Cinema Death Cult

Quentin Tarantino wrote a book!

I read it and talked about it for a half an hour. Mostly off the dome but I had some notes and stuff. Remind me to write more but I just recorded the podcast. It's a half hour of me talking by myself. Give me a break!

Hahaha update I consistently get the title wrong. It's cinema speculation not speculations. There's only one speculation. It's singular. My bad.

So the book is Cinema Speculation and here's.a link to buy it in case that's something that appeals to you.

Also, I say book a couple times when I mean movie and vice versa. A little embarassing but I'm not going to re-record the whole thing because of that. I think I set myself up for a fall by critiquing someone else for sloppiness. So let this be a lesson about pointing fingers. Or don't. Who cares.

Also, the factual error I allude to but forget to flesh out is that he calls Brian De Palma's Obsession a flop but it actually made $4 million, which was healthy box office for the time. But after my blunder with the pluralization of the title, who am I to judge? Glass-house living motherfucker. LOL.

I forgot to mention that Motorhead has a pretty good song called "Hellraiser." RIP Lemmy.

This is my first solo episode in a while and also my first review in a while. I watched the new Hellraiser, which is now streaming on Hulu, and decided I was an expert on all things Hellraiser because I read the novella the first movie was based on, Clive Barker's Hellbound Heart. It's a really good little page-turner that you can blow through in an afternoon. Check it out!

The new Hellraiser is the 11th Hellraiser movie. There are only nine Nighmare on Elm Street movies, including the Jason Vs Freddy crossover and the remake and I'd imagine that it's a much better known film series. At 11 films, it nearly ties the Friday the 13th series, which has 12 movies when you include Freddy Vs Jason and the 2000s remake. That's pretty wild considering it's a horror franchise that likely has much more of a niche appeal than its horror franchise competition. And how they should have never made a sequel to the first one.

You can watch the trailer for the new Hellraiser here.

This is one of the horny images of lady Pinhead I mentioned. NSFW, probably.

It's October. So naturally, or should I say supernaturally? No, naturally's probably right. The point is that naturally, because it's October, I invited Jim Knipfel on the pod to talk scary movies. Jim has long been a champion of_ Halloween III: Season of the Witch_, the misfit outcast entry in the Halloween film series that's about druids, killer masks and Irish robots instead of Michael Myers. And he's right to champion it. Halloween III is a great, fun, weird movie despite its reputation. And Phantasm is weird and odd and terrific too.

Jim blew my mind clean off a couple times with background info about these two cult masterpieces, particularly with respect to Angus Scrimm's non Phantasm career.

Also, I blunder into a wild moment of amateurish ignorance by revealing I didn't know Michael Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" was the theme from The Exorcist. I only watched The Exorcist once and I forgot the soundtrack. "Tubular Bells" is a sample in a DJ Shadow song and I never connected it to The Exorcist. Let me know if I have to turn in my gun and badge.

Jim's defense of Halloween III is here.

Subscribe to Jim’s Patreon. it’s terrific.

Horror scholar Will Dodson returns to the CDC pod, discussing another icon of horror cinema. Dodson, Co-editor of the book American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper, was a guest in April, sharing his expertise on Texas Chainsaw Massacre auteur Tobe Hooper. He returns to talk about his latest archival horror project, the lesser known film and television work of Nightmare on Elm Street creator Wes Craven.

Dodson guides us through Craven projects like Stranger in the House, Invitation to Hell, Chiller and more. Because we tie all these forgotten projects to Craven's more famous work, including Last House on the Left, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, what started as a deep dive into obscure but noteworthy Craven projects wound up as a servicable overview of Craven's career.

In 1956 Stanley Kubrick released his third feature-length movie, The Killing and earlier this sentence I gave serious thought to paying someone on taskrabbit to write this intro.

This is a great episode. Jim Knipfel and Alex Zaitchik return. They are both great. I say some dumb bullshit but hopefully don’t ruin it.

Sorry, I’m just out of gas right now but wanted to get the podcast up.

Subscribe to Jim’s Patreon. it’s terrific. Alex's books are also terrific and are on sale at an amazon.com near you.

The Sterling Hayden documentary is called Pharoahs of Chaos for some reason.

Wolfcop is a canadian movie about a cop who becomes a werewolf. My brother recommended it so I asked him to do a podcast about it.

ZZ Top is one of my favorite bands and I'm trying to write this description quickly.

I'm joined by Marc Stone.

Marc is a terrific guitar player and roots music historian who has been a standout presence in New Orleans since the 1990s, playing alongside legends of Funk, Zydeco, RnB and Blues on stages across the globe.

Right now, Marc is touring with funk guitar icon Leo Nocentelli of The Meters behind Leo's historic rediscovered 1971 acoustic masterpiece "Another Side.” As we mention in the interview, they’re playing in my former hometown of Hartford Connecticut at Infinity Hall tonight. Leo and Marc play at New York’s Sony Hall on Sept. 24, at Philly’s Ardmore Concert hall on Sept. 25 at the Hamilton in Washington DC on the 27th.

Stone has been called a band-leading force in the Crescent City known for his fusion of modern and traditional blues, soul and funk —a sound he calls ‘roots in the present tense’" by repeat CDC podcast guest Alexander Zaitchik. He must like being called that because it's on his website, along with the following two paragraphs:

When he’s not on stage or in the studio, Marc can be found behind the mic at New Orleans’ iconic radio sender, WWOZ 90.7-fm, celebrating 20 years hosting of his weekly “Soul Serenade” or spinning fine and funky vinyl at clubs and events.

The result is “Shining Like A Diamond”, his first full length studio release since 2015. The album features an incredible line up and showcases Stone’s soulful vocals, masterful touch on guitar, 8 string Dobro and lap steel, finely tuned songwriting skills, and a slew of incredible performers. Never one to lean on well worn forms and contrived chops showcases, Stone draws inspiration from every corner. He also taps a well-spring of legends to bring his songs to life, including Papa Mali, Alvin “Youngblood” Hart, Marilyn Barbarin, Leo Nocentelli, Reggie Scanlan, the late Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, Meschiya Lake, James Singleton, Mike Dillon, and George Porter, Jr.

Jesus, OK, why did I do this and what the hell is my point?

The Snyder cut took me by complete surprise when the hashtag #releasethesnydercut became reality. It was something to do during quarantine. I put it on while running on an elliptical machine, expecting a mild diversion at best. But despite my cynicism, "Zach Snyder's Justice League" won me over with its ambition, confidence, lack of irony, visual inventiveness, epic spectacle and I'm going to stop there. I didn't mean to write a list when I started that sentence. My intention was.a tight statement of purpose. Sorry.

This should be the last superhero movie. It tells its story with utmost earnestness and believes that it can use its superheroes to connect emotionally with audiences in a genuine way. The goal is to be an epic that communicates something fundamental and imporant about the human race. And, because superhero stories are incapable of supporting such lofty ambitions, it falls short of that goal. in doing so, it clearly defines the limits of superhero stories. This is exactly how good they can get. Experiment done. We can stop now. Maybe consider going back to Westerns or hey! What about vampires? Or comedies. Remember comedies? Let's make some comedies. It's fun to be in a room full of strangers laughing at stuff.

Anyway, I haven't recorded the follow up (follow ups?) yet. If everybody hates this idea, maybe I never will.

Once upon a time, I watched "The Princess Bride" with my daughter. She liked it but wanted more of the romance stuff in the beginning.

Then my Princess Bride journey began.

I read the movie's source material, William Goldman's playful, metatextual novel and thought maybe the playfulness and metatextualness is unneeded, considering the jewel of the story at the heart of the book.

James and I have been talking about doing a swashbuckling/Erroll Flynn CDC episode for a while. So we talk about "Captain Blood" and "The Sea Hawk." Both are streaming on HBO Max but also elsewhere if you google their titles and the words "streaming" and "free." The Princess Bride, meanwhile, is on Disney Plus.

I'll write more here later. Gotta movie on with my life right now (ha! I meant move on with my life but it's a podcast about movies so fun typo!)

Show notes:

I 100 percent stand by my endorsement of The War Nerd Iliad. Buy it here! Today!

James was right, Goldman did write the screenplay for "All the Presidents Men."

Also, I regret not mentioning my observation that Wallace Shawn stars in the biggest "Andre" movie (My Dinner With Andre) and stars with the biggest Andre ever in a movie (Andre the Giant).

There I was, a guy excited to go to the movies, viewing myself as a sophisticated consumer of movies with discerning taste. I scoffed, yes scoffed, at the rubes lining up to watch the latest generic blockbuster superhero entertainment product as I entered the theater screening the A24 arthouse action science fiction movie Everything, Everywhere, All at One.

After two long hours and 20 long minutes, the movie ends and the end titles were on screen. Produced by Joe and Anthony Russo, it read. The Russo brothers. Veteran Marvel contentmakers. The directors behind the Avengers movies and so forth.

I had been fooled into a Marvel movie.