Boys and Ghouls

Dracula, from the Bram Stoker novel of 1897 to the 1931 Universal film (and its Spanish counterpart), is the subject of this bloody 75th episode of Boys and Ghouls.  

Listen in as Kat and Marshall explore the long road that Dracula took, from an epistolary novel to a hit of the London stage, to an early talkie that proved to depression-era Hollywood that horror was worth investing in.

This will be the first part of a two-part Dracula exploration, going up to when, with Bela Lugosi as the secret ingredient, the icon of Dracula was cemented.  The next episode will be The Legacy of Dracula and take in the many ways Dracula has appeared on screen and all over our culture.

Enjoy!

George Romero and a small group of aspiring filmmakers spent their summer making a horror movie about flesh-eating ghouls and the ordinary people trying to fend them off.  That movie became “Night of the Living Dead” and it created a new kind of horror genre and a new kind of movie monster… THE ZOMBIE.

Listen in as the Boys and Ghouls duo discuss how this landmark movie came to be.  You’ll GASP as we discuss what a low budget movie this was.  You’ll THRILL as we examine the casting of an African American in the lead of a horror movie in racially tumultuous 1967.  And SHUDDER as we let you know just what it was the zombies were really eating.

Enjoy!

Halloween is almost here and Boys and Ghouls’ third “Halloweenies” episode has arrived for your amusement!  Taking on three Halloween topics, the warm and engaging duo explore, “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”, Halloween-time television commercials, and Halloween sketches from “Saturday Night Live”.

So, listen in.  From the catchy tune of “Silver Shamrock” to the haunted castle of Chicken McNuggets, to the Halloween night motivational speaker that lives in a van down by the river, you’ll be sold on this season where the barrier between the world of the living and the land of the dead is at its most insubstantial.

So, enjoy our look at the “Halloween” movie that tries a middle-aged man instead of a teenage girl as its hero.  Take a break with our examination of sometimes-spooky sales pitches.  And party on with sketch comedy that saves the weird stuff for after midnight.

HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!

Recorded in beautiful Burbank, The Boys and Ghouls duo take a long look at 1986’s “Beetlejuice” and try to figure out how this odd, supernatural, visual feast of a macabre comedy ever came together.

Listen in, as we map Tim Burton’s road to directing this improbably iconic film and examine how it all got started… with a dark screenplay by a pair of writing partners who went crazy on the post-Ghostbusters concept of, “What if the ghosts were haunted by humans?”

Add in calypso music, the public’s first real look at the Tim Burton style, improvisational actors, a young Winona Ryder, and stop-motion special effects and the result was a hit with audiences; and such a hit with children that a Beetlejuice cartoon was produced ASAP.

Join us, please, as we unravel the appeal and inspirations that surround this movie where the recently deceased take on the overbearing living with a little help from the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice.

The Purge films are the topic of this alarming episode of Boys and Ghouls.  

From the first Purge film to the film “The First Purge”, we cover this series of what-if scenarios that ask and answer, “What would happen if crime was legal for one night a year?”

From the all-in-one-house home invasion thriller of 2013’s “The Purge” to it’s action packed sequels that take it out into the streets of America and all the way to the White House, this popular series changes with each film and isn’t shy about making social commentary along the way.

Also, Marshall and Kat marvel at themselves in the pages of a comic book.

Hello, Boys and Ghouls. Kat here. Welcome to Episode 11 of our Behind the Screams series, where we explore the world of fear, shock and horror by talking to tastemakers in the genre.

VHS box covers for horror movies were excellent at getting people to take them home and watch them.  But, for the young Boys and Ghouls duo, they were often sources of morbid mystery that, until they were old enough to rent these potentially terrifying titles, would just entice them and cause them to wonder, WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

Join Kat and Marshall as they share those video store memories, telling which boxes caught their eye and stirred their imaginations at what possibly could be happening on the VHS tape within.  Together, they finally visit the toilet dwelling terrors, “Ghoulies”.  And discover what was peaking out of the basket from the covers of “Basket Case”.

Kat goes into a history of artistic representations of movies, first the poster and then the home video packaging, and Marshall solves his thirty year mystery of what really goes on in 1989’s “Relentless”.  And they both discover what’s behind the solitary close-up of a ventriloquist dummy on the box for “Magic” (1978).

These titles and more, that called to them from the shelves of the video store (mostly in its heyday of the 1980s) are unearthed and examined in this exhuming episode of Boys and Ghouls.

VHS box covers for horror movies were excellent at getting people to take them home and watch them.  But, for the young Boys and Ghouls duo, they were often sources of morbid mystery that, until they were old enough to rent these potentially terrifying titles, would just entice them and cause them to wonder, WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

Join Kat and Marshall as they share those video store memories, telling which boxes caught their eye and stirred their imaginations at what possibly could be happening on the VHS tape within.  Together, they finally visit the toilet dwelling terrors, “Ghoulies”.  And discover what was peaking out of the basket from the covers of “Basket Case”.

Kat goes into a history of artistic representations of movies, first the poster and then the home video packaging, and Marshall solves his thirty year mystery of what really goes on in 1989’s “Relentless”.  And they both discover what’s behind the solitary close-up of a ventriloquist dummy on the box for “Magic” (1978).

These titles and more, that called to them from the shelves of the video store (mostly in its heyday of the 1980s) are unearthed and examined in this exhuming episode of Boys and Ghouls.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the subject of this episode of “Boys and Ghouls”.  Specifically, three of the movies that helped cement her as a scream queen.  Bookended by the first two “Halloween” films, we take a look at “The Fog”.  By the creative team behind “Halloween”, it’s her only paranormal horror film.  Then, it’s back to slashers with “Prom Night” and then the slasher-on-a-train triumph, “Terror Train”.

For the “Boys and Ghouls” duo’s perspective on the “Halloween” films, give a listen to our classic episode, “It’s Halloween” for part one, and “Trading Terrors” for part two (in which Marshall watches it for the first time, to Kat’s delight).

Also, Kat tells Marshall about her night out to a back-alley screening of a surprise horror film on 16mm. 

The Stuff, the greatest killer-desert movie of 1985, is the topic of this tasty episode of “Boys and Ghouls”.

From it’s top-tier actors to its practical special effects,  Kat and Marshall make a meal out of this fantastic piece of mid-80’s cheese. 

Served up with great aplomb by its writer-director Larry Cohen, The Stuff has a lot of plates spinning, as it attempts different types of horror along with satire, a buddy movie, and an action movie.  Along the way it makes points about what we consume, how its sold to us, and how we sell it to ourselves.  Plus, Danny Aiello is attacked by a Stuff-spewing Doberman Pinscher.

Also, listen in as Marshall details his trip to a celebrity estate sale (no one died) and shares what he bought with Kat.