Party Beach (1964), dir. Del Tenney. The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964). Beach Party (1963).

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Podbean baztothebonecast.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube · @baztothebonepod on X/Twitter · Threads: @baztothebonecast

Contact: [email protected]

Audio credits: Theme: The Last Reel (mid-tempo). "extremely-close-thunder" by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0. Thunder SFX "505113__fission9__thunder-close" — no attribution required.

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK. Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 06: The Exorcist — The Summer I Hit Puberty and Puberty Hit Back.

I was ten years old the first time something possessed me. It wasn't a demon. It was my own body, and it had opinions. A paperback novel found Baz at ten, six years before he ever saw the film. A censored 1980 CBS broadcast turned fear into craft appreciation. Dick Smith's makeup effects, Mercedes McCambridge's uncredited demon voice, the Satanic Panic, and the real story behind this film's "cursed production" reputation — fire, injuries, real deaths, and a Jesuit priest connected to this story at both ends.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Cold Open — "I was ten years old the first time something possessed me." The reveal, then the evidence. The Exorcist namechecked early.

[01:48] Act One — The Summer of 1974. The novel, not the film. Tubular Bells. Auntie Mame. Guilt, self-loathing, a body not yet understood.

[08:25] Act Two — February 1980, CBS. The censored broadcast, age fifteen. Mercedes McCambridge's voice work. Dick Smith's craft. The start of a career.

[14:25] Act Three — The Myth vs. The Record. Satanic Panic / Michelle Remembers. The Friedkin manipulation pattern. The fire, the injuries, the deaths. Father Bermingham's blessing — and his deeper connection to this story.

[25:10] The Turn — All three threads land on one move: reaching for a monster instead of sitting with the mundane, internal truth.

[27:20] The Close — Career payoff. EP07 tease: The Horror of Party Beach.

Films and references in this episode: The Exorcist (1973), The Exorcist (novel, 1971), Michelle Remembers (1980), Auntie Mame (1958).

Other references: Famous Monsters of Filmland. Fangoria. Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield, 1973). The Roland Doe case, 1949. The Satanic Panic. Columbia House Record and Tape Club.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Pocket Casts · Podbean baztothebonepod.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube · @baztothebonepod on X/Twitter · Threads: @baztothebonecast

Contact: [email protected]

Audio credits: "extremely-close-thunder" by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0.

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK.

Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 05: Night of the Living Dead and the Hero Nobody Expected.

Fall 1982. University of South Carolina. Halloween night. A free film in the Russell House Student Union. A bag of popcorn. And a Black man boarding up a farmhouse in Pennsylvania, calmly and unapologetically taking charge — changing, quietly and permanently, something in a white kid from Allendale.

George Romero. $114,000. Black and white. Evans City, Pennsylvania. The film that invented the modern zombie, did it for less than a decent used car costs, and ended up preserved in the Library of Congress. The monster that can't be reasoned with. The real danger inside the house. The ending you don't look away from.

Duane Jones as Ben. Cast because he was the best actor available — full stop. An academic and theatre director whose students at SUNY Old Westbury had no idea he'd been the lead in one of the most important horror films ever made. He never told them. Made the film, knew what it was, went back to his life. Night of the Living Dead was his time. He was right.

Allendale Academy. Confederate mascot. Confederate flag as the school flag. Dixie as the school song. Twelve years. A graduating class of twenty-five. Seventy percent Black county. Never sat next to a Black student in a classroom. The architecture of exclusion, built deliberately, maintained carefully, still paying its costs.

Coming out. A letter. One afternoon. The emergency exit taken away. The Black sheep. The figure in the window. The cost of visibility when the world would prefer you weren't. And then — the reconciliation. Because they came back. And he let them.

Timestamps:

00:00    Cold Open — No music. Russell House, 1982. Halloween night. Ben arrives. Something shifts.

06:11    The Setup — What this episode is and isn't. The argument stated. The ethical position named upfront. No emergency exit.

09:52    Movement 1 — The Film — Night of the Living Dead: $114,000. Evans City, Pennsylvania. Romero at 27. Ben. Harry Cooper. The real monster inside the house. The ending. 1968 in America.

16:57    Movement 2 — Duane Jones — The man who played Ben. Academic, theatre director, head of department. The café on Long Island. His students had no idea. Night of the Living Dead was his time. Ganja and Hess.

25:23    Movement 3 — Where You Come From — Allendale, South Carolina. Allendale Academy. The flag, the mascot, the song. The architecture of segregation. What Baz benefitted from and at whose cost.

35:39    Movement 4 — The Black Sheep — Coming out. David's letter. One afternoon. The emergency exit taken away. The figure in the window. The cost of visibility. The empathy that comes from needing it.

44:24    The Turn — They came back. The reconciliation. The Angelou line and its oral tradition provenance. The harder choice, made and made again.

52:50    The Close — Romero's death. Jones's legacy. The proof of concept. Goose and Lily. Not bad for a kid from Allendale. EP06 tease. Sign off.

Films and references in this episode: Night of the Living Dead (1968), White Zombie (1932), I Walked With a Zombie (1943), Ganja and Hess (1973), Losing Ground (1982), The Quiet Man (1952).

Other references: George Romero. Duane Jones. Karl Hardman. Russell Streiner. Kathleen Collins. Allendale Academy. Allendale County, South Carolina. Desegregation and the private segregation academy system. SUNY Old Westbury. The Duane L. Jones Recital Hall. The Walking Dead tribute. The Maya Angelou / Oprah oral tradition line.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) is in the public domain and available to watch free and legally online. Watch it. If you've seen it, watch it again. Watch the ending. Don't look away.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Pocket Casts · Podbean — baztothebonepod.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube · @baztothebonepod on X/Twitter · Threads: @baztothebonecast

Contact: [email protected]

Audio credits: "extremely-close-thunder" by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK.

Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

EP05 Podbean Description  ·  Draft 2  ·  June 2026  ·  Timestamps confirmed

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 04: He Made Me Gay — The Horror Icons Who Did Something To Us.

The argument: classic horror was one of the few places in mid-twentieth century culture that was accidentally, systematically, and sometimes deliberately doing something queer. Not inclusive — queer. There’s a difference.

Vincent Price. Christopher Lee. Paul Naschy. The Hays Code. Dracula as the foundational queer-coded figure. Werewolves as proto-furries. The bear community. Lon Chaney Jr., Oliver Reed, and twelve films of Waldemar Daninsky. A gay Halloween party. A chandelier. A wig. A Monster in a maroon velvet top hat.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Cold Open — No music. The Halloween party. Tony. The chandelier. The wig. The Elsa Lanchester bouffant eight feet in the air.

[03:09] The Setup — What the story is actually about. The argument stated. Not nostalgia — an argument. Also, there will be werewolves.

[05:22] Movement 1 — The Claim. What horror gave queer boys before anything else did. Not representation — something older. The monster was magnificent in its wrongness.

[08:11] Movement 2 — Why Horror Specifically. The Hays Code. Dracula as the foundational queer-coded figure. The Universal monster cycle.

[13:00] Movement 3 — The Icons as Evidence. Price, Lee, Naschy. Three registers, one consistent truth. The voice. The doorway. The twelve films.

[19:27] Movement 4 — The Body Hair Argument. Werewolves. The body that betrays. Proto-furries. The bear community.

[26:44] The Turn — Personal. Lon Chaney Jr., Oliver Reed, Paul Naschy, Dark Shadows werewolves. Sad, hairy, doleful creatures. Tony callback.

[30:20] The Close — The generational fault line. The men before Stonewall. What horror gave them. EP05 tease: Night of the Living Dead.

Films and references in this episode: Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Dracula (1931), House of Wax (1953), Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), Horror of Dracula (1958), Curse of the Werewolf (1961), The Wolf Man (1941), Dark Shadows (TV, 1966–71), Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Other references: The Hays Code (Motion Picture Production Code). The Universal Monster Cycle, 1930s–40s. The Bear Community. The Furry Community. Stonewall. Allendale, South Carolina.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Pocket Casts · Podbean baztothebonepod.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube · @baztothebonepod on X/Twitter · Threads: @baztothebonecast

Contact: [email protected]

Audio credits: “extremely-close-thunder” by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK.

Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 03: Bride of Frankenstein — James Whale's Perfect Film.

Baz makes the argument: Dr. Pretorius is the real Bride of Frankenstein. The film's outsiders are its moral centre. The Bride is the only Universal monster who never harmed a soul.

A close reading of the 1935 Universal horror film as a queer text. James Whale. Ernest Thesiger's grave in Brompton Cemetery. GRID. The men who walked through the world without apology. And what horror gave us before we had the language for what we were.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Cold Open — Brompton Cemetery, October 2021. Finding Thesiger's grave.

[04:34] The Setup — The film. The argument. Dr. Pretorius is the actual Bride of Frankenstein.

[08:10] Movement 1 — The Film Itself. Surface plot and what's underneath.

[12:15] Movement 2 — James Whale. The gay director. Coded film.

[17:22] Movement 3 — Dr. Pretorius. The magnificent villain. A new world of gods and monsters.

[24:43] Movement 4 — The Bride. Three minutes. No dialogue. Full agency.

[31:06] Movement 5 — The Monster and the Outsider Body. The hermit sequence.

[37:15] The Turn — GRID. The worried well. The men who never apologised.

[43:46] The Close

Films and references in this episode: Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), Gods and Monsters (1998).

Key figures: James Whale (dir.), Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorius), Boris Karloff (The Monster), Elsa Lanchester (Mary Shelley / The Bride).

Other references: Brompton Cemetery, Chelsea, London. GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, 1982). Shock Theatre / Channel 12, Allendale SC.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Pocket Casts · Podbean baztothebonecast.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Shop: etsy.com/shop/daddybazdesigns

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, YouTube · @bazbishopcast on X/Twitter

Contact: [email protected]

Audio credits: Theme music — The Last Reel (mid-tempo), original composition, licensed via Suno. "extremely-close-thunder" by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK.

Horror. Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.

Horror and cult film podcast with Baz Bishop.

Episode 02: Attack of the Mole People. The origin story — starting from the other end. A decade inside one of America's premier haunted attractions, a chainsaw clown at Universal Studios, and a union card earned by chasing people in the dark.

How a five-year-old who was afraid of the ground became, eventually, the thing under it.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Cold Open — The actors' lounge. The couch. The first night.

[04:00] The Setup — The Mole People. The sandbox. The turn from fear to obsession.

[09:00] Movement 1 — The Monster Kid. Famous Monsters of Filmland. Aurora model kits.

[20:00] Movement 2 — Finding Netherworld. Atlanta. The Netherspawn.

[32:00] Movement 3 — Inside the Haunt. The Vortex. A decade in the dark.

[42:00] The Turn — Universal Studios. Stitches. The AGVA union card. The circle.

[50:00] The Close

[54:00] Where To Find The Show

Films and references in this episode:

Attack of the Mole People (1956), Universal Monsters canon, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Aurora monster model kits, Netherworld Haunted House Atlanta (est. 1997), Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, American Guild of Variety Artists.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · iHeartRadio · Pocket Casts · Podbean baztothebonecast.podbean.com

Support the show: patreon.com/baztothebonecast

Find Baz: @baztothebonecast on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube · @bazbishopcast on X/Twitter Contact: [email protected]

Audio credit: "extremely-close-thunder" by Spennnyyy | freesound.org/s/350506/ | CC BY 4.0

Baz To The Bone is produced independently in Wales, UK. Horror.

Cult Film. Bad Taste Done Properly.