Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business, the podcast that’s in the goddamn club isn’t it? In this episode we’re talking the films of Fred Dekker, specifically Monster Squad and Night Of The Creeps. We’re joined on this episode by fellow Cinepunk and longtime friend Evan Vellela.

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We begin by talking about what horror related things we had done lately. Evan talks about working a Gogol Bordello show in Philly, which is followed by a brief discussion on Liam and Evan’s understanding of Romany culture in South Philly. Evan also discusses watching a film in the Coffin Joe trilogy, as well as some recent purchases from Amoeba in LA and his fascination with the YouTube series Hot Ones. Liam discusses his recent viewings of Lips Of Blood, The Living Dead Girl, as well as needing to watch Fascination and rewatching Tourist Trap. Justin talks about watching The Other Side Of The Door, seeing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 at the Mahoning Drive In, Monster Mania Con, and catching a George Romero triple feature in Philadelphia. Liam and Justin briefly discuss Darren Aranofsky’s mother! and then discuss The Walking Dead with Evan. We then talk about our choices for the ideal Halloween movie marathons.

Up first is 1986’s Night Of The Creeps. We open up by talking about the film was a financial disaster but ultimately ended gaining an actual cult following. We follow by giving a brief plot summary. We discuss the homoerotic undertones of the film, JC’s glibness with women as compared to Chris’ awkwardness with them, and the underlying darkness that is in stark contrast to the popular conception of the film as a horror comedy.

Shane Black’s peripheral involvement in this film is touched upon, and John Carpenter’s Elvis biopic is for some reason talked about. The heavy handedness of the films tribute to classic horror as a possible turn off for contemporary audiences is discussed. Liam talks about how this is his favorite of Dekker’s work, and we gush about Tom Atkins for a minute.

The numerous endings of the movie are discussed and the similarities between Slither and Night Of The Creeps is touched upon. Justin talks about what he doesn’t like about the movie, and we talk about this film is a great example of a 1980S HORROR FILM archetype.

Evan and Justin piss Liam off by talking about the way their college experience compares to JC and Chris’.

Up next we talk 1987’s Monster Squad. We talk about how Liam Neeson was supposed to be in the film and how Shane Black’s original script included a much bigger opening scene.

Evan talks about his first exposure to the film, and we discuss how weird it was that there as a period in time when this film was not very well known despite now being considered a cult classic. Justin talks about finding it when it came out on DVD for the first time, and how despite being scared of the Wolfman as a child he is now far more scared of the Gillman.

Justin tells a weird stupid story from his childhood about misunderstanding something from this movie. The creature design of the movie is touched upon, and Liam points out that this film, like The Goonies, is one that despite being very much about childhood is not necessarily a film one would want to show to a child due to examples of “80s style” misogyny and homophobia.

The subtle darkness of the film i.e. “Scary German Guy” being a Holocaust survivor,