Mary Versus the Movies

An evil Irish toymaker is plotting a mass child sacrifice using his Halloween masks, and it's up to one alcoholic doctor to stop him. There's no Michael Myers, but there is a pretty baroque and silly plot here under a lot of early 1980s grime. 

Starring Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin, and Dan O'Herlihy. Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace.

The evil grimoire the Necronomicon sends Ash Williams—chainsaw hand all—back to the Dark Ages where he helps King Arthur battle the forces of the Undead.

Starring Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, and Ian Ambercrombie. Written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Directed by Sam Raimi.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies. 

A sexy gerontologist falls in with an Egyptian/French vampire and her thin white duke in this gothic--and we do mean gothic--erotic horror set in New York City. 

Starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Cliff De Young. Written by Ian Davis and Michael Thomas from Whitley Strieber's novel. Directed by Tony Scott.

Our friend Jen has brought us a semi-forgotten Rankin-Bass Halloween movie that features racially-tinged zombies, sexual harrassment, and a bad Jimmy Stewart impression. Maybe there's a reason this doesn't often show up on TV. 

Starring Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Allen Swift, and Gale Garnette. Written by Arthur Rankin Jr., Len Korobkin and Harvey Kurtzman. Directed by Jules Bass.

Rick Springfield is a vampire detective in Los Angeles hunting a serial killer. What more do you need? This failed tv pilot went on to become the cable series Forever Knight, which is shockingly not another D.C. Batman series.

We welcome back Alana Phelan to the show, having brought us this wonderful little paranormal piece of junk. Check out Alana's work at https://polyamorouslibrarian.wordpress.com

Starring Rick Springfield, John Kapelos, Laura Johnson, Robert Harper, and Michael Nader. Written by Barney Cohen and James D. Parriott. Directed by Farhad Mann.

An L.A. private eye investigating the murder of a local businessman uncovers a corrupt world of sex, money, and violence. Also, every major American cartoon character from the 20th century shows up at some point. Heavily influenced by films like Chinatown and The Big Sleep and featuring special effects that fully realize the potential of earlier films like Anchors Away and Mary Poppins that mix live acting and animation, this might be the greatest film of the 1980s.

(This episode is a little bit of a cheat--we've both seen this film many, many times, but we needed a fill-in episode, and as this was playing in a theater near us this summer, we jumped at the chance to cover it.)

Starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloydd, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Joanna Cassidy, and Stubby Kaye. Directed by Robet Zemeckis. Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman.

This month, we check out the pilot for the British tv show Merlin from 2008, which rewrites the Arthurian story in some pretty significant ways, some of which really rub us the wrong way. Why is Merlin so young? Why is Arthur living with Uther? And why does the dragon look so terrible?

Starring Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Anthony Head, Richard Wilson, and John Hurt. Written by Julian Jones. Directed by James Hawes.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies. 

A biker gang kidnapps an ex-soldier's rock star girlfriend, and he gets revenge through the power of Jim Steinman power ballads and giant hammers in a very silly "Rock 'n' Roll Fable" from the guy who gave us The Warriors.

Starring Michael Pare, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, Rick Moranis, and Amy Madigan. Written by Walter Hill and Larry Gross. Directed by Walter Hill. Music by Jim Steinman, Ry Cooder, and others.

Mary and Dennis go to the Space Melt Power Hour in Philadelphia, and talk a little about the Philly movie scene.

Thanks to Bruce Bohri and the people at Space 1026 for hosting the movie night.

Sophmoric, misogynistic, violent, and incredibly influential, this Canadian animated feature based on the science fiction magazine and featuring comedians from SCTV is equal parts terrible and awesome, and really brings out our inner teenage dirtbags.

Also, we look at Richard Corben's original animated short Neverwhere, the basis for the comic book character Den and his segment of the film.

Starring John Candy, Rodger Bumpass, Jackie Burroughs, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Eugene Levy, Alice Playten, Harold Ramis, and more. Written by Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum. Directed by Gerald Potterton. Based on original stories by Richard Corben, Angus McKie, Dan O'Bannon, and a really unimpressed and uncredited Jean "Moebius" Giraud.