Genre Grinder

HERE COMES THE BRIDE, ALL DRESSED IN …BLACK!?! RIDING A BROOM AND CLUTCHING A CAT?!? It's intractable imps, saucy sorceresses, and weird women on this episode of Genre Grinder, all falling in love and putting their spell on unsuspecting men. Join Gabe and returning guest Luana Saitta as they look at three entries in the surprisingly prevalent subgenre of movies where men accidentally marry witches or women, who, unbeknownst to their husbands, become witches. This month's titles include René Clair's I Married a Witch (1942), based on the novel The Passionate Witch by Thome Smit & Norman H. Matson (1941), Richard Quine's Bell, Book, and Candle (1958), based on the 1950 play by John Van Druten, and Sidney Hayers' Night of the Eagle (aka: Burn, Witch, Burn, 1962), based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber (1943/52). Outro song: "The Devil's Widow" by Blood Ceremony You can find Luana's storywriting at the following links: Love's Red Blossom: https://swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/loves-red-blossom/ The Dream Quest of Well-known Kawtar: https://swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/the-dream-quest-of-well-known-kawtar/ Hedging Your Bets (part of Wyngraf Romance Special 2025): https://wyngraf.itch.io/wyngraf-romance-special-2025 New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2025 (pre-order): https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/brackenbooks/new-edge-sword-sorcery-2025

ADULTERY, MANIPULATION, AND MURDER, RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES AND SLATHERED ACROSS YOUR TELEVISION SCREEN!!

In the early days of mainstream cable, on the cusp of the Menendez Brothers and O.J. Simpson trials, the big three American networks struck gold with sensationalistic docudramas – several of which were based on the true crimes of notorious women. Join Gabe and returning guest Kristine Fisher as they take a look at three famous crimes and five made-for-TV movies based on them.

The films we're covering this month include Joyce Chopra's Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story (1991), Dick Lowry's A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992) and its sequel, Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter (1992), and two Amy Fisher movies, John Herzfeld's Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993) and Andy Tennant's The Amy Fisher Story (1993).

I apologize that Kristine's mic picked up everything from her typing her notes, to the traffic outside, and even my own voice, creating a reverb effect. I didn't notice while we were recording and have tried to minimize the issue in editing.

00:00 – Intro

05:11 – Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Wojas Smart Story

25:08 – A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story and Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter

54:47 – Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story

1:13:06 – The Amy Fisher Story

1:33:19 – Outro

Outro song: "Dangerous" by Wildfire, feat. Emiliano Obregón: https://soundcloud.com/afterdreams/dangerous-roxette-cover

ALRIGHT, YA HOSERS, GRAB YOUR PLAID TRAPPER HAT, YOUR MOOSEHEAD, AND YOUR BIGGEST BOWL OF POUTINE – WE'RE CHECKING OUT SOME CANADIAN HORROR MOVIES!

You can't talk about the greatest horror and exploitation films of the '70s and '80s without including our neighbors to the North. Canadian horror – or canuxploitation – is a broad subject that covers several subgenres, so Gabe and returning guest Jim Laczkowski have limited their scope to four favorites that don't include David Cronenberg or Bob Clark: Alan Ormsb & Jeff Gillen's Deranged (1974), Peter Carter's Rituals (aka: The Creeper, 1977), Murray Markowitz's I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978), and Sandor Stern's Pin (1988).

00:00 – Intro (What is canuxploitation?)

09:52 – Deranged

28:45 – Rituals

55:22 – I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses

1:12:32 – Pin

1:34:56 – Outro and recommendations

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS. A WINDSWEPT FIELD. TWO SUN-BEATEN MEN IN WIDE-BRIMMED HATS. ITCHY TRIGGER FINGERS. THE MUSIC CRESCENDOS. THE FINAL SHOWDOWN.

After a short break and some technical difficulties, Gabe and Patrick are back to finish what they started, looking back at 15 spaghetti westerns released in the year 1968. We saved some the greatest movies and the hottest takes for last – Sergio Corbucci's The Mercenary (Italian: Il mercenario), Enzo G. Castellari's Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (Italian: Ammazzali tutti e torna solo), Corbucci's The Great Silence (Italian: Il grande silenzio), and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (Italian: C'era una volta il West).

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 first.

Check out the complete list of films here: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/the-spaghetti-westerns-of-1968/

00:00 – Intro (What have we already covered?)

04:11 – The Mercenary

36:52 – Kill Them All and Come Back Alone

55:54 – The Great Silence

1:29:36 – Once Upon a Time in the West

2:06:31 – Outro (What have we learned?)

WHAT'S BETTER THAN A SCARY STORY? SEVERAL SCARY STORIES COLLATED INTO A SINGLE MOVIE WITH A SPOOKY WRAPAROUND SEGMENT!

Gather 'round the campfire, boils, ghouls, and non-binary creatures of all ages while we take a look at those little groupings of shorts known as Anthology or Portmanteau Horror. Join Gabe and first time special guest Chloe Warayan (https://chloesnotscared.com/) as they take a look at a cavalcade of titles from across the decades – Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer's Dead of Night (1945), Freddie Francis' Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Jeff Burr's From a Whisper to a Scream (aka: The Offspring, 1987), and Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark (aka: St. Vincent), Roxanne Benjamin, and Karyn Kusama's XX (2017).

00:00 – Intro (a brief history of Anthology Horror)

06:09 – Dead of Night

42:33 – Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

1:09:39 – From a Whisper to a Scream

1:37:19 – XX

1:55:25 – Outro

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

• Gender/Justice

• HRT – Harm Reduction Toolkit (Omprakash HRT supply fundraiser)

• Black LGBTQIA Migrant Project (BLMP)

• Tigerrs: Minnesota Trans Intersex Gender-Expansive Revolutionary Resources & Services

And please check out our merch on Genre Grinder Cares. All profits are going to charity!

HOP ALONG, CASSIDY – OR WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS – AND TUCK IN FOR A SECOND HELPING OF PASTA & MEATBALLS WITH A SIDE OF BULLETS & GRIT!

Welcome back for part two of Gabe and Patrick's three-part look back at the Spaghetti Westerns of 1968. This is going to be the longest of the three episodes, because we're rappin' about six films – Ferdinando Baldi's Hate Thy Neighbor (Italian: Odia il prossimo tuo), Gianfranco Baldanello's Black Jack, Giulio Petroni's A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof (Italian: ...e per tetto un cielo di stelle), Gianfranco Parolini's If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (Italian: Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte), Sergio Sollima's Run, Man, Run (Italian: Corri uomo corri), and Giuseppe Colizzi's Ace High (Italian: I quattro dell'Ave Maria).

This episode was culled from two different recording sessions so please excuse any inconsistencies in sound quality. My nose was also very stuffy.

Check out the complete list of films here: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/the-spaghetti-westerns-of-1968/

00:00 – Intro (what have we already covered)

01:11 – Hate Thy Neighbor

20:49 – Black Jack

39:34 – A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof

1:11:49 – If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death

1:27:30 – Run, Man, Mun

1:51:30 – Ace High

2:11:57 – Outro

PREPARE YOUR SIX-GUNS AND YOUR BOLOGNESE AS WE DIG INTO THE TWO-FISTED ITALIAN COWBOY TALES OF THE BIGGEST YEAR IN SPAGHETTI WESTERN HISTORY! Welcome to another multi-part exploration of a single year in genre filmmaking. Join Gabe and returning guest Patrick Ripoll as they follow up their series on the slasher films of 1981, the gialli of 1971, and the giant monster movies of 1957 with a look at the spaghetti westerns of 1968. Gabe, a superfan and massive nerd, narrowed down a list of seventy-seven (that's 77) films to the 15 he thinks best represent this jam-packed and particularly uneven year for the genre. In episode one of what will (probably) be three total episodes, we discuss Ferdinando Baldi's Django, Prepare a Coffin (Italian: Preparati la bara!), Giorgio Capitani's The Ruthless Four (Italian: Ognuno per sé), Lina Wertmüller & Piero Cristofani's The Belle Starr Story (Italian: Il mio corpo per un poker), Enzo G. Castellari's Johnny Hamlet (Italian: Quella sporca storia nel west), and Giorgio Stegani's Beyond the Law (Italian: Al di là della legge). Check out the complete list here: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/the-spaghetti-westerns-of-1968/ 00:00 – Intro: What is a spaghetti western? Why 1968?

14:13 – Django, Prepare a Coffin

35:37 – The Ruthless Four

56:00 – The Belle Starr Story

1:20:01 – Johnny Hamlet

1:36:24 – Beyond the Law

1:52:12 – Outro

COME WITH US AS WE TUMBLE DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, PASS THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, ENTER THE WARDROBE, AND RIDE A TORNADO TO OZ!

It's time to cover one of my favorite subgenres: movies where people cross over into another world where they learn a lesson and meet a bunch of walking metaphors. This episode's guest host, Betsy, calls these Portal Fantasies and notes similarities to the popular anime/manga Isekai genre, but I'm afraid that those titles will mess up my search results, so I'm calling them [Blank] in Wonderland Movies.

We're trying to cover some of the rarer examples of the genre – specifically Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), Vladimir Grammatikov's Mio, Min Mio (aka: Mio in the Land of Faraway, 1987), Hiroyuki Morita's The Cat Returns (2002), and Gokhan Yorgancigil's On the Count of Zero (Turkish: Sıfır Dediğimde, 2007) – but we can't help but also talk about popular classics, like Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Pan's Labyrinth, Spirited Away, and others.

00:00 – Intro and all the important, great movies we aren't going to cover

12:29 – Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

34:04 – Mio, Min Mio

1:07:22 – The Cat Returns

1:29:23 – On the Count of Zero

1:47:55 – Outro and other recommendations

IT'S SEQUENTIAL DRAWINGS VERSUS FLESH & BLOOD ACTORS IN A SHOWDOWN OF MULTIMEDIA PROPORTIONS!

Since the advent of filmmaking, people have been combining live-action photography with hand-drawn animation and now we're talking about it. But this is a podcast and we don't have time to cover a century of motion pictures, so Gabe and returning guest Tyler Foster are covering a smaller collection of movies released in the wake of Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), some inspired by its success, others that would have existed without it.

This month's diverse slate includes Walter C. Miller's It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown (1988), Maurizio Nichetti & Guido Manuli's Volere Volare (To Want to Fly, 1991), Ralph Bakshi's Cool World (1992), Jan Svankmajer's Faust (1994), and Des McAnuff's The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000). I had some issues with Tyler's audio and had to do some actual (gasp) mixing to correct it. Hopefully, I did my job well enough that it sounds relatively consistent.

00:00 – Intro

11:16 – It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown

26:18 – Volere Volare

43:09 – Cool World

1:23:07 – Faust

1:41:43 – The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle

2:02:20 – Outro

A DEAD WOMAN WITH THE SOUL OF A MAN! A MURDEROUS MAN WHO CAN TRANSFORM INTO A WOMAN! PROBABLY JUST A COINCIDENCE!

Have you ever noticed that Hammer Studios made two horror films that work as trans allegories? Well, technically three, but I forgot about one of them. Anyway, I've been curious for a while as to what an actual trans person might think of Terence Fisher's Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and Roy Ward Baker's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), so I invited back my friend and the co-host of the Defend Your Trash Movie podcast, Luana Saitta, in order to pick her brain (Frankenstein-related wordplay intended).

This was originally going to be a look at multiple horror movies with a trans/genderqueer slant, but we ultimately had more than enough to talk about with just these two films. Are they really trans allegories? Have they aged well? Are they good outside of the allegory? I hope you agree, enjoy this angle on a couple of Hammer classics, and have a happy Halloween season!

00:00 – Intro

13:55 – Frankenstein Created Woman (and other Hammer Frankenstein movies)

50:32 – Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (and other Hyde and Jack the Ripper movies)

1:42:26 – Outro and sections from Luana's 'trans canon'

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Trans Lifeline: https://translifeline.org/

Hope Mill Inc's Hurricane Relief:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-hope-mill-incs-hurricane-relief

Florida Disaster Fund (PayPal):

https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/119147482333313104/charity/1521272

Palestine Children's Relief Fund:

https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief