Incredibly Strange Video

Get ready for spooky season with this ancient Soviet haunted feature! The first horror film ever produced by the USSR is a folktale about a Ukrainian religious student who has his faith tested over the course of three crazy nights locked in a church with a vengeful witch! Featuring absolutely incredible practical special effects and a manic energy reminiscent of cult-fan-favorite House, Viy is a woefully overlooked symphony of horrors and visual splendor.

We welcome our friend, cinematographer Ryan Kroboth, back onto the podcast for this one to discuss this film's spectacular visuals, and pick apart its dense thematic layers.

Viy
Directed by Georgi Kropachyov & Konstantin Ershov
1967, USSR

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

Often maligned as "the worst horror film ever made", we think that nothing could be further from the truth! We dig into how this ultra-low-budget horror comedy has a lot to say about dangerously unchecked masculine ideals, and has cinematography that effectively makes the viewer uncomfortable. By investigating the history of microwaves as a cultural artifact, we're able to view Microwave Massacre as a film with critical messages about understanding yourself and your own mental health.

We also celebrate a completely unhinged performance by lead actor Jackie Vernon, and challenge you the audience to figure out where you've heard his voice before. Because you have heard his voice before, and when you realize where it's from, it could potentially ruin a cherished piece of your childhood. Well, not potentially, it will ruin a cherished piece of your childhood.

So if you've always viewed this film as a b-movie stinker with no redeeming value, we're here to change your mind! We absolutely loved this movie and invite you all to dig into its surprisingly deep themes with us!

Microwave Massacre
Directed by Wayne Berwick
1979, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

We return to the Crackerverse for the mystifying sequel that changes up all of the actors and all of the lore from the first film. Why? Ryan posits that it's all the work of an uncredited editor who sought to create films that are expressions of Jack Wild's tortured subconscious. Meanwhile, Cassie finds joy in Kateřina Brožová's crazy terrorist outfit and the fact that Jack uses a floppy disk camera during his investigations. Together they parse out the details of potentially creating an imaginary bank on a satellite to launder money. And in the Thoughts From Letterboxd segment, we gush over a review that claims Judge Reinhold creates a "Jack for all" as he fills the shoes of Thomas Ian Griffith.

How does it all stack up against the original? Take a listen and find out!

Crackerjack 2
Directed by Robert Lee
1997, Canada

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

Christopher Plummer as Hans Gruber has taken over a ski resort with his German mercenaries. The only hope for those held captive: the bad guy from Karate Kid III. This is Crackerjack, the incredibly entertaining direct-to-video Canadian action film that we're discussing on this episode!

Sure, it's a pretty blatant Die Hard rip off, but there's so much to love about this crazy little movie, from the completely unhinged performance of Thomas Ian Griffith in the titular lead role, to the legitimately great miniature work in the large scale action scenes, to the most hilarious "flashback to a wife exploding in a car" scene ever committed to film.

We love this movie and we're excited to share it with you!

Crackerjack
Directed by Michael Mazo
1994, Canada

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

On this episode we jump into the oddball comedy, Ninja Academy, part of the new-ish Nico Mastorakis collection on Arrow Player! Imagine Police Academy, but instead of police, it's ninja's. That's the long and short of the plot here, plus you've got super powered mimes, a member of Her Majesty's Secret Service, nude volleyball, and oh so much more!

In addition to celebrating the hilarity of this film, we also look at it through the lens of Buddhism to better understand its spiritual threads, we invoke the great American melting pot to study Ninja Academy as a poignant immigrant story, and furthermore we dissect the nude volleyball scene, which serves as a critical metaphor in the protagonist's transformation. Ninja Academy is a truly rich text so buckle up and get ready for a deep dive!

NOTE: Ignore the bits when we mistakenly say this was released in 1984. It was very obviously 1989 and we profusely apologize for this lapse in accuracy.

Ninja Academy
Directed by Nico Mastorakis
1989, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

On our second episode we're shifting gears and trying to decipher the puzzling underground sci-fi film, Flaming Ears! This Austrian, lesbian arthouse mindbender is chock full of aliens eating armadillos, religious terrorists, vampires, cacti, and of course a whole lot of pee. Not to mention some wild stop motion animation and tons of elaborate miniature sequences. What does it all mean? Well...we're not really sure but we're gonna try our darndest to figure it all out anyway!

And to watch the film, look no further than Criterion Channel, where you can stream it with a subscription. And believe us, life is better with a Criterion Channel subscription.

Flaming Ears
Directed by Ursula Pürrer, A. Hans Scheirl, and Dietmar Schipek
1992, Austria

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

In our very first episode, we are joined by cinematographer Ryan Kroboth to break down this woefully underrated 80's splatter flick! We take a deep dive into how the film serves as a metaphor for addiction and how the filmmakers' use of color and camera tricks take the film to the next level, making critical observations and statements about society's relationship with the darker side of humanity. We also explore the film's crazy production - from shooting some of its most iconic scenes guerrilla style without permission, to the reason why one of the main characters didn't want to appear in the credits.

Welcome aboard! We're glad you've joined us on this, well, incredibly strange podcast!

Brain Damage
Directed by Frank Henenlotter 
1988, United States 

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.