Casting The Net

I know some of us out there have been hating this winter season, so allow us to heat things up as we talk about the Netflix original holiday romance film Hot Frosty. Lacey Chabert plays a widowed diner owner who inexplicably transforms a snowman in the center of her town into a living, breathing hunk who just wants to make her life easier. It's certainly something we don't usually see from the Holiday Movie Industrial Complex. 

Too much blood? Or not enough? That's the questions we're asking on this week's episode, as we cover one of the most "2000s" indie genre movies of the year 2000 based on a cult indie comic from the 80s, Faust: Love of the Damned. Contemplating suicide after the murder of his lover, John Jasper's is given the power to exact bloody revenge, and all it will cost him is . . . HIS IMMORTAL SOUL!!!! Make no mistake, even if you think you know what you're gonna get from a movie directed by the guy who produced Re-Animator and a special effects lead named "Screaming Mad George", trust me you have no idea! Definitely don't play this episode, or watch this movie around children! 

When people talk about hidden gems, you really don't get more hidden of a gem than a 1940s supernatural crime noir thriller from 1991, starring Fred Ward, Clancy Brown, David Warner, and Julianne Moore, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, directed by Goldeneye and Casino Royale's Martin Campbell, and we an HBO original movie! This week, we dove deep into Cast A Deadly Spell, as Fred Ward plays private detective Harry P. Lovecraft, who's been hired to find a sacred text known as the Necronomicon. And being one of the few people in the city who doesn't use magic nor is he a supernatural creature, it may just be his toughest case yet. 

It's the week after Thanksgiving, but we hope you're all still hungry. This week we're covering the Blumhouse Prime Original House of Spoils, as Ariana Debose plays an ambitious chef looking to make a name for herself. Hoping to turn a cozy inn into a fine dining restaurant, she quickly finds inspiration in the woods around the property, but also finds herself plagued by haunting visions that may threaten to drive her mad. 

Haven't done a Tangent episode in a minute! And what better time to do one for Early 2000s horror than . . . three weeks AFTER Halloween! In any event, We dive as deep as we can with this week's ep, and we'll make sure to pick up the slack on some glaring omissions, in future episodes. But whether you're a fan of supernatural thrillers, torture porn, horror remakes, or foreign horror, we've got you covered for the most part! 

After 30 years, Axel Foley as at it again, as Eddie Murphy returns to arguably his most famous role for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. This time Detroit's "finest" must return to the west coast after his daughter is threatened and Billy Rosewood goes missing after they start digging into a drug case. But after all this time, can Axel's old tricks still get the job done? And can Eddie Murphy still bring the funny while balancing the thrills we remember from the earlier entries in the franchise? 

From the director of Dead Alive and Meet The Feebles comes . . . the true crime tale of two teenage girls' burgeoning friendship leading to straight up matricide in 1950s New Zealand? This week, I'm correcting a major blind spot the films directed by Peter Jackson that I've seen, with Clarissa's first recommendation for the show, 1994's Heavenly Creatures. The cinematic debut for both Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, this is easily one of the most fascinating biopics that I've seen in a while, and definitely one of the most imaginatively shot films of the 90s. 

Nice to see a new spin on the "I have to do '(X) Task' to keep my ex-wife from moving her and our child out of state!" trop, as Jamie Foxx plays a freelance vampire hunter in the Netflix action movie Day Shift. In need of some fast cash, Foxx's Bud Jablonsky begs his way back into the vampire hunters' union, but things get complicated when he runs afoul of an ambitious uber-vampire who's hatched a real-estate scheme to benefit her kind in a big way.

Me and guest host Glenn Lawrence of Level Up Comedy also found time in this episode to address Marvel Studios' own issues in rebooting a certain vampire hunting character of their own. (Deadpool & Wolverine cameos notwithstanding). 

Who doesn't want to watch J.Lo fight self-aware androids in a mech suit?!?! This week, we're covering the Netflix original Atlas, as Jennifer Lopez has to form an unlikely bond with an AI program, in the hopes of stopping another AI program from wiping out all humanity! Honestly, this is a surprisingly straightforward premise! 

When you wanted to cover a specific film for its 25th anniversary, but it's not available on streaming, so you cover another film for its 25th anniversary . . . that's only available (unofficially) on YouTube! Joining us once again, and most likely for the foreseeable future, Clarissa Westphal Nogueira is back on the pod to talk about Kevin Smith's irreverent faith-based comedy Dogma and Hollywood's weird fascination with religious thrillers in the late 90s and early aughts. And after 25 years, how does the film hold up, as it tells the story of two wayward angels trying to re-enter Heaven, not realizing that it could unmake all existence?