Movie Oubliette

Simon Barber, co-host of the Sodajerker on Songwriting podcast, joins us for our festive finale to 2022: and it's a doozy! The producing team behind the original Superman: The Movie (1978), its first two sequels and the spin-off Supergirl (1984) turned their attention to another origin story for a much-loved supernatural hero in 1985, and brought us Santa Claus: The Movie. Featuring Dudley Moore as a cheery elf determined to modernise the North Pole, David Huddlestone as the titular jolly gift-giver and scenery-munching John Lithgow as the nefarious business tycoon B.Z., the film has everything you could ever want in seasonal family adventure. Highlights include abducting homeless children to take them on flying reindeer joyrides with dangerous manoeuvres near the Twin Towers in Manhattan, John Lithgow screaming "FOR FREE?!!" and turning beetroot red when Dudley Moore attempts to explain the act of giving a gift, and Aled Jones singing on a glorious soundtrack by Henry Mancini. But is it the gift that keeps on giving, or is it failed super-dooper looper? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad venture into the deep dark woods of Ireland and explore Corin Hardy's The Hallow (2015), where British conservationist Adam and his wife Claire come under attack from ancient faerie folk, parasitic fungus and – worst of all – unpleasant monosyllabic locals. It's a love letter to the director's favourite genre icons and delightfully practical in its execution, and was largely overlooked in the folk horror booms of the 2010s. But crucially, is it any good? Find out!

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Conrad and Dan are exposed to Elvira for the very first time in this Patreon's Choice episode, and watch with delight as the busty horror movie host scandalises the small, conservative town she visits in search of her past... and the money she needs to fund her Vegas debut. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) stars Cassandra Peterson as the irrepressible Elvira, E. Morgan Sheppard as her scheming great uncle Vinnie, Daniel Green as the naive town hunk, Bob, and Edie McClurg as the hilariously shrewish Chastity Pariah. It's the kind of comedy they don't make any more, but it that a sad or a good thing? Does Elvira work for a dumbfounded international audience? Find out!

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Joe Lipsett, film critic and co-host of Horror Queers, joins us on the eve of the millennium for some Strange Days (1995) with Ralph Fiennes, who saunters about in leather trousers, Juliette Lewis, who wears nothing most of the time, Tom Sizemore, who sports a very unfortunate wig, and Angela Bassett who... well, just kicks ass frankly. It's a cyberpunk Blow Out, with Fiennes' burned out ex-cop unwittingly getting hold of evidence of a politically significant murder that could destroy L.A. – if it weren't a burning hellscape already. Featuring the groundbreaking technology of recording human experiences directly from the cerebral cortex onto Sony MiniDiscs, the film is a hard-hitting techno thriller from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, based on a story by her ex-husband James Cameron. But does it stand the test of time, or is it a millennium bug we should just patch? Find out!

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Happy spooky season! Actor and producer Lotta Losten makes a welcome return to the oubliette for our Halloween Special and weaves some Practical Magic on us! This bewitching rom-com, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the enchanting Owens sisters, failed to cast a spell on the box office when it was released during this week 24 years ago (!), but has found a special place in the hearts of many viewers since. Should it be given a broomstick and allowed to soar off the roof this Halloween, or should it be banished from the world like a warty toad? Find out!

Follow Lotta Losten on Instagram and look out for Shazam! Fury of the Gods next March!

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RetroBlasting's Michael French beams Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) out of the oubliette and forces Conrad and Dan to explore this sci-fi riff on The Seven Samurai (1954) starring Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning and Darlanne Fleugel. It's exploitation entrepreneur Roger Corman's transparent attempt to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomenon, with a naive farm boy blasting into space to find mercenaries who will protect his peace loving, beige-wearing planet from the evil Sador and his planet-killing superweapon. But crucially, is it any good? And what does Michael make of it? Find out!

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Actor, filmmaker and theatre director Lars Henriks makes a return visit to the oubliette and plucks out Ken Russell's 1988 adaptation of Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. And what a sight it is to behold: future timelord, Peter Capaldi, charms a vampire/snake monster by playing the bagpipes in regulation kilt; a pre-Four Weddings Hugh Grant chops a woman in half with a broadsword; and the stunning but bewildering Amanda Donohoe drowns a Boy Scout in her jacuzzi and slinks around in snake-themed fetish wear. But crucially, is it actually any good? Find out!

Follow Lars Henriks on TikTok, read his reviews on Letterboxd or look at him on Instagram! And check out his new film Covid Metamorphosen – a Christmas romcom that could easily be published in 'Weird Tales' – available for a limited time on Vimeo!

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Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us as we explore a wild time in New York City's history: the 1980s! Back then, real estate moguls and their fur-and-pearls-wearing wives were savaged in Battery Park by an unknown, monstrous assailant. Luckily, Albert Finney, Diane Venora and Gregory Hines are on hand to solve the case and uncover the secret of Wolfen – a non-werewolf movie released in 1981, the year of the werewolf movie, and directed by Woodstock documentarian Michael Wadleigh in what would be his first... and last... feature film. But is it any good, or is it a shaggy dog tale? Find out!

Follow Serge on Twitter and check out Cold Crash Pictures on Youtube!

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Oscar-winning special effects genius Tom Woodruff, Jr joins us and takes us on a whirlwind tour of his first steps into the wonderful world of monster movies via The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – a blaxploitation sci-fi adventure starring Ray Milland as a racist mad scientist hellbent on perfecting his head transplanting technique before he succumbs to a terminal illness, and Rosey Grier as the innocent death row inmate who unwittingly volunteers for his experiments. The result? About three reels of cars chases with Grier gamefully dirt biking with Milland's head sellotaped to his shoulder. The film itself might not be a masterpiece, but it has a surprising number of connections to Tom's career... and many of them involve gorilla suits!

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Mikey Neumann and Zoe Wells of FilmJoy join us as we scoop up Kevin Costner's sci-fi action adventure Waterworld (1995) from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Yes, it's the film that reunited him with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) director Kevin Reynolds and then, $175 million dollars and a box office bomb later, caused their second acrimonious split. But can a film with Dennis Hopper in an eye patch be all that bad? Is Jeanne Tripplehorn playing a character or is she merely extant? Is a central character irredeemable if he hurls a small child into the ocean? Find out!

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