Decades of Horror | Horror News Radio

Modern horror likes to chase current fears and with Bedeviled (2017) that remains the case. In this feature from the writing-directing team of Abel Vang and Burlee Vang, the fear is the app on your mobile device, the little bit of software gleefully downloaded into your private world and space. Yes, it's a horror film so this app, Mr. Bedeviled, is downloaded to kill you, playing on your fears. The direction is strong with beautiful cinematography and terrific locations but the script tries to over-explain things. Bedeviled misses the opportunity to enjoy its own campiness. The film features Saxon Sharbino, Bonnie Morgan, and Alexis G. Zall. Even being a near miss, there may be room for more Mr. Bedeviled.

In this episode of Groovy Gorey Gruesome Gold, Paul Cardullo goes back to the mid-1970s for the Blaxploitation classic J.D.'s Revenge (1976). In the 1940s, gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight) witnesses the murder of his sister (Alice Jubert) and then is gunned down by her murderer. Flash forward to 1976 . . . Isaac, played by Glynn Turman (Cooley High [1976], Gremlins [1984]), is a law student who drives a cab to make ends meet. After being hypnotized during a nightclub act, Isaac's personality begins to change as he is slowly taken over by J.D.'s spirit. J.D. is seeking revenge on the men involved in his murder, former-gangster-turned-preacher Reverand Elija Bliss (Louis Gossett Jr.) and his brother Theotis (Fred Pinkard). Directed by Arthur Marks and written by Jaison Starkes, the film is refreshingly good and sports a top-notch cast, in spite of the fact that Turman's portrayal of the possessed version of Isaac can seem a little over-the-top at times. Even though the viewer thinks they know where the story is going, Starkes' script has J.D.'s actual revenge take a slightly different form than one would expect, giving the film a bit more depth than the usual exploitation fare. Give a listen below and hear why Paul says that this is one for which views should keep an eye out.

Dancing between found footage, video blogging, and conventional film, The Follower (2017) makes the most out of its concept of a ghost hunting Youtube celebrity, David Baker (Nicolas Shake) encountering a supposed haunting that is far more than he anticipated. The interaction between David and the homeowner Carol (Chloe Dumas) drives much of the first half of the narrative. While the film presents evidence of a haunting, David is convinced that Carol is the problem and leaves. At this point, The Follower begins anew as David discovers something may have followed him home. Nicolas Shake admirably carries most of the film as the lead, David Baker, making a strong impression while Chloe Dumas has fun with the zanier side of Carol. The chemistry between the two is awkward but interesting. An entertaining and solid but gruesomely lightweight effort from director Kévin Mendiboure, The Follower is a perfect film to catch and chill.

Hope for the best, expect the worst! That's The Grue Crew's motto as Horror News Radio dives head first into The Worst Horror Films of 2017 with special guest Joey Fittos. Each panelist has a fair share of dreck to wade through. There's talk of Tom Cruise battling wrapped up Egyptians, the latest return to the Amityville House and... whatever the hell Kuso was. What other films made the list? Listen and find out! The Grue Crew also discusses Better Watch Out, the yuletide home invasion thriller. It's Home Alone with a twist... but maybe not the one you're thinking of. Plus, there's still plenty of Horror News of the Week to gab about. Mainly involving the trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, AMC's historical horror mini-series The Terror and a remake of Romero's Day of the Dead. What is this world coming to?

As always, the HNR Grue-Crew would love to hear from you, the listeners, the fans. You can always reach out via email at feedback(AT)horrornewsradio(DOT)com or find us on Twitter: Doc Rotten | Dave Dreher | Thomas Mariani. Also, like us on Facebook and join the Horror News Radio Facebook Group.

Horror News Radio Episode 245 – The Worst Horror Films of 2017 – Better Watch Out Subscribe – iTunes – Facebook – Stitcher

• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Trailer
• Ready Player One Trailer Is A Pop Culture Petri Dish
• AMC Sails to Ridley Scott's The Terror in March
• Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Gets A Director
• Day Of The Dead: Bloodline Trailer

• Better Watch Out (2017)
• director: Chris Peckover
• cast: Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbould

• It's December and 2017 is coming to a close. In the coming weeks, we will be doing our popular "Best and Worst of the Year" episodes. We want to hear from you. Head over to here to share your favorite … and not so favorite… films of 2017.
• In February, we will be working with the Nevermore Film Festival in Durham, NC to present THE MANITOU on the Big Screen in honor of Santos Ellin Jr. / the Black Saint. Anyone who can make it to the Festival the weekend of February 23 – 25, 20i18. We will have more details as we get closer to the dates. Head over to gruesomemagazine.com/manitou to keep up with this event.

• Patrons who donate as low as $1 can now vote for an upcoming Decades of Horror 1970s on our Patreon Page. Voting ends December 22nd.
• Thanks to Tear Out the Heart and Victory Records for use of the song Undead Anthem for the intro and outro of the HNR podcast

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• Gruesome Magazine 2016 Yearbook
• Gruesome Magazine Spring 2017
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"EUREKA! This year, Christmas will be OURS!" Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon/Danny Elfman) makes his proclamation to the citizens of Halloweentown. The holiday he just discovered will be his to mold and reshape into something spooky. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a holiday classic for every horror fan. Director Tim Bur-er, I mean Henry Selick gives this stop-motion world a chance to breathe and live for the limited run time. It was a movie Disney didn't believe in upon initial release, yet it's become a massive merchandising bonanza. How? Well, Decades of Horror 1990s and Beyond is gonna do the best it can to explain that.

Decades of Horror 1990s And Beyond Episode 32 – The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Nightmare Before Christmas - based on the poem written by Tim Burton during his days as a Disney animator - follows Jack, The Pumpkin King. Leader of Halloweentown and the symbol all others judge themselves against, Jack feels empty inside. The annual Halloween celebration has turned him into a depressed skeleton man who wanders into the alternate world of Christmas Town. Inspired by the unique holiday qualities, Jack decides to take Santa's place for Christmas. All while the patchwork girl Sally (Catherine O'Hara) tries to stop him. It's all done in a musical stop-motion animation style so gorgeous it got the film a Best Special Effects Oscar nomination.

All this is discussed 24 audio frames at a time by Thomas Mariani and his guests Christopher G. Moore, Caitlin Turner and Scott Johnson. All are here to discuss Nightmare Before Christmas as a highly influential watermark for animation in general. Henry Selick's visuals would bring us the films of LAIKA. Pixar is credited for the computer effects. Tim Burton has ripped this off with Corpse Bride. There's also plenty of big questions asked. Is this a Halloween or Christmas movie? What is the relationship between Sally and Dr. Finkelstein (William Hickey)? Would Hot Topic survive without Nightmare Before Christmas? Listen to find out!

We want to hear from you – the coolest, most gruesome fans: leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1990s And Beyond podcast hosts at [email protected] or tweet Thomas @NotTheWhosTommy. Also, make sure to give us some love via iTunes reviews and ratings. Helps us get more notice along the way.

The intro and outro is "Suck City" by Black Math. Look for more of their music via Free Music Archive.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

While the IMDb suggests that Blood Harvest (2017) is "Onus meets the Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the film is something else entirely. It is a beautiful, silly, little film - lush, green, and vibrant with its Irish countryside locations. However, the film is full of alien vampires who have committed 36 murders that the local police are keeping hidden. Thankfully for horror fans, the killers provide the film with plenty of blood and gore. Blood Harvest is from writer/director George Clarke and features Alan Crawford, Racheal Galloway, and Griffin Madill. Filled with wacky one-liners and tonally bouncing between monster film and torture port, the film is all over the place and tough to follow. Catch the full review below.

"You have nothing to lose but your mind." One of the final Amicus anthology films is prepared to drive you insane as Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) interviews the patients of a mental asylum searching for the head doctor who recently lost his mind in Asylum (1972). Roy Ward Baker directs from a script by Robert Block featuring Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, and Hebert Lom. Doc Rotten and Jeff Mohr are joined by Chad Hunt and Bill Mulligan along with special guest-host Eli Mohr.

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 64 – Asylum (1972)

With titles like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt, and Torture Garden, Amicus Films threatened to give Hammer Films a run for their money...but never quite reached that goal. By the time they caught up with the studio that gave us Horror of Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein, the horror genre was maturing into its modern era as films like Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist captured the audience's attention. Asylum is one of the final films in their series of portmanteau films - and quite possibly one of its forgotten best. The wrap around story is woven into the film's fourth tale "Mannikins of Horror" featuring a murdering toy robot while Peter Cushing stars alongside Barry Morse in a tragic tale called "The Weird Tailor". Britt Ekland guides Charlotte Rampling down a sordid path in "Lucy Comes to Stay" while Richard Todd faces his slain wife's revenge in "Frozen Fear". A terrific film that has the Grue-Crew enjoying every frame.

"See what the author of 'Psycho' is up to now!" - the poster tagline pimps the fact that the screenwriter, Robert Bloch, is the man responsible for Alfred Hitchcock's beloved horror classic.

The Grue-Crew are thrilled to welcome Jeff's grandson Eli onto the show to review Asylum. A new experience for the lad, Eli starts off things noticing how the music in the first segment, Frozen Short, uses unusual cues to signal the various terrors that threaten Richard Todd in his basement. The Crew agrees with him about the acting as well, as each of the cast - especially Peter Cushing - give the film their all, providing the film with a bit more class that may be expected. Chad shares his own terrifying tale of facing a mannequin in his grandmother's attic when he was young, a fear that he would have to face in the "Mannikins of Horror" segment. Except for Eli, who recently caught the film for this podcast, the rest of the crew remember catching the film when it was originally released - or, in the case of Doc, re-released under the title House of Crazies.

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at [email protected].

In this edition of Groovy Gory Gruesome Gold, Paul Cardullo gets his first taste of 1970s Turkish Action Cinema with the funky classic The Sword and The Claw (aka Kiliç Aslan and Lionman) (1975). The film is an unusual mix of Tarzan and a sword-and-sandal epic. While Tarzan is raised by apes, Süleyman (Turkish megastar Cüneyt Arkin), the hero of The Sword and The Claw, is raised by lions. This helps him to develop his fighting technique, which mostly consists of slashing as his opponent's faces with his hands. This "Turkish Tarzan" is the long-lost son of King Solomon, who was murdered by an evil prince. Now, Süleyman must team with the resistance to overcome the usurper. Words almost cannot do justice the whacked-out action in this film, which features much acrobatic work choreographed to the repeated strains of the Adagio from Aram Khachaturian's classical ballet Spartacus. There is fun action throughout, but the highlight is the true wackadoodle ten-minute finale wherein good guys and bad guys go flying through the air, presumably propelled by unseen trampolines, and much blood is spilled. Is it a good film? Probably not. Is it an entertaining film? Most definitely. Paul has a ball relating to Doc the experience of watching The Sword and The Claw which is being released on January 23, 2018, by American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) in a new 4K restoration on Blu-ray made from the only surviving 35-millimeter print. Listen to his review below and see why you too just may become a fan of 1970s Turkish Action Cinema.

They made Another Wolfcop? Yes, time to grab your liquor donuts and favorite Canadian brew of choice for the second lycan officer horror comedy adventure on Horror News Radio. It's an abbreviated episode of the show, but luckily Doc Rotten and Thomas Mariani have guest Vanessa there to help out. All three are here to to fight off lizard beings and snort some moon rocks. Before all that, our Grue Crew has Horror News of the Week to talk about. Stories include Sabrina The Teenage Witch going satanic, American Gods showrunner shake-ups and the mysteries of what a Guillermo Del Toro run Dark Universe could be. Oh well. A horror fan can dream.

As always, the HNR Grue-Crew would love to hear from you, the listeners, the fans. You can always reach out via email at feedback(AT)horrornewsradio(DOT)com or find us on Twitter: Doc Rotten | Dave Dreher | Thomas Mariani. Also, like us on Facebook and join the Horror News Radio Facebook Group.

Horror News Radio Episode 244 – Another WolfCop Subscribe – iTunes – Facebook – Stitcher

• Bryan Fuller and Michael Green Exit American Gods
• Avengers: Infinity War Trailer
• CW's Sabrina The Teenage Witch is coming to Netflix
• Want to live forever? Try Altered Carbon on Neflix in February 2
• What Could Have Been...del Toro passed on running the Dark Universe

• It's December and 2017 is coming to a close. In the coming weeks, we will be doing our popular "Best and Worst of the Year" episodes. We want to hear from you. Head over to here to share your favorite ... and not so favorite... films of 2017.
• In February, we will be working with the Nevermore Film Festival in Durham, NC to present THE MANITOU on the Big Screen in honor of Santos Ellin Jr. / the Black Saint. Anyone who can make it to the Festival the weekend of February 23 - 25, 20i18. We will have more details as we get closer to the dates. Head over to gruesomemagazine.com/manitou to keep up with this event.

• Another WolfCop (2017)
• director: Lowell Dean
• cast: Leo Fafard, Amy Matysio, Jonathan Cherry, Yannick Bisson, Serena Miller

• Patrons who donate as low as $1 can now vote for an exclusive episode of HNR on our Patreon Page. Voting ends December 14th.
• Thanks to Tear Out the Heart and Victory Records for use of the song Undead Anthem for the intro and outro of the HNR podcast

• Patreon
• HNR & Gruesome Magazine T-Shirts
• Gruesome Magazine 2016 Yearbook
• Gruesome Magazine Spring 2017
• Gruesome Magazine Summer 2017

The anthology film Monster Pool: Seven Deadly Sins (2017) explores each of the deadly sins with a series of unique twists and turns. A trio of directors unites to deliver the horror feature, Kyle Martellacci, Randy Smith, and Vincent Valentino. The cast includes Jennifer Allanson, Matt Armstrong, and Troy Arsenian. Gluttony wins the grossest award with its grisly scenes. while Lust wins the favorite trophy. The shorts creatively mix horror and Twilight-Zone inspired stories and tales of terror.

[powerpress]