Movie Meltdown - Episode 638

This episode Sam Drog returns and we discuss Tim Burton’s return to his early feature with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. We remember our response to the original and dig into the characters and plotlines of the new entry. 

We also address… legacy sequel, It's a Wonderful Life: Abridged Edition, Wednesday, Willem Dafoe, Heathers, latchkey kids versus helicopter parents, practical effects, math and it's cruel cruel hand on reality, people need restrictions, the animated series, I don’t think kids care about movies either, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, Jimmy Durante, Furiosa, a victim of it’s own problem, old man Leatherface, Jenna Ortega, the most fan service, editing important elements out of movies, creepy old guys, weird 80s kids fandom, The Incredibles, ghost hunter shows, working with your partner, Catherine O'Hara, ghost musical numbers, the return of Batman, Monica Bellucci, Beetlejuice The Musical, Joe Dante's house and Mars Attacks!

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, so watch it before you listen.

“It’s kind of like we got… all the antagonists from all the unmade Beetlejuice sequels.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 637 (For our Patreon "Horror Club")

Gather around the empty dinner table at Grandma's house as The Meltdown Horror Club comes together to discuss the 1989 holiday "classic" - Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! And even more interesting than the movie itself, we also talk about the fascinating life of the director Monte Hellman.

And while we plan our trip to the mall, we also mention... The Night of the Hunter, Demon Seed, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, an abnormally large hat, buying gift sets, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Krang, Mulholland Drive, John Larroquette, the brain dome, orange groves, Jack Nicholson, Friday the 13th: Part 7, other brothers' flashbacks, a tie that lights up, Robert Mitchum, a car phone sales pitch, Paul Rudd, psychic grandma, Finn Wolfhard and flatscreen TVs. 

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for "Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!", so watch it before you listen.

"First of all, I was like - who's funding this experiment?"

Movie Meltdown - Episode 636 (For our Patreon "Horror Club")

Come celebrate the holiday as we make pizza and discuss Eli Roth's Thanksgiving.

And while we try to pick our favorite unnecessary pizza toppings, also cover… The People Under the Stairs, Stopmotion, Woman of the Hour, Night of the Living Dead… the stage production, the later Nightmare on Elm Street films, retail PTSD flashbacks, John Carver, the trampoline scene, the Brothers Quay, silent stairs, Grindhouse, Nell Verlaque, Plymouth, Springwood Ohio, Piranha 3D, she E.T.’d herself, gnarly is a good way to describe that film, slumping dead bodies, Patrick Dempsey, a lot of body stuff, cooking people, Gina Gershon and Detroit that place is great, right?

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for 2023’s “Thanksgiving”, so go watch the movie before you listen. 

“I’m not sure where it stops sounding appealing and starts sounding upsetting.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 635

Join us as we recap our day at Scarefest. And as we make a point to not annoy celebrities at their table, we also bring up… Clive Barker, Don Coscarelli, The Midnight Meat Train, Rose McGowan, cenobite girl, Cyborg, The Fanatic, Gregory Nicotero, Billy Zane sportin' a look, The Wolf has a line, Felissa Rose, the Gorton's fisherman, sexy sax man, the Mandela effect, Skeet Ulrich, pyramid heads, the creeper truck, Kung Fu Hustle, CG effects, Nightbreed, Velma vs Daphne, getting married to Roach, Hellraiser, showing a movie on your backpack, Devon Sawa, I Know What You Did Last Summer, 3D printed toys, John Travolta, Matthew Lillard, Candyman and being a nerd hero.  

“Conventions in general are not a Fred crowd.”

For more on Scarefest, go to: https://scarefestweekend.com/

Movie Meltdown - Episode 634

Come join the party… as we celebrate Halloween by watching Late Night with the Devil, directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes and starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss and Ingrid Torelli. 

And while we toast with glasses of blood, we also delve into… Oddity, Ghostwatch, the Bohemian Grove, Sleepaway Camp 2 and 3, Agatha All Along, weird jelly beans, getting bumped, Abraxas, weird musical instruments, I don’t know a moments peace, Doug Jones, drinking blood, making a sequel, the reality of hypnotism, 1977, production company intros, black licorice, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, Lego Halloween costumes, the owl statue, Gary Busey: Pet Judge, we’ll be right back title cards, pumpkin patch update, getting monkey pawed, turning on the Hadron Collider, you can't fight Snoop, a neat little ghost story, he don’t come back right and a demon pyramid scheme.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for “Late Night with the Devil”, so watch the movie before you listen.

“How did we lose the theremin?!”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 633

This episode Sam Drog returns as we delve into our own history with the original movie The Crow, give a recap of all the failed incarnations in-between and then get into an honest discussion of our thoughts on the new film directed by Rupert Sanders.   

And while we comprise our ultimate anti-social movie experience, we also address… Bill Skarsgård, Brandon Lee, James O'Barr, wearing your aluminum foil hat, enabling bad behavior, Michael Wincott, hanging out with a squirrel, Ridley Scott, making a deal with the devil, panel layout, David Patrick Kelly, John Waters’ zombies, a dystopian future, not Tilda Swinton, limbo world, cg blood, having crow-powers, Cold Cave, the power of credit cards, I want to go back to that well of heartbreak and bankruptcy, Jon Polito, this concentrated version of every bad decision they’ve made, I want to go back to that well of heartbreak and bankruptcy, Tony Todd, Hellraiser 2, a nuclear-powered Chicken Biscuit, Jon Polito, the closest I’ve gotten to love, The Veils, action sequences, the furry lifestyle, John Wick, dirty rice and a coffee, Alien: Resurrection, being a moody teen, I like breakin’ stuff, Ghost in the Shell, then it’s not consumerism - it’s culture, nostalgia grab, the culture has become a deep-fried Twinkie, the finer things in life, a gothic landmark, an interesting trainwreck, Blue Ruin and juicy out on the town.     

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for "The Crow", both the 2024 and 1994 versions. And pretty much everything else Crow-related. 

“It's not like the fans are just going out and seeing whatever's got a crow on it.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 632 (For our Patreon "Horror Club")

Join us as the horror club discusses She Beast, directed by Michael Reeves and starring Barbara Steele, John Karlsen and Ian Ogilvy.

And while we try to decide our favorite thing about Ghost Toast, we also mention… Sarah Squirm, pumpkins, Longlegs, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, Alien: Romulus, Halloween encroachment, a dunking chair, because Communism, terrible fashion choices, The Thing with Two Heads, he creeped me the hell out, fake grilled cheese sandwiches, British accents, Witchfinder General, my circadian rhythms were screwed up just watching this, who designed your kitchen, it never got dark that day, you don’t look for your wife, special popcorn buckets… doing things, the screaming was really distracting, is this Back to the Future, Osgood Perkins, Black Sunday, torches at noon, the thematic through line of Communism, alcohol and barbiturates, I expected at some point to have raw meat thrown at me, slow atmospheric and bleak, about spending about 90% of the movie unconscious, state fair fun and we ask, do Volkswagen Beetles actually float?

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for She Beast (aka Revenge of the Blood Beast) so watch the movie before you listen. 

“That should be the tagline… what was the point of any of this?!”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 631

This episode we sit down with Max Neace, a writer, director and producer originally from our neighborhood. So listen as we find out how he took his interest in film from shooting YouTube videos to getting his own feature films made. Plus we discuss the conception and challenging execution that is his most recent movie - Shift. 

And while our guest may wish he was conversing with a chair, regardless we still discuss… comic strips, self-storage facilities, horror, outlining, Connor McGill, we are losing our minds, self-distribution, writing, Alfred Hitchcock, changing the frame rate, physical media, Garfield, eight sequence breakdown, shooting with no budget, Rio Bravo, embracing limitations, festival circuit, Longlegs, continuity, Twister, a lot of monitor footage, the first watchable cut of the movie, Don’t Tell a Soul, acquiring music, moving to L.A., audience imagination, editing, Watchmen, our voyeuristic culture, finding mentors, storytelling and Rear Window.

“There was a method to the madness. And it was really gratifying to get to that point because it was complicated.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 630  (For our Patreon "Horror Club")

The Horror Club is back with Mario Bava's giallo classic - Blood and Black Lace.

And as we narrow down where we want to put our secret bookcase/door, we also bring up… When Evil Lurks, The Exorcist, Shaun of the Dead, The Ninth Configuration, Dick Tracy, her hair, her makeup, the eyeliner, the outfits, I was like - I love her, I wanna look like you, Frankenstein in every room, Peter Lorre, sitting in the dark, messing with mom’s purse, the question of the masked killer, whoever gets possessed gets… gross, cinematography, demon hunters, working at night, being a sex maniac, Jersey Shore meets fancy Italian architecture, Edgar Wright, it was gnarly, luckily they didn't base World War II on a fashion show, affordable reproductive rights, epileptic or possessed by a demon, the third act monologue, if you came to this movie for dialogue, being a DJ, Cameron Mitchell, gorgeous in the same way, the pettiness of Warren Beatty and a faceless supernatural entity the likes of which we have never seen.

Spoiler Alert: Full spoilers for "Blood and Black Lace", so go watch the movie before you listen.

“It's like the Melrose Place of 60s Italy.”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 629

Sam Drog returns… and this time we kick things off with a book club discussion on how reexamining children’s books as an adult can ruin your life. Or perspective of it? Then eventually we also discuss some movies we’ve watched. 

And as we decontextualize someone's feelings, we also delve into… Bucket of Blood, Abigail, Charles Beaumont, The Million Eyes of Sumuru, Roger Corman, Damon Packard, Venom, The Girl from Rio, 1984, Dom DeLuise, Tobe Hooper, The Giving Tree, keep making art, beatniks, the Scream sequels, Dick Miller, unconditional love, Green Eggs and Ham, A Day in the Life of John Carpenter, this is a very codependent relationship, with a wrench and a bucket, a killer snake, the dancing scene, becoming part of the system, Death Race 2050, unfulfilled expectations and disillusionment, Beyond the Valley of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and everything's become a metaphor.

“You are sort of like a children’s book… a weird, crazy children’s book.”