In this episode of Morally Offensive, we revisit the 1995 cult classic Mortal Kombat, the movie that brought video game violence, bad CGI, and 90s martial arts chaos to the big screen. We dig into Catholic reviews of the film, including one that blames stuffed-crust pizza and child day planners for the future downfall of civilization.

We talk about the movie, it's place in 90s pop culture, our mutual experiences with the game series, the panic surrounding video game violence, the mammoth status of its CD soundtrack, a brief history of Belgium New Beat, and a tangent about the Wisdom Tree Christian NES Videogame knockoffs, including the classic convert-the-heathens-by-throwing-fruit Zelda ripoff, Spiritual Warfare.

Our guest is Aaron (aka @DivineGamerArma on Twitch), who joins us to talk video game morality, cinematic sin, and the theology of terrible movies.

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Topics: Mortal Kombat movie review, Catholic pop culture criticism, 90s video games, bad CGI, Hong Kong action, ex-Catholic commentary, media moral panic, Belgium new beat

Bill and Stephanie are joined by film scholar Christopher Hoppe to unlock Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), a cornerstone of Giallo cinema, laced with gothic unease, which explores the cultural anxieties of 1970s Italy. The film follows a washed-up writer, his abused wife, and the arrival of his seductive niece, as secrets, betrayals, and murders spiral inside (and outside) a crumbling villa. Lurking over it all is the ghostly presence of the writer’s domineering mother, and watching with uncanny menace is the family’s black cat named (yes, really)...Satan.

Together, they trace how Italian Catholic film critics responded to the film, celebrate Edwige Fenech’s rise as a scream queen, and untangle Martino’s twisted adaptation of Poe’s The Black Cat. Along the way, Stephanie recounts her own chaotic Roman car ride with Martino, and the hosts dig into Italy’s sordid legal history, including the now-abolished “rehabilitating marriage” law that once allowed men accused of sexual assault to escape punishment by marrying their victims.

It’s a conversation of black gloves, black cats, household murder weapons, and only we have the key.

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Check out our guest's podcast: Christopher Hoppe Presents: The Chamber

This week, Bill and Stephanie drag Atlanta filmmaker Nicole Kemper into the delivery room to talk David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979), a horror movie which doubles as the world’s worst sex-ed film. We’re talking cinematic birth control, belly-buttonless mutant murder children, slutty vintage men's bathrobes, and why men are absolutely terrified of the female body. Diversions include Oliver Reed's drunken shenanigans, an attempted cult kidnapping, the Canadian public's outrage over finding out their tax dollars were financing gorey art, and, of course, we read another Catholic review which completely disregards the artistic merits and possibilities of the horror genre. This is definitely an episode to listen to if you're still comtemplating bringing children into a violent world which is on fire. For us, the Brood proved to be far more effective than abstinence-only sex education.

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Mae West struts into the spotlight in I’m No Angel (1933), the pre-Code sensation that saved Paramount and scandalized the censors. Co-hosts Bill and Jess welcome Sara Shea of Shea Cinema to talk about Mae’s wit, sexuality, and the double entendres that made Catholic watchdogs sweat. Along the way we meet Joseph Breen and Will Hays, the moral gatekeepers who tried to rein her in, and discover how Cary Grant was launched into stardom with her assistance. From her Broadway scandal Sex (and a stint in jail) all the way to her campy swan song Sextette, we trace Mae’s career of outsmarting the men, proving why her comedy still feels dangerous today.

Bill and Cisco take a deep dive into The Pope’s Exorcist, the horror film where Russell Crowe channels his inner Super Mario Bro, and chews scenery as Father Gabriele Amorth, the wacky, self-proclaimed "Chief Exorcist" of the Vatican (he wasn't). We unpack the real Amorth’s history and his outrageous claims about what opens the door to demonic possession,- from Harry Potter books to yoga classes, from Freemasonry to the soothing music of Yanni. Along the way we compare the movie’s Hollywood exorcisms with the actual Catholic ritual, talk about the Church’s checks and balances within the practice of exorcism, critique the FACT that children and teens can be exorcised without their consent, and laugh at the over-the-top sequel setup that plays like the Pope (played by B-movie favorite Franco Nero) is putting together a ragtag team of supernatural warriors. It’s a mix of film criticism, Catholic weirdness, and irreverent comedy that only Morally Offensive could deliver. 

The wounds of Christ. A chain-smoking atheist. Gabriel Byrne as a brooding Vatican investigator in designer black. Welcome back to Hot Priest Summer.

This week on Morally Offensive, we’re going full incense-and-industrial as we revisit Stigmata; the aggressively 1999 Catholic horror film where Patricia Arquette becomes an accidental mystic and Gabriel Byrne has his faith (and sex drive) tested. It’s a heady mix of the Gospel of Thomas, the Nag Hammadi library, anti-clerical paranoia, and… Chumbawamba? 

We break down the film’s chaotic theology, its obsession with silenced gospels and Vatican coverups, and why so many ex-Catholics thought they were watching something dangerous. We also take a deeper look at the real history of stigmatics, from St. Francis of Assisi to Padre Pio, and dare to ask the question: Why was Padre Pio hoarding Carbolic acid?

Featuring a Billy Corgan-curated soundtrack, strobe-lit nightclubs, exorcisms of non-demons, and 90s fashion choices we can’t unsee, Stigmata is a movie best enjoyed with your Catholic brain turned off, and your popcorn thoroughly buttered.

Our guest this week is film teacher Christopher Hoppe, with co-hosting duties from Kevin of A24 On the Rocks.

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Dogma looms large in the canon of Morally Offensive films, casting a long shadow over many millennial Catholics. For those of us who were teens when it premiered, Dogma felt like the ultimate “anti Catholic” movie we were warned about, crafted by ”satanic” filmmakers from Hollywood (never mind that Smith is from New Jersey). Written and directed by Kevin Smith, it sparked national outrage and became one of the most high profile targets of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League in their crusade against media, which they viewed as attacking the Church. Starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Alanis Morrisette, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Jason Mewes, Alan Rickman, and many others, Dogma is a comedic epic which has persisted, despite attacks from religious groups and attempts by Harvey Weinstein to suppress it's re-release.

In this episode of the Morally Offensive podcast, Bill and Cisco are joined by comedian Ross Childs aka Crabman732 to revisit the controversy. Was Dogma truly as offensive as the Catholic League claimed, and does it hold up?

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On this episode of Morally Offensive, Cisco takes a break, so Bill is joined by frequent guest and film presenter Stephanie Sack along with television producer and writer Ken Melvoin-Berg to dive headfirst into The Devils (1971), Ken Russell’s blasphemous, banned, and still shocking masterpiece. Based on Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, this true story of sex, power, witch hunts, and moral panic in the Catholic Church proves that real life is often stranger, and in this case even more offensive, than fiction. The crew breaks down the history behind the Loudun possessions, digs into the background of filmmaker Ken Russell, and reads scathing “Condemned” reviews from outraged Catholic news sources. Tune in to find out why some are calling Morally Offensive the "podcast equivalent of a forced enema exorcism".

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Jim Marcus (author, musician, and designer) joins us to dissect the controversy surrounding Cruising (1980), the William Friedkin thriller that pushed Al Pacino into New York’s underground leather scene. We explore the film’s legacy, the protests it sparked, and the moral outrage it provoked, including strong reactions from Catholic reviewers. We also discuss the film’s ongoing re-evaluation, its impact on queer visibility, and why it continues to divide audiences over 40 years later. Plus, Bill takes the Hanky Code Quiz.

Check out and support Jim Marcus here: http://www.pulseblack.com/

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This week, we were slightly concerned that we would not have our Freddy Got Fingered Episode done in time, so we prepared a backup episode to buy us time to wrap it up. As it turned out, we were able to complete both, so our listeners get a double dose of Catholic guilt this week. In an early episode covering Barbara Stanwyck's iconic performance in Baby Face, we still thought our average show length should be about an hour and a half, so we removed a large chunk of the conversation with our guests.

The more we sat on the "missing" parts of this episode, the more we realized that we were sitting on some pretty relatable and heart-felt content, that really needed to released into the wild. In this "lost" material, we dig into the way Catholics scare children and teens into compliance with fear of God and damnation, the problematic quackery that is abstinence-only "sex-ed", and Bill and his wife Kelly talk about that one time they saw a DIY exorcism at a Basilica.

Also in this episode, we talk with ex-Catholic producer/director Dalila Droege about her Kickstarter campaign for her latest horror movie project, with directly ties in with the themes of this week's "missing episode". To learn more about Droege's film "Beauty Night", please check out her Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beautynight/beauty-night-a-horror-film-about-puberty

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